Analysis of the Ant Empire

Ant Empireis the latest work from the French studio Microides and which is distributed throughout the national territory by Southern Games. This title takes us on a whole miniature adventure, where we will take control of the ant 103 683. Thus, our little protagonist will have to lead the different armies of the ant colonies, as well as travel through a fascinating world while avoiding multiple obstacles.

It is impossible to play this adventure without remembering great classics like Bugs or my favorite Ant And that’s it, Ant Empiretakes as its main reference the work of Bernard Werber, known as Ants. By mixing genres such as platformers and RTS, the Tower Five team achieved a surprising result.

A world in miniature

The first thing that catches the eye in this adventure is the graphic quality it has. Developed with the very powerful Unreal Engine 5, the game leaves us with completely photorealistic traces that can amaze the player. Mainly those where lighting participates. In addition to this, The models of the different insects have amazing detail and are a joy to see. Likewise, its settings are full of life and are recreated with great success. Like other games like Basedbeing able to enjoy this miniature world always attracts attention. While it is true that some animations are not as well done as the rest of the game’s components, the result is nonetheless notable.

In addition to that, the sound part is not left out, with fantastic melodies that accompany the adventure to perfection. It’s very relaxing to move around the anthill to the rhythm of their compositions. In itself, it is a more than remarkable section, which also perfectly respects the effects of the environment.

Leaving that aside, Our adventure begins when we take control of the ant 103,683, called by the queen to command the legions and fight termites.. The game has a fairly linear structure, where the anthill will act as a link. Inside the anthill we will be able to move freely, talk with other ants, observe new insects that will be collected in our bestiary or other collectibles. Once we are ready, we can move on to the next mission.

fight

There are different types of missions that attempt to give variety to the title. On the one hand, there will be missions where we will have to take control of legions to fight deadly enemies like termites. At this point, The game will become a classic RTS, in which we will not only have to guide our armies into battle, but also make improvements to our anthills. Ant Empire He does not seek to go into depth on this aspect and remains quite simple.

In this way, in our anthill we can build improvements for our legions, buildings that provide us with resources (food or wood) or powers. In itself, Bridging the gap, the game works like the mythical game Battle for Middle Earth. Since each anthill will have a maximum of improvements and will only be able to support a single legion. Taking the latter into account, the game invites you to explore and conquer new anthills.

Already in combat, we find a game that essentially functions like rock, paper, scissors. In general We will have three types of combat units, gunners, warriors and workers. Gunners are effective against Warriors, Warriors against Workers, and Workers against Gunners. With this base and taking into account the fact that you can only control a maximum of 5 legions, the game does not seek to present great complexity. So, for the most veterans of the genre, it may seem extremely simple. Despite this, I think that the proposal is interesting and that the graphic power helps to generate very striking confrontations.

walk in the forest

In addition to these missions, the game literally jumps to other missions more typical of the platform genre. We are talking about maps where we have to go from point A to point B, yes, while evolving in a spectacular setting full of obstacles. Among the dangers that we will have to face as an ant will be water, spiders and other insects. However, the differentiating factor is water, since our ant can drown very easily.

To move around on stage, we will have all the tools that an ant has. So that, We can stick to any surface just by getting close to it. So we can climb walls, branches and much more. In addition, we will have a powerful jump, which we will control by pressing the Y. The more we press it, the further we will be able to jump. These types of missions serve to add variety to the adventure, however, some fairly visible problems also appear.

Personally, I had a lot of issues with the camera in the platforming scenes, as well as the control in general. The jumping system that our ant has can be frustrating, because it is generally very inaccurate. My feelings play Ant Empireson that, andThe study has not finished exploiting any of the facets it proposes. In terms of RTS it remains in a very superficial layer, as for its platforming sections they are very spectacular to look at, but they pose many control issues. I believe the study would have achieved better results if it had focused on just one section. Despite this, Ant Empire It presents us with a campaign that lasts approximately 20 hours, as well as a multiplayer mode where we can test our skills as a commander. We are faced with a work that catches the eye and shows the amount of love shown by the company.

From here we thank the team of Southern Games the code that allowed us to carry out this analysis.