eXplorminate note: We don’t often cover RTS games, even though we are all about “4X, strategy and tactics games.” It seems RTS games are about to have a *much overdue* revival. The Moduwar team reached out to us, and Mr. Kill was kind enough to volunteer to cover the game. Not only did Mr. Kill write the article you are about to read, he also recorded some gameplay, available on Youtube. If you fancy yourself a content creator, have a 4X, Strategy or Tactics game you are passionate about, please get in contact using our Discord, or you can email us. And so, the question: Should you play Moduwar, which is in early access? Read on to find out.
Moduwar is a Real-time strategy (RTS) game that entered early access as of June 3rd 2025. Moduwar takes place on an alien planet that is under pressure by two advanced civilizations; The Human Earth Repatriation Expedition (ERE) and the Alien Chimera. Both faction have converted a modular water based species known as the Modu in their attempt to take control over the planet. As the game starts you play as Modu who has been forced to work for the Earth Repatriation Expedition as the ERE scientist believes that the modular adaptability of the Modu can rapidly turn the tides against the Chimera. A belief that is apparently correct as large advanced sci-fi fighters jets explode in record time against Modu weaponry.
The initial presentation of the game demonstrates that quite a lot of effort has been put into making a campy enjoyable sci-fi story. The major videos in the game are all live-action meaning you will get the to see the drama between the ERE scientist Miller and his hostile Admiral Kolitch in a classic live-action RTS cutscene format popularized by Command & Conquer (C&C). Whenever Miller speaks to the player there will also be a live-action performance visible at the bottom left of the screen where the minimap is. The C&C inspirations can be seen in the game’s amazing electronic soundtrack and the end of mission screens which are heavily reminiscent of C&C.
The only issue that I personally had with the story is that it needs understandably convey how the Modu are expected to be a significant threat to either side. The ERE is capable of launching cruise missiles and its outright stated by the ERE admiral that if the ERE military were to actually react to the Chimera that the Chimera would be destroyed. While we do see the Modu and native wildlife are easily able to dispatch sci-fi fighter jets this all comes at the cost of the sci-fi fighter jets doing things that logically you wouldn’t expect aircraft with air to ground capabilities to be doing… such as flying so low to the ground that they die from melee attacks and short ranged weapons fire. This issue does arguably add to the game’s sci-fi campy atmosphere though. The actors themselves speak with very thick accents which also increases the camp factor.
The game’s aesthetics are quite beautiful with use of vibrant colors and large amount of detail put into depicting the flora and fauna in each biome. Though perhaps the only area that might need improvement are the water effects as certain units don’t really make a splash when they move such as the large tentacle beast shown in the above animated Gif. Something that large really should make a big splash when it moves and dives. Though this can be excused by the game being in Early Access.
Gameplay
Moduwar tasks the player with producing platforms which can then hold organs from a central unit known as the Heart. Platform construction is instant but organ construction takes time. By holding Alt the player can split platforms off from the heart at which point it acts as an autonomous unit. The player can merge and split individual sections of the platform at any time they wish though its important to note that only platforms connected to the Heart organ can be upgraded or modified with additional parts/organs. Large platforms move progressively slower as they get larger (and can be too large to move or too large to fit through a given space) but gain a small bonus to attack in exchange and larger platforms can support more utility functions such as acid range damage boosting glands or health regenerating Livers. Smaller platforms are much faster but have limited support functions.
In terms of organs a lot of effort has been put into ensuring each of them have a unique and useful function. Even an empty platform with no organ on it has value since it acts as resource storage units and the game will warn you whenever there are no empty slots for workers to drop resources at.
In terms of the major damage dealing organs; the mouth organ acts as the resource gathering unit and when combined with a few empty platforms enables it become the standard RTS resource gathering unit with emergency melee with heal on damage capability. The turret organ is standard ranged unit. The tentacle is a proper melee unit with the ability to deflect artillery preventing damage but also sometimes reflecting the artillery back at the unit that fired it. Lastly there’s the mortar organ which fires artillery projectiles at the enemy causing multi-target splash damage also known as Area of effect (AOE) damage.
In terms of utility organs; the lungs allows a unit to submerge which essentially acts as a cloak and allows units to attack even while cloaked. The brain is a tech structure that unlocks units but also provides a passive attack speed buff. The eye enables sight of cloaked/submerged units but at a very close range and also adds a passive attack range buff. The liver heals organs around it. The acid gland produces acid resource which is used with every ranged attack to significantly boost the damage being done but the organ is fragile and an explosion risk.
The actual combat is fairly standard given the genre. Units attacks each other until their life runs out and they sink into the water. Where the unique charm comes in is when you factor in that platforms can merge and unmerge at anytime. Want to avoid Area of affect (AOE) damage that hurts multiple units? Split your platforms mid combat. Want to swarm them in melee? Split your melee units into single platforms so they have maximum pursuit speed. Want to counter artillery? Split off the tentacle units and move them ahead of the group. There’s a lot of possibilities when you can split units and merge them whenever you want.
