Unleash Your Godlike Wrath In New F2P RTS Game Immortal: Gates Of Pyre

We don't generally make it a habit of reporting about new games on Kickstarter because, well, there are a lot of them. And many of them are of, shall we say, questionable quality. Remember Allians? I didn't, and I wrote an article about it.

Today, though, we came across Immortal: Gates of Pyre by SunSpear Games. It's a free-to-play StarCraft-inspired RTS game that has a slick look and a dedicated development team. Here's how they describe the game:

Large armies clash across three worlds for control of ancient relics and powerful magics. Lead your nation of choice as an Immortal, a god-like commander capable of wielding the devastating energies of the God Star Pyre. Build your base, raise your army, and wage war against your foes in solo, cooperative, and competitive modes. Secure victory for your empire through strategy, tactics, and fine unit control. With a wealth of game modes and scenarios, ranging from relaxed to fierce, IMMORTAL brings the glory of battle to every gamer.

Admittedly, there's nothing too original there. The primary innovation touted by User Experience Lead/Community Lead Tom "Jakatak" Labonte is that Immortal lowers the skill floor while keeping the skill ceiling at a high place. That supposedly makes the game easy to pick up while still requiring very high skill at its most competitive levels -- again, nothing we haven't heard from strategy games a thousand times already.

Digging deeper, you do find a few specific details about the game. There are a "wealth of game modes and scenarios," including 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 battles. There will be five factions, each with three Immortals, available at launch. There's also a co-op mode where you can earn gear to grant yourself additional power; in competitive modes, the gear is strictly cosmetic.

That competitive mode is certainly something the team at Sunspear Games is looking to perfect. SunSpear Games' co-founders have been e-sports fanatics for a decade, and much of their creative team hails from the community for the Skywind mod for Skyrim. They've already got a number of content creators, some of which I recognize from various e-sports scenes, represented by banners you can purchase via add-on packs.

As of this writing, Immortal: Rise of Pyre's KickStarter campaign is just an hour old, but it's already 2/3 of the way to its goal of $31,337 (l33t!), which it should smash by the time you're reading this. It's still early in its lifespan, but we'd expect to hear more about the game as it continues its development.