Cantata graduates from Early Access in August 2023
Does crunchy tactical gameplay and psychedelic artwork fit together? Cantata certainly makes a good case for it. Developer Afterschool Studio and publisher Modern Wolf have announced that it will graduate from Early Access on August 15, 2023, with the release of version 1.0. Dubbed the first ‘grand tactics’ game, Cantata is set on an alien planet that’s become the battlefield between three unique factions. Players can take control of each of these civilizations over the course of the game’s single-player campaign.
Cantata takes classic elements from the grand strategy, tactical combat, and real-time strategy genres and throws some exploration in there for good measure to create something unique – a striking visual style reminiscent of classic strategy games reinforces this feeling further.
Taking a page out of Dune, the planet Shoal players are fighting over isn’t just a static battlefield: It reacts to the devastation wrought by the warring factions and gets its own turn during a match, which it uses to unleash its flora, fauna, weather, and more to rid itself of the pesky parasites on its surface.
Cantata comes with a full single-player campaign featuring all three factions, a multiplayer mode that supports local and online play, and a fully functional map editor to create new scenarios and maps from scratch.
You can check out the newly published release date announcement trailer below for some impressions:
Released into Early Access on Steam on May 12, 2022, Cantata has garnered a ‘very positive’ response so far – a trend the full release version hopes to continue.
