Mini-Preview: Every Day We Fight feels like the evolution the turn-based tactics genre needs

Being alive in 2025 kinda feels like being stuck in a time loop. You wake up, you read some horrible news, you scroll or game to fill the void, you feel the oncoming dread of the oppression you see around you on all sides, and you go to sleep. That's also kinda what it's like in the world of Every Day We Fight, a turn-based tactical roguelite that is all about time looping to eventually get the better of an invading alien race.

The one thing both our current world and Every Day We Fight have in common? It's in the name. We persist. We may not be the heroes we imagine this world needs, but we get up and we do it again and again as we push for a brighter future. That's what makes Every Day We Fight both a necessary and special game in 2025.

Oh, and it also makes some incredible pushes forward for the genre that I wouldn't mind seeing in all turn-based tactics games moving forward.

We had the opportunity to go hands-on a special preview build of this upcoming tactics game from Signal Space Lab and came away really excited by what the team is cooking up.

​Just the Facts

Developer: Signal Space Lab

Publisher: Hooded Horse

​Platform(s): PC

​Price: TBA

Release Date: July 10, 2025 Early Access release

Preview key provided by publisher.

"I think I'll just let the mystery be."

Montreal-based Signal Space Lab has been around for over a decade now, with the team's initial focus seemingly on VR experiences with an emphasis on live-action content and lending their talents to teams across the industry. In 2025, though, the team will see one of their own worlds brought to life — with the help of the indie strategy gods that are Hooded Horse — in Every Day We Fight.

Every Day We Fight is a turn-based tactics roguelite that uses a time loop-based narrative to innovate on the genre. It sees the remnants of a resistance — a conspiracy theorist, a scientist, and a pacifist soldier — fighting against all odds to lift the strange dome these aliens have put on their town and, in doing so, hopefully revive the people who have been left frozen in time. Things seem dire when they first start, but the sudden and unexplained ability to loop backward in time when they die shifts the tides.

The thing I've loved about the game's narrative since its reveal last year is its emphasis on the ordinary, everyday people that make up its heroes. In the preview build, we're introduced to the three remaining members of the Thorns, the force fighting back against the alien invaders known as Rifters. There's Leopold, the bristly old man conspiracy theorist who finds out his theories may not have just been theories. There's Vivian, a scientist who knows more than she's letting on, despite the fact that she was in a coma when the alien forces invaded and woke up with the world around her forever changed. And lastly, there's Dylan, a man who fought on the other side of the last non-alien war and is struggling to earn the trust of the other two, despite his sunny personality.

They aren't who the world wanted to rely on. They don't necessarily know combat strategies. They barely have a plan. But they're going to buckle up and get to work. Because what else are you going to do?

There's a quiet, unnerving energy as the Thorns wander the streets of Rugosa — as you stumble upon the misty ghost-like bodies of those frozen throughout the city and the very real dead bodies of the Thorns that came before you. It's almost reminiscent of something like The Leftovers, in the mournful melancholy of wandering empty streets and seeing the remnants of a world changed in an instant. It's echoed in the conversations they share, written and performed with a quiet exasperation.

For some reason, there are a lot of games coming out right now about a small group of normal people fighting back against unbelievable forces in situations they shouldn't be in, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

Signal Space Lab tout their storytelling abilities, and they are certainly on display in full effect here. I'm curious to see where the story goes, what the deal is with the blue crystals that these aliens are supposedly here for, and whether or not there are any other Thorns out there.

But you know what's most interesting? None of that really even compares to how exciting it is to play this damn game.

Flick shots and 360 no scopes in my XCOM?!

Every Day We Fight's approach to turn-based tactical combat can be described by one unexpected word: active. Every aspect of this game is way more active than the usual tactics game, but in a way that preserves why people love this genre so much.

It starts with the city and how you stumble into your combat encounters. With its time loop-based roguelite setup, you start runs in the Thorns' base of operations in the sewers, picking one of the various manhole covers in the city to come out of to start your scavenging. Once you're out, you can simply walk around the town and find resources to assist in crafting and fights to get into. Where the genre mainly sets its missions in handcrafted battlegrounds that you are simply deployed into, Every Day We Fight offers a small sandbox in the form of the city, where you are free to explore at your own pace.

When you do eventually stumble into a fight, you don't deploy your troops at designated spots like the usual tactics game. You actually sneak around the area and get your team set up for an ambush. You can slip your grenade-toting unit on a higher floor, place your sniper across from them, and then leave your shotgun-wielding brawler right on the frontlines. Having the liberty to move around the environment allows for so many tactical opportunities.

Once combat starts, you are locked into movement based on your available action points and such, but beforehand, you're free to set up however you see fit.

Every aspect of this game is way more active than the usual tactics game, but in a way that preserves why people love this genre so much.

I thought I was home free when I accidentally snuck into the back of the building for the preview's main mission — which tasks you with trying to steal some alien tech from their base in a nearby hotel — because it meant they were all set up for a frontal assault and wouldn't see me coming. It worked for the first wave, but when backup came, the Thorns were quickly overwhelmed. But with the time loop in place, I was able to prepare even further the next time I tried the mission by tactically setting up my units to cover the area where the second wave flew in from. These design choices make this tactics game almost feel like an immersive sim, where you can approach each combat scenario ten different ways. When you layer on the randomization of the equipment handed to your squad at the start of each run, you're forced to change up your strategy and how you position your units as a result.

Once you do get into combat, Every Day We Fight introduces another active system in how you actually take your shots: hands-on, first-person aiming and shooting. Gone are the "90% chance to hit, oops you missed" memes when you've got direct control of your aim.

In Every Day We Fight, each shot you take is directly in your hands. Which means you can target specific body parts (and armor locations), unique environmental hazards (like the classic explosive barrel to break through a wall or blow up some aliens), and rely on your reflexes and aim to chew through enemies. Take a shot at an alien with your automatic rifle and they'll start to run away, leaving it up your aim to get those extra bits of damage before they find cover. Wait for the exact moment your alien opponent's fidgeting leaves their head poking out of cover and you can take a sniper potshot to take them out in one.

It's a fascinating twist on the genre, and it even enhances that sandbox exploration with a tactical edge. You're given the opportunity to shoot through windows and break padlocks blocking your paths in the city or blast through weakened walls to get the loot hiding around the town. I've only seen a comparable system out of SEGA's Valkyria Chronicles, and Signal Space Labs are looking to take it all a step further with its special combo of systems.

It makes Every Day We Fight one of the most interesting tactics games I've played in a long while, using these small changes to really make the genre feel brand new.

Every Day We Fight has still more to offer: a crafting system with weapon modding, fun reflex moves that wipe out an enemy squad based on your team's reactions, full unit-specific skill trees, and all of that anchored by roguelite systems that scratch that "everything is progression" itch.

But the preview only offers the tiniest taste of how these things all come together.

With the impending Early Access launch, Signal Space Labs is eager to gather community feedback to fine-tune the game. But the foundations are sturdy, and I'm ready to see how the game evolves, both narratively and mechanically, as it continues to develop.

Every Day We Fight will launch in Early Access on July 10, 2025, on PC. Wishlist it here and hope we don't get frozen in time or stuck in a time loop before it comes out.