Silica, an FPS and RTS hybrid that mixes a smidge of Dune and Helldivers together, has left early access and entered 1.0

Not the stuff that stops food drying out

The concept of fusing an RTS and an FPS always sounds like a fun one, and since 2023 Martin Melichárek has been trying to make a new take on the combination under the watchful eye of DayZ devs Bohemia Interactive through Silica. Today marks the day that Silica leaves early access and enters 1.0, fully fleshing out its hybrid and mish mash of Dune's Arrakis and Helldivers' Terminids.

Digging into Silica a touch more deeply, it is a sci-fi shooter set on a planet where there's a fancy resource you're trying to mine that definitely isn't the spice. There are two warring factions competing for said resource, when, uh oh! Some bug-ish, giant aliens aren't very happy you're doing all that. So, you can either join the fray on the ground with some classic first-person shooting alongside your friends, or you can take the role of commander and dictate your artillery from above.

The 1.0 update obviously comes with a few additions, namely the Centauri Campaign, a "story-driven single-player experience set in the war for Baltarus. It opens with a cinematic intro and features fully voiced mission briefings and in-game dialogue. Between missions, a 3D planetary globe tracks the war as territory changes hands." Commanding your army should be a better experience now too, with the ability to "arrange units into formations, issue more precise movement and attack orders, and quickly select all units of the same type. Improved AI targeting and vehicle movement also help your armies operate more effectively in large-scale battles."

Beyond that, 1v1 matchmaking has been added in, where you can fight against another commander. The Steam Workshop sandbox tools have been expanded for building your own scenarios and sharing them with others. And there are a whole bunch of bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements and additions, and more. You can read about some of those in more detail in this handy little blog post. If you like what Silica is putting down, then you can pick it up on Steam.