Tempest Rising

A throwback RTS with base building, Tiberium-like crystals, and explosive battles that feel straight out of the late ’90s—with a few welcome updates.

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Tempest Rising – Base Building, Explosions, and Nostalgia Bombs
I didn’t expect to be building power plants and cranking out tanks in 2025, but Tempest Rising made me feel like I was back in my old bedroom, clicking furiously on a dusty CRT monitor and yelling at my units for being dumb. In the best way.

Let’s be real: the real-time strategy genre isn’t exactly flooding the market these days. That’s why Tempest Rising stood out to me the second I saw it. It’s unapologetically classic—base building, resource gathering, unit spam, tech trees—all that good stuff. And yet, somehow, it still feels sharp and fresh.

Command & Conquer DNA Runs Deep
If you’ve ever played Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, you’ll feel right at home here. In fact, I’d be surprised if the devs didn’t have a poster of Kane somewhere in their office. You’ve got two main factions (with a third teased later), mysterious crystals popping out of the ground, and a soundtrack that basically screams “build more tanks.”

The gameplay loop is simple but satisfying:

Set up your base

Build your economy

Defend against early raids

Tech up

Smash the enemy into the dirt

And then do it again in the next mission, but with new units and even more chaos.

 Gameplay – RTS, But Snappier
One thing I noticed immediately is how tight the controls feel. Moving units, setting rally points, queuing up construction—all of it just works. No weird pathfinding issues (okay, maybe one or two minor hiccups), and the UI doesn’t feel like it’s fighting me.

There’s a solid rhythm to how battles play out. You can’t just spam one unit and expect to win. Infantry can get mowed down, but they’re great in cover. Tanks are beastly but slow. Air units? Fragile but terrifying. The balance feels just right—enough to keep me thinking without needing a spreadsheet to plan my next move.

Also, shoutout to the mission design. Some of the campaign maps got weird, in a good way. There’s one where you’re stuck scavenging in a storm, and it genuinely made me feel tense in a genre that’s usually about brute force.

Visuals – Clean, Detailed, and a Bit Retro
Graphically, Tempest Rising won’t melt your GPU, but it nails the vibe. The terrain is nicely detailed, the unit designs are chunky and readable, and the explosions? Chef’s kiss. Big booms, screen shake, and the satisfying crackle of laser fire—it’s all here.

The environments vary enough to keep things interesting. Desert outposts, ruined cities, alien-infested zones... every map feels like it could be the scene of a straight-to-DVD sci-fi movie. And I mean that lovingly.

 Sound – Let the Guitars Rip
Let’s talk audio. The voice lines? Cheesy in all the right ways. The soundtrack? Straight from the late ’90s playbook, with crunchy guitars and dramatic drum loops. I actually caught myself nodding along during some missions—which is either a great sign or a symptom of sleep deprivation.

Explosions, weapon sounds, base alerts—they’ve all got that satisfying punch that makes even a simple skirmish feel like a mini war movie.

 AI – Not Dumb, Not a Genius
The enemy AI isn’t going to win any chess tournaments, but it gets the job done. It’ll poke your defenses, test your flanks, and occasionally throw a nasty curveball your way. I appreciated that it didn’t just turtle or rush blindly—it reacts, sometimes unpredictably.

Your own unit AI? Mostly fine. Occasionally, a group of soldiers will forget how to path around a tree, but that’s just part of the charm. I’ve seen worse in bigger games.

Story – It’s There, And It Works
Is Tempest Rising going to win a Hugo Award? Probably not. But the story is decent enough to keep you moving forward. You’ve got secret factions, shady governments, crystal-based resources (definitely not Tiberium™), and lots of radio chatter from gruff commanders.

The writing leans into the cheese just enough without going full parody. It takes itself seriously in a way that feels kinda retro, but also kinda refreshing.

Bugs & Polish – Mostly Smooth
I ran into a few bugs—one crash, a couple of frozen animations, and one unit that decided it was done listening to orders forever. But for the most part, the game ran well on my (pretty average) setup. Load times were quick, performance was stable, and nothing felt broken enough to pull me out of the experience.

And hey, it’s an RTS in 2025. The fact that it exists and works is already kind of a win.

Final Thoughts – For the Strategy-Starved Among Us
If you’ve ever found yourself randomly humming the Red Alert theme or booting up old C&C games just for fun, Tempest Rising is probably going to hit you in the feels.

It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s just trying to remind you how good the wheel was in the first place—and maybe add a few chrome spokes while it’s at it.

For me, it scratched that exact itch I didn’t know I still had. A couple of late nights, a dozen “just one more mission” moments, and a newly rekindled love for RTS chaos later… I’m really glad I gave this one a shot.

If you’re into strategy, base-building, and watching little tanks explode in satisfying detail—you’ll probably feel the same.

— John