Stardock Entertainment’s and Oxide Games’ abortive last game: Ashes of the Singularity, has birthed a new title from this cutting edge developer – Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation.

You can be forgiven for thinking that Escalation simply looks like an upgrade to Ashes of the Singularity. Much of the story, units, mechanics and settings are the same. However, I understand Stardock’s desire to market Escalation as a separate game in its own right. Ashes promised a lot, and it delivered a lot, its cutting edge DX12 development alongside its exciting graphics and vast number of units made Ashes a prospect that left RTS fans drooling in anticipation. But the reality was, the game wasn’t quite what many were hoping for. Rather than superseding titles like Supreme Commander, Ashes had much more linear strategies, less reliance on base building and just less stuff to do. While Stardock sort to alleviate players concerns with plenty of updates and DLC, the damage had already been done. Ashes star was descending, and no amount of updates could forestall that.

Without going into a full post-mortem of Stardock’s marketing strategies and their possible errors. I do know that they had to break away from Ashes, but the games bespoke engine is unique and a solid piece of work, especially after six months plus of real world testing. Together the unique and well-made assets already in game, it would’ve been foolish to not reuse what already worked.

So here we are, six months after Ashes of the Singularity was released, we have the sequel. With very little pomp and ceremony Escalation has arrived on Steam. However, I find myself hopeful for Escalations prospects, as Stardock is a good strategy games company. No developer gets things right 100% of the time, but there was enough that went right with Ashes, that I’m pleased they are keeping the base game and adding to it the things that players have asking for. If all goes well, Escalation could rise above Ashes reputation and reach the heights its predecessor only hoped for.

In Escalation there were a great many changes that Oxide have added since the original. The most obvious being is the inclusion of the “Strategic zoom” which is important for the new larger maps, and the grander design. But all the new units, and greater reliance on bases should make a radical impact on gameplay too.

And as a cherry on top, if you already own Ashes of the Singularity, you can get Escalations for just half price.