‘Silica’ trailer reveals a strategy-shooter blend of ‘Starcraft’ and ‘Dune’

Bohemia Interactive has revealed Silica, a sci-fi game that will blend overhead real-time strategy with first-person shooter action.

Set to launch through Steam Early Access for PC, Silica‘s Steam page describes the game as a “crossover” between real-time strategy (RTS) and first-person shooter (FPS) genres.

Set on the desert planet of Baltarus, players will be able to pick between fighting as an infantry unit in first-person, or stepping into the Commander role for a top-down strategic view.

While infantry units will need to use guns and vehicles to take home victory, the Commander operates from orbit to gather resources, construct structures and dispatch units.

The first trailer for Silica was revealed today (April 6) — you can check it out below.

Additionally, one of the game’s factions will include the “territorial” alien inhabitants of Baltarus, who want to stop humans from mining the planet’s resources. While these aliens will be able to “spawn and shift” between eight types of creatures, humans will have access to five different classes and 11 vehicles.

Silica will enter Early Access with three game modes: Prospector, Strategy, and Soldier. While Prospector and Soldier will both revolve around Silica‘s FPS action, Strategy is the flagship mode that will mix the game’s RTS and FPS offerings.

Silica is being published by Bohemia Interactive, the developer behind zombie survival game DayZ and the Arma mil-sim shooter series.

However, development of Silica is being handled through Bohemia’s Incubator programme, and was “mostly” created by Take On Mars lead developer Martin Melichárek.

“Our experience has taught us that it’s vital to get early feedback from our players to polish and refine our games,” shared Bohemia. “This applies to Silica even more so, as the game is being made by an external developer through our Bohemia Incubator program.”

No release date for Silica‘s Early Access launch has been confirmed just yet.

In other gaming news, The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog has become Steam’s most popular Sonic game.