Stormgate is a new F2P RTS from Starcraft and Warcraft alumni for the PC
It has been said that the real time strategy genre has had its heyday back in the days when Starcraft was at its zenith, where elite players basked in the adulation of millions strong crowds in huge televised matches before the genre as a whole faded into a banal sunset of underwhelming releases but a team of plucky ex-Blizzard developers who worked on the original Starcraft, Starcraft 2 and Warcraft aim to usher in a new golden RTS age with a new title called Stormgate.
What is Stormgate the RTS
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Developed by the Frost Giant Studios and staffed with a veritable dream team of RTS greats that include Tim Morten, the production director of Starcraft 2, Tim Campbell, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne campaign designer and more, Stormgate is a completely new real time strategy game set in a new science fiction universe and built on Unreal Engine 5.
Officially unveiled at Summer Game Fest, Stormgate is still in development but the broad tenets of the game have been laid down. It will be a free to play game and will have two races at launch, with humans on one side, and what seems like demons called Infernals on another.
The broad sketches of Stormgate world were also laid down in that it’s set in a post apocalyptic universe and rather than being ultra grimdark, it has a hopeful air to it. Basically, as with many things, mankind developed something new and instead backfires. In this case, it’s extradimensional portals called Stormgates which go pear-shaped and with demons pouring out of them.
Stormgate the RTS game mechanics
There aren’t many units announced at the unveiling save for a few samples of concept art but the human side seems to have a suitably high tech level with powered armour units and vehicles and the demonic side with a host of gribblies that include a recon unit called a Shadow Flyer and an expendable skirmisher unit called the Dire Mastiff that’s somewhat akin to a Zergling in mission role though the level of how connected they are to our traditional views of what demons look like is still being tweaked. One thing they’ve emphasised is that the factions will be shades of grey and there won’t be a solely good and solely evil faction.
The game will have a single player campaign and will have 3-player co-op missions as well as robust eSports features like leaderboards. On the cards are new chapters, new seasons, playoffs and more.
Some other interesting bits laid down and mentioned include the omission of heroes in the game as they created an overcentralisation effect where gameplay concentrated solely around them like a mob and eliminating them from the a match ended up in a snowballing effect which made it hard for the losing player to get back into a match.
Stormgate launch date
If that floats your boat, you may have to twiddle your thumbs for a bit as it’ll be a while before Stormgate is available. According to Frost Giant studios, Stormgate the game is slated for an open beta in 2023. In the meantime you can check out their launch trailer below and the official site here.