Empire of the Ants review: these critters have never looked so good

Imagine being no bigger than a grain of rice and fighting for supremacy in your own little kingdom. That’s exactly what happens in Empire of the Ants, a game that shows the world from the perspective of these little creatures and reveals surprising depth. As an ant, you’re destined to lead your people to glory and greatness.

The game is based on Bernard Werber’s book «Les Fourmis» (Empire of the Ants) and is a remake of the 2000 video title of the same name. Both games were developed by Microids. Empire of the Ants is available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, and I tested the game on both PC and PlayStation 5.

I immediately fell in love with the game’s beautiful graphics and its interesting world. The beauty of nature knows just how to capture your imagination. I’d say that Empire of the Ants is the first game to fully showcase this fascination and beauty and bring the realm of insects to life. But can the gameplay and campaign also mesmerise and motivate me over the long term?

Graphics and sound

The Empire of the Ants graphics are jaw-dropping. The game uses Unreal Engine 5 and almost looks photo-realistic. During the first few hours, I can’t help but be amazed. I enjoy the game world and its images, losing myself in this ant universe. To the extent that I prefer to explore, enjoying the scenery for far too long and observing other creatures instead of single-mindedly pursuing the missions. Ant and insect movements alone look incredibly natural and authentic. It’s a dream to drift into this game world and let it sweep you away.

The developers have managed to depict the world of ants in such detail and so vividly that I almost feel like one of the little creatures myself. Every leaf, stone and ant is designed with such attention to detail. The impressive visuals are complemented by a fitting soundtrack that accentuates the atmosphere perfectly.

Story and characters in the campaign

I play the 103,683rd ant, known as a sister ant in the Bel-o-kan nation, from a third-person perspective. My job is to protect the nation from threats and conquer new territories. My sisters turn to me if there are any problems. I take part in various missions to achieve the colony’s goals. The developers suggest the campaign should take about 20 to 25 hours. I usually have to deal with two types of missions: real-time strategy and platforming sections.

For instance, you have to hunt fireflies for food in a cave or reach an ant colony affected by a flood and later rescue individual ants under time pressure. You sometimes jump from leaf to leaf or have to find your way over tree trunks and between stones. But you have to be careful, as if you end up in the water, you need to get to the safety of dry land quickly, otherwise you’ll drown. And you then end up back at the start.

In other missions, you command your troops against enemy nests or other insect armies. You can deploy them wildly and chaotically, but then you’re soon at risk of losing the battle. I should point out that the game isn’t gory. Having said that, during battles you’ll see ants, termites and other insects being flung through the air now and then.

I don’t recall there being any major important characters that I communicated or interacted with often in the campaign. In my eyes, my own character also seems rather boring and doesn’t experience much character development. After all, I’m just an ant.

Gameplay

The tutorial provides a great introduction to Empire of the Ants. For the most part, the controls feel good. Occasionally, the camera movement can be confusing, for example when I’m walking along vertical surfaces and suddenly end up upside down. But after a bit of getting used to, it should be OK.

I can control the game much better with the mouse and keyboard than on the PlayStation 5 with the controller. But that’s also because I’m only used to playing sports games on the PS5. I’ve mastered the platforming sections very well now after some initial teething troubles.

The combat system is based on legions. Each unit has its strengths and weaknesses. As a result, the battles require targeted planning and you have to pay attention to the rock-paper-scissors principle. Soldiers, gunners and workers are part of standard units. Meanwhile, soldiers beat workers, workers beat gunners and gunners beat soldiers.

In the course of the game, you can recruit stronger units and top predators, such as dor beetles as an additional legion or to build up support units. These help your troops or intimidate your enemies with their pheromone abilities and provide an additional strategic layer. However, in my battles against AI so far, I haven’t really been able to put this to good use.

I’m not actively involved in the fight myself. I just give the commands and examine the area. This has its advantages and disadvantages. While there’s no annoying micromanagement, I do have to be careful how I prioritise different groups, when I send units into battle and against whom. Once that’s done, I have a more relaxed experience of the battle. Nevertheless, the fights always seem a bit chaotic. Once a battle is underway, I hardly feel I can make crucial changes.

Generally speaking, the pace of the game is rather slow. Individual troops cross the field relatively leisurely, with each nest only able to produce one legion. So it can take a while to build up a large army or support on the battlefield.

My ant nation is built up at the nests, where I can interact with them and go to one side of the nest to select a category. The corresponding interface then appears on the ground. After selecting a category, I can choose my building option or instruction, be it creating my defence, economy, legions or information in the form of mapping. The system is simple but at the same time offers sufficient options.

This variant can be tedious, as you aren’t able to access the individual construction menus for the nests remotely. Instead, you have to visit each nest in turn to interact with it. I can see long-term motivation as a problem, since a lot of things are repeated and the game is built up very slowly.

Multiplayer

I was really looking forward to multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a fixed enemy and could only compete against other players in one-to-one ranked games. However, there was no real battle across nine matches. My enemies always threw in the towel by the start of the first battle at the latest. In the first five matches, it even happened when building up the legions, which was a shame. As well as these ranked matches, you can also play free-for-all games with as many as three people in total. What’s more, you can battle it out against AI in private lobbies, but I’ve not tried that out.