GROSS

I went into GROSS expecting a tower defense game that occasionally lets you pick up a gun. What I got was something architecturally closer to the old Sanctum formula: a full build phase followed by a full combat phase, both demanding your complete attention and neither one obviously subordinate to the other. That distinction matters more than it sounds. The construction phase is unhurried and forgiving - no time limit, full refunds on anything you place before the wave starts, and near-complete freedom to route enemies wherever you want. You can build elaborate barricades to funnel zombies into kill corridors, layer needle turrets and flame towers along the path, drop single-use claymores at chokepoints, and then sell and rethink the whole thing before you commit. Turret upgrades scale in cost with each level but also grow meaningfully smarter - increased range, faster fire rate, better target prioritization. The strategic ceiling is real, even if the game's short campaign doesn't push you all the way to it. Then the wave starts, and the game becomes a different problem entirely. Over a dozen weapons are available, each with distinct ammo types that matter: full metal jacket rounds punch through stacked zombies and objects, hollow points knock crowds back when you need breathing room, incendiary rounds stack burn damage, and grenade launchers clear groups but risk destroying the cash drops you desperately need. That last point is where GROSS earns its tension. Money does not teleport into your budget after a kill - it drops physically on the ground, and you have to physically collect it before it disappears or gets stolen. Choosing between securing cash and plugging a gap in your defenses is a genuine, recurring decision that elevates the moment-to-moment play well above a simple horde shooter. Loadouts are customizable across 15 guns and 12 active abilities, which gives you enough variables to iterate your approach across the game's ten-plus stages. Where GROSS stumbles is in the areas surrounding the core loop. The story is delivered through large scrolling text blocks before each level - a presentation choice that kills pacing stone dead and that most players will learn to skip within the first two missions. The UI has been criticized across multiple reviews for being cluttered, and the wave counter is small enough to miss entirely if you are focused on the action. On Steam Deck, early players reported control issues during the build phase, though these appear to have been addressed over post-launch patches. Visually the game leans into a stylized, blocky 3D look - think Borderlands character proportions crossed with early voxel aesthetics - which either reads as charming or cheap depending on your tolerance for small-studio production values. Steam users have settled around 80% positive across several hundred reviews, which is an honest number: this is a game that works when you let it, not one that impresses immediately. For a strategy-minded player, the appeal here is genuine. The build phase rewards the kind of player who wants to think about turret synergies and maze geometry before a single zombie spawns. The combat phase rewards the kind of player who can execute under pressure without forgetting the economic stakes of every grenade they throw. The endless mode with customizable parameters - movement speed, jump height and more - extends replayability beyond the story campaign for players who want to push their setups further. There is no multiplayer, which is the most common complaint in community discussion, and it is a fair one: the loop feels like it was designed for co-op and never got there. Solo players will find it satisfying in short sessions; anyone expecting a 20-hour campaign will run out of content.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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