Image: Signal Space Lab & Wild Hog Games

Some games feel like playing a mixtape of the developer's favorites. Clear and familiar elements mixed and patched together to make something new. Every Day We Fight is unquestionably riffing off a bunch of classic squad tactics games. A bit XCOM, with a small force fighting an ever-escalating alien invasion. Valkyria Chronicles for its manual aiming and cone-based accuracy. And the secret sauce here is Mutant Year Zero, for its lightweight RPG elements and real-time stealth, letting you Metal Gear your people into place before all hell breaks loose. It's also rather neat (at least, I think so) and just left early access.

This one certainly doesn't waste your time. It throws you into the late stages of a resistance war against alien invaders, set in an alternate WW2-ish era Earth, give or take some super-science shenanigans. Mysterious eyeless creatures called the Rifters have taken over your city, putting it under an impenetrable dome. Most of the city's population is frozen in time, and all but three resistance fighters have been wiped out. Worse yet, during the tutorial mission, your crew gets trapped in a time loop, where progress only comes from taking down enemies that seem involved in the temporal shenanigans too.

Rather than being purely mission-based like XCOM or Valkyria Chronicles, Every Day We Fight has an almost roguelite structure set in a small open world. You're free to explore and attack Rifter emplacements in any order you like, although there's usually one big story objective to go after at any given time.

Rather than being purely turn-based, there are some action elements here too. Shooting is manual and first-person, and if you're firing repeatedly, the enemy begins moving in slow motion to dodge once you start attacking, so you have to track moving targets that may be diving for cover.

Similarly, overwatch attacks play out in bullet time, with you having precious seconds to line up and hit your enemy before they move back into cover. Your squaddies can have this working in their favour too - upon being targeted, you have the option to have them dash to a safer position, or hunker down where they currently are .No magic damage reduction from cover here - you want to put something solid between yourself and harm.

As mentioned, before combat starts, everything is real-time too, with stealth and enemy vision circles, letting you position your crew just where they need to be for a strong start on an encounter. It's a fun mixture of elements, even if none in particular is unique.

It seems that development on this one was a bit of a rollercoaster, and even led to developers Signal Space Lab splitting away from strategy & tactics publisher Hooded Horse to go independent, eventually releasing it under the Wild Hog Games banner. The v1.0 update features five new guns (including a flamethrower and a sawn-off shotgun sidearm), plus a bunch more gun customization parts.

There are new dynamic mission types to encounter in the open world (Sabotage & Ambush), plus more randomization on each loop. Party progression is now based purely on combat, making some exploration stuff optional, and for those who can't get enough after the credits roll, there's the option to continue in Forever War mode against ever-escalating odds. You can see the full patch notes here, but for most of you, this'll be your first exposure to the game, so it won't really matter.

I do question the wisdom of launching the full version in the middle of a Next Fest, but Every Day We Fight is definitely cheap. Normally £25/$30, but with a hefty 60% discount from now until November 5th. For ten quid, I reckon squad tactics fans will find something fresh here.