A fantasy RTS built to be picked up quickly
8-Bit Hordes is a colorful strategy-arcade game from Petroglyph, the team behind 8-Bit Armies. The loop is the classic one: collect resources, build and defend your base, amass an army, then crush your opponents. It's aimed at players who want RTS action without complicated mechanics and mysterious unit controls, so the basics come fast and the matches stay quick. The art style is bright and voxel-based, with maps that range from the underworld to cemeteries and haunted forests, and environments that break apart as the fighting spreads through them. A soundtrack by Frank Klepacki runs underneath it all.
Two factions and plenty of ways to fight
You pick between the Dark Orcs and their Undead allies, or the Lightbringers made up of Humans, Dwarves and Elves. Classic base-building is the core of every match: you construct your lair, then launch attacks from it. The game ships with 24 offline campaign missions, 12 co-op missions built for two players, an AI skirmish mode, and Player-vs-Player multiplayer running on dedicated servers. Ten multiplayer and skirmish maps support up to 8 players online, and the AI opponents come with multiple difficulty options, so you can play against them cooperatively or set out to destroy them. There's also full interoperability with 8-Bit Armies' factions and maps, which opens up crossover matches between the two games.
Playing together with your group
Co-op is the natural group entry point: the 12 co-op missions are designed for two players working as "friendly fiends" against the AI, and the difficulty options let you match the challenge to whoever you're paired with. If your group wants competition instead, the multiplayer and skirmish modes put up to 8 players on the same map, with the AI filling in as devious opposition when you want a warm-up. Remote Play Together is available if someone in your group wants to join from a friend's session.
Before you start
Expect a straightforward RTS rather than a deep simulation: resource gathering, base construction, army building and attacking are the whole game. Missions and maps are pre-made, so there's no sandbox building outside of the standard base-building flow. The setting is fantasy with horror-flavored maps and factions, but the presentation stays fun and friendly rather than grim. If you also own 8-Bit Armies, the shared factions and maps mean you can mix the two libraries together for extra matchups.