Forged Battalion – Preview
Most of us remember the (g)olden days for the RTS genre, it all started with great titles as Command & Conquer and Dune. For years we nostalgic fans have been left craving for more, more RTS madness, more sleepless nights while coming up with new strategies or finetuning the ones we already are dominating with. Petroglyph Games is a studio that was created by some of the members of the team behind the original Command & Conquer who want to bring back that old nostalgic feeling. Forged Battalion is their lovechild, while it currently is still in Early Access they have promised to take suggestions on board from the fans and create a title worth looking back to with nostalgia twenty years from now on.
Currently the story is quite basic, you can (re)play six missions on three difficulty levels. You are part of a Resistance Group at the of the 21th century where climate change has ravaged the Earth, where most people have perished and the survivors band together in organizations to survive. One of these organizations is called The Collective, an aggressive collective whose goal it is to rule the world. But the player and his allies will not allow this to happen, as there is no peace through power.
The game looks quite cartoony yet sleek at the same time. The static environment, such as buildings and vehicles, looks cartoony and is destructible. The buildings and units from the players and AI look polished and intimidating. Explosions and battles are impressive to behold but the superweapons currently feel underwhelming when used. The maps are quite limited in space as the game is focused on quick and dirty matches, an infantry unit can walk end to end of most maps in several minutes. The terrain, obstacles and environment (such as rivers and lakes) looks crisp and cartoony. All of this you behold from a top down view which is non-rotatable.
The soundtrack is very reminiscent of titles such as Red Alert as the songs will get you pumped up and in the mood to steamroll through any base foolish enough standing in your way! The sounds you hear in a battle could use some more variation and the same can be said for the behavior of units. It would be fun to have different accents for your units depending on their specialization or depending on the situation they are in at that time.
Forged Battalion is a top down RTS focused on micromanagement and base building. The goal is to take down your enemies with your custom-made faction, where you choose your strengths (and your weaknesses). A 1v1 match can take anywhere from five minutes to twenty-five, depending on your playstyle and specialization of your units and buildings. You can play with maximum eight players on a map, grouped in whatever teams you prefer.
For every played game, you receive RP which you use to purchase new skills in the extensive Tech Tree. You choose what path to advance in in the Tech Tree, depending on your playstyle – prefer torching people with your flamethrower? Burn baby burn. Or maybe you’re more a fan of rocket barrages? Darken the skies with your own custom-made Katyusha. The choices are endless, only limited by your imagination and play style.
Units are comprised into five categories: infantry, light vehicles, heavy vehicles and drones while harvesters are a class apart. Apart from the last one, each of these categories are customizable due to upgrades purchased through the Tech Tree. Everything from armor, tracks to weaponry is changeable and you can save multiple templates as you are able to create your own faction. Only three units can be taken unto the battlefield in each category so think ahead of what the opponent might be using and use his weaknesses to your advantage as every weapon has their strengths and weaknesses.
Forged Battalion is still in Alpha Phase, so they are constantly tweaking the game and implementing new stuff. It’s an exciting view on the RTS genre which great potential but right now the Tech Tree can use some tweaks as a specific type of end game weapon seems to always be much stronger than all the other ones. It does provide the player with an refreshing twist on the rock-paper-scissor principle so every match provides the player with new challenges.
Conclusion
Forged Battalion is an interesting RTS title with huge potential but it is up to the developer not to fall into the same pitfalls as many other titles. While having an active interaction with the fans and promising to take their suggestions on board sounds great on paper, you might run into the risk of being bombarded with the same old suggestions or trying to please everyone which ends up leaving everyone unsatisfied. Forged Battalion could follow in the footsteps of great titles from the past or it might become yet another lackluster RTS. We would suggest keeping an eye on this title if you are a fan of nostalgia or the RTS genre.
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