Petroglyph, the developers of Star Wars: Empire At War, Grey Goo, and 8-Bit Armies, today unveiled their new RTS Forged Battalion, to be published by Team 17. Petroglyph are primarily made up of staff from Westwood, the creators of Command & Conquer and basically the RTS genre, so any announcement by them will always catch our attention. And this one sounds particularly interesting.
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You can watch a short teaser trailer of Forged Battalion right here but it'll probably leave you more confused than anything, so luckily we have the details for you. It differs from most RTSs in that players will be creating and customizing their own faction and units to send against the enemy force called The Collective (and other players' own factions). From the press release:
"Create, customise, and develop the blueprints of your emerging faction to create ever-evolving factories and units. Using resources gained from each battle, you will unlock new options through the metagame tech tree allowing you to choose the archetype, and an array of armours, locomotors, weapons, and special abilities such as stealth and regeneration that will make your faction one of a kind. As more technology is unlocked, your designs become more advanced. Ultimately, you will have access to the most powerful options, including an array of deadly superweapons to launch against your foes."
Every unit, out of the set classes of Infantry, Light Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle, and Aircraft, can be fully modified to create your own team - which you can change or upgrade at any time. There'll be a full tech tree showing all the technology you've unlocked and can slap on your units, as well as a dynamic story campaign where players take on the global military force called 'The Collective', online multiplayer and even Steam Workshop support. It certainly sounds interesting.
Petroglyph and Team 17 are planning to launch Forged Battalion on Steam Early Access first, in Q1 2018. The first early access version will have around five Campaign missions, five Skirmish maps supporting up to eight players, multiple Skirmish game modes including HQ Destruction and Annihilation, and dedicated multiplayer servers. They're anticipating being in Early Access around six months, and want the game's development to be a collaborative process as they get feedback from RTS fans.
While we love Petroglyph we didn't think that much of their last game 8-Bit Armies, which was a bit too basic for our liking. We're hoping this new customization mechanic will create the variety in Forged Battalion that 8-Bit Armies lacked.
More on Forged Battalion as we get it.
