Command & Conquer Remastered devs return to their 8-Bit RTS series with new sequel 9-Bit Armies

Petroglyph, the makers of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection and The Great War: Western Front, have just released their next RTS game into early access. 9-Bit Armies: A Bit Too Far is a sequel to their 8-Bit Armies series of real-time strategy games, the first of which came out all the way back in 2016. 9-Bit Armies retains the cute, voxel look of its predecessors, only now maps are even larger (4x bigger than the original, say Petroglyph), with naval battles, superstructures for your base and lots more to dig into either alone or in online co-op.

The developers will be showing off the game in a livestream on Twitch and Steam from 12pm PST / 8pm GMT this evening if you want to see more of it in action. They’ll be going through the campaign and new daily challenge mode during the two-hour presentation, and if there’s time, they’ll also open up the battlefield for some ‘beat the devs’ PvP challenges, they said in a Steam blog post earlier this week.

I missed 8-Bit Armies back when it first came out in 2016, but I must admit, I’m very taken with the toybox-style visuals of this new sequel, as well as the fast-paced nature of its RTS battles. Combat takes place on land, sea and air this time round, and I particularly look forward to seeing what kind of pixellated chaos its 8-player online skirmishes turn into. I thought Teardown was a destructive, voxely feast for the eyes, but 9-Bit Armies could put up some fierce competition here.

Even though it’s only just launched into early access, it has full Steam Workshop integration for downloading more maps and mods – and if you fancy creating your own, you can also upload them to share with mates, too.

Other new improvements over its predecessor include a new veterancy system to help level up your army, more challenging AI opponents, and those aforementioned naval battles. You can also build (and destroy) bridges now, as well as “mega-sized and extra-deadly” superstructures inside your base to really do some damage to your opponents.

Petroglyph can’t say how long they plan to stay in early access at the moment, but “the core game is largely in place, with both factions fully playable and a full campaign to play through,” according to the Steam page. “We plan to add more online game features, a second campaign, more weekly challenges, and expect to incorporate suggestions and bug fixes discovered between early access and our full launch.”

For now, you can check it out on Steam, where it’s currently enjoying an introductory 10% offer to bring its price to £15/€17/$18.