Hearth and Hamlet
Hearth and Hamlet
Game
Game2024
Empires of the Undergrowth
Developer Slug Disco
Empires of the Undergrowth is a real-time strategy game developed by Slug Disco Studios and published by Hooded Horse. Players control a colony of Ants or Termites by expanding the colony, gathering resources, and fighting enemies in standard RTS fashion. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
393 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
87
LovedLoved
314 positive · 48 negative
95% range 83–90%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 314 | 48 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 10 | 0 | 13 |
| Lemmy * | 2 | 0 | 6 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Overwhelmingly Positive
11,212 of 11,787 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
86% recommend · 208 yes, 33 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 241 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (17,960 of 19,032 positive).
Players praise the game as a spiritual successor to SimAnt with engaging RTS gameplay and a nature documentary feel. [1][2][3] Many reviewers highlight the lack of a save option during missions as a major drawback. [4][5][6] The game is widely recommended for its educational value and ability to spark interest in insects. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
It's as fun as I'd hoped after watching the development all these years...but you can't save or pause. Missions can take hours, and I can't save or pause at any point? If I get called away, power goes out, knock at the door, work calls, trip on a cord, pet does something or needs out, literally anything pulls me away means hours of time thrown out? That's a no go for me. I'd take frequent autosaves to ensure I don't …
- [7]
This is the best 30$ I spent on something! I have 463 hrs on this game at the moment and I liked every bit of it; It has cool music, levels and mechanics. I wouldn't say anything bad about this game. It improved my love for invertebrates by so much and now Im an Antkeeper and I also keep other insects and arachnids like The northern dune tiger beetle [cicindela hybrida], devil's coach horse beetle [ocypus olens] and …
- [4]
Fun gameplay, nice balance. The only real drawback is that there is no save option in mission. So if you have been playing for awhile and need to step away you either have to leave the game paused for however long or loose your progress.
- [2]
What happens when you take the beloved old-skool PC game SimAnt, a modern RTS game, and a nature documentary and throw them into a blender? Well, you'd probably end up with something like Empires of the Undergrowth. As both a lover of nature documentaries and an enjoyer of RTS games, it's so satisfying to have a modern adaptation of Sim Ant - although calling it a simple 'adaptation' is a bit of a disservice. In …
- [1]
It is with great sadness in my heart, yet optimistic hope for the future, that I must acknowledge that Maxis’s 1991 Sim Ant is no longer the best ant-based simulation game.
Summarised from 34 of the 270 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 9, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Empires of the Undergrowth sits at 87% positive across 362 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
PC Gamer called it "an absolutely excellent RTS". GamesRadar said it is a very satisfying SimAnt-style game. The Games Machine said it did nothing new and was missing several features common to real-time strategy games, such as multiplayer, but they enjoyed the variety of enemies and the boss battles.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 393 · most liked firstIt's as fun as I'd hoped after watching the development all these years...but you can't save or pause. Missions can take hours, and I can't save or pause at any point? If I get called away, power goes out, knock at the door, work calls, trip on a cord, pet does something or needs out, literally anything pulls me away means hours of time thrown out? That's a no go for me. I'd take frequent autosaves to ensure I don't savescum, but you gotta give me something here. I'm fine with a game asking for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the best 30$ I spent on something! I have 463 hrs on this game at the moment and I liked every bit of it; It has cool music, levels and mechanics. I wouldn't say anything bad about this game. It improved my love for invertebrates by so much and now Im an Antkeeper and I also keep other insects and arachnids like The northern dune tiger beetle [cicindela hybrida], devil's coach horse beetle [ocypus olens] and so much more! Thank you for making this excellent game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you're on the spectrum and like insects then this game will become your entire life 10/10 (On a serious note: great graphics, AMAZING soundtrack, impressive gameplay, interesting levels, passionate narration/voice acting, and fun ant facts are the things you have to look forward to when you buy and play this game)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is just peak gaming, you learn some new stuff about different insects and other bugs how ant colonies work and a bunch of interesting things throughout your experience. What is also funny is as I'm writing this I already have almost 2k hours on it, its just addicting. I hope this will help the game grow to have a larger community to hopefully grow mod development to help the overall experience.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok folks I need to evangelize about a video game if I may It's a game called Empires of the Undergrowth and it's the spiritual successor to SimAnt we both want and deserve After something like 7 years in development it's finally released a 1.0 version and it's fantastic and I'mma post about it
