Recently released in Early Access, Hooded Horse’s Every Day We Fight is somewhat undercooked and lacks polish. But for all the bad it has in its Early Access stage, its novel ideas are something I’ve been enjoying quite a lot, and the game is constantly drawing me in. Given the current state of the game, this should be viewed as an endorsement.
- Genre: Turn-Based Strategy/ Roguelite/ RPG (Role-Playing Game)
- Developer: Signal Space Lab
- Publisher: Hooded Horse
- Release Date: 10th July, 2025
- Price: $29.99/ 29,99€/ £24.99
- Buy at: Steam | GOG
- Reviewed On: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.70 GHz, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 2080
Don’t look at this as a review. This is, instead, my very raw first impressions of it, and they are rather superficial, given that the game is still in Early Access and I want to wait for it to come out for a proper, full review.
Every Day We Fight is a turn-based strategy game with a rogue-lite tinge to it. You are caught in a time loop, and lead a band of resistance fighters against an alien threat (at least I think they are aliens?). It’s very much a game in the vein of XCOM, with tactics-inclined YouTuber ChristopherOdd working on it as an executive producer. Alone, all of this would be enough to get me excited, given my unending love for XCOM, but Every Day We Fight throws a couple of curveballs I want to dive into.
The first one is the combat of the game. In the classic XCOM formula, things work rather simply, right? You position your troops, and they have a set chance to hit their targets based on their location/stats. In Every Day We Fight, it’s a bit different. You see, in here, what you have is still the same turn-based movement system (but with a more granular approach to action points, like Xenonauts, or Jagged Alliance), and then, when it’s time to fire, the player must aim the weapon and take the shots themselves, à lá Valkyria Chronicles. However, unlike Valkyria Chronicles, where you took all the shots with the enemy standing still, in Every Day We Fight, the first time you hit a shot against an enemy, they have the possibility of running away, so players will have to lead their shots and play it a bit like a first-person shooter. This doesn’t happen all the time, only the first time you shoot that specific enemy on that turn. So if you fire at him multiple times, assuming they haven’t moved, they can start to move. You also have that possibility.
This also works with grenades, so it’s best to make sure all enemies have been shot at first, and they can no longer move, before throwing a precious explosive. This combat system works really well because of the fact that the enemies have a chance to escape your shots. If they didn’t, all fights would amount to a turkey shoot. Now, the question is: do I prefer this system over the traditional one? Well, not really, because I enjoy the RNG mitigation efforts of XCOM-like titles, but this is a very nice change of pace and a novel system I want to play with more often, just not at the detriment of the original one. I think this system actually makes players be a lot less passive than just relying on using and abusing Overwatch to mow down enemies as they come. Oh, and yes, when you’re firing on Overwatch, the enemy is moving, so you’ll have to fire on it as a first-person shooter too.
The second aspect of the game I want to dive into is difficulty, but God damn, is this game tough as they come when you start. This isn’t to say it’s a bad thing, but it can be quite frustrating for players who aren’t used to it. And this is not the kind of difficulty you find in a game like Dark Souls, where the game was purposely designed to give you every chance to not get hit if you’re good enough. In Every Day We Fight, enemies are not as predictable. In the early game, prepare yourself to be outnumbered, outgunned, and even outskilled. Persist with it, and as your characters level up, things start to be a bit easier.
The third part of what I want to talk about is the game’s story and roguelite nature. The roguelite nature works well with its time-travelling approach, as it becomes thematically consistent with the game’s mechanics. However, despite the noble approach, I can’t shake the feeling that the roguelite stuff of dying and starting over from a couple of missions back adds very little to the game other than just padding out the time, and can be a bit frustrating.
The fourth part is the game’s story, which is my main draw to play it, because I want to see it come to fruition and understand what the heck is going on in this world and what’s causing all of this commotion. As someone who’s not really invested in stories in video games, this is also a massive endorsement on my part. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but the basics of it are: Aliens froze time to mine Earth’s resources, but your squad has mysteriously escaped that fate and is actively fighting against the alien menace. I’m going to cram the real-time map exploration in here, because that’s something I consider to be quite fun. In Every Day We Fight, you get to explore the overworld map in real-time, as if the game were a third-person RPG. I like this. It gives you a sense of wonder about what might be out there. Secrets? New weapons? Hidden pathways? One thing Every Day We Fight needs to improve upon is the exploration aspect. It is here, and it is interesting, but at the moment, the world feels too empty; we don’t have enough things to discover.
The fifth is squad management. Unlike other games in the genre, Every Day We Fight doesn’t let players create their own squads. Instead, you’re limited to your three-man team from the start of the game, and the only thing you can do is upgrade them, choose what weapons and equipment they can use, and that’s basically it. If you’re one of those players who love to create their own squads and build their dream team with the names of your family and friends, I’m afraid you won’t find that here.
With all of that being said, do I think Every Day We Fight is a game you should be playing? Well, if you like XCOM, Jagged Alliance, Xenonauts, Valkyria Chronicles, and others in the turn-based strategy genre, I would certainly think it’s worth a try for its price point. With the game being in Early Access right now, it’s also my expectation that things will improve throughout its development. I would like the difficulty curve to be a bit smoother at the start, because it can really put less experienced players off. Even I, a veteran of the genre, had my fair share of problems trying to figure out how to beat some of the first assignments. I hope the overworld map gets filled with new things to discover. One thing I didn’t mention prior to that I would like to see improved as well is the way the game transitions from lower to upper floors in a building, as it’s quite a visual mess. Other than that, Every Day We Fight is on its way to becoming a great title.
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