Crossfire: Legion aims to be a ‘classic RTS,’ but it’s off to a rocky start

In a year when publisher Smilegate Entertainment is trying to bring one of the world’s most popular games to western audiences, Crossfire: Legion It’s like a black sheep.

Crossfire, the multiplayer first-person shooter, is massive in Asia — particularly in China and South Korea. Smilegate claims that the game has 690 million registered players, 8 million concurrent users and 690 million active players. Smilegate also lists a number of multimedia spinoffs. The company made the announcement at E3 2019. CrossfireX, a single-player campaign being developed by Control Remedy Entertainment is the creator. It makes perfect sense to bring multiplayer shooting west with a first-person narrative experience.

Crossfire: Legion, The other is targeted at an even more niche area: the old-school, real-time strategic games. It helps that it’s being made by Blackbird Interactive, the studio behind the excellent Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak And the future Homeworld 3 — but still, I can’t help feeling like it’s a shot in the dark.

Image: Blackbird Interactive/Prime Matter

A spokesperson for Prime Matter called during a press conference. Legion a “classic RTS.” I then spent several hours playing an early “technical test,” and I don’t disagree with that taxonomy. Legion It is simple and streamlined, and focuses more on the actions per minute than on deliberate chess moves. Its units comprise the usual infantry/vehicle/aircraft trifecta, along with commander powers that, when timed well, can turn the tide of a pitched battle.

I had to play custom matches with AI bots. The AI bots were divided into two factions: Global Risk and Black List. The latter is more akin to guerrilla tactics and allows you to traverse the map faster. I prefer the former. As with classic games such as Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness Command and Conquer, Legion is snappy and responsive, and unit pathfinding is seamless – resource-gathering trucks can stack without getting bottlenecked, and soldiers spread out in satisfying arcs before opening fire.

However, systemic depth is limited in these games. By today’s standards, LegionIt feels quite sane. Too The old school.

Image: Blackbird Interactive/Prime Matter

Recent news about Company of Heroes 3, I wrote about the greatly exaggerated death of the RTS genre, and how, despite a steep decline in mainstream and esports interest in the last decade, it’s never been more exciting. While the World War II-themed game explored nuanced tactics in squad warfare, new entries such as They are Billions Offworld Trading Company a seemingly infinite replayable depth. The most recent are not excluded. Age of Empires 4.This is a throwback. RTS, deployed engrossing economy-building.

LegionBased on what I experienced with the custom matches, it feels basic. Its units lack compelling environmental interactions; its resource-gathering is sleek but boring; each faction’s power curve ramps up too gradually to be exciting, and the current roster is too standard to entice me.

To reiterate, I was unable to play the demo. Blackbird is planning a card system that will allow players to customize their armies before each match, and I’m still curious to see how that might shake things up. Legion The campaign also includes a single player option, and if it’s anywhere near as good as Blackbird’s work in Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak My initial fears could have been dispelled.

Image: Blackbird Interactive/Prime Matter

Much of what I believe is doubtful, however: Legion, at least in this early form, doesn’t just revere the games that sparked the genre — it seems actively hampered by them.

Maybe that’s fine. It doesn’t mean every game has to be the epitome of innovation. But as a spinoff meant to introduce a whole new market to one of the world’s most massively popular franchises, I was hoping that Legion Might push the envelope in design. I am a big fan of real-time strategy games. They should all succeed. For now though, Legion Feels stuck in the past. Blackbird may be trying to reach RTS enthusiasts who still long for StarCraft or Command and Conquers in the past., they’re off to a good start. If they want to bring in real-time strategy fans that have followed the genre’s recent creativity with rapt attention, they might be on the wrong track altogether.