Battle Nations, a free-to-play turn-based army technique recreation for telephones developed by studio Z2Live, was taken from us too quickly on Sept. 28, 2016. And I am clearly not the one one who seems like the sport did not have sufficient time within the solar, as a result of a brand new model of the sport got here again to cell recreation shops on Might 30, 2025 — almost a decade after the servers shut down for the final time.
I shaped a Battle Nations guild with my associates again in center faculty to tackle among the recreation’s raids, however we have been all the time severely under-leveled and outnumbered by our enemies. Battle Nations was launched throughout the heyday of cell gaming, fully revolutionizing what I believed the platform might do. Countless runners like Jetpack Joyride and Subway Surfers gave solution to Battle Nations afternoons, stuffed with planning our group conquests, and it was superb.
The brand new iteration of the sport, known as Battle Nations Rewritten, was fully remade by a bunch of followers who got here collectively to type their very own recreation studio, Madrona Video games. This staff of builders has spent the final a number of years ironing out authorized proceedings with the sport’s unique writer, King, to achieve the rights to make use of the Battle Nations trademark. Madrona’s builders honed their expertise with the discharge of one other recreation, Tank Ways, whereas publishing beta builds for their Patreon subscribers.
A decent-knit neighborhood of Battle Nations followers approached a significant company with their very own tackle an outdated property and did not have their fan venture taken down. Z2Live was acquired by King in 2015, which is an organization that was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2016, which itself was later acquired by Microsoft in 2023 — and regardless of this, Madrona Video games was capable of make peace with Battle Nations’ mother or father firm no matter giant gaming companies’ penchant for suing fan tasks utilizing their IP.
Now Battle Nations is again in all its former glory, permitting a complete new era of gamers to construct an outpost and broaden their army forces within the identify of the emperor.
The native wildlife is positively prehistoric and downright harmful.
What’s Battle Nations about?
Battle Nations was lampooning fascistic empires earlier than Helldivers 2 made it cool. You are the captain of the ninety fifth Rifle Firm of the Imperial Military, a once-renowned army presence that’s beginning to crack beneath siege from a insurgent military.
As flames of battle strategy the capital, the teenage emperor sends your unit to a far-flung continent in quest of assets to create a brand new superweapon. It is your job to develop a budding outpost into a large army complicated, preventing off rebels, vicious native fauna and gas-mask clad warriors that your chauvinistic lieutenant has deemed as “raiders.”
Your allies are all fairly atrocious folks, however their ignorance is consistently made the butt of the joke in Battle Nations’ narrative writing. Raiders and rebels are persistently higher outfitted and extra competent than your staff, which forces you to work even more durable to remain combat-ready as you advance additional into the sport.
Half city-building simulator and half grid-based tactical battler, Battle Nations appeals to many several types of technique players. I personally loved crafting zany items and using them to defend my outpost as I grew my city-state’s economic system.
As soon as gamers attain a excessive sufficient degree, they’re going to have the ability to be taught from raider allies to grasp mammoths and raptors, conduct medical experiments to show their fundamental items into zombies and even rent the Workforce Fortress 2 mercenaries in a weird crossover with Valve. (The launch trailer appears to recommend that the famed mercenaries will return within the fan model.)
Battle Nations base constructing will make metropolis sim gamers really feel proper at residence.
These advances are solely made attainable via financial prosperity and robust provide strains. Gamers have to create warehouses, broaden their borders to useful resource deposits and construct services to course of uncooked supplies into stronger kinds in the event that they wish to construct the perfect items. I’ve by no means been gifted at planning out my builds, however the perfect city planners will discover an ideal framework to create environment friendly (and pretty-looking) military bases.
As your outpost grows robust sufficient, you will begin to complement your foot troops with tanks, helicopters and different heavy automobiles. I keep in mind feeling like I used to be a real army energy by the point Battle Nations shut down.
I am unable to wait to dive again into Battle Nations’ tackle turn-based fight, even when it means I’ve to begin throughout with the bog-standard riflemen.
As Battle Nations Rewritten grows and develops, player-versus-player occupations will doubtless return.
What’s subsequent for Battle Nations Rewritten?
The brand new Battle Nations is not delivery with each multiplayer characteristic included within the unique recreation fairly but.
Madrona Video games has promised that subsequent updates will restore most of the social components lacking from the launch construct.
Which means the chums listing and guilds can be added quickly. One in all my favourite options from the unique Battle Nations was the flexibility to let an ally raid useful resource deposits in your outpost to assist them resupply supplies they have been low on, and it will be nice to see that collaborative gameplay make a return.
Boss strikes are additionally on the docket for a swift return, permitting gamers to mix their army would possibly to chip away at a boss enemy’s well being bar (and incomes candy rewards in the event that they’re capable of totally defeat it).
Past returning options, the builders plan so as to add “new narrative arcs, seasonal operations, time-limited occasions and extra to maintain the world of Battle Nations evolving.”
Madrona Video games’ Battle Nations Rewritten is launching on each platform that the unique Battle Nations was on. Which means you are capable of obtain the sport from the App Retailer, Google Play Retailer and Steam free of charge now.
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