Combining the horse riding and city building of the American Frontier with scary fantasy creatures, new strategy game Arcane Wilds feels a bit like you tossed Age of Empires, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Fallout 76 into a box and gave it a good hard shake. Coming from indie studio Avancadia, this RTS puts a distinctive twist on proceedings by emphasizing your resource management and production lines, and you'll be able to try it out for free thanks to a Steam Next Fest demo ahead of the game's now-announced release date.
At first glance, Arcane Wilds looks like a Wild West take on Age of Empires. Ride your caravans to new land, establish camp, send out workers to gather resources, build that base into a bustling town, power up your troops, and bring down rival factions. Where it differs from other such RTS games is with its fantasy spin - along with the more normal threats, you'll also have to deal with legendary creatures such as wendigos - and its distinctive resource management systems.
Once you've brought resources such as wood, stone, and magical essence to your base, you'll have to carefully balance how you spend them. Crucially, these supplies must be stored, protected, and transported to where they are needed. Raid an enemy base or a convoy and you can actually steal their hard-earned materials. That means you'll need to carefully consider factors such as establishing defenses along your key supply lines to avoid having your precious goods snatched.
The core of Arcane Wilds is a survival mode that challenges you to overcome procedurally generated maps, with the ability to play either solo or in a team of up to four. Lean into powerful ranged firepower at the expense of mobility, adopt explosives and Gatling guns to demolish your foes, or opt for more fantastical tricks such as movable structures and spellcasting shamans to unleash chaos on your opponents.
Alternatively, you can dive into a competitive multiplayer mode supporting up to eight-player battles on handcrafted maps designed to optimize balance. "With Arcane Wilds, we are excited to unveil our unique take on the real-time strategy genre," Avancadia founder Lukas Frischkecht says. "Our goal is to provide players with a completely new experience featuring innovative modes and game mechanics, all while preserving essential RTS elements like base building."
Arcane Wilds is set to launch in early access on Steam Monday November 18, with a Steam Next Fest demo available to try from Monday October 14. You can wishlist it now to receive a notification when the demo becomes available. Avancadia says it plans the game to remain in early access for two to four years, as it continues to refine the game, upgrade its art style, and add more factions, biomes, missions, and more. It will also support Lua-based modding tools to allow players to further customize and expand the experience.
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