Stardock and Oxide Games have announced Ashes Of The Singularity II – or Ashes Of The Singularity 2, as people who hate unnecessary extra keyboard presses may prefer – sequel to the sci-fi real-time strategy game Brendy called “gorgeous, but plain”, adding “there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before and done better”. The new RTS aims to improve that verdict by introducing: humans. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, but perhaps it’ll work out for them.
“Obviously, in the first game, the number one request was to have a human faction,” observes Stardock CEO and sometime Gamergator Brad Wardell in the announcement release. “Back then, we just couldn’t support having thousands of organic, walking, squishy people in the world and thus had to design in favor of machines.” The battling bipeds will join the returning robot and bionic post-human factions in continent-sized scrums encompassing thousands of units. Here’s a trailer.
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The game will release in 2026, a decade after the first game, and in a show of pure commercial poetry, its story also takes place a decade after the events of the first. Remember to cite this next time somebody tells you that games can’t be art.
The new chapter puts you in charge of the United Earth Forces, “a powerful human alliance forged between NATO, China, and Russia, determined to reclaim Earth’s territories – including Australia and Africa – as well as vital outposts on planets and moons across the solar system, all previously overtaken by relentless AI and formidable Post-Humans.” We’ll prise the Sydney Opera House from their stinking cyborg fingers, and paint the surface of Pluto with those quarrelsome brains-in-jars.
Ashes Of The Singularity 2 is the work of a “significantly expanded” dev team, and will feature co-operative and competitive multiplayer together with a skirmish mode. There’s a lot more backstory on the Steam page, together with the announcement that “this is a game that celebrates your strategic skills and rewards you for understanding that logistics, planning and terrain matter.” Total Annihilation diehards rejoice, possibly. “We’re determined to make the BIG both simple and fun,” adds a dev diary that delves just a little deeper into the base-building aspect.
After being kicked around by Brendy, the original Ashes fell afoul of Fraser Brown (RPS in PCGamer). In a feature about learning to love imbalance in strategy games, he noted that “its bland campaign reveals its focus: it serves only to get people into the multiplayer component.” Did you play the multiplayer? I have to confess, this game passed me by.
