izigame.me

After a bit of solo play and two multiplayer games, this is definitely one of my favorites of the year, and I’m eager to keep going. I highly recommend this game for the refreshing experience it offers and the unique approach of a third-person “accessible” RTS that works well with a controller, though it’s very playable on a keyboard depending on the setup you prefer.
In more detail: the game is visually stunning, showcasing nature beautifully, and it runs smoothly. I think we’ll get used to this kind of standard with Unreal Engine 5, but it’s still impressive. Content-wise, there’s a single-player campaign where you play as a scout ant (apparently following Bernard Werber's book, which I haven’t read) that combines “adventure/exploration” missions with more “tactical/strategic” ones. The game’s appeal for me lies in the latter aspect, which works really well in multiplayer. Anyway, it seems like there’s a fair amount of content between the solo campaign and multiplayer modes.
You choose your starter, support unit, and predator unit. A small downside is that the support unit doesn’t seem very useful (except maybe for the rhino beetles, but not really for the others). On the other hand, predator units are truly the backbone of your setup. I’ve tried 1v1 but haven’t tested 1v1v1 (which doesn’t appeal to me as much). You spawn with two nests, your starter unit, and you need to quickly get your economy going by capturing and upgrading nests (resource production, new units, powers, new info, etc.) – a good knowledge of the maps seems essential. So far, it’s hard to tell if a defensive or aggressive meta will emerge, but one thing’s for sure: you can’t mess up your economy and need to unlock unit upgrades quickly. Looking forward to seeing the depth of the gameplay over time and the variety of maps. Games go by quickly and are intense – and it’s hard to recover if you start off poorly. Even though it’s a casual RTS, it’s not very forgiving of mistakes! So, it’s actually more challenging than I expected in multiplayer – which some will love, and others might not.
Overall, I’m really enjoying it so far, and I think it’ll keep me hooked for quite a few more hours. The game seems to deliver on its scope and does what it intends well, at a fair price – definitely a must-have when it goes on sale for around €35-€30. That said, I hope for a big focus on multiplayer in future updates: new units or factions, perhaps making the scout ant more impactful (in combat, affecting the economy, not sure how), the option to play with more than three players and in teams, maybe on larger maps with different game modes, etc. The solo campaign is nice, but there’s potential here for a great multiplayer and competitive game if updates come quickly and the developers provide a transparent roadmap.