Empire of the Ants Review – A Pleasant Surprise

Empire of the Ants ended up being a surprisingly compelling real-time strategy game with a unique premise and an interface that translates unexpectedly well to a console controller. It also looks surprisingly great, especially considering the size of the development team that worked on it and has some of the most incredibly authentic and accurate renditions of ants and bugs in not just any video game ever, but across most recent media in general.

You play the role of an ant known only as 103,683, and over the course of the game’s surprisingly meaty and compelling campaign, you are going to be saving the life of the ants in your colony, as well as other colonies, by making alliances with other local bugs and critters.

"Simple sounds of the outside that we possibly take for granted – including the sound of the grass rustling in the wind, the sound of water flowing, the birds chirping, the cries of animals – all of that is in this game with a shockingly high degree of authenticity."

Mechanically, the game is best compared to Nintendo’s Pikmin series, which Empire of the Ants shares a surprising amount with. A lot of this is simply because both are real-time strategy titles following small creatures in nature collecting resources and defending their bases – the similarities are immediate and obvious. It’s a flattering comparison too, because the Pikmin games remain arguably the only ones that have convincingly translated the RTS genre to consoles, and Empire of the Ants ends up working similarly well.

If you are a veteran of the RTS genre, you surely know of the “console problem”. Real time strategy games work very well on a PC with a keyboard and mouse setup, which not only allows rapid control of multiple characters across multiple objectives strewn throughout the screen, but also lets player expedite complex actions by assigning them to pretty much every possible key on the keyboard. Basically, translating even basic RTS controls to a console game pad ends up slowing the game down and making it tedious or fiddly.

A thoughtfully laid out interface and sensibly mapped control bindings allow even players on PS5 (the console we played on for this review) to start commanding literal legions of ants to attack, defend, and scavenge across multiple bases and objectives on the map.

"What ends up being deceptively great is the part of the game where you’re not really engaging in any battles or base building, but just exploring the world or the hubs by yourself."

The game is possibly aware of the fact that it may well end up being the first game in this genre for many players, because it comes with a pretty comprehensive tutorial that walks players through the basics of not just the game’s controls and interface, but also real time strategy basics, including setting up bases, developing them, collecting resources, and fighting (and winning) large scale battles. It starts players out with fairly basic missions, but over time the objectives become more hectic, and definitely challenge your understanding and mastery of the game’s mechanics.

The real-time strategy side of the game is honestly surprisingly great. The various scenarios in the single player campaign keep things varied and interesting, supplementing the intriguing story with compelling gameplay as well, the game ends up layering more mechanics and systems over time to give players even more to manage  (such as weather), players can research and unlock new powers to assist their legions in battle, and the inclusion of a fairly full-featured online multiplayer suite, including leaderboards, can certainly add longevity to the game beyond its campaign for those who end up jiving with the game’s mechanics.

What ends up being deceptively great is the part of the game where you’re not really engaging in any battles or base building, but just exploring the world or the hubs by yourself. There’s something very zen and almost meditative about just going across maps, finding and cataloging points of interest, and just climbing up and down pretty much every surface the game allows for to get a closer, or more unusual, look at things. It helps that the game looks really, really good. Embracing a photorealistic aesthetic, the thrill of seeing a familiar object – like a pinecone, or an old tire – blown up to being dozens of times bigger than how we see them in real life from a scale and from angles that we usually don’t get, never really grows old.

"There are other times when the camera, unable to keep up with the player character still, ends up zooming uncomfortably close to some texture or surface, exposing the seams or shortcomings in the rendering techniques and adding unnecessary blemishes to how immaculate the game’s aesthetic otherwise is."

It is, however, here that a lot of problems also rear their head. The photorealistic aesthetic is amazing and leads to many moments of serendipitous beauty and gorgeous views. However, it can also contribute to readability and legibility issues, with it becoming surprisingly easy to lose track of your character on screen against the earthy or wooden surfaces, or against clusters of other ants and bugs. An option to highlight or outline the main character so you can’t lose track of them would have been greatly appreciated. Bafflingly, the game does include such an option in the settings menu, but it only works for objectives on the map, or NPCs you are interacting with. Hopefully this is something they can add in via an update, if only to avoid the few seconds of confusion or frustration that this issue can often lead to.

Another problem is that neither the game’s camera, nor the game’s controls, can really keep up with the total 360º freedom of movement you have. It is far too common for you to rapidly be going up a steep or curved surface, and for the camera to completely fail to follow along; or, if it does manage to follow along, for the controls to not adjust relative to the camera, and for you to end up literally going around in circles for a bit before you reorient yourself. Or, even if none of that happens, for the main character to end up latching on to a twig or step or leaf and then just end up walking on or around it without getting off it, before you realize this has happened a second or two later. None of these are big problems, to be clear. They’re minute micro-aggravations, if even that, and are largely the product of the game’s immense ambition. But they do disrupt the player, and they do get in the way.

There are other times when the camera, unable to keep up with the player character still, ends up zooming uncomfortably close to some texture or surface, exposing the seams or shortcomings in the rendering techniques and adding unnecessary blemishes to how immaculate the game’s aesthetic otherwise is. From low resolution textures to very sharp edges on some foliage, from flickering shadows to minor pop-in. These issues barely register and are worth noting more to reinforce just how incredibly good the rest of the game looks – but again, players who are obsessed with the visual fidelity of the games they play may want to know about about this ahead of time.

"There are few games that commit to their central conceit and framing as much as Empire of the Ants does."

On the whole, however, given the small team and obviously lower budget this game had compared to most contemporary major releases, it is surprising just how high budget the presentation is. The game obviously looks great, but the sound design shouldn’t be overlooked either.

Simple sounds of the outside that we possibly take for granted – including the sound of the grass rustling in the wind, the sound of water flowing, the birds chirping, the cries of animals – all of that is in this game with a shockingly high degree of authenticity. The impressive part is not only the depth of texture to these sounds, but also how appropriate they feel for the scale. You are, after all, a literal mite-sized ant. Not only will all of this sound louder to you, but also different. Throw in a surprisingly ambient soundtrack and the game sounds almost as good as it looks – which is some incredibly high praise.

A lot of the problems the game runs into arise directly from that commitment, but that same commitment allows Empire of the Ants to deliver an extremely unique experience that stands out not just because of the premise, but also because of how well it executes on it. Those fumbles and foibles are few, and largely, Empire of the Ants is firing on all cylinders to deliver a uniquely compelling game that fans of real time strategy games, or simply players looking for relaxing and meditative gameplay or a surprisingly thought-provoking story, will appreciate.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.