Empires of the Undergrowth

i feel like in my long time of playing this game it's great. the story mode is fun and creative. the free play is neat. the amount of bugs, ants, and biomes is insane it's worth it

Simple to pick up but builds in complexity, a good level of challenge and interesting differences in species. Would recommend

one of the best strategy games on steam, good graphics, and lots of content for the price

This game is great and is very fun to just go through levels and complete extra challenges, my only nit pick is the slave maker ants, they are quite disappointing and don't do what slave makers do in the wild, overall great game.

i played for over months of my life as soon as the new update was coming i waited for termites and matable ants and the overs and here we are but i have not finshed the story

Great Game only thing i could ask for is like a campaign. It reminds me of something like simant which was great. You had like a map of the back yard and a house with squares to take over, Fighting back and forth to take the entire map square by sqaure. Any hopes on anding that or is that already in and i just havent found it yet?

Entertaining game play and a fun story would recommend when you want a calm game

I LOVE THE UPDATES but wen i was little i tryed to find i on table i use to do army ants only for a bit but this game 45/10

absolutely lovely ant game where you can genocide a bunch of fire ants for ruining irl ecosystems, very fun when you rip through a enemy colonies whole army and the queen just watches waiting for death, very fun

Surprising gem of a game. Great base building and resource management game play. Can be brutally difficult and replayable too if you choose.

Worth the money. Challenging enough on medium you will still lose from time to time. Good story line as well. Original content.

Nice fun narration, cool gameplay, runs well, good choice for any ant fans out there

So much fun. Satisfying to send in a massive swarm of ants to attack other ants!

Do you like bugs?

Do you like RTS games?

If ya said yes to either of those questions then you should pick this game up. Can say I've not played any other game like it. I wish it had a form of multiplayer to VS various ant armies, but I love what's already here.

Great game that continues to receive updates. Simple enough to pick up with no prior experience in the genre, complex enough to keep you interested for more than just a single afternoon.

It reminds me of the dungeons series, but instead of comedic monsters its an ant colony.

Ant warfare on a strategic scale presenting unique challenges to overcome.

I've had quite a few failed campaigns in this game and I honestly think that's great because it just proves the developers aren't afraid to give a good challenge. On some levels it's a little tedious with sudden large difficulty spikes, but once you know it happens, or can happen, you prepare more in advance than you would without those spikes.

I have yet to complete the 1.0 campaign at the time of writing this review, but so far, it has been good. My favorite level has easily been the army ants level. The dread of seeing them march towards you is something else.

Has a lot of good variety and challenges to entertain you. I would recommend it.

very good stradegy game, i enjoyed it a lot.

very good game but after you dig out a place with food they grab some but not the rest

i love ants and it is one of the only ant games that is good the story is a little hard for me tho

Great game. Only two complaints is the bugs (no not the insects), and that being able to play it again slowly isn't a thing.

Need to play every map twice to figure out how stuff works. They could do a better job of explaining what the ant powers are. In the story mode, you cannot save during missions. Having the ability to save is not a big ask I think. You need to restart a level if you need to quit the game for any reason.

It is a good game though, I should mention. I like the gameplay very much. It is the usability of the game itself which makes the game harder to play. Sad to see myself quit after playing 16 hours in two days, but I don't feel like playing every level twice any more.

Great game, was great in early access and since 1.0 the devs have added many features/modes. massively increasing replayability. Making an already great rts game even greater. Would recommend for any fan of rts who also happens to love the insects and other little critters of our world.

The negative reviews of this game are BS, i'll talk about the negative reviews because there's too much good in EOTU to talk about in just a review, the gameplay goes so quick that every second lost lowers your chances of survival, the player control over the game is also nowhere near simple or too limiting as you'll find yourself micro-managing combat and food toggles, splitting groups into smaller ones for extra seconds and making creatures fight each other later into the game. 90% of all levels are races against the clock in disguise and you're never given a break, if you find yourself waiting and doing nothing during a game then there's something you're yet to be aware of, upping your difficulty should fix that.

The only complaint i have is the lack of multiplayer despite the game exploring such possibility in skirmish and extra levels and some perfomance issues, both of which are tech limitations just like in-level save systems.

Oh and those who say the game lacks content and replayability, BS too, half the levels are way too replayable, there's dozens of extra content, Remix mode is now a thing and there's also custom matches you can play as well as silly minigames which trigger every now and then, beta content is also released monthly and... No sadly you can't mod the game at all but you can edit your save-file too if you're bored!

really fun game but i wish you could Play as the driver and army ants it would be a fun feature to the game and i don't think there should be a max amount of the ants you can have

This game is great I'm somewhat of an ant person and all of the ants and what they their environments are all correct, and it's a fun game.

