Armies of Exigo E3 2004 Preshow Impressions

At an Electronic Arts pre-E3 event, we caught a first glimpse of Armies of Exigo, a fantasy-themed real-time strategy game in development at Budapest, Hungary-based Black Hole Entertainment. The game seems to be influenced by Blizzard's definitive Warcraft III, with its distinctive playable factions and focus on up-close-and-personal skirmishes, but Armies of Exigo is set in an original fantasy universe and features at least one noteworthy strategic twist--battles in the game can be conducted on two separate levels at once. So, for instance, while defending your kingdom from certain doom, you may be guiding a heroic party through underground catacombs to find a powerful artifact to change the course of the battle.

We were treated to the opening cinematic cutscene of Armies of Exigo, which is extraordinarily well produced and sets the game's grim tone. Humans are locked in an eternal struggle with a race called the beasts, which consists of various monstrous creatures. However, a third faction, an alien race called the fallen, suddenly appears and throws the world onto the brink of doom. In the single-player campaign, you'll assume command of each of the factions through its own series of linked scenarios, which add up to one epic storyline. Additionally, Armies of Exigo will feature four different multiplayer modes: melee, arena, mission, and free-for-all.

The game's three factions obviously look different, and they clearly have some profound differences in their gameplay as well. The human faction can set up ambushes by using teams of miners to create subterranean passageways for human forces. On the other hand, the beasts have access to powerful, magic-using demons who may teleport beast units above and below ground. The game also will feature interactive environments, so you do such things as destroy bridges to cut off enemy reinforcements, and so forth.

The look of the game is distinctive and quite impressive already. EA representatives claimed that the 3D engine could capably sustain battles with a very large number of units without any slowdown, though we didn't get to see this in practice. From what we did see, though, we found Armies of Exigo to be an intriguing, new contender in the real-time strategy genre. Electronic Arts is a company known for revisiting its franchises with regularity, so if nothing else, it's good to see EA taking a stab at something a little out of the ordinary with Armies of Exigo. The game is currently slated for a fall release.