Earlier this year, we reported on He Is Coming being released on Steam later in 2025. The retro-inspired strategy title is now out, and we’ve been putting it through its paces. The premise of He Is Coming couldn’t be simpler: you play as a lone knight, gathering items and taking down enemies while awaiting a boss to appear. Defeat the boss, and you’ll be able to restart the cycle. It’s an interesting system that strips away complexity so you can focus on pure strategy.
Without meaning to sound cliche, He Is Coming is the ultimate example of an easy to learn, but hard to master game. We say that because the controls, menu, and basic mechanics can all be learned in about two minutes of starting a run. However, surviving more than a few rounds is tricky unless you’re willing to delve deep into the thinking side of the game. You see, there are hundreds of items and combinations to try, all with different effects on the incoming boss.
Firstly, and this is probably the most important aspect of the game, is that you already know which of the bosses is going to appear at the end of the three-day cycle. There are no surprises, and you can check what its strengths and weaknesses are from the start. Knowing this information will allow you to select the right items that will have the most effect. It all sounds very easy, but finding a perfect set of tools, from weapons to armour, health bonuses to speed boosts, is not always straightforward.
Some bosses in He Is Coming have high armour, so you’ll need to think about different attacks that aren’t affected by armour. Others will have a lot of hit points, so you’ll need to equip a weapon that deals high damage. Others are quick and have more turns, so you’ll need to think about upping your knight’s speed. Furthermore, as you move around the procedurally generated overworld map, the items dropped are random, and you don’t have any extra inventory to store useful weapons.
This is where the luck element of He Is Coming comes into play. Although you’ll get better at knowing which items to equip against each boss, there is no way to guarantee they will appear in the treasure chests on the map. For example, you may build a perfect set of items to take out a boss with high speed, then be set against a boss with high attack. Now, if you don’t stumble across better armour over the next three days, you’ll most likely lose the fight. And lose many fights you will.
During our playthrough, we were frustrated so many times after defeating a few bosses in a row, only to have a bad run of luck with the next set of items and die a painful death. You can feel quite hamstrung at times, but you just need to start again and hope for more luck next time. Overall, He Is Coming is the kind of game that pure strategy buffs will enjoy due to its quick turnaround of runs and surprisingly deep mechanics around item selection. This is the kind of game that could become very addictive, especially if you want to unlock all the hundreds of items and bosses on offer.
