Empires of the Undergrowth Reviews

Extremely fun game that combines real time strategy and ants. This game is a masterclass in what to do right with ants in videogames. By controlling your ants with soft pheromone trails rather than as single units and relying on paths from your queen to your egg chambers (production tiles), the game easily immerses you in your ant colonies. By using tiles in your nest and a more freeform open map, the game lets you plan meticulously at home and expand freely when you're on the hunt for resources and objectives. The campaign and extra scenarios have fun twists that challenge you in new and exciting ways, and with new game + and sandbox modes, there is always a little more to do. Unfortunately, "little" is sort of what it feels like after you repeat the campaign and extra scenarios. This takes well over the number of hours needed for me to feel the game was worth it, but I wanted to mention it for folks who like endless repeatability. The AI colonies in the sandbox mode are predictable and lackluster, and there isn't really a satisfying twist like in many of the other levels that adds a layer of excitement or novelty to the experience. I think a community scenario designer for the sandbox would solve this issue, or a map editor (though I know it was cited as difficult to provide the community with map tools as of 2025), but in the meantime there are updates and DLC coming that may satisfy this need in the short-run. If you enjoy ants/insects, a great narrated campaign, and real time strategy with a twist though? This game is one of the best you could choose.

This is one of the best RTS Games i ve played BTW. It makes so much fun to build up, try different Ways to solve a Problem and overwhelm the big Guys on the Map.

I absolutely love the game and hunting for the achievments. They are partly really challenging and just tickles that will to beat it. Also since it is in some ways "round based" it doesn't eat too much of your time (if you don't want it to XD)

Good game just stupid there is no save feature? Like it's a single player game these kinds of things are the bare minimum. Missions can be an 1:00 to 1:30 yet you can't simply save it when you need to do something else. Also didn't really like the campaign, missions were great and idea was cool but it shoulda only been the missions not the extra unneeded formicarium builder that resets every 2 missions. Gameplay and missions however were all interesting and amazing. There's even more you can do in custom game/extra missions that weren't in campaign which is a nice touch.

SUCH A FRUSTRATING GAME! Warning, spoilers ahead. There is no in-game save function, it only autosaves at the beginning of the level, so if you make ONE mistake, it's game over and you have to restart the level from scratch. That means a game you've been playing for an hour (for me it was 4.1, after defeating the bullfrog, a TON of salamanders and frogs attack you, which you are vaguely given a clue about and about 30 seconds to pull back). The bullfrog battle itself is very tough to begin with, so I thought the level would be done at that point. Nope. I had a TON of soldiers, but because the AI is so horrible, you can't get your ants to stop attacking the enemies they're already engaged with, so basically my ants just let my queen die because they don't LISTEN TO YOUR INSTRUCTIONS! Also, the "evil" guy is horrible. Absolutely horrible. It's unashamedly unfair and the game knows it. The guy is an absolute psychopath. I'm guessing it's meant to be "funny," it's really not. It's just frustrating. The level design is pretty repetitive and the game mechanics are very basic. There is no way to farm for some ant types, which I suppose is meant to provide some realism, but if you don't manage your early game resources effectively, you're S out of luck and should restart the level. I don't know how many times I've had to restart the level just for a minor mistake. You only know what's coming after you've already failed several times. I mean, I'm an 80s kid, so I know how tough games used to be, but this one is tough not because the game is tough but because it's unfair and annoying instead.

I was worried this game would be overwhelming but its been simple to learn and the story has been good. good beginner rts

Ants go brrrr Seriously though this game has been a fun game for me since I got it. It is an interesting game that has managed to hold my attention quite well and has helped with keeping me from being too bored. I would love if the game could have a co-op custom game mode so you could play with a couple friends. Otherwise it’s a great game that I have oddly enjoyed and that friends enjoy watching me fiddle with.

This Game IS Great But Needs a Multiplayer feature that builds already off their core game (e.g. Invasions of other nests and multi queen maps) all in all really good game but its replay ability would be so much better

Possibly the most fun RTS out there. The documentary-style campaign levels are awesome, the base building is super intuitive and theres so much content here for just $14. its literally perfect for every reason other than the 2 I will mention below. Positives: - the documentary levels are truly wicked. Imagine controlling a colony of ants while the VA for walking with dinasaurs talks over you. They've designed them with very grounded premises that make it feel like your playing a documentary. - After the tutorial, you pretty much know everything you need to off the bat. Its one of those games where its really simple mechanics, and they keep adding wacky spins to it. - The idea of a perminent base that you build over time is cool, though the reward system to expand it more can be annoying. food lets your ants respawn so usually if you expand too much you wont survive the next chapter as you've ran out of respawns, meaning you have to replay some campaign levels to get more food. Negatives: - The bad guy in the campaign (a fucking mad scientist) is really annoying, intentionally. He will poke his finger into your group of enemies and oneshot them, he'll unfaily add way to many enemies. Its challenging and balanced, but its one of those bad guys where he just pisses you off the whole game. - There are 2 really stupid decision in this nearly perfect game: You can't change ant types after picking in the campaign (e.g. it will let you pick for leafcutters to taunt or stun) which means you can't adapt based on the upcoming fights. The other stupid decision is that you can't reset your formicarium after making it. Whatever you build, your stuck with it. if you make a shit nest your options are keep repeating the campaign levels for more space and food or brute force the next campaign level until you win with what you have.

I've tried to get on this game so many times but always forget why I can never get to finish it. It is extremely frustrating and frankly silly in some levels. You are 100% constantly rushed and can't really enjoy a gameplay session. The scenarios are so small, that their way of challenging the player was to constantly spawn on your nest different threats. There is a fire ant level for example where about 10 frogs spawned inside and completely wiped out the colony. I have yet to see that Discovery channel video where frogs create a small army and launch an attack. If you don't play in a very specific and forced way, it's game over. It is a shame since there is a nice base concept here.