Paradox are really killing it with their game announcements these days. First they came on board as the publisher to Obsidian’s old school Pillars of Eternity, then just last week they announced a new city building game with Cities: Skylines. If there’s a semi-forgotten genre or sub-genre out there that still has people clamouring for new games, it seems like Paradox is coming to the rescue, and now it’s the turn of the story-driven space RTS game with the freshly announced Ancient Space, set for release on Mac and PC this autumn.
Finally, there’s going to be a new space opera RTS for me to sink my teeth into. This is a solely single-player game, with no multiplayer to speak of, as humanity sends a large fleet of ships “The Black Zone”, to investigate what happened to the previous expeditionary ship and why the zone is expanding. It’s a story that’s backed up with a selection of known sci-fi voices, and while these actors have maybe been backing characters or a cog in an ensemble cast, with Dina Meyer having been Dizzy Flores in Starship Troopers, Aaron Douglas’ Chief Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica and Ron Glass who played Shepherd Book on Firefly as examples, it’s great to see these voices supporting a new sci-fi project.
What has me most excited though, is the similarities to the Homeworld series. I don’t know if I’ve simply not spotted them, but it feels like it’s been an absolute age since there was last a space-based RTS in which you aren’t playing on a single plane. If you couldn’t quite tell from the trailer, I’ve had it confirmed that Ancient Space works in full 3D space, so you’d best broaden your strategic horizons, lest you be caught out like at the end of Wrath of Khan.
There’s other interesting gameplay points teased, such as the variety of missions that will surely tie into the plot, picking officers before a mission to enhance certain attributes, but really I’m just excited that this kind of game exists at all.
Source: press release