I’m kind of amazed by how accurate DORF Real-Time Strategic Conflict feels to a specific era of classic RTS games. From the chunky animations, to the synth-heavy music, to the early 3D look of its scurrying little units, it’s about as evocative of Command & Conquer and its ilk as you could possibly get in 2023. Just look at it in motion.  

Promising “elaborate base-building, resource-gathering, and massive battles with powerful and unique units”, the game has been in development by a team of just two people since September last year via a Patreon page. There, supporters are able to vote on what features and units they want to see in the game. Though considering they recently voted to keep the name as-is rather than change it to the brilliant ‘Wartrash’, I’m not sure they can be trusted. 

Set in a dark vision of the future, on an Earth “corrupted by genetic experiments, endless warfare, and extraterrestrial anomalies”, the game includes three factions—the traditionally militaristic Empire, the Mad Max-style raiders of the Warbands, and the more sleek and sci-fi NWO. As in Command & Conquer, each has access to weird and wonderful units—mechs, psychics, zeppelins, lightning tanks, battle wheels, and trapdoor turrets abound, all chucking crackly projectiles and explosives at each other as they fight over precious resources.

It’s certainly got the look and sound of a classic RTS nailed—what remains to be seen is if it can recreate the action, and more importantly modernise it enough to work for a 2023 audience. There’s no lack of ambition on that front, at least, with the Steam page listing everything from creating trench networks for your infantry to establishing transport routes and supply lines as features, as you fight over land, air, and sea simultaneously. Sounds like I might wish I had my young ’90s brain and fingers back to keep up with it all.