If you’ve ever sacrificed sleep for a Vampire Survivors binge or found yourself mindlessly popping Bloons, then Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road should already be on your Steam wishlist. Developed by Ludogram and published by Raw Fury, this Early Access roguelike tower defense takes the familiar grind of XP-driven upgrades and straps them onto a fortress on wheels. The result is chaotic, tactile, and—so far—surprisingly fresh. But does the rolling city gimmick have enough legs to outlast the hype?
Monsters Are Coming! flips the traditional tower defense on its head by mounting your defenses on a moving chassis. You play as an unseen construction drone, scavenging wood, stone, and gold dropped by defeated foes. With each currency haul, you select new turrets, walls, or support structures from a randomized pool and bolt them onto a grid beneath your vehicle. As your makeshift city barrels through ever-tougher biomes, towers rotate with the motion, forcing you to rethink placements on the fly.
To prevent truly awful luck from derailing every run, the game employs a “soft nudge” system. If you keep ignoring certain tower types, future reward pools slightly bias toward them. It never feels like the game is holding your hand, but this gentle correction helps avoid those soul-crushing dead-end builds that plague some roguelites.
Unlike roguelikes that only boost character stats, Monsters Are Coming! invests your meta-currency in citywide perks. Early unlocks include faster resource gathering, sturdier barricades, and improved chassis handling—each tweak meaningfully alters your tactical approach. Between runs, you’ll also unlock new tower blueprints and cosmetic upgrades, giving the game that addictive “just one more run” pull reminiscent of Hades or Slay the Spire.
Ludogram has promised a broad difficulty spectrum. In today’s demo, the opening biome on Easy mode feels more like a relaxed coaster ride than a punishing roguelike gauntlet—but that’s by design. The developer plans to roll out harder biomes and challenge modes over the coming months, aimed at players who relish stern, “git gud” experiences. Striking the balance between accessible chaos and true tower-defense depth will be Monsters Are Coming!’s toughest test.
On our mid-range test PC, performance was stable, with only occasional framerate dips when particle effects spiked during giant monster waves. The UI is clean but could use clearer tooltips for new players. Looking ahead, Ludogram has already teased additional environments, boss encounters, and co-op support—features that could cement this title as a must-play in the hybrid roguelike tower defense space.
Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road nails the core concept: a mobile fortress that forces perpetual tactical adaptation. Its lush pixel art, satisfying build-and-destroy loops, and thoughtful meta-progression make it a strong Early Access contender. If you crave fast-paced city-on-wheels chaos with meaningful progression—and you don’t mind a learning curve yet to be fully polished—this rolling roguelike deserves a spot on your watchlist. Tower defense purists may want to wait for the harder modes, but for everyone else, the road is open.
Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road fuses Vampire Survivors–style RNG with tower defense on a rolling chassis. Dynamic builds, solid meta-progression, and future content promise have us eagerly awaiting more.
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