Tempest Rising's first major update targets the Command and Conquer successor's multiplayer, adding 6 maps, a 2v2 ranked mode, and an extensive balance overhaul

Throwback RTS Tempest Rising is one of my favourite games from this year, a spectacular and thrilling tribute to Westwood's tragically absent Command and Conquer series. I thought its twin campaigns were pretty much perfect when I reviewed it a couple of months back, which is possibly why its first major update focuses mainly on multiplayer.

Titled the "Rally and Recon" update, the patch substantially expands and refines player-on-player warfare. Its biggest additions are a ranked mode for 2v2 play complete with leaderboards, and the ability to queue for 2v2 matches either solo or with your friends. It also adds the "much requested" ability to adjust population cap for multiplayer matches, letting you play with anywhere between 100 and 500 li'l guys.

Among these are a couple of slightly smaller additions, such as a proper lobby chat system so you don't have to sit in textual silence while waiting for a match, and a "basic" spectator mode which developer Slipgate Ironworks defines as "V1", suggesting that it'll be improved over time.

Outside of these broader features, the update extends the online battlefield with six new maps. Four of these are designed for 2v2 play, with the remaining two are built around 1v1 warfare. All maps are repurposed affairs rather than being entirely new, but on the plus side, one of them is called "Emptied Hopes" which sounds like the name of a spaceship in Halo.

All of this arrives alongside an extensive rebalance for existing units. Slipgate provides a detailed breakdown of how each unit is affected in the patch notes, but the gist is to establish "a more formal Early/Mid/Late pacing for tech progression."

This affects each faction differently. For the GFD, it means a nerf to the intel-generating spy drones support power, but a buff for the hunter tank. The Tempest Dynasty, meanwhile, get slower resource harvesting, but more effective second-tier units, such as the missile-spewing Porcupine truck.

It's great that the multiplayer mode is getting such thorough attention. But I mainly want to know what's going on with the game's third playable faction. Slipgate stated it'd be coming sometime after launch, but haven't said much about it since. It is a much weirder faction than the other two, so it isn't surprising you could only fight against them in the campaign on launch. But I hope it gets folded into the main game soon, if only to give it something that isn't directly borrowed from the C&C games of yore.