Purple War Steam Next Fest Gameplay Impressions

Welcome to our new Purple War video, a game that we have tried before and will play again for sure. We were asked to give it another shot, and being the huge fans of classic RTS games such as Warcraft, Starcraft, and Command and Conquer that we are, there was no way we qould refuse this. Now, the time is approaching for anyone to dive into the game and get a proper first impression, as Purple War is participating in Steam Next Fest, from October 3 through 10. Check the link in the video description and you’ll get all the info you need.

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Developer Warlogics clearly is a fan of real time strategy games and while there has been an interesting evolution through the years, Purple War takes an acknowledged step back and attempts to return to the roots of the genre. This means that we get all the excitement and competitive rush that these games usually deliver, but without being overly complicated and confusing. It’s a matter of getting that fine balance going, putting any worrying considerations about controls and odd mechanics behind and letting the gameplay speak for itself.

Purple War is coming with a campaign mode, but so far, we only had a glimpse of it across a few missions from the Human faction. We have the three classic races: Humans, Orcs, and Elves. The environment is fairly obvious, with a medieval fantasy setting that instills familiarity, with a traditional forest map with its villages and cozy little houses about to witness major destruction. But you have other worlds to play in, including lava, ice, and desert. The current map layout isn’t too intricate, everything is set up for this sort of brief and rotten peace, with a faction being able to rush and show their intentions in less than five minutes. The more players a map has, the easier it is to start the skirmishes and fight for territory control.

For now, we could pick the humans and play four missions of increasingly difficulty, serving as a tutorial that starts with the basics such as movement, building, and attacking. Quickly, it drops the training wheels and puts you in a couple of massive scenarios where you need to build thoughtfully and consistently, knowing that your resources are finite and creating units recklessly will leave you at the mercy of your enemies.

With quite a few hours on record, I can say that Purple War is the kind of game that I enjoy more and more as I discover every nook and cranny. It’s intuitive and easy to learn, and after a natural slow start, you will find yourself diving into fast-paced gameplay that can support up to 4v4 players in some multiplayer matches. Purple War may be full 3D, but it should run flawlessly in any decent computer and things will zip along at an incredible pace, even with dozens of units on-screen. Check these battle snippets so that you may confirm what I’m talking about, and appreciate their chaotic nature, with ground troops, the almighty Legends – which include a unique active skill – and flying units all striving for victory.

I have managed to play a few custom PvP matches, and I can confirm that time is indeed precious, at least according to my game plan. Regardless of the faction of choice, it’s an early sprint for base growth as your workers grab as many grapestones and gold as they can, expand the number of units by building more farms – this for the Human faction, others have equivalent buildings – and rush to get the more advanced structures in place. You may upgrade your keep and build another somewhere else, so you’re not bound to a single base.

When a reasonable amount of ground and air units is ready, all hell breaks loose as you take them to the closest enemy camp and start taking out their vital buildings, while hoping that no one thinks of doing the same to your base. It’s a tricky balance that makes everything the more fun.

And fun is what I had during my matches, both solo and multiplayer, with and without bots. Don’t be fooled by the slow start, the pace will pick up in a few minutes, as every fan of classic RTS games surely knows. Give Purple War a shot right now using the link is in the video description and expect it to enter Early Access starting on October 20th.