Fun game, keeps getting updates and more ways to play. Highly recommended.

My true test of a game is how long I play on the first run and other people's play hours. Let's just say I put 8 hours in my first session. As an indie developer, this is the game I wanted to make. Buy it now. It's amazing.

actually very interesting i would definitely try this game out if u like rts type of games and i always wanted to play this since i was 4

Everyone is talking about empiers of the ants but no one is talking about empiers of the undergroth.

Empiers of the ants is more stresful then the empiers of the undergroth because, once you complete one task in empiers of the ants, you have to look after the new nests AND the old nests but, in empiers of the undegroth once you complete a task you can go to a diffrent coliny without having to worry about the last one
I am 9 and I can tell that empiers of the undergroth is going to be better then empiers of the ants.

P.S I am plaing on my moms computer.

Fantastic piece of art hear!

pretty darn re-playable, and knowing this game is still under development tickles me.
i hope to see a multi-player, and many more ant options. also, an extension on the story mode where it continues...if you know, you know....

Great game, I first played it in Alpha on Gamejolt and having been waiting a while for the game to slowly finish but it was definetly worth it,

Loved the play style and the challenges. Had a great time building up my own empire.

Love it.

I had a fascinatation for ants as a kid and this game really made me love these creatures even more, I do have a suggestion for like a dlc though. I noticed the only level you played the counterpart colony is the other foot, I think as a dlc or addition you can make an alternate story mode for the colony.

Maybe scientist 1 might pick up a new colony to expriment on and give new information for the counterparts.


Ps; I would make this my main youtube game as a gaming channel and spread the love for you 4

Been playing for a since early access and the game is just as much fun as it was than. recently saw a lot of updates and knew I had to see whats new, and with little regret on said decision. Currently loving all the additions and new features.

played for 9 hours roughly. game itself is quite interesting to play but lacking the ability to save during game makes it bother to try completing campaign which is the main focus in single player game for many if not most players. i am fine with challenging missions but not when there is no ability to save or at least checkpoints during 1h missions. no wonder according to steam achievements very few people went progressed far in the campaign. also, the ability to pause and look around like in total war series would be nice to have. even if to strategize how beat a new map. atm it feels like you need to start a mission, carefully look around and than restart the mission which is not fun. replaying 1h or more just from 1 mistake near the end of the mission makes me feel like my time isn't valued and wanting to close the game. i have read that the team isn't big and implementing saves will take time but i am not willing to spend my time curretly on it. will probably return to the game if they will add either saves or checkpoints.

Great game, fun, cool ants, but not very RTS.

- Overall, it's fun to play.
- Funny story. I didn't expect the ending, lol, but it’s quite short.
- Each mission has a voiced narrator, very cool and BBC-like.
- Cool and unique ants to play.
- Very cool and unique game.
- Nice-looking symmetrical nest-building system.
- A lot of enemy types.
- Easy-to-understand mechanics.
- Cannot save in missions is sometimes quite inconvenient.
- Pathfinding and controls can be a little buggy; sometimes ants just stand still or don’t move at all.
- AI's prioritization system is very confusing; I choose not to attack, but some ants will still attack.
- Not a lot of content, especially in the main story mode.
- FPS drops when 300+ ants are on screen.

yes i would recommend this game even if the update standard have drop drastically compare to the first few. i understand maybe for fire ants and woods ants there is more to play about but seriously the new ants can only feed on termites it is quite sad that a game i would look forward to its update end up like THAT. throw big monster in just for the difficulty or for termites .. dun termite make home where their foods are? why do we need to leave nest for food?

The game is really fun, I wish there were more scenarios. It's over kinda quick for 30 bucks. That said I could squeeze out 30 hours playing through the game again on harder difficulties and messing around with the custom games a bit.

This shit kinda took over my weekend, so it's hard to complain. Absolute steal on sale IMO.

Really good fun challenge, game runs very smooth with no buffering or glitches and the graphics are lovely.

I played this game almost all the way to the end and my overall impressions were negative. Whilst the game does start to explore some interesting concepts and mechanics it ultimately falls short in almost all of them.

The premise of the game is that your ant colony is being raised in a lab, with two disembodied human voices providing a very basic story. From here you can select missions to play which will unlock territory (the amount of soil you can mine out), food (your currency) , jelly (a special upgrade currency) and some new ant types. Even after playing to the end I'm unsure how these missions are in any way supposed to link to the lab story. The lab story also contains its own gateway missions set in the lab, which unlocks the next set of external missions.

