Waves of the Atlantide is a Battle Royal RTS, and like most Battle Royal attempts, this one falls flat as well. Waves of the Atlantide is in Early Access right now and is both published and developed by Metaphore Games SAS. The fact that it’s still in early access does mean that any current issues might still be fixed by the time the game actually releases. But I think there are some core problems with the gameplay and I’m not sure if those will be changed.
- The Battle Royal part is well integrated into the game: Once the 5 minute grace timer expires, the world will literally start to fall out from under your feet. There won’t be any hour long games in this RTS which is a relief because I’ve lost way to many hours to a single game of Civilization. Why do I keep playing Marathon games? Those ruin my sleeping schedule!
- The graphics: They certainly aren’t lifelike and they won’t require 1080 to run, but the stylized graphics do have a certain charm to them. I actually prefer stylized graphics over lifelike graphics, and not just because my GPU becomes a second heater when I play those games. Watching a piece of land fall into the ocean is a fun thing to watch and even my laptop was able to run this game at high graphics without any issues.
- No options: One of the things I enjoy the most about a good RTS, is the choices you can make. With most of them you make your first choice before the game has even started, Do you want to play as the Zergs or the Terrans in Starcraft? Or how about playing as Alexander the Great or Queen Victoria in Civilisation VI?
Waves of The Atlantide doesn’t just have no factions, it also has only one unit and only one building. The technology tree is also just a sad excuse to give you the illusion of choice. Sure, playing with certain factions might not be optimal but I love just messing around sometimes. I might not win all the games of Total Annihilation I play, but I enjoy throwing moons at other people too much to quit now! It’s those options that make a game enjoyable and without options, everything just feel empty. - The game feels slow: This is something which I find especially mind-boggling. Real Time Strategy games might feel slow at certain points, at least if you’re not a pro that’s doing a million clicks every minute, but most of them feel faster paced than Waves of The Atlantide. Which is just weird since the Battle Royal system is supposed to make the game feel faster! But the 30 seconds it takes to claim new territory, together with the fact that your troops move at a snail’s pace makes everything feel so slow.
- The combat: The combat is boring. Combat exists of fusing your troops together into a bigger army than the opponent has. Since there is no variety in troops that’s all there is to it really. You can’t use flying units to scout, you don’t have cavalry, the only thing you can do is Station your units, which leaves them immobile but gives them a higher defence rating. But doing this takes about 4 seconds, and unstationing takes about the same, which slows down the gameplay even more. Give me some action! Nothing is a surprise in this game because you can see everything happening from a mile away. I shouldn’t be able to go and grab a beer while my armies just keep fighting. That’s boring! And a good way to get me drunk I guess.
CONCLUSION
Score: 15%
This rating might seem harsh since the game is still in Early Access, but playing this game felt like a chore. Nothing about it was fun besides watching the map crumble into pieces, but even that quickly lost its charm. If the game were to up its tempo, it might be a bit better, but even then it will still just be an RTS without any actual options.
Developer: Metaphore Games SAS Publisher: Metaphore Games SAS
Played on: PC
Time to beat: A single match will take a maximum of 25 minutes.
Perfect for: A quick RTS game during your break, if you can ignore its glaring flaws.
Steam Game Store link: click here