There’s no downtime. It’s a constant war between your team’s Troopers (the grunts) and the enemy team’s Troopers, which keep respawning and advancing on enemy positions, wave after wave. But they can’t break through unless the human-powered heroes lend them a hand with powerful weapons, abilities, and upgrades.

Nor can humans easily break through without their NPC army — or at least, that’s what I saw in my first match. To take down the flame-headed, energy spewing Guardians or hulking Walkers that block your passage, it takes at least a somewhat coordinated effort by one human and their little autonomous friends. Each match culminates in an all-hands-on-deck fight against the enemy’s Patron, a gigantic floating orb with arms and death rays.

When I say “coordinated,” I’m not talking about aiming. This isn’t a Valorant or Apex Legends-like game where snappy aim is key. It feels like Overwatch, or maybe even more so Team Fortress 2 in its floaty, wear-down-their-health gameplay. You can tank, heal, and retreat even if a tremendous amount of enemy fire is coming your way.

Each match does get deadlier and deadlier as you unlock your heroes’ abilities and buy skills, many of which give you more damage per second. Others provide life steal, shielding, and more. Every character also has strong and light melee attacks, and you can parry an incoming melee attack to stun your opponent.