positive · AI labelView post →It is with great sadness in my heart, yet optimistic hope for the future, that I must acknowledge that Maxis’s 1991 Sim Ant is no longer the best ant-based simulation game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun gameplay, nice balance. The only real drawback is that there is no save option in mission. So if you have been playing for awhile and need to step away you either have to leave the game paused for however long or loose your progress.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot stress enough how amazing this game is. The missions that you can do to upgrade your main colony are so much fun. The narrator even tells you the scientific names of the bugs that you encounter. Because of him I now know how to say Solenopsis invicta (sell-a-nop-sis in-vic-ta) and megaponera analis (mega-pon-era an-al-les), the voice line is that memorable. If you like bugs, strategy, or chaos, or all three, then by god has this game delivered. I won't spoil anything, but the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man, I love this game. I've been playing on and off ever since I got the game early in the early access period many years ago... I finally found the time to play through its story mode recently and enjoyed every second of it. Insane and unexpected ending that screams for some kind of post-apocalyptical sequel. Fun little fact: The game is one of the few games I let my two sons watch while I play and it has managed to spark their interest for ants and insects in general. Now we go to the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great concept, but story missions having no save or save-on-quit is baffling. It makes the game unnecessarily hostile to real-life interruptions, such as a sudden Flying Ant Day invasion through your window halfway through a mission.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is everything i've wanted in a game for so long. i relied on roblox for ant games and the best one was "Ant War" but this is the game i've been desiring. i get to control whole colony instead of trying to wrangle others in the server. of course, i can't forget the fact that my dad was the one who had spotted this game and gifted me it, i thank him greatly for it. overall i'd say this game is a 9.7/10 and the best thing to play when looking for an insect game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hello Bluesky! We're Slug Disco, a small UK-based game studio making our first game Empires of the Undergrowth - an RTS about ants. We publish a bunch of other nature games too. Join us for Empires of the Undergrowth, Beetle Uprising, Ecosystem, Adapt & Horticular!
neutral · AI labelView post →Fun game, good length (~20 h). I like how there's a main mission where you can upgrade your "base" with rewards from the side missions, it glues the whole thing together. The levels are time-sensitive so it's more stressful than a casual base building game. The only big downside I found was the inability to save during a mission. I understand the developers did not want the option to save scum, but 1) sometimes you don't have an hour to play through a whole mission, and 2) so what if some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edit: Rewriting for grammar and conciseness, I had a headache earlier and I’m not happy with it. I've been burned by a lot of Early Access games. As a result, I have a policy where if I purchase an EA game from a developer, I won't buy anything else from them until that game is what I would call finished. I wouldn't say that I've been burned by Empires of the Undergrowth, but this game definitely doesn't feel like it is finished whatever the developers say. First, I have had a lot of fun…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've not played it but Empires of the Undergrowth is an actual ant RTS that came out 2 years ago lol
neutral · AI labelView post →Been playing this game since before the leafcutter update, which was back in April 25 2019!, I was only seven at the time! And I've have a total of 612.8 hours on this game, my most played steam game. I've played every single update, and completed the tutorial, and finished 43 achievement, I'd HIGHLY recommend for any ant lovers, who love a strategy game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love these guys, and Empires of the Undergrowth is a brilliant game. You should follow them! 😩🙏🏽
positive · AI labelView post →SAVE SYSTEM - its 2026, this debate is over, add a save and quit. It's anti-player to force us to always have a full hour plus of free time available to start any mission because we never know how long it will last and there is no save and quit. Absolute madness. *Update after dev response on forums and what looks like several more hours game time; skip giving them money for this game until they start to prioritize player accessibility as part of the design feedback loop. Or to put it another…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What happens when you take the beloved old-skool PC game SimAnt, a modern RTS game, and a nature documentary and throw them into a blender? Well, you'd probably end up with something like Empires of the Undergrowth. As both a lover of nature documentaries and an enjoyer