In terms of game modes. Skirmish, survival, Arena and a four mission campaign are currently included in the game. Player vs Player multiplayer is also included. The multiplayer does seem odd in that you cannot currently create your own lobby but instead must select from list of existing servers which are pre-hosting matches. It does not appear to be possible to create a custom lobby with humans vs an AI at this time in multiplayer. The skirmish setup screen is also fairly barebones. You don’t get the option to select a map directly but must instead repeatedly hit next map until you reach the map of your choice. Same issue with color selection, there is no drop down menu but instead you click until you get the color you want.
Skirmish has you playing a fairly standard RTS match vs another AI opponent. They follow the same rules you do. Arena and survival modes gives you a timer before attack and a large amount of resources and then you see how long your build lasts against a wave of enemies. The heart is removed when the attack starts on Arena whereas survival mode has the option of giving you additional build up provided your heart survives the wave. The skirmish and survival/arena AI is serviceable but not particularly strong. Arena and Survival aren’t really likely to capture player interest for very long given how repetitive and actions per minute (APM) heavy they are.
The gameplay of Moduwar is very unique though it should be noted that several other videogames have included similar premises and mechanics. While not an RTS, Stratosphere Conquest of the Skies has the player in control of a floating platform that can have various siege engines and weapons mounted on it with the goal of destroying all other islands and not losing your island’s HQ (or heart). The platform construction mechanics are also similar to Cosmoteer in that you will be deciding carefully the layout of given platform as its exact shape determines where damage will occur so emphasis should be made on where critical but fragile portions of platform is going.
There are some downsides to the platform system in Moduwar however. While merging and unmerging is fairly easy to do; merging might be a little too easy to do especially by accident. As mentioned early merged platforms move slower and may have difficulty moving through terrain. The player is quickly taught in an antepiece style that smaller platforms have less difficulty navigating constricted terrain. The game will require you to use multiple platforms and the opposition the player fights is typically very challenging (I will comment later how the challenge might be a little too high for newbies to the genre or non-veterans); meaning that the player should be running multiple small platforms each with their own logistics included (i.e. acid glands, livers etc).
A merge can be ordered simply by giving a move order onto another unit this means if you are actively giving move orders can easily click on a friendly platform and merge the entire selected group by accident. Undoing this mistake can take some time as you use alt + left click to slowly draw back the intended platforms you wanted to use. You have to click and drag with alt +left click as well since single clicking causes that single section that was clicked to pop out as a single section platform. Maybe there could be a command that causes each platform selected to be recognized as an individual cog so if a merge were to occur the player isn’t forced to redraw each formation.
Another area of feedback in need of address is information tooltips and mission difficulty. As stated earlier larger platforms move slowly and will eventually become to large to move. I cannot tell you exactly at what sizes things begin to happen. In my experimentation I found that size 1 platforms were logically the fastest but only by a very small margin compared to size 2-5 platforms which were almost as fast (like barely half a second slower when tasked to move across a small section of the map compared to a single section platform). There doesn’t appear to be any tutorial tips from Miller or UI elements that indicate what the thresholds for platform size vs speed are. Confusingly I’ve also been told sometimes that a platform is too large to move when in reality it is not too large to move but incapable of moving due to the terrain or an enemy being present. It can be very frustrating to be informed that you need to split a single unit platform because its too “large to move”. This can definitely be chalked up to its early access status.
It also possible to merge three organs if adjacent in a triangle shape into a single large organ with sometimes enhanced effects. Due to the Early Access nature of the game some large organs are disappointing. Small acid glands generate one acid resource per tick so combining three acid glands to create one large acid gland results in… one acid resource per tick at the same tick rate… no refunds. While for the most part the large organ system is very useful I did notice that the game did not have any training messages that informed me of this capability. Perhaps it was easy to miss or maybe they game skipped telling me that because I might have it done by accident before the game told me? I’m honestly not sure when the game tells you about making large organs but making large combat organs is very important since large mortar shots can’t be deflected by small tentacles but can be deflected by large tentacles. The large turret does the same damage as three small turrets but at +1 range and is more useful when combined with acid glands since three small turrets will eat 3 acid resource per volley while a large turret only eats 1 acid resource per volley while doing the same damage. The large mouth doesn’t become a better worker however.
As for mission difficulty the game clearly seems to be made with the concept of hardcore RTS enthusiasts in mind. Rapidly splitting your Modu platforms to avoid damage is entirely possible. There is plenty of room for experimentation and stress testing various ideas and builds. The game’s mission design however is quite strict and with the lack of a difficulty setting it can be somewhat frustrating for those not good at RTS games to play the current build. You go from a simple mission where you move your starter platform around. Then to next mission where you fight land-based enemies but with gimmicks that allow you to instantly kill some of them to another.
