Developer GameMunchers is bringing some love back to 2D pixel art games with Monsters Outbreak, A fast-paced tower defense hack and slash game.

The core gameplay is pretty simple. It's a tower defense game with a bit of action thrown into the mix, which means that you'll get various traps to build to defend against massive waves of enemies. My preview demo consisted of my character starting on a small island with ten waves of monsters to fight. I had a limited time between each wave to explore the island and gather resources from trees, rocks, and grass. My load out with all my collected resources gave me access to wood fences, iron crossbows, pitfall traps, and fire towers.

Each wave was seemingly more complicated than the last one, with different enemy types the further I progressed. However, enemy types are pretty straightforward. Think Dungeon & Dragons. Their attack patterns were simple to learn, and I didn't find myself getting too overwhelmed. The 2nd mode I played was a boss encounter against a giant rock golem-type monster with various area attacks. At the same time, there were also incoming waves of enemies. The encounter had a good mix of mechanics and action, which kept me thoroughly engaged.

The narrative for Monsters Outbreak is overflowing with lore and exposition, telling the story of a corrupted king who seeks to unlock the true power of the mythical dimension orbs. Monsters appear and begin to wreak havoc on the kingdom. Our nameless protagonist gets caught in the heat of battle.

Monster Outbreak is a fun and fast-paced 2D action game that can be difficult at times but easy to enjoy. There's a deep layer of strategy and exploration that makes every encounter different from the last. I am looking forward to diving deeper into this game. The game is set to launch on PC sometime in 2021.