Battle Aces Preview: A true StarCraft competitor

The king of the multiplayer action-real-time strategy experience has one name: StarCraft. Blizzard's take on the genre has ruled with an iron fist for 25 years, despite only two games being in existence, the latter of which featured its last expansion nearly a decade ago. Blizzard clearly doesn't have much interest in continuing to grow and expand this franchise even though it remains a gold standard in its section of the gaming world, something that is reflected in the competitive world where StarCraft esports continue to reign and thrive on a yearly basis.

Needless to say, it's time that someone came along and took a crack at the throne, and this is precisely what Uncapped Games is attempting with its upcoming Battle Aces. This is a multiplayer action-RTS where you build up bases, grow and construct an army, and then lead them into combat with the sole effort of destroying the opposing player's main base. It's StarCraft in a lot of respects, except it's StarCraft without all the additional fat, making it much easier to understand, pick-up, and play.

You play from a top-down perspective and the idea is that using constantly generated resources you choose which unit types to construct to fit how you intend to attack the coming combat scenarios. Crabs are ground units designed to lead the vanguard and soak up damage to protect the squishier, usually less capable but higher damage units like Ballistas. Adding to this aerial units such as the Butterfly, and various other types that are designed to either destroy ground or aerial enemies, or objectives instead, and you can see how there are a multitude of ways to sculpt and build the army that befits your style of play.

But having the perfect army is just half of the challenge as then you have to actually put them to the test. You have to choose how to overwhelm and defeat your opponent all while protecting our own facilities. Essentially, the map has many points where you and your opponent can build further facilities to increase resource generation, and each of these can be destroyed if left unprotected. There's no inherit cost to losing one of these additional facilities as you will only win or lose when someone's main and starting base is destroyed, but if you can prove your dominance and gain control of the map by steadily overwhelming any expansion facilities and then leading a big attack on a now unprotected base, you will have a very strong chance at victory.

The core strategy of Battle Aces is very straightforward but there's lots of minor elements and gameplay systems that add tons of depth. This title is like a game of chess, where the core design is very easy to pick-up, but becoming a master requires a lot of practice and foresight, and the difficulty of the challenge at hand more often than not relates to the opponent you're lined up against.

As I've only had the chance to get a very basic test of Battle Aces during its ongoing closed beta, I can't yet comment on how the more advanced unit types and manufacturers will play into the gameplay and strategy. But what I will say is that the Uncapped has done a fantastic job at making this game feel intuitive to play and visually very defined. Despite hectic action and plenty of chaos, it's never a challenge to tell how your army is performing against the opposition, and likewise it's very easy to use keyboard shortcuts to build new reinforcement units and get them into the heat of battle as soon as possible.

Sure, I've noticed occasions where the units behave a little peculiarly and struggle to move around one another, leading to units effectively blocking each other's paths. But overall, Uncapped seems to be onto an action-RTS winner here, one that is perfect for anyone looking to get a taste of the genre and who have felt put off and a bit overwhelmed by the hyper-competitive nature of StarCraft.