Empire of the Ants sounded completely unappealing to MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus. The gamescom 2024 had so many great games – and he has to check out a strategy game for consoles at the request of the boss. Luckily, because it is an extremely positive surprise.
Being a video game journalist sounds like a dream job for many: You talk to the devs, get a lot of games for free and earlier, and basically get paid to play. Sometimes, however, you have to deal with pretty tedious tasks.
While planning for gamescom 2024, MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski made an appointment for me to Empire of the Ants, a real-time strategy game with ants. She said: This is exactly my game, after all, I am an RTS nerd.
In itself, that’s correct, but Empire of the Ants is a strategy game for consoles with ants and somehow not really what I usually play. Nevertheless, Leya insisted that I attend this appointment.
Even though I trudged into the hall with moderately much desire, I must now thank her for it. Empire of the Ants absolutely surprised me and even if the game will certainly not attract hundreds of thousands of players, I had surprisingly much fun.
Real-time strategy with controller works – thanks to a trick
Why I was skeptical at all: I love playing real-time and turn-based strategy games, preferably on a large scale. Crusader Kings, Total War: Warhammer 3, and Sins of a Solar Empire are among my favorite games. Dawn of War is still one of the best strategy games for me.
What they all have in common is that you play them with mouse and keyboard because you simply need a quick overview and have to manage several menus to manage troops and base building.
However, Empire of the Ants is designed for controllers and is supposed to be primarily a strategy game for consoles. That can’t work – I thought. But a trick from the developers makes the game a unique experience.
Instead of playing a “god” who manages everything from above, I control a single ant with the controller that is right in the action. Through the sticks and buttons, I command whole armies instead of individual troops and send them around – either from a distance or up close.
Base building works by crawling to one of the nests and expanding it there through a menu on the ground. I have to actively “walk” to the buildings and troops I want to build or train.
A bit like Pikmin with Mount & Blade
While playing, I felt a bit like Captain Olimar – you know, the little astronaut with the bulbous nose who coordinates the little beetle men through the tall grass in Pikmin.
In fact, Empire of the Ants plays similarly. Through a cursor, I select spots on the ground, structures, or enemy armies to send my units there, gather resources, or attack troops.
Similar to Mount & Blade: Bannerlord, I stand as a commander in the back and make sure my ants, bugs, and other insects really win the battle. The selection of troops is somewhat smaller than usual and roughly follows a rock-paper-scissors principle.
The game is played in different “missions” with different tasks and varying degrees of challenge:
- Exploration is aimed at casual players, here you are supposed to mainly walk around alone and discover the area or rescue worker ants.
- Tactically brings a combat component into the game, you command a few troops, but you don’t really build anything yourself. According to the developers, it should help players find their way into strategic gameplay.
- Strategically is finally real-time strategy with base building, resource management, troop training, and enemies to defeat.
Although the boss explained to me in the conversation that I should better play an exploration mission, I accidentally selected a strategic objective directly. Luckily, because I was totally thrilled by the gameplay.
Here you can see the detailed gameplay video of Empire of the Ants from GameStar:
Strategy in a whole new way and I’m really looking forward to it
It is somewhat difficult to articulate what makes Empire of the Ants so exciting. I was skeptical myself, although the colleagues from GameStar have already praised the game.
Because I play an ant and not an invisible commander, playing with the controller feels natural. I am indeed the commander who is just passing on the queen’s orders to the workers and soldiers, monitoring that everything goes the right way.
I think what really helps while playing is the mission approach. The whole game feels more like an adventure and leans on the campaign, something that is often the highlight for players in many RTS games.
In various chapters, you are supposed to complete a certain number of tasks to proceed. In total, there should be between 30 to 60 hours of gameplay, plus a 1vs1 PvP mode and a FFA mode for 3 players. Cooperative gameplay is not planned for now.
Empire of the Ants will certainly not be a game that I will play hundreds of hours repeatedly. But I definitely want to check out the campaign and maybe play casually from time to time. The game will be released on November 7 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. At gamescom 2024, it is definitely my surprise tip – my highlight was actually another one: An RPG about Warhammer 40k is the best game at gamescom 2024
