Hexters

Hexters is a procedurally generated city-building strategy/action game set in a futuristic sci-fi world with a comedic narrative. Players engage in real-time tactics, constructing and managing cities while navigating a single-player campaign influenced by titles like Tron, Darwinia, and Anno. Developed by Draconus Entertainment Ltd, the game blends strategic planning with dynamic action, offering a humorous twist on the genre. Originally released in Early Access in 2017, it features a free camera perspective and a mix of tactical and simulation gameplay.

Hexters: Review

Introduction

In the crowded landscape of indie real-time strategy games, Hexters (2017) dares to ask: What if Settlers met Tron inside a motherboard? Developed by Finland’s Draconus Entertainment Ltd, this Early Access title pits players against viruses, power shortages, and existential dread—all while dressed in neon grids and pitch-black comedy. Though it promised a bold fusion of city-building, survival, and digital-world whimsy, Hexters remains a fascinating case study in unrealized ambition. This review argues that while the game’s conceptual brilliance and retro-futuristic charm shine, its protracted Early Access purgatory and technical stumbles leave it as a compelling prototype rather than a polished classic.

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Development History & Context

A Small Studio’s Gamble
Draconus Entertainment Ltd, a modest Finnish team, positioned Hexters as a labor of love—and necessity. Launching on Steam Early Access in December 2017, the developers were refreshingly candid: “Let’s be brutally honest: we need to eat.” Their vision was to create a “cyber strategy” hybrid inspired by genre pillars like Anno, Darwinia, and Settlers, filtered through the neon-drenched aesthetics of Tron. Built on Unity, the game targeted a niche audience hungry for systemic depth and sci-fi whimsy.

The Early Access Landscape
At release, the late-2010s indie scene was flooded with unfinished passion projects leveraging Early Access for funding and feedback. Hexters stood out with its fully playable 8-level campaign (marking 75% of its planned story) and no placeholder assets—a rarity in the “pre-alpha” glut. Draconus initially aimed for a 2020 full launch, promising expanded tech trees, enemies, and a 10–20 hour narrative. Yet, as player forums later revealed, development stalled post-2020, with updates dwindling to sporadic bug fixes.

Technical Constraints
The game’s minimalist art style—glowing vectors, geometric terrain—likely stemmed from budgetary limits, but it doubled as a thematic strength, evoking the stark beauty of 1980s cyberpunk. System requirements were modest (GTX 660 GPU, 4GB RAM), ensuring accessibility. However, this simplicity hid deeper flaws: procedural generation often created unbalanced maps, while pathfinding glitches (“stuck drones”) plagued early builds.

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Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Welcome to the Machine
Hexters frames its world through darkly comedic lore: You, the “User,” are voluntold to govern the Cyberscape—a digital realm inhabited by panicky, flashlight-wielding Hexters who “poop their pants” (metaphorically) during night cycles. The game revels in meta-humor, mocking its own technobabble (“bits, bytes, polygons, hexadecimals—it’s all nonsense”). Programs like the snarky “Surveyor” aid your quest, dripping with sarcasm as they explain resource mechanics. The tone evokes Douglas Adams-meets-ReBoot, though narrative depth is scarce beyond tutorial quips.

Themes of Control & Chaos
Beneath the laughs lurks a brutal metaphor for computational fragility. Power—“computational cycles”—is lifeblood; shortages cripple defenses, leaving Hexters vulnerable to viral “dragons” roaming the night. This duality mirrors real-world anxieties about infrastructure collapse and digital dependency. Yet the story never evolves beyond survival vignettes, lacking character arcs or plot twists. What could have been a Hollow Knight-esque exploration of digital ecology remains a skeletal backdrop.