of RTS games, it's so satisfying to have a modern adaptation of Sim Ant - although calling it a simple 'adaptation' is a bit of a disservice. In EotU, you raise various colonies of ants (and even termites! :D), gather food,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is charming, well written and rewarding to play. Until about the fifth time you spend an hour and a half on a mission with no mid mission save system, no warning of the gotcha twist they are throwing at you, and especially late game any large predator that sprints its way into your resourcing ants will lock you in an unrecoverable failure spiral, again. And again. The limited control you have over your colony is cute until it leaves the food you desperately need to replace your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →used to watch playthroughs of this and beg the gods for this game for christmas. do you guys think im the queens favorite little worker ant?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Empires of the Undergrowth is a hidden gem of a strategy game. This is an incredibly well thought out game that could not be more challenging. Your nest starts with just a few very weak but efficient workers, and you must strategically evade bigger predators to collect food and grow your nest. Once your nest grows large enough, your overwhelming ant force can destroy much bigger and stronger creatures. Most levels are variations of this premise, but it does not feel "grindy" as so many other…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Personally found the game very charming, kinda neat in the genre. Graphics may look to some "older" but if you can get over it, you find fun RTS from unique perspective of many different types of ants. If you like, you may spent obsene amounts of time trying to complete every challenge possible. The game does not force you to do it, but it is there for you to endulge yourself. The goal of the game is of course...to survive. Main story is quite simple, yet the interaction between scientists and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game was Perfect until they ruined the UI Hud & they refuse to add an option to get the old one back. Gameplay was awesome & now it's headache inducing with all the buttons changed & the ant icons being overly pixelated in a weird way. If this was 2024 Empires of the Undergrowth or early 2025 version, I'd say 10/10, but the new UI makes the game nearly unplayable & dropped it's rating to a 2/10 because it's awful trying to play with everything moved & the icons different when you have…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Who knew playing a ants would be so much fun?! I did i was one of the ant ppl in those covid facebook groups you know :ant goes to water, brings back droplet: or :ant found food 20 meters north tells fellow ants. Was i the only one?? P.S. As you can see im running on a 1660 and game runs smoothly
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Worth A Buy] Empires of the Undergrowth Review - It's finally full release and what a banger.
neutral · AI labelView post →I've played this on and off for 6 years and loved every minute of it. I played a game like this for the NES when I was a teenager and nothing scratched the itch it used to, until this one. RTS with ant themes just tickles me pink, the story is surprisingly interesting for what it is, plenty of novel arcade maps, I think the whole game could run on a potato, and even now I'm eagerly awaiting another free content update. Is it a triple A game? Proabably not, but its an anime protagonist with the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the presentation of this game, the narrator, and the ant colonies themselves, the levels have varied goals and challenges, theres a tech up system, this game has so many cool things! So why am I not recommending it? two reasons: 1: There is a system of customizing and evolving your colony that is really cool, but it does not play into the main campaign at all. It is for gimmick levels that in my experience felt gimmicky, its wasted potential that could have let players really change…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Strangely ever since I started playing this game, ants have been appearing in my room more frequently
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's funny, it's less micromanagement than a "proper RTS", the various bug/animals are great fun to fight, and it is so satisfying to see a long line of ants bringing home the grub. For me it really hits the sweet spot of challenging but not stressful.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's very niche and not very forgiving. Maybe I'm just too old for RTSs, but not being able to save during a mission that might run 30-50 minutes is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Starcraft had that feature 30 years ago.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is good. But my biggest problem with it is RNG. What do I mean? Unit's attacking other units. You cannot control who the ants attack. Because of this, you will lose battles you should easily win. Despite this, I'm loving it. First RTS game I've enjoyed since Starcraft 2 (when it first came out). Edit: Yall weren't kidding about that ending.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bug game sales this #InverteFest Apico - 75% Bugsnax - 60% Hollow Knight - 50% Empires of the Undergrowth - 50% Cocoon - 40% Another Crab's Treasure - 40% Webbed - 30% Crab Champions - 25% store.steampowered.com/curator/4499...
