They purge the corpses, and then they start the experiment again. And if she dies, the scientists just shrug. These ants are just chilling, minding their own business, and suddenly an army is poured into their home from above, quickly homing in on their vulnerable queen.

Bastard 1 sets up the formicarium like an arena, unleashing enemies upon the unsuspecting bugs. At first it looks like they want the colony to thrive, with Bastard 1 even whispering encouragement under his breath, but their true purpose is revealed in the special formicarium challenges that have to be tackled before progressing to the next set of missions.īastard 2 - she sounds like she’s in charge - becomes a Roman Emperor, demanding that the ants perform for her amusement. The formicarium is watched over by a pair of nameless scientists whom I will refer to as Bastard 1 and Bastard 2. But where SimAnt tasked players with conquering a garden and then driving humans and other ants out of a house, Empires is split between a formicarium in a laboratory, which serves as a sandbox and a hub, and a series of missions that pit different colonies against a variety of obstacles, including a pretty nasty invasion of slave-making ants. Awful, awful humans.Įmpires of the Undergrowth is a lot like SimAnt, with both following the progress of an ant colony as it spreads and fights other colonies, along with spiders and other bugs. And even here, in this RTS set in a formicarium, the real villains are humans. Like so many nature documentaries before it, Empires of the Undergrowth looks like it’s going to be an informative delve into the animal kingdom - specifically the tiny world of our pals, the ants - but instead unfurls into a cruel reminder that nature is terrifying and spiders are dicks.

We should start again with another colony.” This week’s Premature Evaluation gives Fraser the highly coveted job of mucking around in the dirt while managing an ant colony in creepy crawly RTS Empires of the Undergrowth.

Empires of the undergrowth free game