Autobattlers have become more prominent in the past decade, with folks trying to find any time they can to squeeze in some games. Teamfight Tactics, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, and DotA Underlords have allowed players to commandeer each round to battle against other players, position units, and equip items, then go do another task like emails or other daily work activities. Unlike the games previously mentioned, He Is Coming goes the single-player route with an autobattler that has you exploring a shrouded map, and when three days and three nights pass, a big bad will inevitably fight you–prepared or not.
Your character is a knight who plops into each run, will navigate routes to fight enemies, find secrets, and equip stronger weapons to fight the inevitable boss after three days and three nights pass. Every step contributes to the day/night cycle progressing, but rather than a surprise boss, you are given the information of what sort of boss you will encounter after the third night passes. This incorporates and has you readily scheme a strategy, since every boss is different. You get to see their stats or special abilities, such as how one boss may not ever attack, but each attack you do to this boss will inflict damage on your knight.
He Is Coming Merges Exploration And Strategy In A Tense Solo Autobattler
The game has three core stats to upgrade with weapons and enchantments: Health, Armor, and Speed. Though these may seem standard without much strategy involved, the game uses core stats to provide set bonuses, and there is discovery to figure out the weapons and armor pieces that will unlock all new bonuses. Sometimes, the set bonuses are easy, such as equipping different pieces of Redwood to your character, and some special weapons will be purchased through a shop. You can even take duplicates of armor, weapon, or accessory pieces like jewelry to combine them with a golem you find on a map to get an upgraded version of said equipment.
Each enemy is a trial, and since it is an auto-battler, it is best to find a treasure chest allowing you to choose one of three items before facing even the lowliest of enemies. There were times when I thought I could handle a bat or spider, but this made me lose the entire run. But whenever I lost a run, even towards low-level enemies, I was glad to unlock more of the compendium, trying new set combinations through achievements like inflicting massive thorn damage or one-hitting a boss. One run is going for more of a lifesteal route, and another is going for more of an agile route to get additional strikes before the enemy or boss could land a hit. I loved the way I could readily commit to a build or path, and intersperse new ones.
Thankfully, the compendium and encyclopedia do take note of equipment combinations, since every run, you can hover over previous equipment you have set bonus unlocked, so you do not need to remember all of the combinations yourself. I find myself losing hours to this game, as I dive right back in after failing, searching for more secrets or trying new builds to tackle the many bosses. Having exact information about the impending boss helps in dealing with them. The game offers so much player-active decision-making through uncovering the map each run, choosing paths, enemies to fight, and even buying equipment that would not be discovered otherwise.
Other auto-battlers grant a lot of downtime, but in He Is Coming, you will be constantly strategizing and discovering the best means of plans or paths that add to the extra “doomed” experience. I hope to continue unlocking more secrets in the game because I do want to fill the compendium and encyclopedia, but I also hope that the game will add even more bosses and equipment down the road. A single-player rougelite autobattler that has me coming back often.
He Is Coming releases as Early Access on July 17, and you can download the demo on Steam.
