Preview of Empire of the Ants
Empire of the Ants is an upcoming real-time strategy (RTS) game with some platforming elements developed by Tower Five and published by Microids. Inspired by the 1991 science fiction novel written by Bernard Werber, the game will give players the chance to experience the trials and tribulations of what it’s like to be an ant. Interestingly, this isn’t Microids’ first attempt 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 using Unreal Engine 5.
You are ant number 103,683. The queen has tasked you with leading the colony through whatever challenges may arise: fending off predators, expanding nests, conquering new territories. It may seem like a lot for one ant, but you'll have plenty of tools at your disposal to succeed.
Ant size test
I had the privilege of playing the latest beta version of Empire of the Ants last week. The 90-minute demo allowed me to see the main colony area and three distinct missions. From the main hub, you'll encounter other ants who will provide you with missions. These missions take you outside of the hub into individual, closed-off levels. This isn't a full open-world game, but the level sizes are large enough to make you feel like a tiny ant in a huge world.
The first mission tasked me with escorting a snail from one point to another. Along the way, a variety of enemy insects swarmed it and hindered its progress. Luckily, I had three legions of ants, each with their own abilities, that I could direct. Since this is a real-time strategy game, I didn’t fight at all. I just pointed where I wanted my legions to go and they advanced, either waypointing or attacking enemies. That’s not to say I couldn’t get hurt or killed (I could), so keeping my distance was ideal, but not too much. In addition to directing my ant legions and the snail, I could also provide certain buffs, such as a rage pheromone, which would amplify my ants’ attack abilities. After a handful of battles, my snail finally reached the final waypoint and the mission was complete, sending me back to the hub.
Excited about fireflies
The second mission tasked me with hunting down three fireflies. This mission ignored any RTS strategy and was purely a platforming adventure. I was in a cave, with a stream running along the bottom of the level. Water quickly leads to death, so avoiding it was ideal. I crawled along the sides of the cave, looking for the fireflies. Crawling through the caves was sometimes a fun experience, until I found myself upside down; then the controls became a little clunky. I just wish the camera perspective matched the orientation my ant was in at the time, and that “up” on the left stick always moved me forward.
Finding the fireflies wasn't too difficult, but catching them proved a bit tedious. I had to use my ant ability to jump and catch them when they weren't aware of my presence. The jump can be a bit difficult to time, so I often missed and the firefly would fly off to another part of the cave. In the end, I caught all three, which ended the quest.
Throughout these missions, there were a variety of hidden collectibles, such as golden turtle scarabs. I don't expect the collectibles to be a major part of the full game, but rather a nice little diversion.
The third and final mission gave me a real taste of the real-time strategy gaming experience. I started with a handful of nests and had to start building various structures and units within each nest. There were resource restrictions, namely: food and wood, which I needed the worker ants to gather. And, at least at first, each nest could only provide one legion of ants. I scoured the landscape for enemy nests, which I would direct my legions to attack. Upon defeating the enemy nests, the nest would be mine to do with as I pleased. This mission took the longest to complete, but it also gave me the most flexibility in what I could do. I had a handful of mission objectives, and once I completed them, I had to take down a termite nest. It was a decent challenge, to be sure! It was here that I learned that if my legions die, they will eventually respawn at their nest. And if I die, I respawn not too far from the action. Death wasn't the end, at least in the beta. Once this final mission was completed, that was it for the beta.
Highly anticipated
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Empire of the Ants. It looked great, powered by Unreal Engine 5, even on my old PC. The music was wonderful. And the gameplay was a nice mix of platforming and real-time strategy gameplay. There were some graphical issues, which is to be expected in a beta. I had some difficulty 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 issues. I also wasn’t quite sure what all the different icons meant, as there was no proper tutorial. My hope is that the full game will include a full tutorial, and I imagine they’ll continue to iron out any graphical 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 is coming to PC, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5 on November 7, 2024.
***Empire of the Ants PC beta code was provided by the publisher.***