Empire of the Ants Developer: Microïds (in-house) Publisher: Microïds Category: : Real Time Strategy System Req: PII 350Mhz, AGP 3D card 32Mb, 64 Mb RAM, Win9x/ME/Win2k Might look like: / Date posted: 5 February 2001 Written By: Jochen - This game was reviewed on PIII 500mhz, 128 Mb RAM, Geforce 2 GTS 32Mb, Win98SE - We also test other games on "PlayDevil.com Game Machine" A little Introduction Not many people will have heard about this title before and I have to admit, neither had I when I received a review copy of this game. The fact that Microids is not the most productive games company out there will probably have a part in that too. They had a brief success when they released "Shogo MAD", but I still remember other games that were not so good like the terrible "Iznogud", an awful platform game based on a comic character. But that was then. Now they have released an in-house developed game, Empire of the Ants, in which you are the responsible for ( yes, you guessed right) building an empire and defending it against your enemies and all sorts of natural threats. Isn't that like SimANT 2? That's what I thought too, but they are very different games. SimANT is a game in the Sim Series from "Maxis" and that means you have no direct control over your minions. EOTA is different : you always have control over your combat ants, while the working class is only controlled by setting priorities in a to-do list. I'm not sure about this (I have only played a demo), but I think the gameplay is closer to Majesty from Microprose    On to the Game! The game is based on a book by 'Bernard Werber', so there is a story element woven into the game. That story is also the games' intro : a princess from the western empire is part of group of 5.000 to take on a voyage to expand the empire. However only 4 survive and the princess has now become a queen, ready to start building here own city. That's where the game starts. You will act as the queen's right hand controlling her underground premises and directing her minions in combat and resource gathering. After creating a game profile you are presented with the main menu : you can choose to play the tutorial (recommended !), engage in a skirmish game, play the campaign game or to direct your army of ants against an other human in multiplayer. I really recommend to start with the tutorial the first time you play. This is not really one of those game you can install and start playing. There are just too many buttons and options you will get lost and destroyed before you even collected a leaf ( thrust me on this one 'cause that's exactly what happened to me J). However that does not mean that the game has a clumsy interface, far from that. It's just something to get used to ( just like playing a flight simulator). After playing the tutorials you should have a fair idea of the game mechanics ( which I will discuss in the next section ) and you can move on to Single Player Campaign or Skirmish. To get into the game more easily I suggest you stick with the campaign because the Skirmish AI is way to aggressive for beginners. That's a first con for EOTA… .    Let's get it rolling !! The campaign game is not very different from other RTS games as that is a succession of harder and harder missions with increasingly difficult objectives. Your first mission for example is to collect 1000 units of food and construction materials and to destroy the Praying Mantis that threatens to destroy your camp. I will explain how a game of Ants evolves with the help of this first mission. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9-200/0 "rip your own stuff"