Sci-Fi RTS And FPS Hybrid Silica Blends Arma With StarCraft And I'm Here For It

mmorpg.com:

Silica is an upcoming RTS and First-Person Shooter hybrid that basically asks the question of what you get when you mix Arma III and Starship Troopers. It's also a little bit Arma meets StarCraft with the sandboxy FPS blending with the human versus alien RTS on offer. The crossover is coming by way of Bohemia Interactive thanks to its Bohemia Incubator label, which aims to give indie developers more resources to build the games of their dreams.

Silica aims to blend real-time strategy elements with first-person shooter gameplay as players will be able to take the role as either the commander of the army or as one of the boots literally on the ground, doing the fighting. Set on the fictional world of Baltarus in the distant future, there currently are three factions to choose from: two human factions hailing from either Sol or Alpha Centauri and the Aliens.

In a preview event last month, I had the chance to give the new title a go with fellow journalists to see how the action holds up. Jumping into the role of a soldier in the Human Centauri army, I set out to destroy the alien menace — and put to those Sol dwellers as well.

Visually, Silica looks like it's leveraging some pretty impressive tech to showcase its vision. The desert planet of Baltarus is a wasteland, with craggy cliffs and seas of sand separating you and your enemies. Dust plumes spun around me as I fought to discern whether I saw units in the distance or if they were heat mirages leading me astray. The gigantic human structures towered over me as I ran around our base, other ground troops and vehicles racing around me waiting for orders from our commander on high.

From an RTS standpoint, Silica is serviceable. You build your base by collecting