Tempest Rising

Lore & Background

Tempest Rising is set in the same universe as Bombshell and begins roughly 100 years before the events of Ion Fury. The game's alternate history diverges in 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis was not resolved peacefully, leading to a Third World War and widespread nuclear irradiation. After the war, fissures opened in irradiated regions, and alien vines emerged that produced a mysterious energy called Tempest, which scientists saw as a solution to a major energy crisis. Two superpowers formed after the war: the Global Defense Force (GDF), an international military alliance of surviving Western governments, and the Tempest Dynasty, formed of Eastern European and Asian nations struggling with nuclear fallout. The GDF sees Tempest as a resource for maintaining world peace, while the Dynasty views it as their birthright, leading to a three-decade global conflict over Tempest fields. In 1997, a Dynasty excavation in Iraq uncovers an ancient non-human object, and both factions eventually encounter an alien force called the Veti, which emerges after a nuclear detonation and attacks both sides indiscriminately. The Veti are revealed to have created the Tempest-producing plants and had been in hibernation underground since arriving on Earth ten thousand years ago, when they lost a war with humanity.

Reader's Guide

Tempest Rising is significant as a modern homage to classic real-time strategy games of the 1990s and 2000s, particularly the Command & Conquer series. Its gameplay mechanics—such as unpacking a Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV) to establish a base, grid-based structure placement with rotation, and resource gathering for building armies—directly echo that era. The game features three factions: the GDF, which specializes in mobilized and positional combat and uses a secondary resource for unit abilities; the Tempest Dynasty, which focuses on brute force and can adopt one of three Plans for combat bonuses; and the Veti, an alien faction available only in singleplayer. The single-player campaign allows players to augment forces before missions and learn lore through officer briefings. Multiplayer and Skirmish modes support human and AI opponents across various maps. The game received generally favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Sim/Strategy Game at The Game Awards 2025. Its release was marked by a publishing error that gave standard edition buyers early access, leading the publishers to retroactively declare that date as the official release day.

Did You Know?

• The game's alternate history stems from the Cuban Missile Crisis not being resolved peacefully, leading to a nuclear Third World War.
• The Veti alien faction is only available in singleplayer and was responsible for creating the Tempest-producing plants.
• A publishing error caused standard edition buyers to receive early access, leading the publishers to retroactively change the release date.