TerraTech Legion released last week, and it's the most original survivorslike i've seen in a while, so I want to raise the visibility. The basic idea isn't mindblowing. It's a vehicle horde game where you have a tank made out of blocks and as you progress you collect more blocks and weapons/accessories and when you level up, you add them to your tank. There's no permanence, so you can start from scratch or just add on as you need to in order to perfect your build. And the build matters because guns need line of sight, you can't block them with another upgrade, tires need to touch the ground, and physics matter.
As for action, the gameplay feels good. I haven't found a lot of satisfying driving bullet heavens (Driveloop & Pest Apocalypse excepted) so this scratches that itch. There are goals on the map, so you're not just driving in circles to farm xp, and there are lots of bonuses and resources to find so exploration is encouraged. If this was more of a traditional pick 3 with just the driving mechanics it would still be a solid game, i think. But the construction really makes it shine.
And the construction is fun and engaging. It gives stats at the end of the run, and when I won for my first time I had fifteen minutes of gameplay, but an hour and fifteen minutes of build time. About 3/4 through the run, I chose to scrap my whole tank and rebuild the whole thing from scratch, so I could fit every upgrade I owned onto it while maximizing placement of legendaries over common and whatnot. And I enjoyed it! I expect that with experience, the building process will become faster and easier, but I do worry that it might become tedious at some point. I'm honestly surprised there isn't an automatic build option for people who just want to drive or don't feel like playing legos. Like it just seems like a terrible design decision that seriously depletes your player base potential, but maybe they'll add one? I dunno, seems like it should have been a day one feature to me.
Anyway, it's on sale now for nine bucks, and it's in bundles with Soulstone Survivors or DRG:S for eight bucks, and it's included in Game Pass, and there's a demo, so check it out.
TLDR: TerraTech Legion good! 4.5/5 (6+ hours of gameplay on GamePass at time of review.)