Company of Heroes’ Relic reveals ‘Advance Wars style’ strategy game Earth vs. Mars

Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War developer Relic Entertainment has announced a new ‘Advance Wars style’ turn-based strategy game, ‘Earth vs. Mars’.

The game will release for PC this summer, and has players defending planet Earth against the invasion of “bizarre and powerful creature-human hybrids”.

“For decades, Martians have been secretly visiting Earth, abducting humans and animals to harvest their atomic essence,” Relic said.

“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.”

Relic CEO Justin Dowdeswell added: “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.

“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.”

According to IGN, Earth vs. Mars will include a single-player campaign of over 30 missions, online multiplayer where you can play as either faction, a VS Mode against AI, and a map editor.

Last March, Sega announced that it was selling Vancouver, Canada-based Relic to a holding company to be newly established by the UK investment firm Emona Capital LLP, enabling it to become an independently-run development studio.

Earlier this month, Relic detailed its new business strategy, which it said would include continuing to develop the larger, complex strategy titles the studio is known for, while it would also “actively pursue the development and publishing of smaller-scope, in-house games”.