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Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

The Networked Nervous System
At its core, Hexters is a game about connections. Players expand from a central Hub, placing extractors, refineries, and polysmiths along a node-based power grid. Every structure demands energy, creating tense trade-offs: Prioritize laser turrets for defense or polysmiths to upgrade units? Resources—extracted as “glow” or scrap—must be refined into alloys and batteries, necessitating assembly-line precision. This loop channels Anno’s logistics but amplifies stakes via the day-night cycle.

Survival of the Fittest (and Brightest)
Nightfall transforms gameplay: Power drains faster, Hexters cower indoors, and viruses swarm like locusts. Players must ration energy to recharge the “Illumination Probe” (a literal dawn beacon) while deploying repair drones and turrets. It’s a masterclass in tension, blending They Are Billions-style defense with Darwinia’s quirky vulnerability. Unfortunately, balance wobbles; later levels spam enemies, forcing turtling strategies that clash with the game’s expansionist DNA.

UI & Progression
The interface is functional but cluttered. Tooltips drown in jargon (“hexdecryptor arrays”), and the tech tree feels undercooked, with upgrades like “Polygon Optimization” offering marginal boosts. Early Access limitations show here: Only 4 Steam Achievements exist, and the campaign’s final act (promising “environmental hazards” and new enemy types) never materialized.

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World-Building, Art & Sound

A Vectored Vintage
Hexters’ visual identity is its crown jewel. The Cyberscape shimmers with azure grids, neon-orange resource nodes, and jet-black voids—a chiaroscuro homage to Tron’s lightcycle races. Hexters themselves resemble Lego minifigs etched in glow sticks, scampering between hexagonal platforms. The camera’s free-roaming freedom highlights these details, though texture pop-in and static backgrounds betray budgetary constraints.

Soundscapes of Silicon
Ambient synths hum with motherboard static, while night cycles crescendo into glitchy horror stings. Voice acting is sparse but memorable: The Surveyor’s deadpan barbs (“Congratulations, User. You’ve connected two nodes. Only 8,000 to go.”) channel Portal’s GLaDOS. Yet the soundtrack—a blend of chiptune and industrial—rarely evolves, looping into repetitiveness during marathon sessions.

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Reception & Legacy

Critical Divide
Hexters garnered a “Positive” 86% Steam rating (23 reviews), praised for its fresh premise and punishing nights. Critics like Steam user xxadonisxx lauded its “thoughtful, unconventional take on strategy” but docked points for Early Access jank (6/10). Curators highlighted the potential, yet mainstream outlets largely ignored it—a fate compounded by Draconus’s radio silence post-2020.

Player Sentiment & Unmet Promises
Community forums brimmed with frustration. Players reported progression-halting bugs (“no museum in build menu”), while the abandoned roadmap sparked accusations of abandonment. A poignant May 2024 thread titled “Dead DEV?” summed up the disillusionment. Still, a cult following clings to the game’s inventive soul, modding fixes for drone pathfinding and balance.

Industry Ripples
Though Hexters never achieved mainstream influence, its DNA echoes in later hybrids like DotAge (2023) and IXION (2022)—games marrying survival tension with systemic city-building. Its greatest legacy may be cautionary: a testament to Early Access’s double-edged sword, where transparency without follow-through breeds player distrust.

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Conclusion

Hexters is a paradox: a game bursting with creative vision yet hamstrung by its unfinished state. Its networked gameplay, chilling night cycles, and retro-digital art deserve applause, offering moments of strategic brilliance. Yet, like the Hexters cowering in darkness, the experience feels incomplete—haunted by unrealized promises and technical ghosts. For patient tacticians craving novelty, it’s a discounted gem (often 50% off on Steam). For most, it’s a poignant museum piece: a blueprint of what might have been. In the annals of indie history, Hexters earns a place not as a titan, but as a cautionary comet—bright, brief, and burned out too soon.

Final Verdict:
A flawed yet fascinating experiment. For hardcore RTS devotees only.
Steam Score: 6/10 (Fair)
Historical Significance: ★★☆☆☆ (Niche Cult Classic)