I’m a bit of a sucker for real time strategy. I had built settler armies for Suleiman II in Age of Empires III, felt the power of the dark side in Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and sent the Soviets to the moon in Command and Conquer. Yet somehow, I still haven’t felt the rage of a Zerg rush. I should change that.
Besides the massive Beyond All Reason, there has not been as much on the modern scene to enjoy. Enter the survival RTS genre, that aims to simplify some mechanics of its parent, focusing more on building defences and eliminating horde-like waves of enemies, while still allowing exploration and offensive strategy with roguelike elements sprinkled over. Intriguing.
Here Comes The Swarm pits you against a “swarm” enemy that has taken over the planet of Ulora that your forces desperately wish to reclaim. The gameplay loop is straightforward: survive against the horde until you have charged a core, capable of a map-wide wipe of all things swarm-y.
The stock and standard RTS elements are here: erect buildings to supply you with materials, build an army through your barracks and bolster your defences with walls and watchtowers.
While the swarm doesn’t necessarily have a “mother base”, there are pockets of armies scattered across the fog of war that you can whittle down with your band of knights and arbalists to make surviving the onslaught of the waves an easier task.
Whether by exploring and discovering shrines or repelling a swarm attack, you’ll be earning Arcanum in the game, a rare currency with which modifiers can be applied to either your defences, troops or the economic side of things that can potentially change the landscape of the battlefield.
You can choose from three “deities” to serve: the defensive-oriented Tiamman, attack-minded Karkadann or the utility-belted Yangwu, which will supplement your strategies, buildings and forces. As you play with each “faction”, you can level them up and earn more rewards.
There is no campaign or story. The game currently offers an expeditions mode with which you’ll be given random buffs to your settlement and to the swarm, allowing you to do multiple runs that feel unique. You can also play sole skirmishes or an endless mode to test your mettle.
As much as all these goodies sound promising, there is a slight caveat that I experienced. A lot of the game’s elements currently feel surface level. On the defence side, most of the time you’re just relying on winning out against the sheer numbers of the enemy instead of employing more depths to your tactics such as in Cataclismo. On the offensive side, there also does not feel much reward in sending out troops to harass the scattered parts of the swarm, as there is no buff gained from exploring, like Tribes of Midgard has. The game feels like an amalgamation of Age of Darkness and They Are Billions, but it fails to establish a clear identity at the core of its gameplay.
While it is still early days, Here Comes the Swarm isn’t offering something palpable to sink my teeth into. As it stands, I don’t feel the pull of hanging out with this survival RTS subgenre over its slower, more deliberate daddy. A deeper set of tactics or even a campaign mode could tip the scales, but until then, I’ll be restoring the Ottoman Empire to its former glory.
While getting Zerg rushed.
