Tempest Rising – TrueScore Gaming Review
🔥 Verdict: ✅ Recommended
📅 Review Date: May 2025
🕒 Playtime Before Review: ~20 hours
🎮 Platform: PC
💰 Price: $39.99 (Standard)
🎮 Gameplay & Player Experience
Tempest Rising delivers exactly what fans of classic RTS titles have been craving — tightly paced, combat-driven strategy with satisfying base building, tech upgrades, and that familiar sense of controlled chaos. If you’ve ever built a Tiberium refinery while under fire, this game will feel like coming home.
The primary loop centers on classic resource harvesting, unit production, and strategic map control. The Doctrines and Armory systems offer light layers of customization between missions, and while they don’t go deep, they add just enough spice to keep things interesting.
Controls are snappy and responsive. A nice touch is the ability to TAB-cycle through unit abilities — a small feature that’s easy to miss but incredibly useful during large-scale fights.
However, visibility mechanics tied to elevation can create some serious frustration. Air units hovering just over the fog-of-war edge can attack your base without being targeted by your own anti-air defenses. This isn’t difficulty — it’s poor visibility logic, especially when the offender is floating in the open sky.
Despite that, the pacing across both campaigns stays sharp. The missions are smartly crafted, and although the difficulty ramps up at a fair pace, some unskippable mission intros become tedious after multiple retries.
😄 Fun Factor
This game was fun — especially for someone who’s missed the golden age of real RTS. The missions felt nostalgic, the explosions felt meaty, and watching your army steamroll the map is always satisfying.
Would I replay the campaign? Probably not. But skirmish and PvP offer replay value if you enjoy testing builds or clashing with real opponents.
📖 Story & Narrative
The premise is straightforward: three major powers are in a brutal tug-of-war over a mysterious resource known as Tempest. Each faction has its own reasons, and the setup feels promising.
Unfortunately, that promise doesn’t fully pay off. The story ends abruptly after just 11 missions per faction. A mysterious third faction appears — seemingly building toward a deeper conflict — and then vanishes. No closure. No resolution. Just a cold stop.
It’s clear there’s something more planned. But in its current state, the story feels like a prologue without the novel.
🎨 Graphics & Art Style
Visually, Tempest Rising looks great. Combat is explosive and colorful, lighting effects are crisp, and unit designs feel grounded in that nostalgic 90s-meets-modern military style.
There’s nothing revolutionary in the visual direction, but that’s by design — it’s aiming for familiarity, and it nails it.
Minor gripes include some floating corpses and odd pathing, but nothing immersion-breaking.
⚙️ Performance & Stability
Performance was stable throughout. Load times were reasonable, no crashes occurred, and frame drops were rare.
There were occasional pathfinding quirks, especially with larger groups, but the UI and responsiveness helped offset the annoyance. Accessibility options are minimal — something RTS devs should really improve industry-wide.
🎵 Audio & Sound Design
The soundtrack is solid — it won’t win awards, but it fits the tone well. Explosions, gunfire, and unit chatter feel satisfying and keep you grounded in the action.
Voice acting is serviceable. It doesn’t elevate the experience, but it won’t drag you out of it either.
💰 Monetization & Consumer Friendliness
For $40, Tempest Rising offers good value. Both campaigns, skirmish mode, and multiplayer are included with no microtransactions or paywalls in sight.
That said — withholding the third faction from all playable content is a strange move. If it’s being saved for DLC, it’s not communicated clearly, and that lack of transparency could rub players the wrong way.
🛜 Multiplayer & Online Features
Multiplayer works — no major issues reported during early sessions. Matchmaking seems functional, though long-term balance and competitive health remain to be seen.
No progression systems, loot boxes, or engagement traps here. Just straightforward RTS skirmishing.
🔄 Comparison & Final Verdict
If you love Command & Conquer, this game is for you. It’s not a C&C title, but spiritually? It absolutely is.
It doesn’t innovate much, but it doesn’t have to. Tempest Rising thrives by delivering tight missions, strategic combat, and that classic RTS feel that’s been missing from the genre for years.
It’s too short. The ending is abrupt. And the absence of playable content for a key faction feels like a tease. But even with those flaws, it’s a game I’d recommend — especially to RTS veterans who’ve been waiting for something just like this.
✅ Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Classic RTS feel with modern polish
- Doctrines and armory upgrades add strategic flavor
- Satisfying mission design and explosive visuals
Cons:
- Campaign ends too soon
- Third faction is unplayable
- Frustrating visibility mechanics tied to elevation
📝 Raw Thoughts
This game proves there’s still a place for traditional RTS in 2025 — especially when it’s done right. If they expand on the foundation laid here, Tempest Rising could evolve into a full-blown franchise. Let’s just hope the devs don’t leave it hanging.
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