Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Mechanicus is a 2018 turn-based tactics game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. You command the Adeptus Mechanicus, an order of cybernetic tech-priests, sent to a planet where the Necrons, an ancient race of machine soldiers, are waking in their tombs. Each mission is a descent into the tombs to recover knowledge before the enemy is fully awake.

Its main resource is cognition points. They are gathered by exploring the tombs and scanning objects, and spent in battle on extra moves and powerful abilities. Between missions you return to a ship where you customise your tech-priests and their troops, and make choices among quarrelling advisers.

The cognition system pushes you forward: you earn power by taking risks, not by sitting in cover. The setting is drawn with great care, the music is admired, and the tech-priests' dialogue captures a strange religious order better than most games in the license.

Missions can feel alike, and the enemy is not varied. It is a medium-sized game that does one idea well rather than a large one.

Mechanicus keeps X-COM's turn-based fight and a light campaign with a ship as base, and replaces caution with aggression. X-COM rewards patience and cover. Mechanicus rewards pressing on. The awakening meter on each mission, which brings harder enemies the longer you stay, is its version of X-COM's slowly rising threat.