Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 02:56

Empire of the Ants – Review

French publisher Microïds is perhaps best known for bringing us video game adaptations of Franco-Belgian comic books like Asterix and the Smurfs and famous literary characters like Hercule Poirot. Their latest release, Empire of the Ants, is still an adaptation, albeit of a more obscure nature. Empire of the Ants may not be a household name in the same vein as the aforementioned examples, but the concept of an RTS game about ants was interesting enough even without being familiar with the source material. Did the game turn out to be ant-astic or did it bug us? Story Based on the Bernard Werber novel of the same name, Empire of the Ants tells the story of a colony of ants that inhabits the Fontainebleau Forest. Players take on the role of an unnamed ant, because ants don’t use names and simply address one another by birth number. Although our ant doesn’t have a name, he still has an important role to play, as the colony is under threat, both by other insects and by an increased number of calamities, like floodings. At the queen’s behest, it is up to our unassuming hero to guide the colony to safety. We should note that the game’s narrative isn’t as nuanced and critical of human society as the novel is, but given that these are two entirely different mediums, this isn’t really an issue either. The game’s narration was actually written by Werber himself, so it certainly stays true to the spirit of the original novel. Graphics Visually, Empire of the Ants is an absolute treat. Developer Tower Five Studio went for a photorealistic approach here and it works like a charm. Everything is shown from the perspective of an ant, making for a world that feels both alien and familiar. Spiders become towering behemoths, twigs might as well be trees, and puddles are like lakes to our protagonists. The lighting is absolutely gorgeous, further enhancing the plethora of details that bring the world of ants to life. Perhaps most importantly, the game’s visual performance is buttery smooth as well. Even when hundreds of ants were crawling across the screen, we didn’t experience any noticeable lag or stuttering. Sound The soundscape that Empire of the Ants conjures up is equally impressive as its visuals. Great care was taken in making sure that the ambiance of the forest was as accurate and immersive as possible, to the point that the development team made recordings in an actual forest. The sounds of nature are underlined by a fantastic soundtrack. The featured insects don’t speak but they communicate with one another through animal sounds, and this is surprisingly effective too. The sound team had to use creative solutions, as tiny insect sounds typically aren’t audible to us humans, so for example, the roar of a mantis is the modified call of an elk instead. Gameplay Back in 2000, Microïds already released a strategy game based on Empire of the Ants. In this era of remakes and remasters, it would be easy to assume that this new 2024 release is a modernized version of that game. While the gameplay concept is similar between both games, the Empire of the Ants that we’re looking at is a completely new game. In this RTS game, you’re put in charge of keeping the colony safe. In most RTS titles, you’re floating above the battlefield as you issue orders to your troops, but this isn’t the case in Empire of the Ants. Instead, you’re forced to take on a boots on the ground -or should that be tarsi on the ground?- approach, as your efforts are seen from your own ant perspective. Because of this, things are kept deliberately and delightfully simple, although simple does not equate to easy in this case. The 25-ish hour narrative campaign follows a structure that offers three different kinds of missions. The most involved of these are so-called strategic missions, which see you capture and upgrade different nests as you work towards the goals for that specific stage. Since you’re not zooming across the battlefield but are actually playing as an ant, this takes a completely different approach than what you’re probably used to from an RTS game. Navigating the overworld becomes a challenge in its own right as you crawl, climb, and even leap across environmental obstacles. There is combat, but in all honesty, you’re better off directing your ant comrades towards the front lines and staying out of harm’s way yourself. In fact, that is how you capture nests: you order your squad to attack and take over hostile nests. Once this is done, the nest starts to churn out your specific choice of ant types, be they workers, warriors, or even gunners. You’re not just limited to ants either, as you’ll find allies like snails and rhino beetles that are willing to lend their strengths to your cause. Eventually, you’ll be able to upgrade the nest and the ants that spawn from it. The kicker is that you’re not able to communicate across large distances, and you’ll need to be near a nest to upgrade it. Of course, enemies won’t just let you keep nests you’ve captured, and these will need to be defended. There is a constant back-and-forth between nests, making for frantic gameplay. Fortunately, these individual missions never eat up too much of your time, typically taking around the 20-30 minute mark, so things never get too stressful. Exploration missions focus more on actually discovering the world around you: an early one tasks you with chasing a butterfly, for example. These allow you to fully immerse yourself into your surroundings at your own pace. Being able to traverse the world like an insect is equally surreal as it is fun, as you’re able to walk up walls or even on upside-down surfaces. The objectives in these missions are fairly simple: the first one tasks you with finding a trio of fireflies, for example. It’s in these missions that you’re able to experience Empire of the Ants in a more relaxed manner, at your own pace. These missions were probably our favorite part of the game, even if the focus wasn’t on the strategy aspect. Rounding things out for the single-player campaign are tactical missions. Out of the three types, these were our least favorite, although given how much we enjoyed Empire of the Ants overall, that’s not saying much. Tactical missions felt like a watered-down version of strategic missions, as they removed the nest management aspect. Instead of building your own army of ants and allies, you’re given a predetermined selection of units that you’ll need to guide to victory. While there is still some fun to be had, we felt these missions were a bit limiting and offered little margin for errors. Finally, while our review focuses on Empire of the Ants’ single-player experience, it’s worth mentioning that the game also offers a multiplayer mode. Here, up to four players compete over dominance. At the time of reviewing, this mode was only available during limited time slots and as such we weren’t able to give it a try. Still, we’d argue that even as a single-player game, Empire of the Ants has plenty to offer for its €39.99 asking price. The addition of multiplayer is simply the icing on the cake. Conclusion We, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. To say that we were pleasantly surprised by Empire of the Ants would be an understatement. From the gorgeous audiovisual presentation to the bite-sized missions that offer frantic strategic gameplay, this is a fantastic little game. While we do feel that the narrative could have been fleshed out a bit more, you can always pick up the actual novel to further immerse yourself in the insect life of Fontainebleau Forest. It’s definitely worth immersing yourself in this RTS, if only because exploring the forest as an ant is incredibly fun.