Athena Crisis’ turn-based war strategy format can be most likened to Nintendo’s Advance Wars series but with a couple of unique twists. For one, the game’s multiversal premise introduces units from a range of historical periods and settings. Secondly, the game has a builder mode that not only lets users create their maps, but also write out NPC dialogue.

During my Athena Crisis demo, I fought a battle that took place in a metropolitan area, with two landmasses separated by a river and connected by a bridge. I had a dragon, who could fly over the water and breathe down fire attacks on enemies, while my human and tank units had to cross the bridge in an orderly fashion. I was free to execute a movement and action for each of my units before ending my turn.

Athena Crisis also utilizes a fog of war effect that made for some surprising moments during my match. I had opponents pop out on me on more than one occasion as I was lured into a false sense of security. Even visible enemy units can slip back into the fog of war if none of your units have a line of sight on them.

After I lost my match in spectacular fashion, I was shown a demo of the builder mode in Athena Crisis. This mode provides the user with all the tools used to create the game’s official levels: terrain, hazards, units, etc. I watched as a demoist quickly created a large body of water in the desert, filled it with water-based units, and hit the play button so that they would start fighting. You can also create full-blown missions, programming dialogue for different soldiers.

Athena Crisis is looking to tackle a familiar genre, but with a couple of neat twists. The game is out now in Steam Early Access.