War Selection Initial Thoughts

I firmly believe the video game world has too few quality Real Time Strategy games that mirror the essence and vice of the Age of Empires series. And while I’m looking forward to the release of Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition on Steam in a few months, War Selection instantly caught my attention as something to play in the meantime.

Ultimately, War Selection is far more ambitious than any Age of Empires game ever was. While it not only boasts 62 player online games – which for the record, I have NOT engaged in – the game also takes a unique approach to age progression. While everyone starts out with the same villagers, buildings, and units, as you progress through the various ages of the world, you begin to “place” yourself on the world map. You’ll determine whether you want to have your clan based in Europe or in Asia, then  further down the road you’ll pick East Europe, or west Asia, etc. The game continues to break down until you are a specific civilization.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this, as RTS games are all about creating strategies based on your selected civilization. But the more I played War Selection, the more I realized it wasn’t all that different from other RTS games, especially when I fully understood which route I was going to take during each age.

Ultimately, the end game in War Selection is always, outright war. There really is no strategic way to fight off opponents like in Age of Empires. In AOE, I was a very tactical player – small armies making specific attacks on specific locations. Sure, ultimately a large invading force is needed for victory, but there was deep strategy leading into it.

With War Selection, I find it’s more about “keeping up.” With so many other people in the game, you are working to balance your workers and your army, and you almost never select strategic locations to attack. With so many people on one map, that just isn’t an option. And ultimately, I’m really OK with that!

There are a variety of modes to play, but I’ve only engaged in Deathmatch and Survival, both of which hold up really well. While this game lacks a solid tutorial that tells you exactly how to accomplish things, those with a history of paying Age of Empires (or similar RTS style games) should pick things up relatively quickly. If you’ve never played those games, well, I feel really sorry for you. The learning curve is steep.

As a free-to-play title, there isn’t a lot to complain about here, but if the developers ever want to move to a pay model, some serious updates will be required to bring this up to others in the genre. Still, it’s a solid RTS experience that currently will cost you $0.00, so it gets a hearty recommendation from us!