Stormgate is a brand new competitive RTS that just released into Early Access. Soon to be free for all to enjoy, the game was designed by passionate fans of the Starcraft and Warcraft franchises and was successfully funded via a Kickstarter. While a few imperfections exist here and there, overall, my impression of the game in this Early Access state was positive, and I feel it has a promising future.
Stormgate is an RTS (real-time strategy) game set in an original Sci-fi setting that combines elements of intergalactic conquest and a post-apocalyptic Earth.
It is impressive that Stormgate, in its current Early Access build, already has a single-player campaign, complete with cutscenes. This is even more impressive considering that the game plans to release for free later this month, as most free-to-play games (besides MMOs) tend to shy away from their single-player elements.
That being said, I’ll have to admit that I wasn’t very interested in the game’s story and found much of its setting to be boring. A lot of Stormgate’s sci-fi world seems to be pretty generic, very Blizzard-esque sci-fi that I’ve seen done already elsewhere. Nowhere is this more true than in the game’s human faction, which is pretty much exactly what you might expect them to be, given my description of the setting.
Where I found the setting got really interesting was in Stormgate’s Infernal Host, which takes on a more demonic interpretation of alien invasion. Not only did I find a lot of this faction’s roster visually interesting, I also quickly discovered that they were a blast to play.
While the units were visually interesting, I think the game sort of suffers from a lack of visual clarity. It can be hard to identify exactly what a unit does just by looking at them, which can make building armies a big test of trial and error. Stormgate doesn’t do a great job of explaining a unit’s statistics or purpose, either. Rather than a stat page with clear, easy-to-read numbers, Stormgate instead uses vague terminology like “Armor: Medium, Damage: Low” to explain unit statistics.
I hate this. Just tell me what numbers my units have so I can compare them to the others.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be very interested in Stormgate’s lore or campaign, because the title was very clearly designed around its multiplayer. This is, of course, the selling point of most RTS games, which quickly develop deep strategic metas and a sense of competition amongst its player base. Stormgate just makes the process easy by adding a quick play button.
Thankfully, while not all of the lore interested me very much, I could tell that each faction was designed with meta and gameplay in mind.
Stormgate features three unique factions. The word unique is not an understatement. The developers certainly put thought into making each faction play differently and, more importantly, feel different from the rest.
If your human faction uses your typical RTS mechanics, the other two (the Infernals and Angels) are designed to twist these mechanics and challenge your gameplay expectations. The angel faction has more strong single units (though I often found them failing against even the humans) and creates powerful buildings using a unique energy supply mechanic, while the Infernal Host absolutely zergs out with fast unit production and rapid expansion at the cost of slow building creation and expendable units.
Suffice it to say, this also means that each faction comes with something of a learning curve. Simply figuring out how the Infernal Host’s shroud mechanic took me for a bit of a ride in my first game with them. While I don’t mind the need to learn how each faction works, I don’t love the way Stormgate handles teaching the players about them. As far as I can tell, the only real way to read about how the factions work is through a website that is linked in the game’s main menu. I would much rather Stormgate provide players with an in-game encyclopedia-type guide that they can access during a match.
The Infernal Host honestly feels like the faction with the most creativity put into it. I love everything about it: Corrupting the map with your Shroud gives your units an extra, regenerating health, imps (builders) must be sacrificed to summon buildings, which then instantly pump out units using a recharging reserve supply, and killing enemies spawn expendable mini soldiers.
My strategy with this faction (though it rarely works) is to pump out as many imps and command centers as I can, spreading out over the map and sucking up all the resources as I build a massive host. The Infernal Host is my favorite, and based on matchmaking, it’s everyone else’s favorite, too.
It is a shame, then, that the other two factions don’t feel nearly as interesting. It almost feels like all the game’s love and creative thought was put into the Infernal Host. They have the best-looking units, the most interesting and fun mechanics, and, again, are undoubtedly the community favorite at the moment. I would go so far as to say the other factions need a complete rework, especially the angelic legion, which, in my opinion, is the most visually uninteresting of the three. Until the game gets more factions that capture the imagination like the Infernal Host does, you’re going to be seeing a lot of mirror matches.
All in all, Stormgate seems like an interesting game, albeit one that has a bit of work to be done before it leaves Early Access. The game needs to work on its presentation of information, both visually and through in tutorial sources. It also could stand to bolster its factions with more unique and interesting designs, with the Infernal Host standing out as the most interesting of three otherwise bland factions.
Pros:
- RTS mechanics designed by fans of the genre
- Built from the ground up for multiplayer, both competitive and co-op
- A good spread of unique mechanics amongst playable factions and a decent learning curve
Cons:
- Poor presentation of information, both through visuals and available tutorials
- Two of the three factions fail to impress, leading to some bland models, lore, and a lot of mirror matches
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