Vultures: How a New Steam Game Fuses Classic Resident Evil Horror with Tactical Strategy

Strategic Horror: How Vultures Reimagines Resident Evil as a Tactical RPG

What if the claustrophobic terror of classic Resident Evil wasn't about frantic reflexes, but cold, calculated moves on a grid? A new contender emerging from Steam’s indie scene, Vultures - Scavengers of Death, poses this compelling, genre-bending question by fusing the tense exploration of survival horror with the chess-like combat of Final Fantasy Tactics. Slated for a Q1 2026 release, this tactical survival horror game positions itself as a passionate homage to a bygone era of fear. Its arrival is made even more intriguing by its temporal neighbor: the blockbuster Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline series entry, launches just weeks earlier. This sets the stage for a fascinating clash of visions. Can a tactical twist successfully capture the essence of survival horror, or is the relentless dread of the genre incompatible with turn-based strategy?

Deconstructing the Survival Horror-Tactics Hybrid

At its core, Vultures attempts a daring fusion of two distinct philosophies. From the PS1-era survival horror playbook, it borrows the atmospheric exploration, resource scarcity, and environmental storytelling where progress hinges on finding cryptic notes and key items. From tactical RPGs, it imports grid-based, turn-based combat where every move must be calculated. This fusion fundamentally alters the player’s relationship with the horror.

In a classic Resident Evil title, terror is often reactive—a zombie lurches around a corner, and you fumble for your controller in a panic. In Vultures, that panic is replaced by a cold, strategic calculus. The enemy is on the grid. You have time to think, to plan a flank, to consider which agent’s loadout is best suited to target a specific weak point. This transforms fear from a moment of shock into a prolonged state of anxious deliberation. The “VULTURES” premise—where players command operatives scavenging the infested Salento Valley for a cure to a global plague—perfectly justifies this shift. You are not a desperate survivor; you are a calculated, if desperate, professional. The horror becomes less about personal survival and more about the grim responsibility of a mission where failure has strategic, and human, costs.

A Deep Dive into Vultures' Gameplay Loop

The game structures this hybrid concept into a clear, mission-based loop. In the pre-mission phase, players choose from a roster of agents, each with unique skills, backstories, and customizable loadouts, requiring strategic planning before deployment. Once in the valley, the game shifts between tense exploration and tactical confrontation.

The turn-based combat is the centerpiece, emphasizing positioning, line-of-sight, and the intelligent use of stealth. Simply trading blows won’t suffice; targeting specific enemy weak points is described as key to survival. This adds a layer of puzzle-solving to every encounter, reminiscent of using specific weapons on particular bosses in classic horror games. Crucially, progression isn’t tied solely to combat. The developers stress the importance of collecting relics, deciphering environmental notes, and gathering scarce resources to craft items and unlock new areas, faithfully preserving the puzzle-solving and resource-management roots of its survival horror inspiration.

Wrapping this all together is a deliberate aesthetic choice: PS1-era retro graphics. This isn’t merely a nostalgic trend; the low-poly models, foggy draw distances, and crunchy textures actively enhance the eerie, uncertain atmosphere. It’s a style that grounds Vultures firmly in the visual language of the era it seeks to emulate, placing it within a thriving indie movement that deconstructs classic horror through a retro lens.

Launching in the Shadow of a Giant

Vultures’ 2026 release date casts it under the immense shadow of Resident Evil Requiem. The contrast between the two titles is a study in opposing visions for the genre.

• Requiem represents the multi-platform, big-budget evolution of the series, boasting a flexible camera, new crafting systems, and dual protagonists offering stealth and action gameplay. It is Capcom refining its blockbuster, cinematic formula.
• Vultures, in contrast, is a focused, genre-bending reinterpretation. It isn’t trying to be the action-horror experience of modern Resident Evil. Instead, it reaches back to the series’ foundational principles—limited resources, methodical pacing, environmental storytelling—and asks how they would function if viewed through a tactical grid. One game is the genre’s blockbuster future; the other is a thoughtful, strategic homage to its past.

The Promise and Potential Pitfalls of the Fusion

The promise of Vultures is the potential for a new kind of horror tension. The dread of losing a precious, customized agent to a poor tactical decision could be more profound than simply seeing a health bar deplete. Every move on the grid carries weight, and the consequence of failure is not a reload, but a permanent strategic loss. It seeks to translate the "survival" in survival horror from a personal struggle to a managerial one.

Yet, this fusion also presents inherent risks. The stop-start rhythm of turn-based combat could fracture the relentless, immersive dread that defines real-time survival horror. Can the anxiety sustain itself when the player has unlimited time to plan their next move? The game’s success will hinge on its ability to make that planning phase feel fraught with its own peril, perhaps through systems that maintain pressure even during the player's turn.

Its audience is similarly bifurcated. Will it satisfy tactical RPG fans looking for a macabre setting, or can it convert survival horror purists willing to learn complex strategic systems? The ideal outcome is a seamless blend that serves both, but the challenge is formidable.

Whether Vultures succeeds or stumbles, its very existence is a testament to the enduring, malleable power of survival horror's core principles. Its 2026 duel with Requiem isn't just a clash of budgets, but a debate about the genre's soul: is true dread found in cinematic immersion or strategic consequence? For seeking to answer that question alone, Vultures deserves a spot on every horror strategist's wishlist. The game is available to wishlist on Steam now, marking a fascinating experiment to follow as both it and the shadow of Raccoon City loom on the horizon.

Tags: survival horror, tactical RPG, indie games, Steam, Resident Evil