Empire of the Ants Preview
Empire of the Ants is an upcoming real-time strategy (RTS) game with some platforming elements developed by Tower Five and published by Microids. The game, inspired by 1991 sci-fi novel written by Bernard Werber, will give players the opportunity to experience the trials and tribulations of what it is to be an ant. Interestingly enough, this isn’t Microids first stab at this franchise, as they developed an Empire of the Ants game for PC back in 2000. However, this is a completely new and fresh experience built on Unreal Engine 5.
You are ant #103,683. You’ve been tasked by the queen to lead the colony through whatever challenges may arise. Fending off predators, expanding the nests, conquering new territories. It might seem like a lot to put on the shoulders of one ant, but you’ll have many tools at your disposal to succeed.
Ant-Sized Test Run
I had the privledge of playing the latest beta of Empire of the Ants over the past week. The 90-minute demo gave me a look at the main colony hub area and three distinct missions. From the main hub, you’ll find other ants that provide you with missions. These missions take you out of the hub into individual, self-enclosed levels. This isn’t a full open-world game, but the size of the levels are meaty enough that will make you feel like a small ant in a vast world.
The first mission tasked me with escorting a snail from one point to another. Along the way, a variety of enemy insects would swarm the snail and hinder it’s progress. Fortunately, I had a three legions of ants, each with their own skills, that I could direct. As a real-time strategy game, I did not fight at all. I only pointed to where I wanted my legions to go and they would proceed, whether that was waypoints or attacking enemies. That’s not to say I couldn’t be injured or killed – I could – so keeping my distance was ideal, just not too far. In addition to directing my legions of ants and the snail, I could also provide certain buffs, like a Rage Pheromone, that would amp my ants attack abilities. After a handful of battles, my snail eventually made it to the final way point and the mission was completed, sending me back to the hub.
Fired-Up Over Fireflies
The second mission tasked me with hunting down three fireflies. This mission ignored any RTS strategies and was purely a platforming adventure. I was in a cave, with a stream of water that ran along the bottom of the level. Water quickly leads to death, so avoiding it was ideal. I crawled along the sides of the cave, in search of the fireflies. Crawling along caves was sometimes a fun experience, until I found myself upside down – then the controls would get a bit wonky. I wish the camera perspective would match the orientation my ant was currently in, and that “up” on the left-thumbstick always moved me forward.
Finding the fireflies wasn’t too difficult – but catching them proved a bit tedious. I’d have to use my ants jumping ability to catch them when they weren’t aware of my presence. Jumping can be a bit difficult to gauge, so I often missed, and the firefly would fly away to another part of the cave. Eventually, I caught all three, which ended the mission.
Throughout these missions, there were a variety of hidden collectables to find such as golden tortoise beetles. I don’t anticipate the collectables to be a huge part of the full game, but rather a nice little deviation.
The third and final mission really gave me a true taste of the RTS experience. Here I started with a handful of nests and had to start building various structures and units within each nest. There were resource restrictions, ie: food and wood, that I would need worker ants to collect. And, at least initially, each nest could only provide one legion of ants. I would scour the landscape in search of enemy nests, where I would direct my legions to attack. Upon defeating enemy nests, the nest would be mine to do as I please. This mission took the longest to complete, but also gave me the most flexibility in what I could do. I had a handful of mission objectives, and once they were completed, I had to terminate a termite nest. It was a decent challenge for sure! It was here I learned that if my legions die, they’ll eventually respawn back at their nest. And if I die, I respawn not too far from the action. Death was not the end – at least in the beta. Once this final mission was complete, that was it for the beta.
Highly Ant-icipatedÂ
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Empire of the Ants. It looked great, powered by the Unreal Engine 5, even on my aging PC. The music was wonderful. And the gameplay was a nice mix of platforming with RTS gameplay. There were a few graphical hiccups – to be expected in a beta. I had some struggles with the controls, such as when my ant was walking upside down and jumping. The firefly mission was definitely a low-point in the beta as a result of these. I also wasn’t too sure what all the different icons meant, as there wasn’t any proper tutorial. My hope is the full game includes a comprehensive tutorial and I imagine they’ll continue to iron out any graphic issues and control challenges. I can’t wait for the full game to arrive. Empire of the Ants is one of my most anticipated games of 2024. Empire of the Ants arrives on PC, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 on November 7, 2024.
***Empire of the Ants beta code for PC was provided by the publisher.***
