Today, I’ll be fully reviewing 2.1, the Rising Tide.
Let’s start with ants, as this is our first look at Formica Rufa ants! Wood ants, as they are also called, come in two varieties. Mortar does area damage, even more at level 3. Rapid fire has better single target damage, and also slows their target down at level 3. These are the two best balanced variants in the game. Both are strong, but shine in different ways, so it is common to catch yourself wanting the other while you have one. Rapid fire ants are better for large targets, and can also work without melee ants because of the slow effect. Meanwhile, mortars are fantastic in choke points and especially against enemy ants, or other large groups of enemies. However, because they take so long to fire, they cannot work by themselves, but are much stronger in conjunction with physical attackers. Though the choice is preference based, I go with rapid fire for 2.1. This is because you really need the extra freedom to move around the map, and the area damage you give up isn’t very valuable, until the last day. Formica Rufa can spawn melee attackers, to supplement the powerful ranged units. Though, they are very underwhelming as an actual combat squad. These physical attackers are useful as a meat wall, to buy time for your actual damage dealers. They aren’t unimportant, as they are also better at collecting food due to faster move speed, but are unimpressive by themselves.
Before I get into the level itself, I also want to go over music and visuals. The underground area is alright, but the above ground? OOOH! Super pretty. My only complaint is that the shells aren’t used as ramps, as that would look super nice. The theming is also good, with shrimp and fish being your main food source throughout. The music leaves some to be desired. Though not bad at all, the fighting theme isn’t particularly notable, and though I like the peace theme, a big issue of mine is that this level shares its nighttime music with the black ant levels. Though the 5th tier levels also do this, since they are the last levels, and the music they share is in the first levels, it isn’t as much of an issue.
Now the actual level itself. The objective says to “survive 3 nights”. This is done by collecting food before the tide rises during the day, then defending attacks during the night. Your home is stationed atop a hill, where the best food is far away. This makes a race against time as you try to get the food close to the water before it is washed away. For such urgency, though, the level is surprisingly chill. The tier 1 levels were also very chill, as they almost completely rely on player actions to progress level objectives, but now it is a race to do what you can, while you can. The soundtrack probably contributes to this. But while foraging, you have challenges to face. Other wood ants will occasionally barge into your trails, and tiger beetles will guard some of the best food. However, by grabbing easy food and exploiting the abundance of resources hidden in your nest, you are typically able to challenge these enemies by the end of day 1. Perfect, as on day two, an entire fish carcass washes into one of the lowest levels. With an immense 1,200 food, but guarded by both ants and beetles, it takes a sustained effort to claim it. The final day is more of a power trip, as by then you can easily bully the enemy Rufa ants to claim the food they otherwise defend.
At night, you rely heavily on underground resources to continue growing. But you also need these reserves to defend from invaders. Hermit crabs will barge into the nest, and with high physical damage resistance, it is important to have both enough soldiers to hold the line, and shooters to actually do damage. In the second night, wolf spiders raid the nest. They are lethal, quickly defeating lonely ants. Very troublesome, as they have a tendency to sprint past you frontline soldiers and into your brood chambers, causing chaos among respawning soldiers. This can be exploited to some extent, by placing worker tiles deep within the nest, so they sprint there and do much less damage to your offensive forces. On the final day, a large wolf spider and LOTS of spiderlings storm the nest. This is a scenario where you’d want both rapid fire and mortars. Mortars would be so helpful to clean up the baby spiders, but rapid fire can quickly incapacitate the large mother wolf spider. A fantastic climax to this level.
Lastly, achievements and challenge mode. I’ll start by saying that I like the idea behind the challenge mode enemies. They are larvae that hide in the ground, only attacking lone ants. But they have very high resistance to physical attacks, meaning it’s difficult to send a squad to take care of them with little effort. They are rather annoying, mostly because of the frequent comments from the narrator, but in this level specifically, they can really stunt your growth. It’s typically best to ignore them and cut your losses, as there is too many of them and not enough time. Annoying, but an interesting change in strategy, so I’m giving the challenge mode a pass. I strongly dislike the achievements, though. I feel that for the first half of Empires of the Undergrowths levels, the achievements are really unfair. They are either very easy, or brutally hard. 2.1 leans towards brutally hard. The medium difficulty achievement is to not collect any fish. Annoying for sure, but nothing too crazy. My biggest issue is that it discourages you from being interested in a big event in the level. The hard difficulty achievement is just bonkers difficult. The goal is to not let enemies enter your nest, at nighttime. This doesn’t sound so bad at first, since the second experiment has the same achievement. But it is. It’s not only the enemies that enter your nest that are outside. Some will just wander over your nest, so it’s ridiculously difficult to sustain all the fighting you have to do. On top of that, wolf spiders really like to run past your forces, making the achievement just unfair, especially with the flood of baby spiders on the last night.
Overall, I’m giving 2.1 a rating of 6 level 3 rapid fire ants / 4 leaf cutter majors (or a 6/10). Probably the most average level. Really, the quality I’d expect from any other game worth my time. Fun, interesting, and with cool events and beautiful atmosphere. But like the Formica Fusca levels, it just doesn’t compare to the rest of the game.
