Battle Aces is a fast-paced, combat-focused RTS from Uncapped Games. It’s designed to streamline the genre while offering a range of strategic options for both new and experienced players. I got to play a hands-on demo of the free-to-play PC game at Summer Game Fest, with guidance from Theodore Park, Art Director at Uncapped Games.
Battle Aces simplifies resource management to focus on faster gameplay. Despite this, it offers plenty of depth and versatility with its deck-based unit approach. The game design ensures that there’s a lot of replayability for new and established RTS fans.
In Battle Aces, the aim is to start with enough resources to make initial decisions, including expanding the economy, moving up the tech tree, or creating units. I expanded to a second base to start generating enough resources for the costly tech and higher-tier units down the line. Unlike other games, expansion locations are predetermined on the map and workers will auto-mine for resources, which was a helpful streamlined approach.
The control scheme is also minimalistic. Players navigate between two menu tabs for unit production and control. The production menu allows players to set a rallying point, and units can be created en masse by holding down a key. On the control menu, units and their special abilities can be activated, along with shortcuts including shift queuing. Pressing the spacebar allows players to see the enemy’s units and tech decisions, which is a neat feature for scouting an opponent’s moves during the 10-minute match.
Players can build an 8-unit deck personalized to their playstyle. Much of the in-game strategy is decided before the battle, as you build a deck from a variety of units with different abilities, each with strengths and weaknesses for a balanced playing field. The deck composition will differ based on playstyle, for example, well-rounded decks will include a mixture of anti-air, anti-ground, melee, and ranged units. There are different tech trees like Foundry and Starforce to branch off into. Battle Aces will have 45 units at launch and promises additional ones over time. The free-to-play model will allow players to earn in-game currency or use real money to unlock units and cosmetics more quickly.
The game will offer 1v1 and 2v2 modes with AI or human players. At launch, the team decided to focus on these modes and not risk dividing the player base. The chessboard map design will remain the same with different environments to help incoming players understand the layout and strategy. Visually, Battle Aces features a distinct art style based on a sci-fi theme, combining animal and robot designs, and using silhouettes to easily recognize units.
Battle Aces is set for a release on PC with a closed beta starting on June 25th. The team plans to go through closed beta testing phases before moving on to open beta. While there’s no release date yet, Uncapped Games aims to refine and improve the game based on player feedback before the launch. You can sign up on the game’s official website for a chance to play.
