Ashes of the Singularity II Gameplay Preview: Lasers, robots, tanks, oh my!

Thousands of tanks, vehicles and attack aircraft are moving across a dry desert landscape. They are in the process of conquering areas and then defeating a really challenging player. However, he has giant robots and laser weapons. It gives me a feeling I haven't had since I played the original and most recently Supreme Commander. It's no secret that I like the concept behind this title. I can say right away that the performance is better than in the original and it feels better to play. Just like in its predecessor, you play as one of two factions and build up massive forces. These forces are then used to defeat the enemy on gigantic maps. The longer the matches go on, the larger and more dangerous the troop types you have access to. The same applies in the second instalment. This time, however, we have a number of new features and even a completely new faction, one of which is locked in the pre-release version.

One new feature is that the maps are divided into small areas that you need to conquer before you can extract their resources and construct buildings in that area. This is, of course, a bold choice, as the predecessor was not designed that way. In Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, you fought for points on the map, and I can still understand the change. I think that in terms of gameplay, it will create a better flow in the skirmishes. I may also be wrong, and this will create more problems than it is worth. In the demo, I got the impression that each match starts with you building a base in your zone. However, you have limited building sites, which forces you to conquer surrounding zones to extract resources and construct more buildings. This means you cannot build everything in one place, which creates new strategic choices. It also forces you out onto the battlefield and reduces the risk of you staying in one place for the entire match.

I believe there are advantages to this new system. This includes the need to plan more in advance and utilise more of the world. There are also disadvantages, namely that you lose freedom in how you play. Something I loved about Supreme Commander and its expansion Forged Alliance was that you didn't have to think about anything like that. You could send workers and build a base wherever you wanted. On the other hand, this resulted in a rather slow pace. I suspect that the developers are trying to find a good balance in this regard and keep you, the player, busy with something to do at all times. The fact that both factions feel at least as different from each other as in the first game is a plus in my opinion. They have different backstories, buildings, strategies and troop types. It's not quite at the same level as in Starcraft, but a little more different from each other than the factions in Supreme Commander.

The two warring factions are the United Earth Forces and the Post-Human Coalition. A third faction, Substrate, will appear at launch, including a single-player campaign. I only had the opportunity to test a limited skirmish mode. This sequel feels a bit like a Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander 2 situation. There are several major changes that alter how you play. Several of these are limitations you didn't have in the first game. They have also included a technology tree. I thought it was a bit quick to get through this tree before you encountered real opponents. However, this is easy to fix if the developers and players consider this to be a problem. Even aspects such as your defensive buildings being rather weak contribute to a feeling that aggression is the right way to go. It is built for faster, quicker and more intense gameplay. I think some will appreciate this, while others may prefer the predecessor because of it.

I liked that there was a day and night cycle and that the troops felt good to move around in the world. The graphics are relatively good and it's easy to zoom in and out depending on what you need. Just like in its predecessor, the idea is that you macro-manage large armies and build bases rather than micro-manage everything in detail. This works well in the second game too. I also like the prototype weapons I've seen this time around. They look more dangerous and seem to do more damage. This was a big problem with Supreme Commander 2, where the experimental troop types were designed to die quite quickly compared to the first game. The scale is also good between simpler troop types and stronger war machines. It's clearer what's what this time around, and the graphics overall have been given a boost. Large, monstrous war machines tower over the smaller ones. The sound is also good, and you can hear the difference between the troop types, which always helps in strategy games.

I understand what Oxide Games wants to do with this sequel, and I think it could be controversial. However, I am curious to see what the final product will be like. We don't get this type of game very often, even though I love these larger and less limited real-time strategy games. It's also quite fun to paint the map with your troops and conquered areas. It's a bit like a race to paint the world in your colours. I've always found that entertaining in 4X games. If you like large battlefields, building bases and destroying your opponents with ever larger troops, this might be something for you. The factions are sufficiently different from each other, and this time we will get three at launch.

However, you need to understand that it is not the same game as the first one, but something different. Whether it will be the same situation as with Dawn of War 2, which found an audience, or with Supreme Commander 2, which was criticised, remains to be seen. Nevertheless, I think it seems well thought out and competent, even if it is different and offers a number of controversial changes. One problem they need to solve is how individual players should deal with spam of a troop type to knock out your headquarters, for example, bomber aircraft. Even with reconnaissance and other measures, it can be difficult to match such numbers if you build broadly with multiple troop types in your forces. However, it is a situation where time will tell whether innovation and changes to the basic concept will succeed or not. I am hopeful, though, and thought that it worked well to some extent. I also have a nagging concern that these are too big changes to the basic concept rather than a proper development and improvement of it.