Stardock released the Inception expansion for its Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation real-time strategy game. The downloadable content adds four new maps as well as a "unique split-scenario" that will allow the choices you make to have a direct effect on what happens throughout the campaign.
That campaign begins on a planet, Oneiros, where a "mysterious entity" called Nihilon has "corrupted the consciousnesses of all of the PHC and Substrate on the planet." You'll have to choose for which side you want to fight. Join the PHC, and you'll be tasked with destroying any threat on Oneiros; join the Substrate, and you'll have to rescue your corrupted fellows and figure out what Nihilon has done to them. The rest is up to you.
Inception's new maps were designed to support a variety of game modes and player counts. Here's how Stardock described them in a press release:
Oneiros: 7-player map with a strong central starting position, vulnerable north and south positions with abundant resources, and four isolated corner starts. Bayern: 3-player Terran map with vulnerable starting locations and massive metal deposits in the center. Brasil: 10-player ice map with a resource-rich central valley and several defensible points around starting areas.Polska: 5-player desert map with strategically critical hills and passages between regions.
We included the original Ashes of the Singularity in our face-off between AMD's Ryzen 7 and Intel's Core i7-7700K and Core i7-6900K processors. Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation was one of the first games optimized for Ryzen, so we tested that, too. We also covered the game's version 2.2 release, which brought mod support, balance changes, UI improvements, and other updates to the game when it debuted earlier this month.
Inception requires the base Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation to work. You can buy the expansion from Stardock or Steam for $3; you can buy the base game from the same places for $40. More information about the Inception DLC is available on the game's forums.
