Ashes of the Singularity II PC Review

Ashes of the Singularity II has arrived

Ashes of the Singularity II is now available on PC

I love strategy games. That’s what brought me into PC gaming. When I built my first PC, the first games were Command and Conquer, Total War, and Crysis. Yes, Crysis isn’t a strategy game, but I’m allowed to enjoy other genres. Today, we are looking at Ashes of the Singularity II, the sequel to 2016’s Ashes of the Singularity. This is a large-scale RTS that enables battles on a scale that’s larger than practically everything else. Huge armies clash across continent-scale maps as multiple players (or AIs) battle for dominance.

Ashes of the Singularity II is an RTS style that’s underserved in today’s gaming market. The game focuses on Macro, not Micro. If you do not know what those terms mean, Macro refers to big-picture strategy, and Micro refers to small-scale control. Both matter in strategy games, but most focus on one or the other. If your game requires hotkeys for unit abilities, fast reactions, and lots of mouse clicks, it’s micro-heavy. If a game focuses on army building, resource gathering, and tech progression, it’s more macro-heavy. While many RTS games require both, such as StarCraft, Ashes of the Singularity 2 is a macro-focused game, and unashamedly so.

In this game, focus on building big armies with a strong unit composition, positioning them well, and building a strong economy to support them. Armies will conduct battle without much need for interference. You’ll tell them where to go and what to attack, but you won’t need to be furiously clicking your mouse to use your army effectively. In this regard, Ashes of the Singularity 2 is downright relaxing to play compared with StarCraft or Command and Conquer.

Watching big armies go BOOM

There is something glorious about seeing huge armies go to battle. Squads of infantry, tanks, and giant mechs, supported by artillery and aircraft, clashing with the robotic forces of the PHC and Substrate. That’s what Ashes of the Singularity II’s campaign is like. No modern RTS game is quite like it, and the game’s macro focus lets you sit back and watch the battles unfold. Well… at least some of the time. This is an RTS after all; you’ll likely need to oversee battles across several fronts.

In this review, we will mostly focus on PC performance, but I’ve had a lot of fun here. The campaign is solid, though cutscenes can be a little stagnant/boring, and mission variety isn’t this game’s strong suit. Even so, it is a solid experience, and a good way to learn the game. The game’s main strengths are its multiplayer and skirmish modes. That’s where all three factions are playable, and where you’ll find the most gameplay variety.

Wait, no benchmark?

Among PC hardware enthusiasts, the first Ashes of the Singularity quickly became known as “Benchmark of the Singularity” or “Ashes of the Benchmark”. The game was one of the first PC games to support the AMD Mantle API, and later DirectX 12 and Vulkan. While its sequel launches without a benchmark, the game stores its save files beside an unused folder called “Benchmark”. While including this folder could be a mistake, it could also signal that an official benchmark is planned.

For today’s performance benchmarks, we’ll use a late-game section of a mid-to-late game campaign mission. This benchmarks a demanding battle between multiple large armies. While not the largest possible battle that this game can produce, it is representative of a large battle sequence.

No VSYNC Options?

Strangely, Ashes of the Singularity II has no V-Sync option in its graphics menu; it’s enabled by default. For our benchmarks, we have disabled V-Sync within AMD Software and the Nvidia App. Honestly, I am a little baffled that this option isn’t there, though it shouldn’t be an issue for users of VRR displays.

MSAA, in 2026? No Upscaling?

Ashes of the Singularity II lacks support for modern AI-enhanced upscaling. That means that the game doesn’t support DLSS, FSR, or XeSS. The only anti-aliasing option is MSAA, with Off, 2x, 4x, and 8x options. Honestly, this is a rather large shortcoming, especially for users of lower-end GPUs. The game also lacks support for any form of Frame Generation.

GPU Drivers

When testing Ashes of the Singularity II, we used the latest Nvidia and AMD GPU drivers available at the time of testing. These drivers were AMD Software 26.11.1 and Nvidia’s GeForce 621.24 driver for Windows 10/11.