neutral · AI labelView post →Summary: stopped playing (3h) / not sure if continuing in the future Empires of the Undergrowth is a seemingly very authentic Horde-RTS game about ants with similarities to something like Dungeon Keeper, where you are building your hive that lets you spawn your ants to overcome the challenges. I stopped my playthrough because i got reminded why i have been playing RTS games in the past (building, exploration and story). While this definitely features a nice narration about ants and i can see…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I dont usually play RTS/Base Building games, so this one caught my eye because of the theme. Great game with awesome campaign and variety of game modes. if you're into strategy games you will sink a lot of hours into this, I imagine. That campaign ending is WILD! FOR THE COLONY!!! *MUAHAHAHAHAHA...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a good game with a few flaws in their choice of design and balance. I don't think I'm necessarily bad at it and have done way more than my achievements would suggest, even if I'm likely not able to do many levels on impossible. So many odd choices in development drag it down often. Something that constantly sticks out like a sore thumb was the baffling decision to massively reduce food income from large enemies... Early levels in which rival colonies can seemingly just walk by massive…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyed SimAnt when I was a teenager, wish I had this game back then. It's good, good music, good presentation, missions all have a different flavor to them, different types of ants represented. The RTS element is very simple though, you're just sending your ants out at food and enemies, but it's still fun.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 25 hours, I finally beat the main campaign and was delighted to see a whole lot of replayability unlock! I feel I only scratched the surface. Another point I really have got to make is how the voice acting of this game is superb. I went into this game with "Haha ants go brrr" but honestly ended up staying for the story and absolutely amazing theatrical voice acting. 10/10 ant game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, one of the best games I’ve played. It’s making me want to start my own formicarium... maybe with harvester ants?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →How lovely to be by the shoreline as the sun sets! The beach is one of many biomes you'll visit in Empires of the Undergrowth. #screenshotsaturday #indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #MadeWithUnreal
neutral · AI labelView post →This is easily one of the best RTS games out there. It really is like controlling an ant colony as the ants do not react to changes in your pheromone markers telling them to go places instantly. Instead, it takes them a few seconds to receive the new message and change course as it would in real life. The system of levels that allow you to experience different species of ants and different scenarios is well implemented. It allows you to master new ants while incentivizing you to do so by…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot understand why in a "RTS" game like this there is no mid mission saves. In its mechanics it's a fine game a 7/10, not really too interesting or engaging but kind of chill if not for the campaign without save system. Graphics are 2010 level but honestly they don't bother me because the game runs well and it doesn't really break the immersion (but they look bad at the mission end cutscene). Music is repetitive but kind of fit the overall experience. Gameplay and RTS mechanics aren't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super good ant colony sim, difficulty is a bit iffy, but I'm still mega hooked. Having a documentary style narration playing works extremely well: both to inform you about the different species of ants you're playing, and act as a tutorial when introducing enemies. There's a good variety of ant species with different specific features that make the game feel fresh the whole campaign, and there are a LOT of extra scenarios I haven't touched. Controls are a bit chaotic, but that's justified by…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is truly a masterpiece. I played on another steam account and had like 150 hours on it. Now I made a new account and bought it again because it was just that good. It is my favorite strategy game of all time, with nothing even coming close to it. The campaign is really fun, with the achievements being really enjoyable to try to account. Then the extra levels are amazing as well, with some having their own unique mechanics that are completely specific for that level. Then with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love rhis game, but what i feel like to make this game better is if have a co-op/multip[layer
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of my favorite games. When i was a little kid i would wait until school is over and right after i come home i would play this game until nightfall or in other terms the game is just that good and you should see for you're self if you like it or not.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thank you so much to Sin Vega of @rockpapershotgun.bsky.social for this lovely article about Empires of the Undergrowth. Excellent screenshots throughout! www.rockpapershotgun.com/rally-point-... #indiegames #screenshotsaturday
