Looking for a comprehensive Empire Of The Ants Review? Deep in the undergrowth where the creepy crawlies dwell, there is an unseen empire built for the small. This is the Empire of the Ants. We’ve got you covered! Here is our Empire Of The Ants Review.
Developed by Tower Five and Published by Microïds, this incredible adventure into the unseen world we live in is nothing short of a marvel and to know that Unreal Engine 5 Powers this monster of graphical progression is only the tip of the Iceberg.
STORY
The story of the game is a little perplexing as you are introduced to the concept of waking up after hibernation and needing to forage for food. Once this is done you learn of the federation, an alliance of different Ant Nests around the forest, and that one of them is in danger from flooding.
While this seems like the overarching story of the game there is a bigger threat on the horizon, which, as is said in Fallout 3, “War Never Changes“, which isn’t too inaccurate for the story. After all, there are only a few constants in the world, barring Sir Terry Pratchett’s incredible Fantastical Stories of a flat world which flies through space on the back of a giant Turtle, named Great A’tuin, of which in Reaper Man, Miss Flitworth, while talking to Death known in Reaper Man as Bill Door puts it in the most remarkably accurate way as;
“He said that there was death and taxes, and taxes was worse, because at least death didn’t happen to you every year.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man, 1991, the 11th Discworld novel
Getting back to our point, in almost all creatures Battle is another constant. In Empire Of The Ants Battle is the name of the game basically.
While we address the factor of conflict and it is the potential for the entire story it’s also about survival. This is a world that goes unseen and is for lack of a better word, magical to behold. Let’s face it, the only other times that we as Giants in this microscopic and wondrous world are to see it is through the eyes of the imagination and an awful lot of belief. The only stories that come close to us seeing this world for real are games like “It Takes Two“, “Smallands“, “Grounded“, or maybe some Indie titles that have attempted it, as for other media we have “Honey, I Shrank The Kids“, or “Gulliver’s Travels“, and we could probably stretch to say “Starship Troopers” and “Alien” even though they are Science Fiction and a Fantastical Creation outside of our own native landscape they do an interesting job of showing us a glimpse into a world which is foreign to us, which is very much what Empire Of The Ants does really well. Just look at Empire Of The Ants, although it looks like a world that you could identify and relate to it is also a Hostile and foreign landscape which in some way could be something out of Edgar Rice-Burrough’s stories.
Spanning a total of 5 chapters the game tells a story of battle, not just against a conquerable enemy, but of the enemy, that is adaptable and patient.
Mechanics, Graphics, & Technical things
As we covered in the Preview, the mechanics and graphics for the Empire of the Ants are nothing short of a masterpiece, however, it has its flaws like any game, and the demo, although it was short, it managed to neglect some of these.
Although in the demo you play through a relatively tiny amount of the game, the full experience is so much more overwhelming. Being able to control 2 units in battle from the demo is good but when you have a load out of 7 units and need to strategically place them to combat difficult situations in short timeframes, you can really feel the pressure. Adding to that are the support units, and Super Predators, and as they sound they bring the added support your units need and of course the big guns to power through enemies.
Hercules Beetle
Graphically the game is just as good as the demo with its emphasis on this tiny enclosed world of magic and wonder and its incredible visuals of a world we can only imagine. The bad side of this is there are mismatched animations sometimes, along with interface glitches. Although these aren’t too bad they do detract from the overall illusion of the game.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the game lives up to what was illustrated in the demo, it is wondrous and magical, and almost like you could walk into the world… despite the fact that the world is made of bugs. Overall the game is similar to the Pixar Film from the early 2000s, A Bugs Life, where a colony of Ants are under the oppressive rule of a group of Grasshoppers, eventually, they rise up and show the Grasshoppers who is in charge.
As a whole, the game is amazing and enjoyable to play, however, there was something that kept on nagging at me about the “Legions” which was that they have no collision. This means that you can’t ride on them or be moved around by them, and the same goes for the enemies, you don’t get pushed around by them only overlap them to be dealt damage, at least when it is an enemy. This leads me to think that the Legions, which are more than a single entity, are something like a Niagara Particle. Without getting into the complexity of different things within the Unreal Engine, yes you read it correctly, but Particles have come a long way since the days when they showed an impact or something, now we can have thinking particles which simulate just about anything you can imagine. See that flock of birds, or Butterflies? Maybe they are a particle effect just trying to avoid the player.
One of the most interesting discoveries made while playing this game is that THIS release of the Empire Of The Ants isn’t an original and there was another one made and released in 2000/2001 by Microïds.
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