Empire of the Ants PS5 Review. When I first saw the trailer for Empire Of The Ants from small French developer Tower Five, I was immediately reminded of the BBC documentary – Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants. It is a fascinating exploration of a super colony of ants that live in the Jura Mountains on the French/Swiss border. Defying the common behaviour of most other ant colonies, this is no ordinary colony which has evolved to live in harmony with multiple groups of ants forming a mega sized super colony that thrives in the harsh environment they inhabit.
Empire Of The Ants (PS5) – Command… and Conquer
Epic Tale Of War And Peace
Based upon the 1991 international bestseller by Bernard Werber, the campaign follows a colony through seasonal changes and the many trials and tribulations that day to day life of ants brings. Playing as an ant, you traverse through open hub worlds that are bustling with insect activity. You interact with other ants and different insect species and pick up missions which have specific tasks or goals to achieve. It’s kind of like meeting NPCs in an RPG and taking on quests.
Said quests drive the overall story forward and are spilt into different mission categories. Some are full on strategy types, others are more relaxed hunt missions where you track down targets. Some missions are against the clock while others run as long as it takes to complete the goal.
While the story is enjoyable, it’s the presentation of it that just lets it down. It is missing something that I just cannot put my finger on. It should hit differently or something. It’s no easy task presenting a narrative from creatures that don’t speak so I see the rock and hard place the team were between.
Legions To Control
The progression through the game has a nice flow to it and ramps nicely in challenge for the player. There’s sufficient hand holding in the early game to ensure you get a good grasp of the basics and there’s some little meta games too like scanning unnatural objects, discovering a library of insects, catching butterflies and finding collectibles. A nice added bonus for those who wish to explore everything the game has to offer.
The design of every mechanic in the game is very well thought out. It is clear a lot of effort has been put in here to ensure all the abilities, upgrades, powers and legions of minions at your disposal have a basis in the real world realm of the ant empire. This really adds a grounding to the experience and ties nicely to the excellent work the team has done on the visuals.
Wood and food resources are your bread and butter here and keeping the supplies of them rolling in is key to amassing a formidable army and growing it to a force to be reckoned with. Invade nests, build structures, enhance your powers and the tools of destruction. Strategically plan your approaches and then send your warriors into battle. There’s nothing quite like climbing to a nice vantage point and marvelling in the spectacle. You’ll either be proud as punch or you’ll be heading back to the drawing board in defeat.
Meticulously Detailed
The more I played Empire Of The Ants the more little details I noticed. The dev team left no stone unturned in their endeavours to produce a lifelike, photo realistic depiction of this natural world. The fruits of their painstaking and meticulous attention to detail puts the realistic control of an ant at the fingertips of players. It is quite a feat to behold.
The movement of the player controlled ant, the little subtle idle animations, the way the ant stands upright on its hind legs when you are scanning the environment. It is a true labour of love that should be applauded.
This is all before I even mention the world that you explore. Small details like fungus growing on the bark of trees for example shows the care and passion that this team has for delivering authenticity. Every material on display has been recreated with an outstanding level of detail – rocks, sand, pebbles, grass, wood, metal, rust and more. It’s incredible. In fact, if it were not for the UI elements of the game, then you’d be forgiven for thinking you are actually watching the aforementioned David Attenborough presentation.
Bodies of water seem to use a screen space technique for reflections and while its implementation works well for the most part it does have its limitations. I can only imagine what ray tracing would do here. This will be one of the first PS5pro optimised titles to release, so it will be interesting to see what the beefier hardware can add.
Sound Of The Underground
To cap the experience off is a really top-notch score that ebbs and flows with the onscreen action. Moments of calm are complemented by serene tunes, but when the action ramps up so too does the intensity of the score to convey the epic battles. The soundscapes too are well presented giving a living presence to the world and the various sound effects during battles depict perfectly the wars being waged.
Missed Opportunities
One glaring missed opportunity here is the lack of utilising the unique DualSense features like haptics and built-in speaker. Use of these bells and whistles on the PS5 would add immensely to the experience. Imagine the little scurrying footsteps of your ant subtly emanating from the controller as you scout around the natural environments. When paired with the visuals and animations that are on show here it would be glorious.
This is a tiny team I know, but hopefully this could be something that they might look to add in future updates.
Empire Of The Ants took me completely by surprise with its fresh twist on the RTS genre. Its salivating mandibles have a firm grip on my gaming attention and I hope this game finds the enthusiastic, passionate audience that it absolutely deserves.
Empire Of The Ants launches on Nov 7 on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.