#Place phermone in empire of the undergrowth seriesīut where SimAnt tasked players with conquering a garden and then driving humans and other ants out of a house, Empires is split between a formicarium in a laboratory, which serves as a sandbox and a hub, and a series of missions that pit different colonies against a variety of obstacles, including a pretty nasty invasion of slave-making ants. The formicarium is watched over by a pair of nameless scientists whom I will refer to as Bastard 1 and Bastard 2. Bastard 1 sets up the formicarium like an arena, unleashing enemies upon the unsuspecting bugs.Īt first it looks like they want the colony to thrive, with Bastard 1 even whispering encouragement under his breath, but their true purpose is revealed in the special formicarium challenges that have to be tackled before progressing to the next set of missions.īastard 2 - she sounds like she’s in charge - becomes a Roman Emperor, demanding that the ants perform for her amusement. These ants are just chilling, minding their own business, and suddenly an army is poured into their home from above, quickly homing in on their vulnerable queen. And if she dies, the scientists just shrug. They purge the corpses, and then they start the experiment again. It’s all rather grim! An unexpectedly gloomy tone permeates throughout the game’s missions, too. Empires of the Undergrowth is all about struggle and adversity - drama. The narrator is the source of most of this drama outside of the lab, adding colour to the battles and invasions with brief snippets of nature doc narration. They have a slightly detached, ominous quality and tend to end on a pessimistic or threatening note.

Take his comment on the very first fight, for instance. The objective in first mission is to kill everything, and to do that, an army must be born.

Raising an army, then, means sending worker ants out to dig their way to food, usually other bugs, and build nests so more ants can be born. Black ants serve as the warriors of the colony, and cost a little bit more food to spawn. After a few minutes, I had a trio of black ants, and I headed to meet my first enemies, some gross Devil’s coach horse beetle larvae. Three times the size of my wee warriors, they were intimidating beasties, but my brave troops managed to lay down some hurt.

#Place phermone in empire of the undergrowth series.

Empire of the undergrowth first mission