Empire of The Ants – PC Review

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Empire of The Ants has me assume control of a brave little ant as it helps its colony. Tackle the harsh world of mother nature in this new strategy game by Tower Five. The game is out now on Steam and goes for £34.99, while for another ten quid will land you the Deluxe Edition. In the deluxe you’ll get digital artwork, soundtrack, and wallpapers.

We may be small, but we are many.

A large ant looking towards a smaller ant. The small ant approaches from the lower right area.
Our little scout gets her big break.

Gameplay

The ant is a scout with no name who is tasked with controlling your colonies’ units. Empire of The Ants isn’t an open-world but mission-focused. The first missions typically give you a rundown of the game mechanics. Not all the missions have you control units, however, some ask you to recover workers or scout areas. These missions I found a little dull compared to the combat-based ones.

The nest and army.

In most combat missions, you have a main nest to defend. This is shown via the crown symbol above it. Although it’s crucial, you defend it so you don’t fail the mission. You’re able to get more nests which will serve as outposts and they basically do what the main one does, which makes the main nest not as important honestly. Nests are where you’ll construct things to help benefit you in combat. For example, food and wood supplies, storage, and home to a singular unit. Defences are available to better secure the nests by adding gunners and a barrier.

controlled ant waking across a battlefield while others run away. Some ants are seen flying through the air while several are engaged in battle. A small map at the bottom right of the screen is the mini-map. The map is split into three colours, Red, yellow, and blue. Various symbols are shown to represent the many units on the field.
Look how high they fly.

The units in Empire of The Ants aren’t huge (well, the swarm sizes are), but each one I found helped tremendously. Warriors serve as the basic fighters, while gunners will provide supporting fire from higher areas. It is worth mentioning that gunners will usually only attack when another unit is fighting. You can strengthen units by aiming at their nests and selecting upgrade. This will pull them off the field for a moment while the upgrade happens. Anything being built or made, you can speed up with food. (one of the two key resources in the game).

More details about the nests.

Here is a brief list of what is buildable in nests, and what they offer. Note nests have limited spaces and will have a number telling how much.

Nest Sections:

  • Economy – To provide wood and food for constructing other upgrades. It is also used to reach stronger tiers of ants.
  • Powers – These are for the Scout that the player controls and also has tiers. Some powers are used to buff while others are for attacking.
  • Legions – You can select one type of unit (and only one) to occupy the specific nest. If killed, this is also where they respawn.
  • Defence – As mentioned above, you’re able to select various defences such as guards and barriers.
  • Information – Used to access the mission map and enemy intel. Upgrades are available for units and you for more awareness.
Ant standing on a red symbol of an ant. The box to the right shows the information of the the symbol. This specifically is for the worker legion.
Can select which legion to start with in missions.

More details about the Legions.

Information on some legions in Empire of The Ants. Legions are the only units that are upgradeable.

Legions:

  • Warriors – They are the second strongest force, they are also best for taking out worker units.
  • Gunner – The ranged legions of the game, they won’t fight melee, except for when attacking a nest. Best for fighting against warriors.
  • Worker – Now although they are classed as workers, they can fight and are best used to counter Gunners. besides that, they can collect larger resources around the mission area. For example, an orange or pinecone.

Super Predators:

  • Dor Beetles – Heavy-hitters that can lock enemy units in combat so they don’t escape.
  • Rose Chafers – Similar to Dor Beetles but instead of locking enemies, they are immune to acid and gunner fire.
  • Hornets – The fly boys who can’t attack nests but are really helpful when against legions. Only downside is Gunners.

Support Units:

  • Aphids – Aid in reinforcing your ants with more defence while close by.
  • Snail – Kind of like a walking target to help pull aggro off your legions (Which is helpful late game). Out of combat gives defence buff.
  • Rhino Beetles – Basically transportation for a max of two legions. Units move slowly but I didn’t see the point of this one.

You the scout

In Empire of the Ants, since we play a scout, we are given our own set of moves. We can walk on everything to climb about, move at great speeds, and jump really far. Besides movement, we get buffs to aid our fellow ants on the battlefield. These buffs are granted through the nests and are also upgradable for more charges and quicker cooldowns.

I'm walking around one of the nests looking at menus. Some of the symbols seen around the base are mushrooms, ants, and green leaves. when selecting the barrier (which is shown with blue) a menu appears.
love how it’s around the base of the nest.

We get frenzy for an increase in damage, dash for movement speed, and the most useful to me, recovery. You will get more buffs later in the game, but these are the ones I mainly used. Four are allowed at a time and before going on a mission, you can select which ones you want.

Graphics & Audio

Like the little ant herself, there’s a lot to feast your eyes on in Empire of the Ants. It’s interesting to see and scale things that are so tiny to us made to feel so colossal. An animal skull that could be no bigger than your foot is a ginormous hill for you to climb. I love the way the ants move, and how some of the different units look. Seeing the different units makes the combat even more engaging. While some of the environment textures may not be super detailed, it still looks grand looking over a pond at a sunrise.

Longevity

The game has three modes to offer, which are Story, Skirmish, and Multiplayer. I personally don’t play RTS games for multiplayer, but this and skirmish is where you can get some decent hours in. Empire of The Ants also has a 2025 roadmap planned. Which looks to add more power units and faction ants to the game. I’m close to finishing the game after nearly seventeen hours and have enjoyed the missions. Even if some were frustrating, mainly the defending ones, where you can’t lose a single nest.

I am stuck on a stick and have begun to spin around.
Now it’s my time to shine.

Final Thoughts

I thought that Empire of The Ants was going to have a lot more gameplay centred around the building of the colony. Now, don’t get me wrong, commanding armies against other bugs/insects is fun. But when I think of ants, I think of them as an entire colony. The combat is fun and engaging, although slow, especially when units are moving to a location. However, the ant we play should also be more a part of the action and not just use buffs. I do like the movement of the controlled ant. As the story starts off simple, I definitely say keep playing and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  It becomes rather fun and interesting, and when it did, I was hooked.

I was surprised to learn that Empire of The Ants was also based on the book, which I looked into further, and honestly, I was intrigued.

I’m awarding Empire of The Ants the Thumb Culture Gold Award. It’s a good relaxing RTS.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

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