What comes after War? Aggression? That doesn't sound quite right, war being a rather aggressive act in the first place, but here we are. Eugen Systems—stalwart carriers of the wargaming flame—are hoping to "bring about a return to the '90s Golden Era of real time strategy games" with their new game Act of Aggression , and its first trailer contains all the tiny units, explosions and jagged steel fonts you could possibly want. Also a very strange choice of accompanying song.
Act of Aggression is a successor to Eugen's 2005 RTS Act of War, and it continues the theme of a near-future Earth gone very bad. This one's "set in the 2020s in a darkly realistic future where 3 major factions fight for their interests. In a world where international crisis and financial order is set in a seemingly unending loop, the shadowy organization known as 'The Cartel' attempt to complete a secret agenda with high-tech technology, stolen prototypes and stealthy operatives". Standing against them are classified military organisation the Chimere, and the US Army.
Eugen are aiming for a more traditional RTS experience with Aggression: expect two campaigns, with missions based around resource-gathering, base-building and base defence, just like in the olden days. They appear to be supplementing tradition with an XP system, however, with various skills and abilities, and "super" and "ultimate" weapons being unlocked as you accrue experience. Expect more news out of Gamescom, but here's that trailer in the meantime:
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.