In a tale almost as old as the science fiction genre itself, it looks like the Martians are invading Earth yet again.
Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War developer Relic Entertainment has announced Earth vs Mars, a new turn-based tactical strategy game putting players in charge of defending Earth against a Martian invasion. The game is aiming to release this summer.
The announcement comes via a post on the game’s new Steam page, teasing what the battles will look like and the tools players will have at their disposal to fend off the alien invaders.
Splice Your Way To Victory
The humans’ most significant weapon against the Martian invasion is known as the “Splice-O-Tron,” which allows players to use their human volunteers as ingredients for powerful hybrid super-soldiers by combining them with animals; the trailer shows off hybrids created from flies, squirrels, rhinos, bears, and more.
The Martians aren’t going to go down easily, though, and bring an arsenal of advanced technology – including hover-tanks and classic flying saucers – not to mention their own army of aliens, mutants, and hybrids.
In addition to a single-player campaign consisting of over 30 missions, Earth vs Mars will also have a 1v1 online multiplayer mode that gives players the option to control the Martians, as well as a “fully-featured” map editor.
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Earth vs Mars comes as the first part of a new initiative Relic Entertainment calls Relic Labs, which is part of the company’s new strategy following an intense round of downsizing following its sale by Sega last year and going independent.
CEO Justin Dowdeswell explained that the company plans to supplement its bigger strategy game releases with smaller, self-funded, less costly titles that can be developed more quickly, and it seems like Earth vs Mars is our first glimpse of what those smaller games are going to look like.
According to the Earth vs Mars Steam page, Relic Labs games are smaller, indie-style games that are meant to be different from their usual large-scale RTS games, giving them a chance to explore other types of strategy games – such as Earth vs Mars’s turn-based tactical gameplay on a square grid, looking similar to the Advance Wars series – and experiment in ways they can’t with larger titles.
It remains to be seen how this first foray into small-scale indie development turns out; fan responses have already been somewhat mixed, as they are when any beloved developer changes direction with its games.
As I see it, with Relic bringing their storied strategy game development history and experience to bear alongside a lighthearted, whimsical aesthetic and tone, the company’s future doesn’t look quite as dark as it did just last year.
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