The lab missions have 0 strategy. You basically use the rewards from the external missions to build a load of ants, mass them at the entrance to your nest and sit and wait for 20 minutes or so whilst the game throws hordes of enemy ants at you (supposedly the "mad scientist" testing your colony). I played along for the first of these, and then went and read a book for the remaining missions...

Each mission is based around a particular ant type, to the exclusion of all others. The only place you can use all ant types is in the lab missions which, as previously mentioned, require 0 strategy and so somewhat defeat the point of the diversity. Therefore, each mission is heavily weighted towards the mechanics of that particular ant type, making them feel one dimensional and staged.

The ant mechanics don't vary massively, it still basically boils down to "find a way to get food, build a tonne of the specific ant type and then complete the objective using overwhelming force". Some of the mechanics are downright stupid. For example, the final ant type can only get food from termite colonies, introducing a "raider" style gameplay. However, the moment you attack a worker termite, hordes of soldiers jump out of the nest, annihilate any ants not quick enough to leave and then HANG AROUND FOR AGES, meaning you can do exactly one raid before needing to go elsewhere. This results in the game mainly involving snoozing whilst sending ants halfway across the map between termite colonies to do their single raid, punctuated by having to fight irritating randomly spawned enemies which, if you aren't careful, will wipe out half your raiding party - negating the point of the raid as all spoils will go towards birthing new ants to replace the ones you just lost. This makes the final few missions a test of endurance, patience and boredom thresholds rather than strategy.

This mechanic also highlights the awful system used to control your ants. In most RTS games, you issue orders which are immediately carried out. In this game you lay pheromone trails and have some basic behaviour controls such as "don't collect food" or "avoid combat". Except ants don't obey the pheromone trails immediately. Nor do they avoid combat or drop food when issued the corresponding commands - Food already carried will continue being carried and, if attacked, the ant will always stop and fight back. This makes raiding almost impossible - Your ants will not disengage if another tasty worker termite approaches them, and will continue fighting the overwhelming mobs of termite soldiers, wiping themselves out and leading to a net loss of food from the raid, rendering the entire exercise pointless.

However, my main complaint with this game is it is S.O. S.L.O.W. Each mission has a day/night cycle which lasts ages and, depending on your ant type, can almost completely cripple their ability to take any meaningful actions, resulting in large periods of twiddling your thumbs waiting for something interesting to happen. When ants *can* take actions, those actions mainly involve wandering incredibly slowly to a food source, fighting anything on the way or micromanaging your ants to prevent them picking up the 2 point value food over the 35 value one and carrying it all the way back to the nest (remember you can't drop food once its been picked up!), followed by building an army of your one ant type and charging at something. If you win, mission complete. If you lose, spend 20 minutes gathering more food and repeat..

I really wanted to like this game, but these fundamental gameplay design decisions made it more of a fight to the bitter end than a pleasant gaming experience

Discovered this game through Mauler/ EFAP.
Liked the premise.
Like the execution and gameplay.
Replayability high.
Narration superb.

An excellent and challenging strategy game that merges gameplay in natural habitats of different species of ants, with some laboratory challenges. Every map has unique mechanics that can be accomplished using each species' specialized skills.

Love the strategic aspects of growing the colony and having to micromanage resources.
Also love the scientific names of everything and the care that went into the game

I was looking for a relaxing Ant colony game to watch, not a fast clicker RTS that strains my reaction times.
Was loving it till the 3rd quest arrived, which is a time based challenge.

I played SimAnt as a kid, i was hoping this would be more like that game, it plays nothing like it.
I didnt like the way food was managed, or the way the ants were upgraded, i didnt like the annoying way you have to move your ants via scent trails. The ants never seem to interact and i really didnt enjoy the way combat was managed. Just too much playbook RTS and not enough creative unique.

The passion and love, not just for the game, but for ants as a subject is truly outstanding and i could only wish for more and more. If you don't have an obsession with the ultimate lifeform yet, you will soon. EOTU is fun, deep, entertaining, and can have hundreds of hours sunk into it. Here's to the next chapter of Slug Disco's games!

This was the first game I ever played on a PC, and I still come back to it whenever I'm bored with my other games. It has great mechanics, and each mission introduces a new one. The campaign is super fun, and I cannot recommend this more.

Great game. Harder on later difficulties but that is to be expected.

this is a great game to play, you have multiple game modes such as the campaign. you also can play other levels aside from the levels in the demo. overall i rate this game a 10 out of 10. oh you also got the arena which is also very fun to play.

Really fun, interesting game that I've followed since it was in early access. Quite re-playable.