The third mission is a major difficulty spike where the player is put under a timer to quickly gather resources and produce combat units to fight an incoming wave that consists of an Alien jet (the player has not fought this unit before) and several Chimera aligned Modu platforms in about 2 minutes. The game will then have the player fight a Boss in an arena too small to dodge its attacks before then tasking the player to quickly move down the tunnel filled with enemies that submerge (aka cloak) when hit while doing an AOE radial attack. The player is introduced to the eye organ which is used to detect cloaked units but the decloak range on the eye is very small so the player needs to manually move the unit towards the submerged enemies in order to fire on them. The player needs to balance progression through the tunnel with resource extraction and incoming permanent 2 minute waves that include Modu platforms and Chimera Jets. Lastly the player isn’t informed that native wildlife will be effective against your pursuers so if you are cleaning the tunnel too thoroughly you will be screwed because you will be put up against a boss (the same one as before but in a larger arena where you can dodge) and having Chimera reinforcements entering the fight makes it extremely difficult. I heavily recommend killing as few of the wildlife in the tunnels as necessary so you have time to fight the boss unbothered. Resources are also very slim.
The fourth mission (listed as level 5 meaning there is a plan to put a mission before this one) tasks the player with maneuvering a small group past several wild life that causes a slow effect on a given platform followed by an instant AOE death effect if the unit is not killed in time. If the player doesn’t immediately split all platforms to single platforms and run through the gauntlet of enemies they’re going to have to tediously micro their way through a large amount of spongey enemies. This part isn’t even the real part of the mission its just the intro. After that you are given access to a heart then tasked to fight three enemy Modu bases of which will absolutely pump out large volumes of units including tentacles so you can’t just rely on AOE and chokepoints. This mission even while using the easy trick for the intro took roughly an hour to complete. You have to have an immediate understanding of the value of several organs that were just introduced this mission in order to make progress. Thankfully there are a very large amount of resources available for the player in this mission.
While as RTS veteran I didn’t really have too much trouble beating the current campaign content in the game, it is important to note that average or below average RTS players might find the current odds a little insurmountable. While the tutorial teaches you about splitting your units it doesn’t necessarily teach you the importance of splitting your platform to make separate combat units. I have seen let’s plays of this game where the let’s player took the entire heart platform into combat when its supposed to be left by a resource, fed by workers and then used to repeatedly make new combat sections to be split off. The heart is a mobile base but those new to the genre might fail to recognize this aspect and not helping matters is that for those well educated in biology (such as a Nurse, a profession I am apart of) separating things from a heart is typically associated with cessation of existence and not the creation of an autonomous combat unit. The heart doesn’t even provide regen or anything so it’s really more of a core or a construction unit than anything truly heart related. Your units will continue existing just fine even if the heart is lost (though for most missions and this logically means game over).
Maybe a few extra tutorial messages clarifying the function of the heart, the implementation of large organs and the most potent use of certain organs (i.e don’t use the mouth too much, its for resource generation not fighting) could help players. Though I suppose that difficulty options for players who find the current challenge too difficult would also help. Units will not move to engage units that outrange them so its entirely possible via inattention for a platform to be sunk due to standing in place while taking ranged weapons fire. Its important to understand that a unit creation system that requires the player to manually place the parts they want and then manually cut out those parts requires quite a bit of dexterity and reaction time also known as actions per minute (APM). Some quality of life features might help reduce APM needed. Newcomers to the genre might find their APM lacking when dealing with Moduwar’s somewhat significant challenge.
The last bit of feedback is technically a bug that will be easily fixed but must be mentioned because it can cause physical damage. Currently the audio balancing is not proper and several sections of the game will be quiet and others will be very loud. The difference can be very stark. The intro movie and level 1’s narration is very soft but one character in level 2 speaks in a much much higher volume than anyone in level 2 and level 3’s movie and narration is louder than anything in level 1 or 2. Headphone users may wish to turn the volume low before starting any level and then up the volume as needed once the level is selected.
Conclusion
Moduwar in its current Early Access state already shows a lot of promise and will likely impress most RTS enthusiasts. While Moduwar does offer multiplayer PVP a lot of effort has been put into singleplayer elements. Campaign, survival and skirmish modes are all currently available in the early access build. Beware that multiplayer is currently PVP only at this time. Aside from the aforementioned audio balancing technical bug, Moduwar offers a lot of promise to RTS enthusiasts. There’s lot of flexibility and gameplay options available from skirmish, survival and a campaign with campy live action cutscenes. There doesn’t appear to be a unit limit of any kind nor even platform size limits. Outside of the rather strict campaign you can build platforms to whatever size you want. If you feel like making an entirely immobile base that doesn’t have to move and will never move but stretches across the map you can do that in skirmish. Just be aware that as of the current build there’s a lack of quality of life features that would reduce APM requirements and tooltips that better underline optimal strategic play in the game. This means that Moduwar can prove frustrating for those less experienced in the RTS genre. At a budget pricetag its not hard to recommend Moduwar’s current state as long as you have some good experience in the RTS genre.
