There was once a time in the world of gaming (specifically PC gaming) where you couldn’t go anywhere without accidentally tripping over a real time strategy game of some kind. There were the Red Alerts, the Age of [insert cool sounding word like “Empires” or “Mythology”], Rise of Nations, Command and Conquers, Starcrafts, Generals, Warcrafts (remember when Warcraft was an RTS and not a MMORPG?), Galactic Battlegrounds, Real Wars, Empire at Wars, Empire Earths… the list just goes on and on and on.
Nowadays, when you try to talk to someone about RTS, you’ll probably get a response like “you mean Starcraft?” And they are always talking about Starcraft 2, never the good old staple Starcraft: Brood War that was the OG of e-sports. But coming back to the present, when it comes to big-budget RTS games, there really aren’t that many that come to mind other than Starcraft 2. You’d be hard pressed to call the Total Wars, World in Conflicts and Wargame series “RTS” as much as RTT (real time tactics). There isn’t any base building, for example. Only Company of Heroes is closer to what old gamers are used to when one says “RTS,” but even Company of Heroes hasn’t been able to emulate the popularity of it’s first game with its subsequent stand-alone expansions and sequel.
All isn’t lost though for the people who crave for those good old days of gaming. Eugen Systems, the makers of Ruse and the Wargame series, has recently announced their newest project: Act of Aggression. Act of Aggression is promised to be a game that keeps with “old-school RTS values.” And it seems Eugen Systems will be reusing some of the assets from its Wargame series to make a game that is actually quite pretty.
The story and the gameplay aren’t going to be things to write home about. Everything has been tried and done before, it just hasn’t been tried and done in quite a while: Dystopian future where war is life, three different factions fighting just because, buildings sprouting out of the ground and building themselves like magic after enough resources have been gathered, which then start pumping out vehicles and soldiers out of thin air. If you’re looking for a release from the realism and stress of current RTT games, or simply want to try something that isn’t a shooter or generic sports title and you just want to play something where you can just drag a box around a bunch of guys and tell them to kill that other guy that you don’t like the look of in a game that isn’t 4 years old, then Act of Aggression is the game for you!
Well, at least it would be. However, no release window of any kind has been release yet, but we do know it’s coming out on PC and is developed enough to be demoed at Gamescom. Looking at Eugen System’s history of announcements to release, it’s probably safe to say you’ll probably see Act of Aggression on shelves (who are we kidding, on Steam) sometime in 2015. Look forward to it until then!
What are your thoughts on Act of Aggression? Are you excited about there being some competition in the RTS market? Maybe you’re not bothered? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
