AI War 2: The Spire Rises is a huge expansion to the space RTS out now, plus a big update for everyone

Arcen Games are continuing to improve and update their massive grand-scale real-time strategy game, AI War 2, with a huge expansion name The Spire Rises out now.

In addition to some new things to capture, turrets, and other ships that are available in any game once this expansion is installed, there are two major new factions. The Scourge is your greatest foe, the smartest and most dangerous sub-group of the AI. The Fallen Spire is your greatest ally, providing you with unprecedented firepower. You get to mix and match too, having both or neither or even make the Scourge your ally with new customization options.

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Tons more was added along with the expansion including 30+ new turrets, Tackle Drones, Bombards, Viral Shredders, and Tesla Torpedo Frigates, brand new music, some new game mechanics and new Arks to find and capture. In terms of sizing, the expansion is huge overall.

Arcen also did put out a big free update for everyone, so even if you don't buy into the expansion yet there's something to look out for. Here's the highlights of what's free:

• “Fireteams” from the scourge were backported into the AI itself, and the scariest other factions, making the AI vastly smarter in general.
• Improvements to targeting and other AI efficiency and performance improvements benefit all the factions, expansion or otherwise.
• A major upgrade to the lighting and materials used in the game makes everything prettier.  We had to retouch all of the existing ships and structures from the base game to make this happen.
• Loads of requested features, such as the ability to load quick starts (or even savegames) into the lobby for further customization before starting a new game.
• The Extragalactic War features that the AI brings out against the Fallen Spire are technically part of the base game, so that any other faction or mod can use them in the future if desired.  We didn’t want to gate that off.

AI War 2 is a massive and at times, quite a complicated game. However, it's also ridiculously fun and seeing the huge space battles possible makes it really worth playing. The AI is devious too, there's plenty of challenge to be had if you want a good RTS.

You can pick up AI War 2: The Spire Rises from Humble Store, GOG and Steam.