Tempest Rising's Veti faction gets a paid singleplayer campaign expansion — demo available now

Tempest Rising is getting a paid expansion called The Veti's Wrath, which finally gives the game's mysterious third faction its own singleplayer campaign. Developer Slipgate Ironworks confirmed the news alongside a demo update that lets you play the first two Veti missions right now.

The Veti's Wrath adds 11 campaign missions — matching the length of both the GDF and Tempest Dynasty campaigns in the base game. Slipgate says the early missions will ease players in with a tutorial, similar to how the base game's campaigns are structured. The Veti are a very different beast from the other two factions: an ancient race with an Egyptian aesthetic that woke from centuries of slumber beneath the Earth. Their playstyle revolves around conversion and sacrifice — dead enemy soldiers can be raised as "enlightened" units, which are then spent as a resource to upgrade structures and unlock other benefits. The full expansion lands later this year, but the current demo includes those first two Veti missions alongside the opening two missions for both the GDF and the Tempest Dynasty. Crucially, the Veti will be free to use in multiplayer as part of the base game — you only need to pay for the singleplayer campaign.

Tempest Rising launched as one of the stronger RTS releases in recent memory, drawing clear inspiration from the classic Command & Conquer formula. Slipgate Ironworks had always signaled the Veti would become playable eventually, and the faction has been in multiplayer testing for a while — but whether they'd get a proper campaign was an open question until now. The game is also 30% off this weekend, dropping it to $27 / £21, though that discount expires tomorrow.

For RTS fans who slept on Tempest Rising at launch, this weekend is a decent time to catch up — discounted base game, a free demo with five factions' worth of opening missions, and a confirmed expansion on the horizon.