neutral · AI labelView post →It's recently turned 7 years since Empires of the Undergrowth was first released into early access - it released fully in June of this year. What a journey we've been on - and the bull ant has been its mascot all this time, despite not being in the game - until now! #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev
neutral · AI labelView post →It's a tough, but fair game. Empires of the Undergrowth is a genuinely unique game to the whole "command an army" genre. I wasn't expecting to get this invested in a game about ants, but my expectations have been way beyond met. This game also got me invested into Entomology, thank you Slug Disco.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The best thing about us has always been the community that sprung up around our silly ant game - these screenshots are by them. Empires of the Undergrowth is out now. Thank you to Punkleton, tibikee, ArmyAntGaming and TK for these beauties. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #ants #termites #insects
neutral · AI labelView post →A fun RTS. The difficulty is very accessible even for those not familiar with the genre. The base game loop is exactly what you’d expect from an RTS: You build an economic workforce, you build a military, you gather resources and fight enemies. That’s not where this game shines. What makes this game for me is how the dev managed to nudge you into building what looks like a realistic ant nest: There’s bonuses to be had for building separate chambers for separate concerns, there’s a malus for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game that hooks you in. Unfortunately there is no possibility of saving in session so prepare in avg. 1h to play every time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun ant game with dope boss fights. Autism go brrrrrrr
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Empire of the Undergrowth is a strategy and colony management game where you build and control an ant colony. The game features several ant species, each with unique abilities and behaviors, while also teaching players about how real ants live and interact with their environment. There are multiple game modes to enjoy, including the campaign, skirmish, arena, and a free-play/test mode. The game also offers plenty of challenging achievements, making it a great choice for achievement hunters…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As attractive the theme and beginning of the game is, the later half is everything I feared when starting a new game. It just got ignorant of what it is and started expecting conflicting, unrealistic things from the player outside the scope of core systems. Ants are fascinatingly complex creatures, but can only do so much in terms of strategy. Combat is always determined by your troop composition and numbers. Picking the right fights is important, timing is important, but outside of politely…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SimAnt, the old Maxis game, updated to today. I like it, especially the challenges in the story that are quick, side games for bonuses. It helped me to learn the game better than the tutorial and i could go back to the campaign with a little more experience. I did not get real far but I am going to really laugh if we get to invade the house. I really did like SimAnt back in the day and an update broke it, Windows 2000 or something. It really had the same type of vibe and I was waiting on the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is good. The achievements are hard to get and that motivated me to 100% it. There is still a long way to do that tho. I learned something cool from this game. Ants are into husbandry. I would call it slavery but who am i to judge :D Ants are tending and protecting aphids because they excrete a sugary liquid called honeydew. The ants love it so they tranquilize the aphids with some kind of chemicals and when the aphids grow wings (due to overpopulation or low plant quality) the ants…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It shows a vast variety of ant species. Play as anything in custom scenarios or take on the main campaign. Nice game if you like the vast reign and mass murder you can cause as a ruler of an ant colony
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is definitely one I'll always come back to whenever I can't think of any other game to play. It's insanely easy to learn and get into to, and has good replayability because of the many achievements you can get and custom levels to beat. I love all of the different ant species you get to play, from Leaf Cutters to The Matabele ants, as you complete each formicarium tests. I love the Termites and wish they had more missions that used them but I'm happy with the one that they're in.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If it was more of a grand-strategy game with less emphasis on control/resources then it would be great. But as-is it's like playing an RTS that needs micro-managing, except all you can do is give vague suggestions and cross your fingers. * Resources are always tight and non-renewable, but you'll always waste a bunch since you don't have enough control. Your orders only apply to groups and the group could be split across the map. I frequenly had cases where I needed to retreat, but disabling…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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