Empire of the Ants is one of the most unique and beautiful-looking games I’ve ever played. Granted, if you think bugs are disgusting, your mileage may vary, but objectively, developer Tower Five has crafted a stunning work of art. Unfortunately, at times, it’s also a chore to complete.
Based on Bernard Werber’s award-winning sci-fi novel of the same name, Empire of the Ants is a photorealistic real-time strategy game that places players in the tiny shoes of a red ant named 103,683rd as she undertakes onerous tasks at the behest of her queen. 103,683rd will hunt butterflies, perform search and rescue missions, explore the perilous woods surrounding her nest, and lead legions of insects into wars of annihilation.
Beautiful graphics aside, this game’s most surprising thing is its commitment to its oddball premise. A mundane patch of woodland is transformed into an alien landscape filled with mystery, danger, and splendour through earnest storytelling. The ants are treated with reverence, and their dramas are presented with an unrelenting seriousness that absolutely sold me on the dire nature of their struggles.
“The biggest problem with Empire of the Ants is that it tries to explore all the creative avenues that its premise would allow without refining its fundamentals.”
But as I hopped my ant from flower to flower, trying to rescue my wayward sisters from the rising tide of a nearby creek, I had to stop atop a dandelion to marvel at the grandiose vistas. As I was appreciating the way the sunlight was scattering through my ant body, giving it a juicy red glow, it dawned on me that I had been bored for the last hour.
The biggest problem with Empire of the Ants is that it tries to explore all the creative avenues that its premise would allow without refining its fundamentals. The game is broken up into RTS battles, platforming missions, stealth, and exploration. All of these are overly simple, occasionally tedious and are played through with controls that are frequently unpredictable.
The simple act of moving around can be unbelievably frustrating. Small changes in geometry will cause the controls to reorient, turning the joy of climbing a flower stem or scampering through a flush of mushrooms into an unresolvable mess. A mess that can only be overcome by fully charging a jump to extricate yourself. There’s also no way of telling which way a jump will launch you or any indication of where you might land.
These issues make the hunting missions that require precision movement an absolute nightmare. Even the sprint option is bafflingly underdeveloped. Running over small bumps or across edges will break your connection to the ground and send your ant careening through the air. But without it, traversing the enormous maps is painstakingly slow.
Controls in the battle sections are another story—they’re actually very impressive. Real-time strategy rarely translates well to a controller, but Empire of the Ants manages to come up with a very intuitive system. Units are easily cycled through by using the shoulder buttons, and commands are issued by clicking on UI flags that appear above foes and objectives. Base building is done through radial menus that appear around ant hills, which are confirmed by walking over the option you want to construct.
It’s a very efficient system, but that efficiency comes at the cost of having very little to control. Combat is reduced to a rock, paper, scissors-like interaction between the game’s primary unit types. Warriors are strong against Workers, Workers against Gunners, and Gunners against Warriors. There are a few extra units you can research and some special powers to unlock, but ultimately, there’s no reason to. Aside from the odd set-piece battle where you attack a mantis or escort a snail, the objective is always the same: destroy the opposition’s headquarters.
“…Empire of the Ants manages to come up with a very intuitive system.”
Most battles can be won by creating a full stack of basic warriors and bee-lining across the map to the enemy base, gnawing away at their defences while the opposing legions passively roam the countryside. There’s very little that can go wrong, too. Your defeated units can be rebuilt in seconds, and when the enemy destroys one of your nests, they won’t occupy it. Battles quickly devolve into an attritional head-to-head where your legions get stronger as the enemy slowly withers.
Initially, the sights and sounds of stampeding legions are thrilling. Hundreds of insects smashing and hurling their enemies through the air while the acid spit of gunners rains from the sky was an amazing spectacle. But after 30 minutes of watching the same set of animations play out, I was decidedly less impressed. By hour eight, I had become numb to the sounds of insect warfare and had to complete the increasingly protracted battles begrudgingly.
Empire of the Ants’s masterful presentation is clearly inspired. It fully commits to an oddball premise but never decides where to focus its gameplay. The result is a beautiful collection of half-explored ideas and unrefined mechanics that undermine an otherwise excellent experience.
