New medieval MMO from Foxhole dev gets thousands of players, but faces criticism

Anvil Empires is a terrific idea. Imagine a game of Age of Empires 2, but every villager and soldier is an actual, living player. Cooperating with hundreds of other people, you need to build a village, create a production line for weapons and armor, and defend your castle from the opposing army, every member of which is also a real person. Like Foxhole before it, Anvil Empires promises not just large-scale, multiplayer combat, but a simulation of every facet of warfare, where the factory workers and manufacturers behind the front line are just as important as the troops. And so far, the sheer numbers are looking good. More detailed feedback, however, is less than resoundingly enthusiastic.

As part of Steam Next Fest, developer Siege Camp has set Anvil Empires loose to a general player base for the very first time. Part medieval game and part MMO, right now, Anvil Empires' creator is trying to stress test its servers to see how the game holds up when thousands of people are trying to get online and join a single battle all at once. Between Monday June 9 and Monday June 16, there will be several separate tests - although you can download the Anvil Empires demo right now, you can't queue up for or join a battle until the start of the scheduled test time. If you want to give it a shot regardless, you definitely won't be alone.

According to numbers from Steam DB, the first Anvil Empires stress test attracted just over 12,000 players. For context, that's a higher simultaneous player count than Foxhole has reached in its entire lifetime. Seemingly, there is an appetite for what Anvil Empires is serving, but the actual experience of the game has sparked some complaints.

On its Steam Discussions pages, Anvil Empires players cite a number of issues so far, including problems with the volume of proximity chat and the combat system, which some respondents say is too simplistic. "I know it's just a stress test, but the way combat works is just terrible," one person writes. "It's not fun and sure doesn't feel good. You feel like one of those tiny NPCs with two attack animations."

"The combat is extremely boring," another player says. "I was looking forward to this test," a third player writes, "but the combat is just not good at all, even for an alpha." Other people are more favorable, however. "I really enjoy the concept and the large map dynamic," says one player on Steam. "I hope they keep working on it and get it to a point where it's fun."

"It's funny to recall that a lot of the negativity I've read here across Steam reflects the exact same things people said about Foxhole when it was starting up," another player writes. "I'd say the state is marginally decent enough to warrant more investing of time and resources."

More Anvil Empires stress tests are planned for throughout the rest of this week. If you want to try it out, just head here.

Otherwise, you might enjoy some of the best RTS games, or maybe the best multiplayer games available right now.

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