Empire of the Ants 2024

From our point of view, ants might be peaceful creatures that scavenge whatever they can find to survive and dig holes in the ground to live. However, from their perspective, the fight for survival and supremacy is as ruthless as it gets, especially when they're forced to fight against their equals. That's the epic premise of Empire of the Ants, a game that takes us on a journey to the ruthless world of ants.

Developed by Tower Five, Empire of the Ants promises a photorealistic experience that's unlike any other RTS we've ever seen. I'm happy to report they delivered. Not only is the game a visual masterpiece, but it also delivers a solid gameplay experience that turns Empire of the Ants into one of the best real-time strategy games since Command and Conquer.

Don't let the niche subject deceive you: Empire of the Ants gets pretty serious with its portrayal of insect life. I never expected to be emotionally invested in a game about an ant, and yet, here I am. Let's delve a bit into what makes this unique RTS such a masterwork.

The Life of a Drone

The game follows the story of #103,683, a soldier ant in the service of its colony. Your task will be to explore new territories and claim them for the Federation. That alone sounds like a great sci-fi premise you'd expect in a game like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, so seeing it applied to ants almost blew my mind.

Along the way, you'll find many perils that could easily spell doom for a diminutive ant. Enemies such as slugs, snails, ladybugs, and other bigger insects can easily break your defenses. Luckily, you never fight alone.

Commands and Tactics

As a peculiarly inquisitive soldier ant, #103,683 can control other ants and instruct them to adopt combat positions. That's when Empire of the Ants turns into a full-on RTS game.

The game handles tactics and units similarly to Age of Empires or, better yet, Halo Wars. There's a heavy focus on tactics over simply spamming the enemy with raw numbers, so don't expect a Pikmin strategy to work here. You'll need to carefully choose the type of ants you'll send into any encounter, as every type is more fitting for different combat styles.

Managing your colony is also essential to breed the ultimate legion of warriors. When you run out of space, conquering other nests becomes the only way of expanding your territory.

Is This Real Life?

Empire of the Ants uses Unreal Engine 5 to achieve its gorgeous visuals, and it shows. The game looks stunning, with a fidelity I haven't seen since Black Myth: Wukong. Using the engine's Nanite and Lumen architectures allowed the developers to create a lifelike miniature world that will push your hardware to its limits.

That said, you'll most likely run into some of the limitations with UE5 sooner than later. There appears to be a memory bandwidth issue that causes some minor stutters here and there. Fortunately, this being an RTS game means you can sacrifice a few FPS if it means the game can look as gorgeous as it does.

Pros

• Amazing visuals
• Surprisingly gripping narrative
• Solid gameplay with lots of tactical options

Cons

• Some performance issues
• You'll need a beefy PC to enjoy the game's visuals to their fullest