Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment is making a new, smaller-scale turn-based strategy game called Earth vs. Mars. It's due out this Summer on PC (via Steam). In it, players must defend our planet from Martian extraterrestrial attack by creating "bizarre and powerful creature-human hybrids" with the Splice-O-Tron. Examples include the Squirrel-Cow, Human-Rhino, and Cheetah-Fly. Gameplay is inspired by the Nintendo DS classic Advance Wars.
Relic says, "For decades, Martians have been secretly visiting Earth, abducting humans and animals to harvest their atomic essence. Now, they’ve returned with a full-scale invasion, and it’s up to a ragtag group of commanders to lead Earth’s resistance. Players will command Earth’s military against high-tech Martian saucers, grav-tanks, and elite alien warriors in a desperate struggle for survival."
Earth vs. Mars includes a 30+ mission single-player campaign, online multiplayer where you can play as either faction, a VS Mode to challenge yourself against the game's AI, and a map editor.
“We are excited to bring a Relic Twist to the Advance Wars style of gameplay, infusing some Relic DNA, while harkening back to some of our earlier titles,” said Relic CEO Justin Dowdeswell. “Relic Entertainment recently announced a new strategy: Alongside continuing to work on the traditional RTS titles that we’re known for, we’re also going to work on smaller Indie style games in order to explore new sub-genres, experiment, get our creative juices going, and release games more frequently.” You can wishlist it on Steam if you're interested.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
