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The Steam RTS Fest has just begun, and we here at Steam Deck HQ got the chance to preview one of the demos featured in the event, namely, Tempest Rising, a game that aims to bring back the feel of classic RTS titles from the 1990s, and it definitely accomplishes giving you that Command & Conquer feel.

But how is the game and how well does it run on the Steam Deck? Let's find out!

Tempest Rising - Gameplay Impressions

As I mentioned before, Tempest Rising is definitely aiming to bring back that classic Command & Conquer feel, from the music to the way you're supposed to play the game, it brings back memories of Red Alert 1 and Command & Conquer Generals for me.

The focus here is on quickly building a relatively small base, pumping out some units, and then strategically taking points on the map to ensure your continued resource income to allow you to create a steady stream of units to overwhelm your opponents. There's a population cap of 200, which can't be altered, but it's actually not as bad as it sounds, as, unlike other RTS games where you might have anywhere from 30-80 resource gatherers, in Tempest Rising, you can really cut that number down to single digits a lot of the time, with nearly all your pop cap being military.

You'll have a variety of units at your disposal, from infantry that can capture buildings that will give you economic buffs or defensive positions, vehicles that can quickly scout an area or take a battering such as tanks, to aircraft that can quickly strike a target, there are no boats though, as the game contains no water.

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It's not just units though, Tempest Rising also has technology known as "Doctrines", which give you additional abilities or enhance certain aspects of your units, such as additional movement speed or regeneration of health. They're costly but can give you the upper hand against your opponent.

The 2 factions are also quite different in their playstyles, with one focused on producing a variety of units to form a well-rounded army that complement each other, and another relying very much on technology with an all-or-nothing playstyle. They can even sacrifice the health of their buildings with a special ability in order to produce units faster. Despite the difference in playstyles, the 2 factions do seem to remain fairly well balanced.

The demo has just 3 maps, 2 1v1 maps, and a 2v2 map, which can be played in online matches and skirmishes against the AI. The developers confirmed there are 9 maps planned for the game's launch in April, and they will be adding more in the future as DLC (Unsure if paid or not). The maps are fairly varied, including being set in different environments, and all of them have plenty of strategic points that players should aim to control, whether they be choke points for defense or places of economic interest.

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As far as the gameplay feel goes, Tempest Rising feels very much Command & Conquer-esque, the emphasis is on building a constant stream of units, with your construction UI always on screen in different tabs, meaning you can just order units from anywhere on the map, without clicking on specific buildings. You won't really be designing fortifications here like Age of Empires. Resource-gathering is also fire-and-forget, sending out small groups of units to claim resources around the map and quickly harvesting them is the name of the game here. It all works very well, but it would, seeing as it's a tried & true mechanic for the RTS genre.

The AI in the game has 3 difficulty options, Easy, Medium, and Hard. Easy is very easy, and doesn't pose much of a challenge, even for someone without recent RTS experience, but the other two difficulties will put up a fight, although veterans of the genre will likely handle them just fine.

Does Tempest Rising bring anything new to the table? Not really, but it's also been a while since we saw an RTS follow an old formula so closely, and maybe it was about time we did see a revival of the classic Command & Conquer RTS style.

For those wondering, Tempest Rising will support a maximum of 4 players, with both ranked, unranked (including private lobbies) and LAN multiplayer. The game will also have a campaign mode with missions.

Tempest Rising - Steam Deck Performance Tested

Tempest Rising runs decently on the Steam Deck. We have support for the Steam Deck's native 1280x800 resolution, so no black bars, and while the game doesn't have controller support, the default WASD Keyboard & Mouse layout for Steam Input actually works pretty well for the game, with the D-Pad panning the camera and the trackpad and triggers used for mouse movement and clicks.

As for the game settings, I aimed for a 30 FPS experience, as the game does have an in-game FPS cap, which I recommend you use, as using just the SteamOS cap can introduce significant input latency in Tempest Rising. We do have to run with everything on Low, except Textures which we keep on High, but the game still does look pretty decent.

Here are the settings I used while testing out the demo:

The Tempest Rising demo mostly holds to 30 FPS, although it can drop a little in intensive scenes, especially when several vehicles are onscreen in battle. The power draw on my Steam Deck OLED changed a lot depending on the situation, being between 14W-21W, so right now we're looking at about 2.5-3 hours of battery life.

UI size is ok, but a little on the small side, it may take more than a little glance to see your resource amounts, etc.

While the developers aren't specifically testing or supporting the Steam Deck, I did hear from staff at the development studio that they regularly play the game on Steam Deck, just because it happens to work decently well on it. Like I said, I'm not sure you should play ranked multiplayer matches with a Steam Deck, but casual matches with friends or battles against AI shouldn't pose much of a problem.

Conclusion

For RTS fans who want a more modern take on the Command & Conquer style of gameplay, Tempest Rising will probably scratch that itch. It's fast-paced, micro-management mayhem. You'll need to manage various groups of units, expand and protect your economic interests, and outsmart your opponents to gain the upper hand here.

A demo for Tempest Rising is available now on Steam for the RTS Fest, with the full game launching on April 24th for $39.99. A Deluxe Edition will be available for $49.99 which includes the game's digital soundtrack and digital artbook, as well as 7 days of Advanced Access to the game.

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Oliver Stogden
Oliver began playing video games at an early age, starting with the SNES console and Commodore Amiga computer. Nowadays, his interest is in the future of portable technology, such as handheld gaming systems, portable power stations/banks, and portable monitors. And seeing just how far we can push these devices.
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