Frost Giant Studios, the studio behind Stormgate, is headed by some big names in the real-time strategy space—well, not the names themselves, as developers are rarely public figures, but their previous projects are sure to catch the attention of anyone familiar with the genre. Wasteland, Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Command & Conquer: the heads of this new studio have played significant roles in a number of highly-acclaimed entries in each of these series. I say all this because, in spite of its minimal efforts to tutorialize as monumental a genre as the RTS, it does not succeed for me in making it approachable. I trust that there is an appeal to this game for its existing fanbase, but I doubt its ability to draw in a new crowd.
My issues with RTS games have been long-running and plentiful. A competitive, complex genre leaves little room for onboarding newcomers, the goals of gameplay are always vague, and the action is deliberately hands-off, which I find incredibly boring. Watching my little robot guys run around and collect luminite or fight someone else’s little robot guys does not scratch any itches for me. The 1-on-1 and co-op modes are the main draw, but to the eye and hand of the unfamiliar they are identical to what’s on offer from other titles. The campaign is a missed opportunity to tutorialize the genre. An attempt is made, but the gameplay largely consists of navigating sprawling empty maps that you can only slightly zoom out on and occasionally clicking on an object or enemy to pick up or destroy. The slow rollout of features does not serve to introduce them to the player, but rather to use them when explicitly told to and keep trudging forward. Some supplemental documentation (a PDF) provides strategy guides for each faction, but the guides in question are time-stamped instructions, not an explanation of the flow or goals of RTS gameplay.
Aesthetically, Stormgate is not setting itself up to wow anyone. I kept mistakenly calling it Stargate and Stormcraft and Wargate and Warstorm and just about every other two-syllable vaguely futuristic compound word. The plot and setting are in line with what’s typical of well-trodden Western sci-fi fantasy: Earth in the distant future, humans vs alien-monsters vs alien-monsters-but-with-tech, invocation of biblical Heaven and Hell, clearly delineated factions along species lines, you get the gist. The plot is something along the lines of saving the Earth, but that’s so clearly not the focus of the game, so I won’t judge it too harshly for that. The art direction is quite nice, though.
Stormgate, as it stands, is still in early access, so it feels wrong to condemn it for the sin of being flawed this early on in its life. The developers are incredibly upfront about their intent to significantly incorporate player feedback, and given their resumes I trust that they will succeed in polishing this product. But also, without significant added content or an overhaul of what’s already there, I don’t see it having potential to be anything other than more of the same. It might be more modernized, and it might have a new coat of paint, but it’s still the same foundation as most real-time strategy games; if you didn’t like what came before, I doubt this will be the one to change your mind. But at the same time, it’s free to play, and given its over $1 million in support on StartEngine, my experience clearly doesn’t reflect the norm. If you have the time, and an open mind, there’s no harm in giving it a try: for the right people, and after enough time in the oven, this game definitely has the potential to shine.
Stormgate is available for PC via Steam Early Access.
Related: Reviews by John D’Auria
Video games are my personal favorite art medium by far. I love how many ways an interactive story can be told, and I can't stop myself from getting hooked on a good puzzle. I'm a student majoring in game design and music, so I hope to make creative work a part of my life going forward.
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