Let’s start with ants, as this is our first look at Formica Rufa ants! Wood ants, as they are also called, come in two varieties. Mortar does area damage, even more at level 3. Rapid fire has better single target damage, and also slows their target down at level 3. These are the two best balanced variants in the game. Both are strong, but shine in different ways, so it is common to catch yourself wanting the other while you have one. Rapid fire ants are better for large targets, and can also work without melee ants because of the slow effect. Meanwhile, mortars are fantastic in choke points and especially against enemy ants, or other large groups of enemies. However, because they take so long to fire, they cannot work by themselves, but are much stronger in conjunction with physical attackers. Though the choice is preference based, I go with rapid fire for 2.1. This is because you really need the extra freedom to move around the map, and the area damage you give up isn’t very valuable, until the last day. Formica Rufa can spawn melee attackers, to supplement the powerful ranged units. Though, they are very underwhelming as an actual combat squad. These physical attackers are useful as a meat wall, to buy time for your actual damage dealers. They aren’t unimportant, as they are also better at collecting food due to faster move speed, but are unimpressive by themselves.
Before I get into the level itself, I also want to go over music and visuals. The underground area is alright, but the above ground? OOOH! Super pretty. My only complaint is that the shells aren’t used as ramps, as that would look super nice. The theming is also good, with shrimp and fish being your main food source throughout. The music leaves some to be desired. Though not bad at all, the fighting theme isn’t particularly notable, and though I like the peace theme, a big issue of mine is that this level shares its nighttime music with the black ant levels. Though the 5th tier levels also do this, since they are the last levels, and the music they share is in the first levels, it isn’t as much of an issue.
Now the actual level itself. The objective says to “survive 3 nights”. This is done by collecting food before the tide rises during the day, then defending attacks during the night. Your home is stationed atop a hill, where the best food is far away. This makes a race against time as you try to get the food close to the water before it is washed away. For such urgency, though, the level is surprisingly chill. The tier 1 levels were also very chill, as they almost completely rely on player actions to progress level objectives, but now it is a race to do what you can, while you can. The soundtrack probably contributes to this. But while foraging, you have challenges to face. Other wood ants will occasionally barge into your trails, and tiger beetles will guard some of the best food. However, by grabbing easy food and exploiting the abundance of resources hidden in your nest, you are typically able to challenge these enemies by the end of day 1. Perfect, as on day two, an entire fish carcass washes into one of the lowest levels. With an immense 1,200 food, but guarded by both ants and beetles, it takes a sustained effort to claim it. The final day is more of a power trip, as by then you can easily bully the enemy Rufa ants to claim the food they otherwise defend.
At night, you rely heavily on underground resources to continue growing. But you also need these reserves to defend from invaders. Hermit crabs will barge into the nest, and with high physical damage resistance, it is important to have both enough soldiers to hold the line, and shooters to actually do damage. In the second night, wolf spiders raid the nest. They are lethal, quickly defeating lonely ants. Very troublesome, as they have a tendency to sprint past you frontline soldiers and into your brood chambers, causing chaos among respawning soldiers. This can be exploited to some extent, by placing worker tiles deep within the nest, so they sprint there and do much less damage to your offensive forces. On the final day, a large wolf spider and LOTS of spiderlings storm the nest. This is a scenario where you’d want both rapid fire and mortars. Mortars would be so helpful to clean up the baby spiders, but rapid fire can quickly incapacitate the large mother wolf spider. A fantastic climax to this level.
Lastly, achievements and challenge mode. I’ll start by saying that I like the idea behind the challenge mode enemies. They are larvae that hide in the ground, only attacking lone ants. But they have very high resistance to physical attacks, meaning it’s difficult to send a squad to take care of them with little effort. They are rather annoying, mostly because of the frequent comments from the narrator, but in this level specifically, they can really stunt your growth. It’s typically best to ignore them and cut your losses, as there is too many of them and not enough time. Annoying, but an interesting change in strategy, so I’m giving the challenge mode a pass. I strongly dislike the achievements, though. I feel that for the first half of Empires of the Undergrowths levels, the achievements are really unfair. They are either very easy, or brutally hard. 2.1 leans towards brutally hard. The medium difficulty achievement is to not collect any fish. Annoying for sure, but nothing too crazy. My biggest issue is that it discourages you from being interested in a big event in the level. The hard difficulty achievement is just bonkers difficult. The goal is to not let enemies enter your nest, at nighttime. This doesn’t sound so bad at first, since the second experiment has the same achievement. But it is. It’s not only the enemies that enter your nest that are outside. Some will just wander over your nest, so it’s ridiculously difficult to sustain all the fighting you have to do. On top of that, wolf spiders really like to run past your forces, making the achievement just unfair, especially with the flood of baby spiders on the last night.
Overall, I’m giving 2.1 a rating of 6 level 3 rapid fire ants / 4 leaf cutter majors (or a 6/10). Probably the most average level. Really, the quality I’d expect from any other game worth my time. Fun, interesting, and with cool events and beautiful atmosphere. But like the Formica Fusca levels, it just doesn’t compare to the rest of the game.
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