Remember the multiplayer shooter Crossfire back in 2007 that’s basically a CS:GO clone? Well, it blew up big in Korea and China, becoming quite a media juggernaut over in the East. After all, it has 8 million concurrent users as of now.

Publisher Smilegate wants to expand the brand to other genres: real-time strategy to be specific via its upcoming spin-off Crossfire: Legion. And it has hired Blackbird Interactive, a studio consisting of ex-Relic folks (Homeworld, Company of Heroes) to make the game. The RTS title features two playable factions with different playstyles: the Global Risk Faction are full of defense-savvy units with healing aura powers and some distance-focused weaponry.

The Black List Faction relies on fast rushdown tactics and sneak attacks with their Ghost Core invisibility powers and teleportation shenanigans. Just like its previous titles, Blackbird added the Commander mechanic to determine the army’s special abilities that can turn the tide of battle.

The game will have a third faction, but it won’t be revealed until February. Coincidentally, that’s when the technical demo for the game will be out. Crossfire: Legion will also have a public open beta out and about this April. After its technical demo session, the team plans to add more content along the way, including a single-player campaign, an Army Card System to customize your army, co-op missions, Steam Workshop Support, more maps and units, and more commanders.

The Future Of RTS Games In 2022 & Beyond?

There’s a lot riding on Crossfire: Legion, given its pedigree and the fact that it plans to bring the 2000s era of competitive RTSs back into the field, picking up the slack left by StarCraft 2. If you know how the controls and building system works in those 90s and 2000s RTSs, you shouldn’t have a problem getting into Crossfire: Legion. You move your mouse cursor to command units to move and attack, you determine your building placement on the fly when you have enough resources, and you still need to build supply depots to increase your population count, since different unit types require a different amount. Your low-tier but reliable machine gun-toting foot soldier will cost less compared to the amount required for your powerful jets and VTOL attack fliers.

We tried out a bit of the game’s bot mode and some online play. I’m no expert at RTSs but I had a fun time with the controls and mass-building gameplay, while also figuring out the tech tree on the fly. Between the defense-heavy Global Risk faction and the Blackbird faction, I favour the former more because I do like the security of having a ton of defensive options while also the option to heal on the fly.

I also like having the ability to pick off enemy stragglers with my commander’s Fire At Will ability. That special ability lets me launch an artillery barrage into a target area of my choice, so when I feel incredibly pressured by Black List guerilla soldiers & mercs, I just use this as a “get out of jail” card. Regardless, we can’t wait for the eventual reveal of the third faction to balance the triangle system of factions out; three is usually a magic number for these sort of games balance-wise.

Crossfire: Legion will be out in open beta form on PC (Steam) later this April.