Make your fortress the last castle as Age of Darkness: Final Stand's hordes rush to a full release—with multiplayer

Those of us who love, more than anything, to build an absolute boatload of defenses in real-time strategy have celebrated the growth of the horde defense RTS genre, and Age of Darkness: Final Stand has been a great example of it all through three years of early access. Now developers PlaySide are bringing those hordes of monsters into the fray for a final assault. As announced at the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted today, the release of its 1.0 version, complete with much-requested co-op, coming this winter.

The full release will have a plethora of modes: A story-driven campaign, multiplayer co-op, and survival roguelike, all of which incorporate elements of RTS unit and economy with a strong tower defense core. It's all built around the game's SwarmTech, a bit of engine voodoo that lets it render more than 70,000 enemies on the screen at once. Seeing that much undead horror come at you is both horrifying and thrilling.

More than just a simple defensive game, though, in Age of Darkness you send out heroes during the day to protect your resource gathering parties and expansions from roving undead champions. At night, you micro those same heroes to bolster weak parts of your defenses. And you're always wary of spreading your light: That keeps the deadly Living Death Fog away from your settlement.

When you inevitably fail in survival mode, of course, you start over again. That'll mean a new array of randomized malices and blessings that show up to make each run unique, as well as new choices through your units' skill trees to refine your strategy.

The addition of co-op is especially promising for Age of Darkness: Final Stand's 1.0 release. The trailer shows split views as one faction sends soldiers to fight back the tide hitting an ally's walls. Multiplayer was some of the best stuff in RTS over the last decade, with modes like Starcraft 2 co-op stealing the show from other parts of their games, so I'm excited to take Age of Darkness' mode for a spin.

You can find Age of Darkness: Final Stand on Steam, where it's currently in early access but will release its full version this winter.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.