There have been many makes an attempt to reboot the RTS lately, starting from throwbacks just like the current Age Of Mythology: Retold to splicey novelties equivalent to Battle Aces. I’m undecided any have managed it, however I’m at all times glad to see recent blood spilled in the home of Westwood. Which brings us to Venture Citadel, a brand new space-me-do from Final Maintain, a studio based by former employees of Stranger Issues devs BonusXP and Age Of Empires outfit Ensemble. It pitches you towards an alien empire, and blends squad mechanics redolent of Halo Wars with a roguelike format that goals to assist shorter play periods, whereas nonetheless supposedly permitting for classic technique gambits like booming and speeding.
You do not know what “booming” is? Goodness, you sound identical to me earlier than I wrote this information put up: seems it is one thing I have been doing for years with out realising. For readability, “booming” is while you deal with build up your financial system at the beginning of a conventional RTS match. “Dashing” is clearly while you decide to an early offensive with cheapo items. Venture Citadel goals to make these approaches work throughout a procedurally generated, turn-based marketing campaign, with gamers shifting throughout a branching, galactic overmap of smaller RTS encounters. The development factor is equipped by your mothership, which may assemble starbases and likewise present assist in battle.
The lacking third pillar right here is “turtling”, which is while you throw up as many defences as doable to start with, hoping that your opponent will rush you and splatter themselves throughout your turrets (a boomer participant, in contrast, will merely acquire a headstart in manufacturing whilst you’re losing time prepping for an assault that by no means comes). Venture Citadel doesn’t do turtling, it appears, since you’re at all times on the assault, without end making an attempt to convey down that dang Voltari empire.
For ex-Microsoft and Battlefy exec Yohan Sengamalay and his collaborators, who embody former Ensemble devs David Pottinger and Jason Sallenbach, bringing in roguelike parts is all about “deconstructing” the technique style. “We have taken the normal, prolonged marketing campaign and damaged it into shorter missions that match a roguelike construction,” Sengamalay advised me over e mail. “This maintains significant decisions and depth whereas introducing faster rewards and higher experimentation.”
As for unit management, “the moment-to-moment fight retains some similarity with technique video games we have labored on, however with added fight motion and skill-shot talents to emphasise timing,” Sengamalay went on. “You command squadrons fairly than particular person items, an growth of what we began with Halo Wars, permitting us to make the sport equally playable on each controllers and mouse/keyboard setups.” The ships themselves vary from missile-vomming daggers to hard-wearing behemoths. Their “skill-shots” embody ramming by means of opposing formations like a herd of buffalo.
As for a way Venture Citadel stands other than different makes an attempt to jump-start a brand new period in StarCraft & Conquering, Sengamalay noticed to me that “whereas the style is experiencing a resurgence, it is extremely a lot centered round remakes or non secular successors”. Final Maintain are a titchy indie, numbering simply 2-10 folks in line with their LinkedIn. In keeping with Sengamalay, they’re “neither nor have the assets to easily re-make previous successes like Age of Empires”.
The pessimistic tackle all that is that folks have been cobbling roguelike exoskeletons onto different species of sport for many years – I moaned concerning the abundance of roguelike deckbuilders on these very pages not two weeks in the past. Generally, the mixture is a symbiosis, and typically it’s parasitism: the repetitiveness of rogueliking overpowers different features of the expertise.
The cynical learn is that I’ve heard a pitch like this earlier than. Whereas at BonusXP – which closed in June 2023 for causes not given on the time, amid widespread video games business cuts – Pottinger and Sallenbach labored on Servo, an RTS that sought equally to spice issues up with RPG parts, and was additionally touted as being from former Age Of Empires builders. Launched in early entry in 2015, it received reward initially however by no means made it to 1.0.
All that however, I am at all times inquisitive about makes an attempt to “deconstruct” a longtime format. As an elder Age Of Mythology participant who carries a candle for Halo Wars, I hope that Venture Citadel fares higher than Servo. You’ll be able to learn extra concerning the sport on Steam. There’s no launch date but.
