Drone Swarm lets you command 32,000 drones in space

Rather than smashing together big armadas, Drone Swarm's space battles pit 32,000 individually simulated drones—controlled by you—against alien ships determined to wipe out the last humans. It's also a collaboration between developer stillalive and 451 Media, co-founded by Michael Bay, which produced the story trailer, above.

The story isn't really the draw here, despite 451 Media thinking highly enough of it to put together a prequel comic series—it's hurling thousands of drones at enemies and watching them blow shit up.

Check out last month's dev diary, below, which shows off the drones' capabilities. They can create massive shields, become super-heated and tear through enemy ships, and ram into rows of them like a cosmic battering ram.

You'll jump from system to system as you try to find a new home for humanity, and it looks like each of them is a discrete tactical puzzle where you'll need to figure out how to use your drones to protect the mothership and get through enemy defences. Your opponents have tricks up their sleeves too, though, including shields and weapons that throw spanners in the works, so you'll have to come up with new tactics or find ways to counter them by progressing through the campaign.

A demo for Drone Swarm was available during the Steam Game Festival, but like so many games, I missed it under the demo deluge. Launch isn't too far off, though, as it's due out at the end of the year.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.