Kaiju Panic Review (PC)

A lot of interesting independent titles nowadays have tried to come up with clever mixes of action and strategy, ultimately settling with tower defense or something that falls a bit short of the full-fledged real-time strategy genre.

Kaiju Panic, from UK-based developer Mechabit, follows such a pattern, allowing players to roam around different maps, collect survivors, and build various buildings, including towers, to withstand the assault of the actual Kaiju monsters.

With vibrant colors, a delightful visual style, and pretty fleshed out mechanics, Kaiju Panic definitely seems like a worthy contender for your free time.

Does the game manage to deliver a great action strategy experience or should the Kaiju devour it? Let's find out.

Story

Kaiju Panic tells its pretty simple story through animated cut scenes that don't feature any dialog but get the point across rather well. The gist of the matter is that a big meteorite has hit our planet, scattering alien shards all over the place but, unfortunately, menacing Kaiju monsters that are varied and, as expected, quite deadly for humans and our buildings.

You're tasked with rescuing civilians from various populated areas while collecting resources in order to better fight the waves of foes. The game's plot doesn't take itself too seriously and there are certainly plenty of moments or dialog sequences where you'll laugh out loud. The cartoonish style also keeps things pretty lighthearted.

Escape from the Kaiju in Kaiju Panic

Gameplay

Kaiju Panic kicks things off rather simply, you just roam around the environment, recruiting civilians by getting close to them. Soon enough, you have to start gathering the alien shards in order to actually build your towers and other buildings, not to mention research materials from the Kaiju monsters you kill along the way.

The game is similar in a way to Freaking Meatbags, as you can construct different tower types and then populate them with the civilians that follow you along the way. Even while constructing a building, you can take your crowd next to it to accelerate the process.

However, if the Kaiju manage to destroy one of your towers, the crowd inside starts the panic for a few seconds and you can't use them right away. This can cause plenty of chaos and the lack of a minimap also means that you might find that your solid fortifications are gone because you had to take care or another area from which enemies arrived.

While I'm certainly in favor of games that don't really hold your hand through their action, the lack of enemy paths or timers until the enemies start entering the level add a bit of unnecessary obscurity and difficulty, especially for a title that targets a relatively younger demographic.

Adding a new layer of strategy, you can also select what members enter a tower depending on how you want to spec that building. You can full damage-per-second or to better debuff foes, or just keep things balanced.

The environments are quite large and after just a few levels you're faced with enemies coming from multiple sides and at surprising times. While in regular levels you need to rescue civilians, gather resources, and withstand the enemy waves, each major chapter has a final stage where you need to survive for 10 minutes until you can evacuate alongside your allies.

These levels are probably the most nerve-racking and even the first such stage can prompt you to restart a few times while you hone your strategy. Unfortunately, this becomes a recurring pattern, and you're even invited to retry previously completed stages in order to get all available resources.

The collectibles do serve a purpose, as the shards are used as currency for your buildings, while the research materials, like their name suggests, are used to research new buildings, new attributes for already-unlocked towers, as well as new bonuses for yourself, like a lot more starting resources at the beginning of a level.

The actual design of the environments are quite varied, as your quest against the Kaiju starts in the UK and reaches all sorts of other areas, like Japan. Each come with different properties and reading through the ID cards of your rescued civilians can prove to be quite funny.

The game is designed around using a console controller but the interface works pretty well on PC, using the mouse and keyboard.

Prevent panic in Kaiju Panic

Visuals and Sound

The visual style of Kaiju Panic is filled with sharp colors, adorable designs, for both your civilians as well as for the Kaiju, not to mention crisp textures.

The soundtrack complements the lighthearted nature of the game and manages to keep things fresh enough even in longer gameplay sessions.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion