StarCraft veteran’s ‘Battle Aces’ wants to make real-time strategy fun for everyone

The real-time strategy genre has built a reputation on its complexity. Resource management, unit creation, and elaborate control schemes mark the RTS experience, which can be intimidating for new players. If you’ve ever played or watched a StarCraft 2 match, you’ll know exactly what we mean.

Uncapped Games, a new studio based in California, has recognized this issue, and its first project is attempting to turn a complex genre into a format that fits under 10 minutes. That first project is Battle Aces, and we were able to go hands-on with it at Summer Game Fest. After a few matches, it’s apparent Uncapped is on to something here.

The biggest achievement in Uncapped’s attempt to streamline the RTS process is how much automation has been added to the formula. As soon as a match starts, our first resource plant is up and running. Whenever we select a new unit to build, it’s built and ready for deployment instantaneously. Once we’ve accrued enough resources to build an expansion facility, that structure is automatically placed in a designated spot.

These choices alone do wonders for the flow of the game, as it allows us to build units and enact our game plan rather than worrying about where things should be placed or how many resources we need to deploy. All that busy work is done for us, and we like being able to focus on the battlefield without having to take return trips to base.

Battle Aces takes some of the thought out of what is a thoughtful genre, sure, but it makes up for it in other interesting ways. Rather than having to parse through every one of the 45 units available, Unit Decks give us the means to edit the number of available units down to eight. From here, we can begin to formulate our overall game plan.

We could pick cheap battle units and overrun our opponents early, or we could focus on building defences and stockpiling resources for a massive push in the late gate. The units we choose here will influence how we should play in battle, so the “strategy” part of the RTS name begins before we even see the battlefield.

Every function we’ll need to execute is limited to a single keystroke too, which makes controlling this army we’re building incredibly simple. If we see units start to get destroyed while attacking an enemy base, we can immediately generate more without needing to take our eyes off of the skirmish.

As soon as a new resource facility is available, one key is all I need to get that structure built. It’s easy to pick up and understand – something the RTS genre hasn’t been able to say for a long time, if ever – and it makes for fun matches that go by in a flash.

The RTS purists out there might not be keen on the format being streamlined so drastically, but the manner in which Battle Aces lowers the barrier of entry for new RTS players cannot be understated. The anxiety or intimidation one might feel when booting up a Starcraft 2 match for the first time simply does not exist here; instead, two players are dropping to an area and building a bunch of robots at ludicrous speeds. This is a good thing, as it will let new players experience a genre that’s been around for decades.

Battle Aces isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it’s applying as much turbo as possible and turning the experience into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair. The idea works well, as a lot of unnecessary waiting has been removed in favour of a renewed focus on unit building and leading armies into battle.

Whether or not this becomes the new gold standard for real-time strategy remains to be seen, but based on our experience, Battle Aces has the tools in place to do so.

No specific timetable for Battle Aces’ launch has been announced, though a Closed Beta test has been confirmed for later this year.