Tempest Rising

“

Get ready to fight like hell!
—Robert Fisher, Heart of Glass

”

Tempest Rising is a real-time strategy game developed by Slipgate Ironworks and 2B Games, and published by 3D Realms^[4] and Knights Peak. The game was released on Steam on April 17, 2025.

Synopsis

Tempest Rising is set in the same universe as Bombshell and begins around 100 years before the events of Ion Fury.^[5] The game takes place in an alternate history where the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 had escalated into a Third World War. In the decades following the nuclear holocaust, an anomalous yet potent and valuable organism called "Tempest" began appearing from the cracks of the Earth's crust around the world. Realizing the potential of this new energy resource as the nuclear winter dissipated, human civilization began to rebuild.^[6]

By 1997, two global powers had emerged: the Global Defense Force (GDF) is an international military alliance formed by Earth's surviving governments that secures, maintains, and exploits the majority of the Tempest sites; while the Tempest Dynasty is an alliance of Eurasian nations that suffered the most from the nuclear war and oppose occupation by the GDF.^[4]^[7] After years of uneasy peace, the GDF and the Dynasty engage in a world-spanning conflict to control the Tempest resource, while a third mysterious faction lurks from the shadows and may be linked to the origin of the Tempest itself.^[6]

Gameplay

Tempest Rising is a traditional real-time strategy game with its core gameplay based on titles like Westwood Studios' Dune, Command & Conquer, and StarCraft. There are three playable factions: the Global Defense Force, the Tempest Dynasty, and the Veti. The Veti are not playable at launch but will be added in a future update.^[8] All three factions are asymmetrical in their playstyles. The game's UI features a sidebar for primary navigation and control, and the main gameplay loop involved base building and resource collection.^[6]

Players are able to control and produce a variety of ground and air units. Fixed-wing aircraft appear in the form of support powers. There are no naval units, but hovering units that can traverse multiple types of terrain are present. Unit effectiveness against opponents follow the rock-paper-scissors principle. Some units may passively or actively apply a status effect which would affect their stats and behavior on battlefield, such as temporarily buffing combat capabilities of friendly units.^[9]

Base buildings are constructed on a grid layout. Before being placed down, buildings can be rotated in 90 degree increments.^[10]

Support powers are unlocked from constructing the prerequisite structure.^[11] There are no endgame structures analogous to superweapons, but there are high-tier support powers that deal direct damage to targets in an area.^[12]

Maps take place in a variety of biomes, including temperate, desert, and snow. On some maps, there are civilian and neutral forces that players can either take control of or contend with.^[4]^[8]

Several notable classic RTS gameplay mechanics are present:

Tanks and heavy vehicles are able to crush enemy infantry.
There are engineer units that can capture enemy buildings. Capturing an enemy Construction Yard will give the player access to the enemy faction's build tree.
The GDF and Dynasty rely on Power Plants to power their buildings. Defenses are disabled and production is slowed if there is insufficient power.
Credits are obtained primarily by harvesting Tempest fields via harvesters. The harvesters deposit their load at the assigned refinery, which is converted into credits up to a limit. Additional harvested Tempest are stored in silos.
Players in control of multiple production structures of the same type are given extra queues from which they can produce units or structures in parallel.
There are garrisonable structures from which infantry units can fire out of.^[8]
Different types of walls can be built, and certain types of walls allow ground units to fire over them.^[6]
Units earn veterancy based on damage dealt against enemy targets.^[13] There are three levels of veterancy;^[14] the first veterancy level increases unit durability.^[15]

There is also a unit limit of 200, and each controlled unit can take up 1 or more population count.^[16] The player is at the limit at the start as there are no supply structures for building to increase up to said limit.

