Wait, wasn't I up to "D"?, Having finished just recently the <em>Devil May Cry</em> games? 

<em>Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation</em> recently released for free via the Humble Store. This game had existed in the confines of my game wish list for some time. While it isn't officially billed as a spiritual successor the series of <em>Supreme Commander</em> games, many in the gaming industry have called it "benchmark simulator". 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/holoz0r/1szdGIsk-image.png)

Whatever you think  <em>Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation</em>  is, there's a game underneath it all.  

Set deep into the future, where humanity is now "post-human", with technological advancements in every single field, as a space-faring race, new problems start to emerge. 

The economy becomes "streaming", in a way that allows you to use resources as you obtain them, and use resources you'd otherwise collect before you have them in your hands. Sounds like capitalism won, along with debt bonds. 

As a person who is totally not called a commander, (probably for copyright reasons) you instruct engineers, buildings, mines, and other stuff to fuel the war machine in response to an unknown threat. 

An unknown threat that looks suspiciously like the Aeon from <em>Supreme Commander</em>.

In an economy and world so far advanced, it boggles the mind that a commander needs to do menial things like decide what units to build to face the enemy that is thrown their way. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/holoz0r/gpnrC9li-image.png)

What would feel like a more realistic strategy game in this scenario is being given a decreasingly efficient (and smaller) force to mount a response to an increasingly threatening obstacle. 

Instead, what you tend to be encouraged to do, especially in the early stages of the game, is to overwhelm your enemy forces with a steady stream of increasingly stronger assailants to bring down their fortress, foothold, or whatever. 

It is just like every other traditional real time strategy game, and if you've played <em>Supreme Commander</em>, you'll be right at home here - <em>if</em> your PC can handle it. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/holoz0r/zCVhkJZI-image.png)

On a 12 core, 24 thread Ryzen R9 3900x at 4.6GHz, there's no CPU bottleneck when coupled with a 1080ti, which is a good sign - when previous games of this style simulating the paths of hundreds of units could quickly form a bottleneck. 

I can't complain with the cost of this game, as I got it for nothing other than a few pieces of spam in my e-mail inbox from Humble Bundle, but I can't help but think that I would be disappointed if I used my hard earned money on this game.