When most gamers see that a game is free 2 play they get a bad taste in their mouth, but lately F2P has been looking not so bad thanks to likes of Planetside 2, Heroes & Generals, Super Monday Night Combat and Dust 514. Sure three of those games I listed haven't even been released yet, but all of those support balanced gameplay ideals and will not let players purchase their way to victory. End of Nations is one of the first real time strategy games that I've played that is not hampered by the free 2 play model. It is being made by Trion Worlds, who are known for the rather good MMO Rift, and they are creating a conquest style RTS for PC that let's players battle on objective based maps all over the world. They are planning to have thousands of players battling it out all over the world map and up to fifty-six players in any given battle. You will be able to play the game solo, but it is mostly designed to be played online with friends.


This is the kind of RTS that shies away from base building and instead focuses on combat. You have customizable units that you use to make up your squad and you can have a bunch of different squads suited for different situations, but you can only command one squad during a battle. However, you can change your squad during combat. When you are outside of a map you can customize all of your units and create whatever kind of squad you want to make. Each squad is lead by a commander tank, which can also be customized to be anti-air, anti-tank or many other options. There is a fairly traditional of leveling system for your commander that will let you unlock more forces as you level up. Each commander also has customizable abilities, like being able to call in stationary turrets during battle or a repair aura for your vehicles. Before I go any further watch this trailer from E3.

End of Nations gives you plenty of options for your units, commander and squad, but you also have quite a few options when it comes to battles. The story is based on around the Order of Nations, a superpower that brought peace back to the world after it was torn into anarchy after the economic collapse of the 21st century. This superpower started out with good intentions, but eventually became a tyrannical force that many opposed. You play as one of four different forces in the game and you can play player versus environment or player versus player. If you play PVE you are joining up with others to fight the Order of Nations, but either way you will be earning points for your commander and unlocking more units.



Each map in the game has different objectives, which I will talk about a little during the impression section of this post, but it's kind of like Company of Heroes or Dawn of War where there are points aroudn the map and each one has a different purpose. Some are needed for the map objective, while others can give bonuses or resources. If you are interested in trying End of Nations before it comes sometime later this year there is a beta going on and you can sign up for if you have a Trion Account. Like most betas you don't have   guaranteed access if you sign up, but at this moment End of Nation isn't super popular so you have a pretty decent chance of getting in. Head on over to their website and sign up to get in on the beta. Now for some impressions, which will be from both Adam and me. We both played it at E3 for quite some time and hopefully we both have some fairly different experiences to share.