Empire of the Ants

Written by Jason Dailey on 11/7/2024 for PS5  

Since beginning my stint with Gaming Nexus a little over two years ago, I’ve reviewed several strategy games on console. From turn-based to real-time, it’s a genre that is very much my jam, and as a primarily console gamer, it always warms my heart when we get a good one on those machines. During the current console generation, I submit that we have entered a golden era for strategy games, and Empire of the Ants is the latest example of the genre blossoming in that space.

Empire of the Ants is based off French writer Bernard Werber’s 1991 book, which follows a red ant colony as it deals with a natural disaster and changing seasons. I’ve never read the book myself, and while the narrative is one thing that didn’t totally land for me, Empire of the Ants is a strange and beautiful exploration of the world from the perspective of insects. The sense of scale in the game is tremendous, objects like soccer balls or pears are monolithic and serve as landmarks for the ants. There are vistas in Empire of the Ants that you could take a screenshot and frame up on your wall and no one would know it was from a game, which is to say that this game is absolutely gorgeous. The small team at developer Tower Five have flexed its Unreal Engine 5 muscles in a big way, with stunning photogrammetry, particularly for environmental textures. They’ve even taken great care in designing the most terrifying video game spiders I’ve ever seen – partially because they’re gigantic – though the game does include an arachnophobia mode, if you suffer from that. It is certainly one of the best-looking games that I’ve played on PlayStation 5, and I can’t wait to see how it looks on the PS5 Pro.

From a gameplay perspective, Empire of the Ants is a real-time strategy game featuring both a robust story campaign as well as online PvP multiplayer. You play as ant number 103,683 in your red ant colony, and you’ve been tasked by the Queen with aiding in the survival of your fellow ants. To do so, you will engage in several types of missions, building up your insect army each time to accomplish various objectives. Strategic missions are the complete RTS experience, requiring you to capture and manage ant nests around a map, upgrade your legions, and make wise decisions to defeat your opponent. Tactical missions give you a pre-set number of legions and nests and put the focus on your tactical ability as an ant commander. And finally, exploration missions are, as you might expect, focused on exploring the environment or hunting prey. The game is not an open world, instead letting you initiate missions from hub colonies as the story progresses. There is some flexibility in mission selection, letting you choose when to do each, and even skip a few altogether. So, if exploration missions aren’t your thing, you don’t have to complete every single one to keep things moving, which I appreciated.

To that end, some exploration missions are essentially platforming levels, which can be finicky when you’re trying to perfectly time a jump to capture a firefly, for example. From a control and UI standpoint, that is the only bad thing I have to say about Empire of the Ants, as beyond those tricky platforming moments, the game is brilliantly intuitive. Mechanically, this is the best RTS game that I’ve played on console. It is easy to pick up and play, but it also does an excellent job teaching you how to play while not infantilizing your ability as a gamer. You move around the battlefield with the left joystick, swap legions with the shoulder buttons, execute orders with the triggers, and activate powers with the directional pad – that’s basically it. Rather than challenging the player with a myriad of gameplay systems to learn and master, Empire of the Ants challenges your tactical prowess as an ant commander. It may sound simple, and to an extent it is, but the mechanics are so smartly and confidently designed that the game is difficult to put down.

In lieu of dumping new mechanic after new mechanic on you, the game progresses the difficulty over the course of the campaign at a terrific pace. When you’ve learned how to easily defeat the termite faction, you’re whisked off to deal with the more powerful black ants, for instance. Occasionally there were missions that I had to replay a couple of times because my tactics weren’t sound, but it never felt unfair. On the contrary, it was rewarding to reflect on how I could have done better and then discover a new winning strategy the next time.

So, what exactly does an RTS about ants look like in motion? Pretty much like you’d expect, only better. You control multiple legions, including warrior ants, gunner ants, snails, and super predators like the Bor Beetle, among many others. Each legion has a distinct role which is a huge consideration when determining how to accomplish each objective. Some are great at melee combat, and others ranged, while the super predators dominate – the catch is they cost more resources to build. There are two primary resources to acquire and manage – food and wood –and these are used to build everything from legions to nest upgrades to powers. Powers are abilities that can drastically affect the outcome of a skirmish. If my legions ever got outnumbered by the enemy, I would activate powers to give them a defensive buff, as well as an attack damage buff, which usually flipped things in my favor. Additional considerations factor into your tactical decision-making as well. Things like how many chambers (rooms for upgrades) a nest has, which legions have the advantage relative to the enemy legions, and what the AI’s tactics are. Sometimes the enemy AI is content with sitting back and waiting for you to test its defensive capabilities, while other times it will take the fight to you first. All of which is to say that, tactically speaking, Empire of the Ants kept me on my toes.

No matter what tactics you employ, watching these insects move, forage resources, and do battle is a sight to behold. It is impressive how much can be happening on screen at once – dozens of warrior ants body-slam termites and toss them across the battlefield while dozens of gunner ants rear back and shoot whatever gunner ants shoot from their rears, all while the game performs flawlessly from a technical standpoint. There is something strangely therapeutic about watching dozens of worker ants forage food from a rotting pear and carry it back to the nest.

Empire of the Ants is not only a visual treat, but an audible one as well. Playing with a good pair of headphones is recommended to hear all the chittering and scurrying of the various insects, or the terrifying buzz of a wasp as it swoops by ant number 103,683. The developer captures tons of audio recordings from several French forests and wonderfully translated it to the game. Even more impressive is the game’s musical score, which is simply incredible, running the gamut of whimsical, airy, tense, and cinematic. For me personally, when I feel compelled to look up who composed a game’s music is how I know it is something special. In this case that is Mathieu Alavado, known for their work on the Rayman series, and Mark Choi, who worked on Baldur’s Gate 3 and Princess Mononoke. That is a portfolio of heavy hitters, to be sure, but the music in Empire of the Ants stands tall on its own.

The single-player campaign is certainly the main (and best) reason to play Empire of the Ants, but I admit to being surprised by its multiplayer suite. Featuring ranked 1v1, three-player free-for-all, and custom matches, there is a decent PvP component on offer. Cross-platform matchmaking is also available, and able to be toggled on or off. Multiplayer lets you choose a loadout consisting of a starting legion, a super predator, and a couple of powers and then expand your army each match from there. There is a nice bit of tension in knowing that both of you are building up your armies on opposite sides of the map, and you can even spy on each other without the other ever knowing…you know, because you’re an ant and all. Playing online, the game performed flawlessly, which also surprised me. Would I buy Empire of the Ants just to play multiplayer? Certainly not. But would I ever buy an RTS game exclusively for multiplayer? Certainly not. Still, it is a worthwhile addition to the 20-ish hour story campaign.

Empire of the Ants is terrific, and one of the year’s biggest surprises for me. The subject matter and shift of perspective make it feel unique, not only for strategy games, but games in general. Of course, it helps that it is gorgeous to look at on a big screen thanks to some stunning photogrammetry. Meanwhile, the laser-focused gameplay design and remarkable pacing make this a tough game pull yourself away from. I can’t recommend it enough.