The beauty of nature never ceases to enthral us, and while many of its mysteries have been revealed by pesky scientists figuring out how stuff works, that hasn’t diminished its beauty or wonder. Empire of the Ants – based on the Bernard Werber novel of the same name – is the first game to fully capture that beauty and wonder on modern systems, bringing the insectoid kingdom to life in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.
It will give you some insight into our household that the first few hours of Empire of the Ants were accompanied by hooting, hollering, whistling and gasping. Our now-teenage son has always been fascinated by ants and other bugs and creepy crawlies, and it’s an interest that’s spread throughout the house (at times quite literally when ants have escaped from his ant farm).
Empire of the Ants first and greatest trick is its visuals. Utilising Unreal Engine 5, it is nearly photorealistic, and the natural landscape of woods and gardens play home to some of the most stunning ant and insect-based animations you will have ever seen. Everything is alive, everything is moving, and as the colony sets about individual tasks you can wander about as Ant 103,683rd, marvelling at just what Tower Five have created.
The visual magic is enhanced by the audio, in particular the orchestral soundtrack, which lends itself perfectly to magnifying the sense of wonder and drama. It’s particularly high-quality, making Empire of the Ants feel as much like an animated film or an Attenborough documentary as it does a video game.
You play sister Ant 103,683rd – I didn’t know that all ants are female prior to playing, and that was only the first of many things I learned along the way – and you’re the ant that everyone seems to turn to in times of need. Bel-o-kan, your home colony, is consistently under attack by outside forces, or in need of expanding and protecting its territory, and you are a very singular ant amongst many.
There are different mission types for you to tackle in Empire of the Ants, with platforming and RTS sections the two main options. The RTS sections see you take command of a small legion of ants. At first, you have access to a couple of units, growing as you progress, and they’re made up of Workers, Gunners and Warriors, alongside different support units, before you start to unlock more powerful variants. There’s a nice combat triangle at work here, with different units strong against different enemy types, and if you want to maximise your efficiency you need to choose the right group for the job, while also thinking about positioning them in the most useful place.
That’s not to say you can’t launch every unit you have at a single one to overpower it, but eventually, you’ll see a clear downside to doing so. Rather than forcing you through a bunch of menus, all of the resource and upgrade tree is centred on your nests, with the UI appearing on the ground within them. You have to directly interact with them, which later on becomes a bit tiresome, but does make you feel an integral part of this ecosystem, and that these are real locations that you can directly affect.
The platforming sections are tricky, particularly if you’re attempting to catch something along the way, but they become easier if you think and behave more like an ant, feeling out your way across leaves and up stems rather than trying to rush across without any thought. They’re very rewarding when you get them right, and I never tired of leaping from rock to rock on my way to the destination, not least because of 103,683rd’s bum wiggling each time you do.
There a few foibles to Empire of the Ants that start to nag the longer you spend with the game. One of them is the visual presentation of the menus and UI, which just feel a little lifeless and low-rent compared to the stunning visuals in-game. The other is controlling your ant who, as an ant, is capable of sticking to whatever surface they’re walking on. This is great for traversing logs, branches, leaves and trees, but you can often find yourself upside down and turned around, and not quite sure which way is forward or back. You do get better at it, but it never completely goes away. Fortunately, neither of these things is a dealbreaker.
Empire of the Ants is largely a very tranquil game, punctuated by the more action-packed RTS sections. It’s often just you and nature, with the gentle music being replaced by the sounds of crickets and distant birdsong. I don’t think it’ll be for everyone, but I really enjoyed each section’s alternating atmosphere. That said, it doesn’t hold your hand, so you’re often left to explore and figure things out for yourself, which is actually refereshing.