Silica Reviews

A Unique Blend of RTS and FPS That Actually Works Silica is a standout in the hybrid RTS/FPS genre, offering a game play experience that feels both ambitious and surprisingly well-executed. Whether you're commanding armies from above or boots-on-the-ground in the thick of the fight, the game delivers a unique sense of scale and strategy. One of the most impressive aspects of Silica is how seamlessly it lets players switch between real-time strategy and first-person shooter modes. As a commander, you manage resources, build structures, and issue orders like a classic RTS. As an infantry or alien unit, you jump into the action directly—whether you're defending a base or ambushing enemy harvesters. The game's setting on a harsh alien planet is well-realized, and the asymmetry between factions (especially the alien creatures) adds depth and replay ability. The freedom to play how you want—whether you're a tactician or a trigger-happy soldier—is what sets Silica apart. Of course, it’s still in early access, so there are some rough edges, like occasional bugs and balance tweaks needed. But the devs are active and genuinely listening to community feedback, which is always a great sign. If you're a fan of strategy games who also enjoys the adrenaline of shooters—or vice versa—Silica is definitely worth a shot. It’s a fresh take on two beloved genres, and it’s only getting better.

Clearly not complete. But this is a blast. Back and fourth between fps and commander is quite the feeling. Those bombers are fun to smash bugs, let me tell you. Its got a long way to go, but its worth the 20 imo.

i dont know any other game that is anything like this really, i love the designs for the weapons and vehicles and i had much fun being a bad commander but not being judged for it and having bad commanders too, even if we lost it was always fun to battle, though the game tends to be laggy for me sometimes. overall like 9/10 i love it

This game blew me away. This game IS SO GOOD in the way that my pc cannot handle the graphics.

Truly an amazing game thats been made with love. It needs work yes, but its a work in progress that has lovely developers that listen and respond to community feed back on discord and in discussions. for 15.99 i had a lot of fun by myself and with random players. just be patient, and play the game knowing it might have issues, like with path finding etc. Ai is the current thing being worked on right now after the collusion update.

I'm gonna start this by saying that I recommend the game in about a month or 2 when the next major update that adds the second human faction fully comes out. As of now, the game is a little rough around the edges. There are a lot of balance issues, the AI is a struggle to work with, and performance is pretty terrible for most people. But (and people hate when this is said but I can't stress enough that it's the truth) all of that stuff is coming, as this is an early access game. I keep seeing people not recommend the game based on things about balance and bare bones game play while not taking into consideration that maybe that might be a little lower on priority. The devs are working on the next update a lot, and quite literally right after it releases they will get to work on all the other more minor issues like balance. And when I say "minor issues" I don't mean to say that balance and RTS AI aren't major issues in general, I mean that in the context of it being an early access game, they matter less than content. So I recommend it for anyone willing to push through the issues and enjoy what is truly a hidden gem of a game, but it's also reasonable to wait for these turn off issues like RTS AI and performance to be fixed entirely, do whatever just don't hate on something that clearly isn't what the creators have made into it's fullest form.

game is high concept; futuristic; heartfelt; made with love; the developer is Solo. Needs a lot of support and more collaboration! However this is exactly the type of game that could go on to DESTROY the Battle Royale hierarchy like Helldivers if it had many many more thousands of work hours in development. The Art is there. The gameplay is there. The RTS features excel. It just needs love and care. Better map development emphasizing what RTS games have learned from the 30 years of creation: simplicity is best. If this was Game Development Tycoon, this game scores all B+ across the board at the time of writing this (7/24/25). Definitely buy it and go play it!

This game has been out for two years. I love the idea of RTS games where you can have friend playing the actual soldiers. The problem with Silica is that it is not fun for both the people in FPS mode and RTS. I love the idea of Silica but hate actually playing it. For RTS mode there is not a single QOL for RTS. No dragging out lines of units. No Auto explore for you scouts. No defensive structures or telling units to garrison something. No auto move. As a commander you can left click or box drag on units and tell them to go somewhere, that's it! Doesn't matter the unit type really. This becomes even more annoying when you consider the max amount of units you can queue is 9 so you cant even have an infantry spam ready when you return to base. There is absolutely zero other things that make the game more engaging for the RTS player. When I first bought this game I thought "Give it some time and that QOL will come". Update after update, playing the RTS mode is continuously annoying. All of this is even worse on the Alien side. I want this game to feel like a BATTLE, not a trickle of units because the RTS commander has the worst controls options is every seen in an RTS game. This game is basically about rushing tanks because it is so tedious to make and move units in this game. (PS, infantry take 15 minutes to walk to the frontline!). I want to organize a field of little bugs to swarm the human players, I want to feel like a big battle is progressing. In reality I have to spam the most expensive units because the little bugs are a nightmare to control in mass and a big beefy dps units is easier to control as an RTS player. For the FPS side there is not a way to have soldiers follow you? Total missed ball not being able to command some troops as a sub commander on the ground. You also cannot have your own things queued up to build. If you want a tank you need your commander to build you a tank, then you need to run over and get in it. The Maps are huge though, so sometimes getting to things takes forever. That tank you are in? Gotta spend 5 minutes just heading to the battlefield. This wouldnt be a problem if the RTS player could actually fill the map with units and structure for fighting! The map is huge and empty because the RTS player controls SUCK!!!!! Overall the progress on this game after 2 years is terrible. You can not have a good RTS game without the baseline of control features. The AI is not good, they just send an endless trickle of units straight towards your HQ. Players will just utilize cheesy tactics to kill you (Humans can get their bombers so high, that the RTS commander can't right click them with units to attack because its above their camera view. So Humans can just sneak fly behind the aliens and snipe bases). It's fun for maybe 1 hour from the novelty and then you realize how shallow the game is. Visually cool looking, empty on the inside. If the game every changes I will update my review

Somehow the game is less functional than the last time I played it in January. Cool concept. Completely broken

I would like to preface this non-recommendation by saying I enjoyed this a lot and it's probably almost worth it at 20 for me, however, it's rough. There's clearly a lot of work being done and needs to be done in multiple areas. The RTS elements are often intensely barebones and some aspects are... questionable... The game looks good and the premise is a tried and tested formula with a questionably low success rate. A three-way split faction battle with unit control thrown in and it handles surprisingly well. Saying this is better with others would be too obvious and stupid a statement, but it is better with others and falls flat dramatically without friends or others to play with. Glaring issues arise out of lack of content and polish obviously, but also core fundamental design choices in the factions and AI behaviour. I hope it improves, maybe I'll even catch a point of time with some players on... P.S: getting warnings on the official server for "queen rushing" and "scout rushing" when I try release the queen to move nests, a concept I thought possible after seeing that the queen could leave it and I sorely needed to change the nest location; due to, you guessed it, being rushed and pushed in by hordes of soldiers from both ends. Is laughably demoralising when the bugs are already at huge disadvantages, monumental ones at that and will get fucking stomped without stupidly rushing their tech tree and spending not insignificant amounts of the paltry resources available and finding a hidden resource node that can't be raided immediately. Just saying, that if you're avoiding balancing the bugs the way they should be, such as cheaper and faster (I saw earlier nerfs to node speed for example, not good...) to avoid looking like, say... starcraft? maybe don't look away from it. a faction heavily comprised of melee fighters needs speed and numbers, especially when basic crabs and even armoured ones are about as useful as wet paper, leaving an intensely limited and disatisfying unit roster....