Campaign

GDF operations room

Tempest Rising features two 11-mission campaigns, one for the Global Defense Force and one for the Tempest Dynasty. The Veti does not have its own campaign. Prior to each mission, the player receives a briefing from their commanding officer, and can later interact with them to either get more information on the mission itself or for background knowledge.^[6] Following this, the player can then access the Doctrine and Armory menus for customization options.^[17] Players are introduced to specialists, named characters who in gameplay serve as hero-like units that can perform special abilities on the battlefield.^[18] Players will need to earn the trust of up to 3 specialists in a campaign playthrough.^[19]

Multiplayer

The game includes skirmish and multiplayer modes, along with a Glicko-2 rating system for ranked matchmaking.^[8]

Gameplay balance in skirmish and multiplayer is separate from the campaign, to ensure the integrity of the campaign in perpetuity.^[20]

Development

Mockup artwork of Tempest Dawn, which was posted in a forum thread on Project Perfect Mod to recruit RTS community members as external consultants

Tempest Rising was first conceptualized in 2014, while active development started in 2019. The project was initially titled Tempest Dawn. The team within Slipgate Ironworks working on the title numbers over 100, and includes several prominent members from the RTS community serving as designers and consultants.^[21] The lead designer on the game is Brandon Casteel, who is known for providing analysis and commentaries of RTS games on the Wayward Strategy site.^[18] The game was initially developed on Unreal Engine 4, but development later migrated to Unreal Engine 5.^[22]

The game features a mostly dark ambient and industrial soundtrack composed by Michael Markie, Cory Richards (Hexenkraft), Adam Skorupa, Sigurd Jøhnk-Jensen,^[4] and Frank Klepacki.^[23]

The Steam store page for Tempest Rising was created on August 22, 2022, 10 days after the release of the announcement trailer during the 2022 THQ Nordic Showcase. The game was initially slated for release sometime in 2023, and there were no plans for the game to be released into early access. At Gamescom 2022 (August 24-28, 2022), a demo that features a modified version of the first GDF campaign mission was shown and was available for attendees to play.^[24] The same demo was also available for attendees to play at THQ Nordic's booth at PAX East 2023 (March 23-26, 2023).^[25]

A public Playable Preview featuring the first GDF mission was released on Steam during the 2023 THQ Nordic Showcase (August 11, 2023), and was available for all users until August 28, 2023.^[26] A demo including the first Dynasty mission was released as part of the 2023 Steam Strategy Fest.^[27] The demo was taken down on in April 2024 as it no longer represented the current level of visual nor gameplay quality at the time of development.^[8]

On December 8, 2023, it was announced that Tempest Rising will not release within 2023.^[28]

A limited second singleplayer demo featuring the second missions of the GDF and Dynasty campaigns, The Hornet's Nest and The Informant respectively, was released as part of TactiCon 2024. It was available from July 18 to 22.^[29]

The game's multiplayer was showcased as part of GameStar's FYNG (Find Your Next Game) show during Gamescom 2024 (August 21-25, 2024).^[30] A teaser trailer featuring highlights of the PVP matches was released on the same day.^[31]

A closed beta multiplayer test was held from November 7-21, 2024. The beta test included online multiplayer and AI skirmish modes, where invited players could choose either the GDF or the Tempest Dynasty and battle across three multiplayer maps.^[32]

The game's released date was revealed to be April 24, 2025 during the 2024 PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted (December 5, 2024) hosted by PC Gamer.^[33] Pre-orders were made available on January 20, 2025 at the start of the Steam RTS Fest, allowing Steam users to purchase the base game or the Deluxe Edition along with a Commander Pack as a bonus. On the same day, a multiplayer demo was released featuring similar content to the closed beta and was playable until February 3, 2025.^[34]

As part of the Steam Next Fest, a third singleplayer demo was made playable from February 24 to March 10, 2025. The demo was a combination of the previously released demos featuring the first two missions of both the GDF and Dynasty campaigns, and skirmish against AI.^[35]

The game was released into advanced access intended for Deluxe Edition users on April 17, 2025. However, due to some standard edition users also receiving access, and an unintended change on the Steam store page that only displays the Deluxe Edition for purchase, the publishers instead decided to officially release the game the following day.^[36] Ranked matchmaking and leaderboards were released as originally planned on April 24, while the developers are working on exclusive in-game content to compensate for those who purchased the Deluxe Edition.^[2]

Trivia

Translations

Language	Name
Korean	템페스트 라이징 (Tempeseuteu Laijing)
Russian	Буря крепчает (Burya krepchayet)^[37]
Chinese^SI	风暴崛起 (Fēngbào Juéqǐ)
Chinese^TR	風暴崛起 (Fēngbào Juéqǐ)