So, it seems a group of developers at Blizzard got sick of beating the 20-year-old dead horse of World of Warcraft and went off to form a new studio. Their goal; to make strategy games – you know, the thing that Blizzard used to be known for! They’re gonna build their own Starcraft. With blackjack. And hookers!
That game is called Stormgate, and as a huge fan of the Blizzard classics, I was eager to get my hands on it when it went into Early Access last week.
So, what is it like? And will it be able to shine in the long shadow of its lineage?
Stormgate
“Stormgate is a free-to-play, next-gen RTS [real-time strategy] set in a new science fantasy universe,” boasts the Steam Store page. It makes no boast about being developed by former Blizzard staff, but the studio’s pedigree is well-documented. IGN describe Frost Giant as a studio where “many veterans of Blizzard’s now-defunct RTS team have banded together”. Plus, apparently, there are some Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 developers thrown in there for good measure! They announced the game a couple of years ago, and it went on to earn over 2 million dollars on Kickstarter.
Normally, all this would be a bit of a red flag for me, but it is clear that things have gone dramatically downhill at Blizzard in the last decade, and the prospect of some of those talented developers breaking free from all that and starting out on their own… I couldn’t help but get excited! All you have to do is take a look at screenshots of the game, and you will immediately be reminded of Blizzard classics, particularly Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2. My initial suspicions were overridden, and it conjured up fantasies of a long-awaited sequel to some of my favourite games of all time.
And I’m delighted to say that, in a world where we are starved of decent, high-budget RTS games, loading up the game feels like slipping on a similar, comfy hoodie. The game’s influences are clear, and its design and mechanics are definitely familiar. But it’s not just a clone of what came before. Frost Giant have made a few tweaks, changes and innovations to the formula, which – so far, at least – seem to be good ones.
Story
Having said that, there are some things that may feel a little TOO familiar. The story – from what is available in Early Access, at any rate – is one of these areas. Blizzard has a reputation for only being able to tell one story (but at least being able to tell it well!), personified by the story of Arthas and the cursed blade Frostmourne. The game opens with a cinematic showing a mad scientist opening a mysterious portal, through which swarms a horde of demonic creatures. One man tries to shut it down, after a quick call with his daughter, Amara, but is ultimately unsuccessful. When the first level starts, it’s 20 years later, and you are playing as Amara, part of the Human Vanguard, a resistance force against the invading Infernals, who have conquered most of the planet.
And, that’s all you really get in Early Access, which is to be expected. And yes, they may be deliberately treading familiar ground to welcome players into the game and could be planning to throw some wild curveballs later on. For now, without wanting to spoil too much, my eyes rolled so hard it nearly broke my neck when a character, who looked a lot like Sarah Kerrigan, announced that she was going to spend some time studying a magic sword that looked a lot like they had just changed the colour of the LEDs in Frostmourne from blue to red!
Also, the third playable race, The Celestials, is nowhere to be seen so far, which is a shame. The campaign is what introduces you to the factions, units and abilities, and gives it all context. It’s hard to get absorbed (into what is, after all, a brand new world) without that context.
But I’m prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt. It’s a free-to-play game from a new studio that doesn’t have the huge budget that Blizzard had. You have to temper your expectations. And I’m willing to put some faith in their ability to improve the immersion and craft a more engaging story as the game moves through early access and more content becomes available.
Graphics
I have similar comments on the graphics. It has a nice art style, generally, that evokes elements of Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2, while still distinguishing itself. It seems a little bit flat and lacking in detail compared to the higher-budget predecessors, but I don’t mind that too much.
There is currently a significant difference between the quality of the pre-rendered cinematics and the in-game models. In particular, the opening cutscene of the portal opening is gorgeous, and the characters look amazing. But then you jump into the first cutscene of the actual story and find yourself with much lower-quality and generally uglier models. Then there’s another step down to the actual in-game storytelling. There aren’t any facial animations or lip-synching on the characters, which would go a long way to making them more relatable. A huge pop-up at the start of the game does promise that this is all coming later, but it’s still a shame that this important introduction to the world and characters isn’t ready yet. I can only assume that they’re focussing on the gameplay and on starting to balance the multiplayer rather than on the single-player experience.
Given that the game is free-to-play, it’s about the level you could realistically expect. If they DO manage to squeeze some extra fidelity out of the Unreal Engine in the coming months, I won’t be disappointed, but I like what I’ve seen so far.
Gameplay
As I said, the gameplay feels pleasantly familiar, but with a few tweaks. When you get to the base-building and unit management part of the game, you start with a command centre and nearby resources that must be gathered. The humans have to train gatherer units, which travel back and forth with those resources. You have to build specific buildings to enable unit training, unlock new unit types and research upgrades. You then have to expand to other resource points on the map and then destroy your enemy. All very familiar.
But there are some twists on the formula. Unlike in War/Starcraft, you don’t have to click on an individual worker and order them to build things (and then have them stand around scratching their ass when they’ve finished!). You just go into the build menu, place the building, and one of your workers will go and build it before automatically returning to work. And, while it is possible to click on your barracks and choose which units are being trained there, you can also go to the ‘units’ menu and mash the buttons, and they’ll be added to the queue of any available building on the map. These little tweaks, on top of several quality-of-life features introduced in games like Starcraft 2, make playing the game more of a joy and less of a faff, which is something I really appreciate. (Don’t worry if you are the sort of person who likes to micromanage everything though; there are plenty still of options if you want to do that.)
I enjoyed what is available of the campaign. There seems to be some replayability too. I replayed all of the available missions, partly because one had a branching story, where you make a choice about what to pursue next, and it locks you out of the other part of the map. Some different things happen, but the same story beats play out either way. I also found a secret that I didn’t spot the first time! I also tried cranking up the difficulty, but you can’t expect to much resistance in the first few levels of the campaign, which are basically tutorials.
It’s hard to judge based on only a handful of missions, but it’s off to a promising start and I am excited to see more of it.
Final Thoughts
On some level, I can understand why some people may be disappointed if they jump into Stormgate right now. The idea of it being a spiritual successor to some of the most beloved RTS games of all time, made by their former developers, carries a certain weight of expectation. A fact only compounded by its highly-publicised success on Kickstarter.
If, like me, you are more interested in the single-player experience, then I’d give it a while. But if you are a competitive player, then this could be a good time to get involved and help shape the future of the game.
The reality is that it’s an early-access version of a free-to-play game, being developed by a new studio that is still finding its feet. But I can see the foundations of a great game here. If you can temper your expectations, you might just find something that scratches that RTS itch. I look forward to going back and diving more into the world and the story as it moves closer to release.