Battle Aces is a simplified RTS that boasts something StarCraft was too cowardly to add: giant robot crabs

In the years since StarCraft launched, we've had one real-time strategy after another trying to crack the genre open for new audiences. But there's been very little attempt made to wrest away those still in Blizzard's Zerg-y clutches, meaning nothing has really challenged StarCraft's position as top dog in the genre. But if StarCraft remains a gourmet banquet, new RTS Battle Aces offers the same nourishment for your noggin in a bitesize offering.

Battle Aces marks the debut of Uncapped Games, a studio founded by former Blizzard devs, but what sets it apart from past projects is the way it slims down traditionally elaborate economic and macro-level decision-making in favor of streamlined combat. Despite that step toward simplicity, the thrill of maneuvering giant armies into battle has not been diluted – and after playing for myself, I'm mostly sold on the studio's rapidfire approach toward shaking up the RTS genre.

Construct additional crabs

When it comes to playing even RTS games, I've always struggled with head-to-head multiplayer. Being outclassed in a match – and I often am – is like being slowly strangled, and by the time you realize there are keyboard-clacking hands around your neck, it's too late to do anything about it. The mistakes you made leading up to that point are inscrutable in comparison to other genres, which often come down to "shoot faster" or "dodge better", as it can be hard to trace defeat back to subtler errors like building a new base too soon (or too late) 10 minutes ago.

Battle Aces sidesteps this by squashing the process into something that resembles the later throes of an RTS match, where combat takes precedence over bigger picture planning. You start with a single hub building where all of your recruiting takes place, and the workers gathering your resources are all automated. Expanding with a new base is done at the push of a button – automated resource-gathering hubs are constructed automatically at preset points on the map – and battle-ready units appear instantly when bought. Your job is to ensure you're spending those free-flowing resources correctly, building up an army whilst investing to make sure income can keep up with the demand for pricier fighters later on.

As a result, combat is quick to the point where matches can last just a few short minutes. I certainly found that to be the case in my first few games: growing your economy and military in-step has been massively simplified, but it remains a tightrope that is brutally unforgiving to fall from. In some matches I'd watch as my horde of chaff crab-robots were decimated by bigger crab-robots because I hadn't bought the hub's Foundry to unlock tougher units early enough. In another, trying to correct that mistake meant overstepping and failing to have a big enough army to protect my sprawl of industry. Finding the sweet spot is tough, but the reward for doing so is getting to see your seething blob of robots, missile-spewing Ballista, and aerial support chew through your opponents' own mass before setting upon their undefended bases.

Balancing an army-wide unit composition is just as tough – flying units, for example, decimate a lot of ground units despite being easily wiped out by anti-air – but this creates room to reactively outplay your opponent. However, when it comes to what you're fielding, Battle Aces' biggest twist is that there are no race-based factions to choose between. Instead, you pre-build your own deck of individual units to use, which means you get a little bit more control over "your" faction's strengths and weaknesses throughout the game. I found myself losing a lot of matches until I swapped my starting robots – which were individually weaker but far cheaper, meant for horde tactics – for beefier crab mechs, but I'd be interested in seeing how this approach shapes out. I think it'll result in chaos where creativity thrives, or a rigid meta caused by being able to pick-and-mix every unit, but only time will tell.

As someone who's always preferred the strategic thinking and combat in RTS games over high-intensity button-mashing, the simplicity of Battle Aces won me over. But as it stands, the game in its current state is still very awkward to learn for anyone who's coming from outside an RTS background. Its tutorials cover the absolute basics of moving and recruiting units, but I wrapped these up in a few minutes without getting into equally crucial areas like resource management. As a result, I had to go into my first games still essentially flying blind; which led to a series of lost matches that felt like one punch after another to my morale. Onboarding new players remains the genre's toughest nut to crack – and I'm not expecting Battle Aces to magically solve this – but I have come to expect a little more from any game entering the scene nowadays.

Considering Battle Aces is still in beta testing right now, I'm hoping better onboarding is something Uncapped Games plans to tick off its to-do list in time. But I think, partly, even this speaks to what Battle Aces is offering: an adrenaline shot for the genre's existing diehards. And that's fine! Better than fine, even – it pulls that approach off in a way I've never seen before, and I can see myself diving back into Battle Aces' quickfire matches without the hesitation I experienced in similar games. But just as easily, with the right onboarding, I can see Battle Aces' measured straightforwardness being the gateway to finally bringing in friends who have long been allergic to games that use words like "economics" and "micromanagement".

On my end, I wrapped up my hands-on feeling very keen to see how Battle Aces pans out in the run-up to launch. Though, admittedly, any game with mecha-crustaceans is going to get my vote.

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