PlaySide Studios' Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a brutal survival RTS that's leaving early access today. Prepare for relentless waves of monstrous hordes, strategic base building, and the constant pressure of ever-growing threats. Can you master the perfect formula for survival?
I am very tired. I should be long past videogame all-nighters, but last night saw me incapable of dragging myself away from my PC. I needed to get through one more wave of demonic horrors. Build one more tower. Kill one more elite. More than any of that, though, I desperately needed to figure out the perfect formula to surviving in Age of Darkness: Final Stand. Aussie outfit PlaySide's survival RTS is leaving early access after four years today, and it's going to be disastrous for my health.
Since it's been a while since it first appeared on Steam, let me get you up to speed: Age of Darkness is an RTS in the vein of zombie romp They Are Billions, where your task is to survive tidal waves of monsters determined to annihilate your vulnerable settlement. It's stressful, but it has a brisk rhythm that simply won't let you quit. Each brief day will see you shoring up your defenses and generating the resources required to survive, and the moment the sun goes down, the monsters come out to play. When the sun's out, they are largely passive, at least until you send your units to scour the environment for resource caches, but the darkness emboldens them, making them stronger and more aggressive. Most nights, though, they are easy to handle. Small groups of them will prod your defenses, trying to slip through them to attack your keep (when it goes down you're done) and while you might lose a building here or there, at least until you surround yourself with walls, regular nights probably won't result in your demise. It's the Death Nights that you really have to worry about. After surviving for a few nights, a vast horde of Nightmares will be summoned, and they'll rush towards your settlement, slamming up against the walls in a desperate attempt to eradicate your keep. Your settlement will also be surrounded by a thick, lethal fog, harming and terrifying any units that run into it. It even gets into your base itself, lingering in the places where there's no light. Survive a Death Night and you'll be given a reprieve, but there's always another one coming. Each victory gives you more breathing room, but it's not a relief; the next Death Night is going to be much worse, with the horde growing dramatically each time. From hundreds to thousands. Age of Darkness's SwarmTech magic allows for more than 70,000 AI-controlled units on the screen at any time. It's making me sweat just thinking about it. It's a simple but brutal structure that I've still not quite figured out yet. There's a surprising amount to juggle, exacerbated by the shortness of the days. You've got just enough time to make meaningful improvements to your base and expand your army, but not enough time to make many mistakes. After years in early access I'm sure there's a 'perfect' build order, but I won't be able to enjoy the victory unless I figure it out for myself. Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors How many farms should I have by Death Night 1? How many archers should I have by Death Night 2? When's the best time to start upgrading fortifications? Should I risk sending my army out tonight to kill an elite Nightmare, netting myself potent rewards, like the ability to resurrect my hero without waiting for the cooldown? Or should I wait until I have a bigger army?Every building and unit has resource prerequisites, from people to stone, and in some cases how many resources you generate per tick is determined by the placement of the buildings, as well as how many people are diligently working away inside them. There are a lot of numbers to consider, and the trick is learning the precise formula that will ensure victory. I just don't know what it is yet. Precision is the magic word here, but then you've got Malices and Blessings, which throw a spanner in the works. Malices are random negative effects that appear at the start of each Death Night, and include things like your own units rising from the dead to attack you, or Nightmares spawning from destroyed buildings. Blessings, meanwhile, are random rewards you earn by surviving Death Nights, which can buff your heroes and units or give your buildings positive quirks. If you're finding the survival mode too easy, even on the higher difficulties, you can also pick some Hardships—difficulty modifiers that introduce unpleasant twists, like never getting Blessings or losing the ability to sell buildings. I'm definitely not at the point where I'll be needing these to give me a challenge. The regular difficulty is still kicking my arse.I've played quite a bit of They Are Billions and Diplomacy is Not an Option, and I've started dabbling in Cataclismo, but while Age of Darkness has a similar conceit, there have been some surprises. Namely, that towers and fortifications don't feel that effective—at least not compared to your arm
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