War Selection is a pseudo-historical real-time strategy that just went into its Steam Early Access stage on PC. The game utilizes the classic gameplay canvas of the icons of the RTS genre such as Empire Earth or Age of Empires: send your workers out to collect resources, construct and upgrade various buildings and units and, of course, wage war on your neighbors to be the supreme ruler of your local patch of land.
The game features a variety of modes such as Sandbox, Survival, FFA, Team Deathmatch and Armageddon, with the Campaign mode still being in development. Up to 62 players can simultaneously play on a random map and evolve their base from Stone Age to the Modern Age through 8 different Eras, each offering you a varying gameplay experience. Unlike the Age of Empires 2, you select your culture and the country of your base as you move through the eras. First, you will have to make a choice between Europe and Asia, then the East or West side of the culture you chose, and finally narrow down to a specific or abstract country. Moving into a new age also requires you to manually upgrade your buildings and units (that switch model to reflect that upgrade), including the workers. Stone Age workers are not able to build, for example, late Medieval Age buildings such as walls, etc.
Theoretically, with a certain number of AI and human players with various experience in playing the game, you can experience a colorful mash-up of units from different ages and regions or re-enact the Civilization scene of using heavy tanks to trample over the Stone Age units of your opponents. I would have done just that during my time in War Selection Sandbox mode… if my tanks didn’t get stuck in my very Medieval wall surrounding the base: the gates are too small for the big units like that to pass. Speaking of gates, you will have to open or close them manually so watch out for your and enemy forces gathering by your walls.
If the domination on land is not enough for you, the game also features naval battles. Starting with small fishing boats and painstakingly researching new technologies and upgrading your existing units, you will get to be the scourge of the seas yet.
Altogether, War Selection is an RTS that offers an interesting mix of features inspired by the other games in the series. The basic gameplay is solid but the team still needs to work out certain problematic spots before the game is ready for release. War Selection would also benefit from more settings when choosing the Sandbox/Survival solo modes: the total number of AI you have to face, their level of aggressiveness/difficulty, starting Age (everyone starts in Stone Age in the game right now), to what Age you can upgrade (for example, going no higher than late Medieval times), the number of available resources, teams and more.
War Selection is free-to-play on Steam. For a certain period of time, the developer from Glyph Worlds intended to introduce the optional subscription to unlock certain game modes but have re-considered after listening to player feedback.
“We can’t wait to see the community build up around War Selection. We hope to create a close-knit fanbase of players through our ability to host matches of such incredible size. We’re very proud of our ability to have 62 players simultaneously fighting in an RTS and look forward to observing the tactics, strategies, and politics that come about in our game.” says Roman Budkeev, CEO of Glyph Worlds
Key Features
- Tons of Units and Buildings – More than 100 different buildings and 200 different kinds of units (Land, Sea) are present across the ages.
- Customize Your Culture – Choose which culture you will align with as you advance through the ages, carving your own distinct path through history. Begin in the Stone Age, and specialize in European or Asian cultures as the game progresses to unlock specialize technologies, buildings, and units.
- Massive Multiplayer Wars – Over 62 players on a single match leads to true chaos as wars break out all over the map.
- Varied Modes and Competitive Styles – Against players, fight in a free-for-all, team battles, or Armageddon.
