I’ve always been what you’d call a “turtler” in real-time strategy games, someone who meticulously builds up their defences and research rather than focusing on rushes and offence. For decades, I’ve wondered how players can pull off such blindingly fast blitzkriegs that instantly decimate their opponents, but Battle Aces finally made me get it.
Battle Aces is an RTS game entirely focused on speed and unit management, streamlining everything else for a blazingly fast experience where each match only lasts no more than ten minutes. It’s a game that’s overtly simple and easy to pick up but holds a shocking amount of depth when you really dig into things. More than anything, I feel like Battle Aces might finally be an RTS game that can bring crucial new fans to the genre while still providing some intense fun for anyone who’s been playing for years or decades.
Each match in Battle Aces takes place on a small map, with your opponent on one side and you on the other. The first big catch here is there’s no manual resource gathering; everything is gathered automatically. There are three resources that are noted by Red, Blue, and Yellow. Red and Blue have a trickle rate, while Yellow is essentially your population, with bigger and more powerful units taking up more.
Like I said the point of these matches is speed, and everything is designed around that. Units build instantly as soon as you click the button or hotkey. There are no queues whatsoever. This completely upends how you approach matches. Not worrying about gathering resources means you instead need to focus on smartly using said resources, budgeting things out so you can build the right amount of units, and then focusing on the minutiae of controlling those units.
“Battle Aces’ faster, more streamlined take on an RTS is utterly thrilling…”
Where the extra complexity gets layered in is with unit decks, letting you build your preferred team of eight from across 40 different unique units. These all largely fall into different archetypes to ensure a degree of balancing, like physical attackers, ranged, or air units. But there’s a surprising amount of variation and customization present, with some units even having unique abilities. For example, the Gunbot can get a quick boost that ups its fire rate for a short time, while the Blink Hunter can teleport around the map.
You aren’t able to produce every single unit from the start of a match, however, as there are two buildings you’ll need to unlock, the Starforge and the Foundry. These cost 400 of your Red and Blue resources, but you can also use that same amount to build extra resource bases (up to five total), which increases your resource rate. This is essentially everything you need to keep track of, and the rest of Battle Aces comes down to macroing your units, choosing the right time to build things, and trying to destroy your opponent’s Supply Depots.
While Battle Aces takes some adjusting if you’re used to typical RTS games, after a few hours with the beta, I found myself getting into the perfect rhythm, planning out opening moves, and formulating strategies based on how my opponent would react. There’s a really surprising amount of depth packed into the unit system, and the quick matches allow for a lot of experimentation.
“I couldn’t put Battle Aces down for hours on end…”
That’s genuinely one of the highlights of Battle Aces; you don’t need to commit a couple of hours to play through a single match and can easily knock out a few here and there where you want. Battle Aces’ faster, more streamlined take on an RTS is utterly thrilling and surely seems primed for high-level play and esports if the studio wants to lean into that aspect.
I couldn’t put Battle Aces down for hours on end, but that being said, I do have a few worries. The first is the rate at which you unlock new units to test out, as the beta doles units and credits out as rewards for winning matches — not playing, but specifically winning. I get you want some kind of reward loop to invest players, but in my eyes, the rate at which you unlock units is simply too slow, and that’s especially true if you have an unlucky string of matches or simply play against a few really good players in a row.
At the same time, I think a lot of Battle Aces’ success is going to ride on what kind of support Uncapped Games can provide. The 1vs1 mode is thrilling but I can see it eventually growing stale without any kind of way to shake things up. There is going to be a 2vs2 mode, which opens up a whole wealth of opportunities, but I also hope the studio can consistently provide new units. Perhaps you could even introduce new rules, new maps, or little twists on gameplay for special modes. The gist is that Battle Aces has a fantastic foundation, but it just needs a little more, something with that extra oomph.
More than anything I love how approachable Battle Aces feels; it’s the kind of game I’d introduce to any of my friends that have never played an RTS. Its pick-up and play feel is great, but the more you practice and dig into its unit system, the more engrossing it gets. Uncapped Games has the start of something truly special here, and with a bit of work, it can truly shine.
