Superb Command and Conquer spiritual successor gets new multiplayer survival mode

With the prospect of a proper new Command and Conquer game in the style of the classics feeling like a pipe dream, 9-Bit Armies is one of my favorite contenders to its vacant throne. That should come as little surprise given the pedigree of developer Petroglyph Games, which was founded by former Westwood programmers and brought us the fantastic RTS game Star Wars: Empire at War and the Command and Conquer Remastered collection. Now, its new survival mode offers yet another way to play, and you can even snag it cheap in an ongoing Steam sale.

The 9-Bit Armies survival mode was introduced in a preview format for testing a few weeks ago, and now this new update dramatically expands on the feature, most critically introducing the ability to play it in co-op or have a friend watch you in observer mode. To me, the glory days of the best RTS games will always be those co-op comp stomps where you and your friends team up against the AI, and thus the prospect of doing just that in a new challenge format is very enticing.

The survival mode, as you might expect from the name, sees you facing down wave after wave of increasingly challenging enemies. As of the update it now incorporates three difficulty tiers – you’ll start on the most basic one and will unlock subsequent, more challenging offerings as you reach certain milestones in the current level.

As mentioned, it now also allows you to invite your friends through Steam to form up to four-player parties and take on the survival mode together. There have also been some extra improvements to the mode, including an interrupt timer that pushes new waves onto you regardless of when existing enemies are defeated, and a fix for a nasty bug that could see you overwhelmed by an unfairly large spawn of dangerous enemies. You’ll also now be able to check replays for survival mode games, if you’re curious to find out where it all went wrong.

That’s not all for this update, however. With a 9-Bit Armies discount still ongoing, Petroglyph has also given the game’s build menu a visual overhaul to spruce it up and make it cleaner to read. There are also a number of AI adjustments that should make it more effective at flanking, reduce its wariness to enter combat, improve its builds in the endgame, and ensure it doesn’t blast its own units with superweapons by accident.

Finally, Petroglyph says that work on the second campaign for 9-Bit Armies is progressing smoothly, and suggests that it should be releasing soon. For now, a continued Steam sale discount means that 9-Bit Armies is 25% off on Steam through Saturday July 27, so expect to pay $18.21 / £12.56 if you buy it before then.

If that’s not enough to keep you busy, we’ve got even more of the best strategy games for your perusal. You can even harken back to the good old days with some of the best classic PC games playable in 2024.

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