Arcen Games is re-entering the grand strategy RTS field today with AI War 2‘s Early Access release. In development since 2016, this sequel to their 2009 smash hit AI War: Fleet Command (a game that still holds up today as one of the most interesting and innovative strategy titles of all time) promises to up the ante in many ways, with the most obvious being the massive graphical upgrade over the first title.

Grand strategy fans who game on non-Windows platforms will be happy to learn that AI Wars 2 will also be available on Mac and Linux from day one.

AI War 2 is a grand strategy RTS hybrid against an overwhelming, inhuman enemy who has conquered the galaxy. The enemy has made only a single error: underestimating you. You must steal as much technology as you can, take enough territory to fortify your bases and launch your attacks. But every conquest you make turns the attention of the AI ever more in your direction… so choose your targets with care.

What’s New and What Are We Working On?
We still have a lot we want to add, and even more we want to polish, but the current version of AI War 2 is already vast:

• Many optional factions, each with their own goals and strategy, creating a living galaxy.
• Polished gameplay mechanics, representing everything learned from the original AI War: Fleet Command‘s six expansions.
• Redesigned UI, currently going through iterations.
• Over 1700 lines of spoken dialogue from more than 25 actors, and more to come for the AI itself.
• 1.5 hours of new music added to the 4.5 hour score included from the original AI War: Fleet Command.
• A ton of map types, with a lot of sub-options to make them even more varied.
• Crazy moddability, with many levers available in easily-accessible XML.
• Multiplayer is temporarily disabled, but still being implemented.
• Multithreading for modern performance, and a codebase that will not summon an elder god.