Windows, releasing 7 November 2024
After those first few super chill games I’ve had bad luck getting Next Fest demos to run on my Steam Deck (no shade – none of them claimed they would and they’re not even finished games yet) but of the couple that have I really wanted to highlight this one. It’s available for pre-purchase so we do know what the pricetag will be – a hefty NZ$70, so I’m guessing about US$40-50 – but the graphics alone are impressive. Empire of the Ants is a tactical RTS in which you play as an ant – if you’re old enough you might remember an early Maxis title (the studio that became a division of EA and was responsible for the Sim games back when games had to work at launch) called SimAnt. SimAnt was a simulation game in black and white released in 1991, and while there were regions of a larger map which contained competing red ant nests that you could conquer, and humans living in the house that would eventually pack up and move if you took over enough of the yard, Empire of the Ants is (as you might imagine from the intervening 30 years of game development) both more, and somehow also less, detailed.
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