Ant War: Domination is a port of a flash game from 2001. Since then, Ant War: Domination has been published on Steam, where it is described as a strategy game. In which you manage an ant colony that is aiming to be the biggest ant colony in the city.
On paper the premise for the game sounds like an interesting concept as an rts game. Theoretically the game could have you build up and defend an ant colony against other ant colonies. Whilst facing various risks such as bad weather, other animals and environmental dangers. On paper this is a great concept for a game regarding game design. If it was an rts game I would image the game to be a warcraft style game that has extra steps to it. However, the game as it was developed is actually a ‘turn based’ clicker game with minimal rpg mechanics that have been added to it.
The rpg mechanics when implemented in game provide little to depth. The only mitigating factors in battles are the amount of ants you currently have in your colony (which for whatever reason your whole colony can instantly appear for your militia; even if they are supposed to be doing other tasks that are based in the colony rather than where the battle is.) and the strength/defense points you have (which is obtained by buying upgrades.).
After you get enough ants and battle equipment you can quickly complete battles. However, when you get a decent damage amount per attack and you have more ants in your colony than what your enemy has life points. Battles become easily completed with little/no losses. In the strategy side to the game there is attempts at rpg mechanics. These are mostly vanity and have little to no effect in game. One example being when I was first playing the game I based all my production around creating ants. Despite this, I started my first day and I got attacked by a beetle outside. This is strange since I wasn’t outside foraging for food/looking for battles.
Over time this game becomes very repetitive and it feels like a chore after a while. This is because there is little for the player to be doing in the game. With the exception being what upgrades you buy. Gameplay wise the main task you will be doing is skipping to the next day. As when the days happen you have no interaction whatsoever in the game. Since the game will control it for you except for battles. Although, you hope that the battles would be more in depth. The game will only give you the option of either fighting or retreating. It is also possible to automate the battles if desired.
During the day in game the only differences you will get events that occur. Strangely these events are purely based upon luck with the environment your located in having little to no effect upon what happens. I find this annoying as some areas should have different stats. Take the bakery as an example which should have higher drop rates of food. But at the same time it should be risky as there is a multitude of threats for the ants that frequent the bakery.
The art style is quite odd since it isn’t a defined art style. But rather an eclectic mix of different assets. Take the bakery as a perfect example. The main background of the bakery is a pixelated painting/photograph of your environment. There are also a couple of clip art images such as a tarantula walking on the cake display. I think that the clip art style used is out of place when the background is a pixelated photo. This is also applicable to most areas in game but some clip art images maybe animated. The in game soundtrack isn’t much better as it is poor quality and limited in selection. The same is applicable to sound effects used in game. After a while you will probably turn the sound off, as the game’s audio becomes annoying after so long.
Sadly this game had an opportunity to be something great but it isn’t. Potentially this game could have been a complex rts game with plenty of depth and challenge. This would have been preferable to what the game currently has to offer. As a result I would recommend avoiding Ant War: Domination for the reasons stated above.
