Battle Aces Will Scratch That Old Command & Conquer RTS Itch

During the Summer Game Fest, one of the more peculiar and eye-catching entries was Battle Aces whose trailer wasn’t the traditional 3D or pre-rendered gameplay cutscene. Instead, Battle Aces did its big reveal with an anime-style trailer.

The game is set in the 26th century, so it’s sci-fi. Humanity has splintered into different factions that are vying for resources and land.

The trailer didn’t exactly reveal much about its gameplay. Still, Battle Aces is a fully-fledged, top-down RTS game in the same vein as the most prominent flagbearers of the Command & Conquer franchise. It’s a bit of a callback to Red Alert or Tiberum Wars with the charm of similar RTS granddaddies like Starcraft.

For a long time, the real-time strategy genre has struggled within its niche confines because the controls are meant only for PC or because it’s not a casual-friendly scene. However, that might soon change. Battle Aces is poised to grab the RTS flag and plant it tall again. Seeing it in action, it might just succeed where the old Command & Conquer franchise failed.

Battle Aces is Avoiding the Usual RTS Micromanagement

Battle Aces does it differently, however. One thing that both Starcraft and the Command & Conquer RTS games had in common was the initial tedium of base building. Bases can quickly become management sinks which are hard to juggle with battlefield tactics.

Hence, Battle Aces, based on its reveal, has streamlined the base-building aspect of RTS. Instead of managing multiple buildings, you get one building called “base.” There are unit variations of course. It appears there will be a typical and more complex version of rock-paper-scissors combat among units.

But even that is simplified into unit loadouts.

What this does is make the whole RTS process more accessible even with the more limited gamepad inputs. Moreover, the focus is on the frontlines (something Company of Heroes did masterfully) and each match can take as little as five minutes.

The RTS Genre Needs This

With no new Starcraft in sight and Command & Conquer practically dead, Battle Aces might just provide the much-needed revitalization for the RTS genre as a whole.

Even early on, it’s already showing promise, streamlining the whole RTS dance to more contemporary standards. Who knows, with its new casual approach and simpler controls, Battle Aces might just successfully make its way into the consoles.

For now, Battle Aces is set to hold its Closed Beta testing soon on the PC and Steam.