Silica is a sci-fi mix of real-time strategy and shooter from Arma studio Bohemia Interactive and the designer of Take on Mars.
It’s a first-person shooter! It’s a real-time strategy game! It’s Silica, the first game from Bohemia Interactive’s new Bohemia Incubator indie label.
In terms of plot, Silica sounds very Command & Conquer and StarCraft. Humans have arrived at a remote alien planet, Baltarus, which contains a crystalline substance – Altaraeum – which can be used as a handy energy source. Unfortunately, the planet’s insectoid population isn’t too happy about all the pesky humans turning up with their futuristic drilling equipment, and a big, Starship Troopers-like war swiftly follows.
We’ve seen shooter-strategy hybrids before – 2020’s Disintegration springs to mind. Silica seems different, though, in that it appears to give players the freedom to completely ignore one half of the genre equation in favour of the other.
“Silica is an immersive blend of first person shooter and real time strategy, each true to its respective genre,” developer/publisher Bohemia Interactive writes in a press release. “The game allows players the freedom of choice, without forcing them to play as both. If you prefer sand-filled boots, bullets whizzing overhead, and menacing alien jaws closing in, the infantry role is for you. For those who’d rather command their forces from a distance, the esteemed role of Commander awaits you in the relative safety of orbit.”
Silica looks all the more impressive given that, according to Bohemia, it was “mostly developed by a single developer”, Martin ‘Dram’ Melicharek, who previously served as lead developer on the studio’s red planet survival sim, Take On Mars.
Silica’s main FPS-RTS campaign will be joined by two additional modes – Prospector, which is described as a tutorial mode, and Arena, a multiplayer FPS battle mode.
The game’s set to launch into Steam Early Access at an unspecified future date, with the early access phase set to last between nine and 12 months. It all looks rather promising so far, we have to say.
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