Silica takes flight as RTS-FPS hybrid adds air units in major update

Early Access game hit a big milestone on its roadmap
Silica takes flight as RTS-FPS hybrid adds air units in major update
Silica takes flight as RTS-FPS hybrid adds air units in major update /

Bohemia Interactive’s Silica, a hybrid title bringing RTS and FPS gameplay together, is currently in Early Access on PC and has just launched a major update with a massive impact on the title: Air units are now available for all factions, adding a completely new dynamic to the battles on the planet Baltarus.

Both human factions have gained access to four air vehicles: a fighter, a bomber, a gunship, and a dropship. For now, they once again share this common pool of units, but the diversification of the two human sides to the triple-conflict on Baltarus is a point on the developer’s agenda that’ll come up once the new air gameplay is in the right spot.

Silica screenshot showing a swarm of alien air units above a desert world.
That's a whole lot of bugs / Bohemia Interactive

The aliens have obtained five air units to play around with: the wasp, dragonfly, firebug, defiler, and colossus. I’m getting some massive Starship Troopers and StarCraft vibes when looking at these guys, which you can do by watching the official air units trailer below:

You can read our Silica preview from a few months ago to get a general idea of what this game is all about, but much has already changed and improved since then thanks to the continuous stream of patches put out by developer Dram.

In essence, Silica puts one player in strategic control of a faction, which means they’ll construct buildings, produce units, and order troops around on the battlefield in the style of a RTS. Those soldiers, though, are not AI-powered entities – they are other players, who can use the vehicles and advanced troop types (in the form of classes they can spawn as) the commander produces in FPS-style gameplay. Human factions and aliens play completely different, but the outcome is always the same: Massive battles with lots of fun for the commanders as well as the soldiers.

Now, of course, it’s not only giant alien creatures and powerful tanks that dominate the battlefield – players will need to keep an eye on the sky as well.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg