Empire of the Ants is really effective at making you feel like a very tiny being within a much larger world. As a new strategy adventure game set in the insect kingdom, you command an army of ants to explore, expand, and extract resources in a large, near-photorealistic world that looks like it could be in someone's backyard.
I got an early preview of the upcoming strategy adventure game starring tons and tons of ants, and I saw how exploring a seemingly mundane world looks far grander and more treacherous from the perspective of a lone ant.
Empire of the Ants is based on the novels by Bernard Werber and puts you in the role of an ordinary ant who must navigate the insect hierarchy of an ant colony nestled in the woods, all while trying to understand what's going on in the world above the ground level of Insect-kind. As this Ant protagonist, you'll eventually become one of the colony's most valuable assets, given their ease of mobility when exploring the vast landscape of wilderness and their budding skills as a commander of the colony's legion of ants. As you help the Ant Queen expand the population, you'll encounter rival colonies looking to take what's yours.
Interestingly, this is the second outing for Empire of the Ants in video game form, with the original 2000 game taking more of a grand strategy approach. This new attempt from developer Tower Five mixes a narrative adventure game with ground-level strategy action where you command an army to collect resources and lay siege to opposing factions.
In my preview, I got to dive into the early missions of the story campaign, which saw the protagonist explore the surrounding areas around their colony. While playing as an ant in a video game on paper sounds rather dull, Empire of the Ants excitingly presents this conceit by really leaning into the scope of the world.
When not commanding other insects, you can freely explore the colony's surrounding area and even chat with fellow ants, who are named by their birth numbers. The quirky banter even feels surprisingly human. Playing the Ant, you're given a wide berth in exploration, which is helped by a control scheme that allows the Ant to do nearly anything in the game. It was fun to explore the area, but I also had to be mindful of the bodies of water that can kill ants that enter it.
From the ants' perspective, the woodland area looks almost alien, with the massive trees and plant life towering over everything and abandoned junk items like a beaten-up soccer ball appearing like otherworldly artifacts. This focus on the ant perspective is really engaging and gives it something of a Watership Down-like surrealist perspective from the Insect world. But it also makes for an intriguing backdrop for the strategy element when that comes into play.
When the need arises, you'll be able to lead your own legion of ants too. Similar to a console-style RTS, the strategy segments in Empire of the Ants put you at the ground level. You remain with the ants as you lead them to different areas to procure resources and take out rivals.
With different unit types, such as warriors, gunners, and worker ants, you'll need to balance your units and positioning to face these challenges effectively. At one point I was able to move some gunner units from a ranged position and then let my close-ranged warrior units get head-first into the action. It was interesting seeing the different swarms of ants converge. Seeing the detail in motion gives it something that has echoes of a National Geographic documentary — but with some quirky video game gimmicks thrown in.
Empire of the Ants impressed me with its focus on exploring a strange, small world and the Ant community that resides in it. It also gave me the experience of commanding an army of ants to attack opposing forces -- which was a lot of fun to see in action. This blend of adventure and strategy elements is really intriguing to see in motion, and I came away thinking that the world feels a whole lot stranger from Ant's point of view -- and that it has the makings of a game that can show off a different kind of adventure to dive into.
