RESEARCH and DESTROY

Humanity’s last hope comes armed with lab coats, experimental rifles, and an alarming willingness to dissect monsters in the field. RESEARCH and DESTROY mixes squad tactics with frantic third-person shooting, placing three customizable scientists against a supernatural army of vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and other undead threats. Its tone is knowingly silly, but the stakes remain suitably apocalyptic as your tiny research team fights to uncover the source of the invasion. The result feels like a Saturday-morning monster movie rebuilt as a tactical campaign, with enough pressure to keep every mission tense.

Each turn gives you direct control of one scientist, letting you move freely through the environment, line up shots manually, deploy gadgets, and race against a limited action timer. Positioning matters because enemies retaliate after your squad acts, so a missed shot or careless sprint can leave a researcher exposed to a lethal counterattack. Successful missions award research, and the most important resource often comes from studying defeated enemies through battlefield vivisections, which unlocks stronger weapons, modifications, and unconventional tools. Between battles, you choose routes across a changing campaign map, respond to escalating threats, and make decisions that shape the availability of upgrades and future missions.

The standout idea is its fusion of turn-based planning and real-time aim: it demands tactical foresight, yet still asks you to land shots under pressure rather than relying entirely on percentage-based accuracy. Bright, stylized visuals and goofy scientific hardware keep the monster apocalypse approachable, while the procedurally varied campaign structure gives repeat runs different challenges and priorities. Local and online co-op allow friends to take command of their own scientists, making coordinated movement and improvised disasters especially entertaining. Fans of Valkyria Chronicles-style tactical shooting, XCOM’s campaign decision-making, or offbeat co-op action find plenty to like here, though newcomers should expect a learning curve built around timing, cover, and smart research choices.