GSC announces Heroes of Annihilated Empires

Since the advent of the hero characters in Warcraft III, a number of real-time strategy games have added dashes of role-playing flavor into the game mix. Heroes of Annihilated Empires, a new RTS from GSC Game World, will attempt to dish out an entire serving. Players will go from controlling a single character to waging battles with up to 64,000 units. The game is scheduled for release for PCs in 2005.

At the beginning of Heroes of Annihilated Empires, players will control a single character from 18 different hero types and six playable races. As the player completes quests and explores dungeons, the hero will become stronger and more powerful. Eventually, the player will gain the ability to build bases and train troops and will be able to enter into massive battles with 100 unit types.

Each of the six races in the game's original fantasy world will have its own landscape. The three races revealed so far are the Undead, the Druids, and the Ice folk (pictured). While GSC has not released any details on the storyline, it should play a major part in the game and will be broken into a trilogy.

GameSpot will provide further information on this hugely ambitious game as it becomes available. For more on Heroes of Annihilated Empires, including a full feature list, see the game's official Web site.