HexaScape: Cyber Defence Preview

I got the chance to check out a demo for HexaScape: Cyber Defense; a hexagonal grid-based tower defence game by Clockwork Origins. You might be familiar with them from their previous works such as Cyber TD and Elemental War 2, which you can check out our review for here. This preview was written before its Early Access release on the 20th of June 2024. So, let’s dive into cyberspace and see what it has to offer.

The basic premise is that cyberspace is being infected by a virus. With the help of a program called Virus Killer 2000 (or ViKing for short), you’re tasked with defending your core from a hostile takeover and expanding the SYSTEM’s influence. This is going to take a lot of work as the virus won’t be taking it without a serious fight.

The main game will be setting down paths, pipelines, and data clusters from your core to the outer reaches of cyberspace, with the occasional defence tower. These paths must be connected properly, no dead ends or infinite loops, which brings to mind board game mechanics found in Carcassonne.

However, after enough normal tiles are placed down, you’ll have to put down a virus-infected lane called a virus spawner, which will trigger a wave of enemies for your defences to blast before they reach your core. If you want to complete your current objective and beat the level, you need to ensure your core is well-defended, which is much trickier than you’d think.

You can’t choose what paths and pipelines you can place down and when you get to build defence towers, however. It’s all decided by the game, with only the ability to reroll the shape of the path, and even then only three times per game. This requires plenty of thinking ahead as moves made in the past will screw you over if you’ve been placing stuff down without a second thought. Everything has to be connected anyways, so it’s either plan ahead or restart the level as you are overwhelmed by your own lack of forethought.

Your towers are your main line of defence, which can be upgraded if you have enough data clusters connected to them via pipelines. They start off with only a basic shot but can be modified to help disrupt and eliminate any virus that comes your way. These buffs range from slowing down enemies and shooting piercing shots, to lasers and electrical blasts. You will need these upgrades as enemies grow stronger and more numerous with each wave.

The hexagonal tiles themselves have to be taken into account when building your defences and pathing, as different types interact with your lanes and connect differently. Some are beneficial like boosting the effects of data clusters, but others can spell trouble such as infested tiles negating positive effects. These tiles can even grow and infect the battlefield the longer the level goes. There’s quite a bit going on you need to keep an eye out for, all while you work on completing whatever the game tasks of you.

However, if the levels included with the game aren’t giving you a challenge, or giving you too much of one, you might as well create your own with a map editor. You can decide where to put biomes, events, and boss fields, and even create your own little story to go along with it and share with the community.

A demo of HexaScape: Cyber Defence is available now, and according to the website’s FAQ, there are plans for releases on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and the Epic Games Store in early 2025 once the Early Access period has finished. If all of that sounds interesting to you, check it out.