Sci-fi RTS Chaotic Era released on Early Access for PC and Mac

Chaotic Era, one of Polygon’s most anticipated indie titles of 2021, was released on Thursday for PC and Macintosh. A debut title from Toronto-based developer Bobby Technology, the game is described as an “atmospheric strategy game inspired by classic science fiction,” following a crew of human colonists in the late 28th century who flee a war-torn solar system to find themselves stranded on a hostile alien world.

Players will need to create bases and allocate energy resources to sustain life support. They also have to develop weapons and defenses. Players can explore new areas filled with enemies and other challenges, thanks to procedurally generated solar system. The game is in Early Access. Additional updates and content will be made later this year.

Bobby Technology

It is this main point that instantly distinguishes Chaotic Era apart from its sci-fi RTS contemporaries is the game’s distinctive art style; a minimalist latticework of sleek wire-frames, pulsing topographic texture maps, and white hot explosions. Chaotic Era’s UI design takes cues from the in-universe computer graphics of sci-fi films like Alien, Blade Runner, Total RecallYou can draw inspiration from this abstract, yet distinctive aesthetic to create an interface that’s both pleasing to the eye and rewarding to operate.

Having had a bit of time to play around with it myself, the game feels at once like combination of a resource management RTS in the vein of Introversion Software’s Darwinia and the combat of Ritual Entertainment’s Dawn of War series, and an aesthetic sibling to the experimental games like 2017’s mobile space exploration game Verreciel.

Chaotic EraItch.io offers the opportunity to buy it for just $4.99 USD, on both PC and Mac, as well as the possibility to get it on Steam and iOS later in this year.