War Selection is an Early Access Steam title with some lofty ideas. That sentence is enough to scare many gamers away right out. However, developer Glyph Worlds knows what it's doing for the most part. The gameplay takes some of the best elements from Age of Empires or Civilization, with more emphasis on combat. That's because it has battle royale blood in it. Up to 62 players can participate in one match. The only thing holding War Selection back from true greatness, aside from typical Early Access bugs, is its ill-advised payment model.
Age Of (A Lot Of) Empires
Like many other historical RTS games, War Selection puts you in charge of a civilization at its birth. You can take your people from the Stone Age to the Industrial age, assuming you survive that long. Leadership involves both putting troops into battle and managing the civilization's resources. One thing that sets War Selection apart is its variation. There's more meaning in the choice of civilization. Players will unlock vastly different technologies, units, and buildings depending on which civilization they choose. This adds some solid replayability, and also jacks the unit total to over 200.
There's also the other advertised feature: battle royale. Up to 62 players can cram into a map for a never-ending war where the smallest civilizations are automatically picked off. As one might imagine, it's pure chaos. This game, in general, can be a bit overwhelming at times. There's a lot of content here for an Early Access game. On the other hand, it's also very commendable. One gets the feeling that, as long as the player base remains eager, Glyph Worlds will continue to polish the game and turn it into a true contender.
The Future Of War Selection
Steam user reviews are currently very positive. Many players are happy with the foundation laid down by the Early Access build. In particular, they enjoy the varied unit types and unpredictability of the maps. On the other hand, many also call out bugs and game crashes. Also, balance seems to be an issue at this stage. It's way too easy for one powerful unit to waltz in and destroy an entire settlement. Now that Glyph Worlds has the content, it would be nice to see some refinement.
The thing that makes the least sense, however, is War Selection's monthly subscription model. The game currently operates on a free-to-play model, with several modes locked behind a monthly subscription. The thing is, buying the subscription doesn't get you the content right away. You have to be subscribed for at least a month to get the first taste of the good stuff, and more continues to be unlocked every month after that. It's like Glyph Worlds is afraid players will lose interest in the first few weeks, and makes them commit to several months to ensure they see everything the game has to offer.
It's sad, because the core experience of War Selection is already great. It could easily establish itself as the free-to-play Age of Empires battle royale. Glyph Worlds just needs to drop the monthly subscription and focus on balancing and bug fixing. To be fair, they did just drop a balance patch. Maybe they could introduce unit skins or early access to new content to bring in revenue. The players are there, the game is good, management just needs to step up and do its part.
War Selection is free-to-play on Steam Early Access. TheGamer reviewed the build as of Oct 20th.
War Selection