Tempest Rising

Do you know titles like Warpaws, Combustion, or Kingpin Reloaded? Neither did I. It's probably more titles like Ancestors Legacy and Ghostrunner that you recognise from Danish Slipgate Ironworks, the company behind the neo-classic RTS game Tempest Rising.

Tempest Rising is an homage to the classic RTS, Command & Conquer, and by "homage" I mean an extremely obvious and not very subtle reference and source of inspiration. They haven't looked at anyone else's homework, they have obviously chosen to honour a bygone era and the most crucial player in the field at the time, and it appears both honest and honourable as a result.

Before you get too excited that a small studio has made it and now has a finished release, it should be said that they do not hide the fact that they are part of Saber Interactive, and thus Embracer, which after all has a lot of muscle to play with when it comes to computer games in general. That said, this game, which we'll be talking a lot about, is pretty impressive from a number of parameters, and the fact that a relatively small studio has delivered this experience is just pretty wild.

By the way, the game costs a third less than usual - €40 on Steam instead of €60. Hats off for going the other way, now that crazy people have decided that €90 for a game is an acceptable price. Yes, you can also get a Deluxe Edition, but I think it's great that there is no pressure in terms of gameplay to buy a more expensive edition of a game, because it's "just" cosmetic changes and a little early access. In addition to that, I think it's great that there was a demo available - the first two levels for the two playable factions. That's how you give people a flavour of what you offer.

But back to the game. It's classic in every way. There's been a nuclear war after the Cuban Missile Crisis, World War III happened, there's a critical resource called Tempest that everyone wants to get their hands on, and the game has two warring parties that you can control. We already know about a third, which will come later, as it is well documented in-game. Each level is played separately with clearly defined objectives, and there are small cinematic cutscenes animated with graphics, clothing, and even voice acting reminiscent of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Oh yeah, and the year it's set in is 1997.

There are no heroes here, to be honest. On the one hand we have the Global Defence Force, basically NATO on steroids, who are militarily strong and who thrive on intelligence gathering. It's very much about getting synergy out of your troops, as their game mechanic is about marking targets and bringing different types of units together that reinforce each other. For example, one unit marks a target, another shoots, and a third can log into the same targeting system and increase the precision and range of your attacks. My favourite unit is their Riot Van, a car that doesn't kill, but stuns the enemy so your other units can kill. Because we're not really military, we're just police, police with access to aerial bombing and self-propelled artillery.

Opposing them we have the Tempest Dynasty. There's a thick Eastern European accent in this conglomeration of forces from Eastern Europe and Asia, where there are the most Tempests, as World War III hit them hardest with nuclear bombs. They believe - perhaps not unfairly - that the Tempest growing in their countries is theirs, and this is clearly a mistake. Just like similar groups in other games, they use dangerous technologies that are experimental but powerful. When you use missiles as self-defence for vehicles, that says it all. If you want a more mobile military, or flamethrowers, this is the faction to choose, and I love their Tempest Sphere, a mega self-rolling sphere.

The campaign is certainly entertaining, obviously reasonably linear, and never too easy or too difficult. So, points for that. Countering enemy troops is important, as there are synergies in most things, and everything has a strong and weak side. There is a unit cap, and while it's a bit annoying, it's rarely reached. Additional interactions with terrain and surroundings would have been nice, but it can also be too much, which is why it's great that it's pretty classic here. The two sides play quite differently and the passive troops - engineers, technicians, etc. - allow for relatively advanced tactics and usage if you get used to doing some micromanagement. You typically upgrade between missions, so it's important to have a rough idea of what you like to do overall and then upgrade towards that.

There is a classic Skirmish mode where you play against AI on custom maps. There aren't that many, but there probably will be eventually. There are quite a few more maps in multiplayer, either 2v2 or 1v1, but the online wasn't available when I tested the game, so I can't say anything about this part as I missed the open demo at the beginning of the year. Sorry about that.

The controls are generally good, but there are a couple of small things that frustrate me. I miss being able to double-click on a device and then automatically select all devices of the same type, plus I've only just got used to being able to move the screen with the WASD keys.

The soundtrack is pretty good though. It captures the mood and feel of the old Command & Conquer games really well, and there's a reason for that, because I only realised while reading this text that the team behind it consists of Frank Klepacki, who composed C&C, and not least a large group of composers known in the field of music for these military RTS games too.

In short, Tempest Rising is exactly what it seems to be: A modern and solid version of C&C. If you like that kind of game, you'll love this one.