Stormgate PREVIEW
Stormgate has been expected for some time. Announced in 2022 and supported on Kickstarter for $2.3 million in 2023, Stormgate has been promoting itself in a simple way for the last couple of years: a new real-time strategy game created by some people who worked on Warcraft 3 and StarCraft II. As these franchises continue to languish, a large gap has formed in the market, and RTS circles have been regularly discussing Stormgate since the announcement.
After the game went into early access on July 30th, I had the opportunity to complete what exists in the single-player campaign, as well as devote some time to the online multiplayer game. In short, the game seems a little messy and a little too complicated, and it tries to please a lot of different demographic groups of players without making the game really attractive to any of them. However, the details of these appeals are important.
I know that most people think of Stormgate in terms of a multiplayer game, but I think the narrative and scenery provided by the single-player campaign do an important job. The games in question have lived an extremely long life because they have provided a platform for personal rivalry. The elegant triangular system of StarCraft II: Earthlings vs Zerg vs Protoss has resonated with players for over 20 years, and there is something about these inherited Blizzard properties that is obviously difficult to replicate. The place where this work can be done and where we can learn about these factions and how they participate is in the campaign.
Unfortunately, I think the six campaign missions that kicked off with early access to the game point to some of Stormgate’s key issues. In the two and a half hours it took me to deal with them, I was introduced to a member of the human Vanguard faction named Amara, whose father was involved in the event that brought the Infernal Host into conflict with humanity. She is a tough militarist, haunted by the past and ready to do anything to defeat her enemy. In fact, this is where her characterization begins and ends, and she has a couple of minor characters she can rely on on this journey.
The infernal host are essentially demons, and their continuous invasion has been destroying humanity for the past two decades. In the campaign missions that I managed to play, Amara learns about a powerful mystical artifact that can destroy her enemies, and decides to get it… But at what cost?
There is tension in the campaign because it is essentially a set of story missions designed to draw us into this world. There is no denying that it is well animated, that the voice acting is strong, and that the cinematography is directed and thought out in the same way as any other top-level gaming product to date. At the same time, the story is so steeped in the genre and so clearly echoes the themes and ideas of StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo that I started playing the “which game will the next plot move be taken from” subgame?
I have huge sympathy for the team creating this game, because they are essentially selling a product that is positioned as a Blizzard product and is produced by a company that is not Blizzard, but shares its DNA. They even named their company Frost Giant. So they’re stuck trying to create something extremely familiar and at the same time fresh, but I’m afraid that the world Chris Metzen co-created with Blizzard after its heyday may just not have enough juice. I suppose for some people, these elements might evoke warm and fuzzy feelings from stories they’ve played before. To me, they were like a rerun.
A detailed description of the strengths and weaknesses of the Stormgate campaign and setting is important because many of the same ideas flow into an online multiplayer game. The game is a combination of StarCraft II’s unit and base management systems and Warcraft 3’s map management requirements. In the traditional RTS mode, you build small bases, create armies using the resources created by these bases, and then try to fight profitable battles, gradually defeating your opponent. The game maps themselves are covered with nodes that can be useful to manage, such as flags that heal you, or resource collection points, and therefore players have to compete for access and control over them.
The requirements for these systems are not easy, and I do not envy the work that the Frost Giant game designers have had to do over the past few years. They had to create a game that was understandable to beginners and provided a quick learning experience, but they also had to create something deep enough so that longtime players of these other franchises could get carried away with this new game.
Like the campaign and its setting, where it seems that the past has overpowered all the innovations that this game could bring to these themes, the online multiplayer game is a remix of previous Blizzard-related games. The main operations of RTS – the construction of bases, armies, their modernization, joining the battle – are quite easy to manage. However, their difficulty level is very high, and the campaign currently exists only for the Vanguard faction, which means that you can get a narrative “tutorial” for only one faction.
It is foolish to try to tell in detail what all three factions (the Vanguard, the Infernal Host and the Heavenly Armada) are doing. In a broad sense, the Vanguard is a human faction with effective direct damage units that can move and effectively control the map. Infernal Host has either smaller swarm squads or larger and bulkier squads, and they all gain energy when they stay in their territory – to win as a Leader, you must prioritize increasing that territory. The Heavenly Armada, the faction I have chosen, has a number of advantages and reductions that allow them to be mobile when capturing new bases and quickly strengthening defensive positions, but this is achieved at the cost of a quick and effective attack. Long-time StarCraft players might recognize the broad features of Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss here.
For Stormgate’s information, these factions are not just factions from another game, but they are really similar to them in many ways, and it takes a bit of gameplay to understand the key differences in how you should use the factions and how you should defend against each of them. It may actually be easier for a beginner in RTS than for a veteran, given that they won’t be fixated on these resonances, but I’m not sure –the memories of other games are so strong that it seems impossible to even say what complete disconnection will look like.
As an early access product, Stormgate is a relatively exciting activity. I can’t say that the campaign sample I had access to would have interested me in learning more about this world or these characters, given that their stories are already familiar to me, but others with more tolerance or less baggage might think otherwise. I also want to see what happens, especially given the expectation that other factions will take a more substantial part in the campaign.
I don’t think early access to Stormgate determines its future, especially considering that RTS games regularly undergo deep rebalancing processes. Right now, the game has a rather slow pace and a very high information bar for the game. At the same time, learning it is fun and really interesting, and it would take me many dozens of games and probably several months to determine something as simple as whether it is good or bad. I think with my limited experience, I can say that this is a difficult game, and it doesn’t always feel or feel useful for all the complexity it requires. Fortunately, I think the early access period will be a place for development and feedback, and I look forward to diving into competitive online mode every few weeks to see where the game goes next.
