As Bungie prepares for the revival of Marathon in a new-look type for 2025, one other of its basic PC video games sits virtually forgotten. Fantasy: The Fallen Lords and its sequel Fantasy 2: Soulblighter had been the studio’s first foray into the technique sport style, and stood tall among the many likes of Command and Conquer, Age of Empires, and Starcraft as two of one of the best RTS video games of the period. But because the developer moved on to Halo and Future, the Fantasy video games fell into the background – however a small group of devoted followers has labored arduous to alter that.
Undertaking Magma started its life as a map-making group for Fantasy: The Fallen Lords and Fantasy 2: Soulblighter, however grew over time right into a collective of devoted followers which were working to assist the RTS video games ever since, updating and optimizing it for brand spanking new {hardware} and offering methods to play on-line with like-minded fanatics.
Maybe you missed the unique (and its sequel) on the time. Specializing in pure squad and unit administration slightly than the resource-gathering and base-building points of different such technique video games, the Fantasy collection follows the struggle between the forces of Gentle and Darkish. Its battles make use of lifelike physics, climate results, and pleasant hearth, which means you’ll should take your environment and positioning into cautious consideration always.
The newest launch from Undertaking Magma, Fantasy: Twice Born Version is its most definitive providing but. It features a newer, “extra correct preservation” of the unique Fallen Lords designed to maintain it because it was again within the day (different such initiatives had beforehand carried out extra options from the sequel).
It additionally gives probably the most up-to-date model of Fantasy 2 and its Chimera growth pack, with the flexibility to avoid wasting, pause, and fast-forward even when in co-op, in addition to improved shadows and reflections. After all, that’s simply what’s new within the newest replace – in case you’ve but to check out Undertaking Magma’s work earlier than, there’s a lot, way more on provide right here, from beautiful textures to improved pathfinding and stability tweaks, together with a complete record of different fan-made third-party plugins you possibly can add to the combo.
There’s one huge caveat. You’ll want a replica of Fantasy 2 to play, and whilst you can most likely discover a bodily disc up for grabs (or strive the primary sport’s demo, out there via the Undertaking Magma web site), there’s presently no approach to get a recent copy digitally. On condition that the basic Marathon video games did not too long ago make their approach to Steam courtesy of the Aleph One fan crew, maybe we’ll finally see one thing comparable right here. “If I’ve something to say about it, I’ll make it occur,” developer ‘Jon God’ writes within the feedback for the announcement trailer.
Fantasy: Twice Born Version launches Sunday April 20. You’ll find full particulars together with obtain hyperlinks through the video description – observe that you just’ll want a replica of Fantasy 2 to play. You may also go to the unique sport’s GOG Dreamlist web page if you wish to add your title to the record of individuals wishing for the RTS classics to be preserved in a digital format.
Within the meantime, listed below are some basic PC video games you possibly can play proper now, together with a glimpse of the longer term courtesy of the upcoming PC video games we’re most excited for in 2025.
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