News: Circle Empires 2 - Updated Demo with New Visuals Out Now
Iceberg Interactive and Luminous released an updated demo for Circle Empires 2 on September 22, 2025, in Haarlem, Netherlands, enhancing the fast-paced RTS sequel with stunning visual upgrades. The demo features redesigned biomes, improved animations, and a vibrant, cartoony art style, making characters more expressive and worlds more immersive. Players expand their empire circle by circle, gathering resources and battling foes in procedurally generated worlds, with new map sizes like 4x4 for skirmishes and 12x1 for linear battles, offering varied strategic challenges.
The demo reintroduces Monster Hunt mode, where players track formidable bosses, and enhances the unit editor with new items like Boots of Speed and mounting options for horses, bears, or towers. Multiplayer supports cooperative or competitive play, while leaders like Wolfram the Warrior gain cheaper terrain changes for water-based strategies, and Barg the Barbarian’s Enslave ability extracts gold from friendly units at a cost. With 36 weapons, two armor pieces, and 10 cosmetic elements, players customize units across dynamic biomes like deserts and swamps, ensuring endless replayability.
Developed by Luminous, founded by Mihkel Trei, with graphical overhauls by Interactive Fate and production support from Playtest Games, Circle Empires 2 builds on the original’s 350,000 players. The simplified UI aligns with the classic feel of Circle Empires, and while Nightmare difficulty is reserved for the full release, the demo’s five modifiers and six map sizes enhance customization. Available on Steam with a 78% positive rating from 32 reviews, this demo invites players to test new units, terrain effects, and strategies, with community feedback shaping the 2026 launch.