Forts (video game)

The core gameplay of Forts is similar to many real-time strategy games: build up resources, acquire new technologies, and build something to attack the opponent while defending yourself from their attacks. There are weapons like missiles, lasers, cannons, and mortars to attack, with things like reinforced walls, sand bags, and machine guns to shoot down projectiles and defend yourself. The point of the game is to destroy the opponent's core, which can be done through direct damage, like hitting it with a laser, indirect damage, like setting fire to it, or through making it fall to the ground by destroying the supporting fort around it. Teams are able to choose one of many commanders, each with their own powers, in order to augment their playstyle.[8]

On May 27 2017, Earthwork Games started hosting their own official Forts tournaments.[9] Community driven tournaments have been organised, of which many had the developers help out and grant an in-game badge reward to the winner.

The official tournaments are varying team sizes, and have prizes for the top three players as well as a name mention in the winners announcement.[10] The official tournaments are viewable live or as replay from various content creators, including but not limited to Project Incursus, Boberet0 and salzwerk (German)

The latest official tournament was tournament XXII. The qualifiers were on 19 February 2022 and the tournament itself was on 26 February 2022. This was a 2 verus 2 tournament.[11] The winner was team "Sussles", consisting of players AlexD and Firework.[12]

Community driven tournaments are made by various players in the community and are often different from their official counterpart. One example of such is Cronkinator's AI tournament, in which participants must use the game's AI functionality to create an AI that will battle the AI of others.[13]

Not all tournaments are battles. The official tournaments also include Forts Map Making Contest, of which 3 have been organized this far. The winner of the latest is Pyro. In these tournaments players are tasked with creating a custom map for the game. A winner is chosen by a team of judges, often consisting of (members of) the development team and content creators.[14]

A remastered soundtrack DLC was launched on 20 April 2017, costing 9.99 USD. This includes the official soundtrack from the base game.[15]

The Moonshot DLC was released on 18 June 2019. The Moonshot DLC costs 7.99 USD, it included four new weapons, three new commanders, portals, a new gameplay mode, a new HUD for teams, a unique medal that can be seen in lobby by others, and a new soundtrack.[16]

Following the Moonshot DLC, a separate DLC for the soundtrack was released on the same date. Costing 4.99 USD and allows downloading of the full Moonshot soundtrack.[17]

The Pro HUD DLC was released on 24 June 2020. The Pro HUD DLC includes a new color palette in game for the weapon and devices tab, sounds when interacting with the in game menus, and a unique medal that can be seen in lobby by others.[18]

The High Seas DLC was released on 25 March 2022. The High Seas DLC costs 9.99 USD. The main addition of the DLC is the naval forts with buoyancy physics, along with six new weapons, a new campaign, 23 new tracks by Ella van Dyck, several new maps with 17 new dynamic backgrounds, a new HUD and a High Seas badge for all owners. Also included with this DLC are 5 new gamemodes and a revised new player experience.[19]

Forts received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[21]

GameGrin rated the game 7 out of 10 and criticized the game for being too easy while concluding, "Forts is a simple, fun game, has a nice sense of humour and is guaranteed to get your brain whirling as you figure out the best way to build your base, defend your weapons while also pelting the enemy with bullets and bombs."[22]