Thus far, most of the ARKit games we’ve seen haven’t really used augmented reality in a way that’s especially meaningful to the actual gameplay of whatever game it’s in. Not that there aren’t games that do that, but they’re really few and far between. The Ancients AR is a new game from developer Immersion and, while their AR implementation may also be more gimmicky than game-changing, it’s at least an awesome gimmick. The Ancients AR is a real-time strategy game that takes place in the sea where you’ll command a fleet of warships and take part in the neverending war between three island kingdoms. Living amongst all this chaos are The Ancients themselves, who are massive creatures that can be summoned from the sea and used in battle. In AR terms, this means you can call these big guys out right in the real-life ocean.

Like I said, that particular AR trick might end up being just a gimmick, but what a very cool gimmick indeed. If AR stuff doesn’t float your boat, don’t worry, as The Ancients AR has a full non-AR mode and should be a regular real-time strategy game if you don’t want to venture into the augmented reality stuff. The Ancients AR is set for release on May 15th at a price of $2.99, and it’s actually up in the App Store for pre-order as of today. So if you’re inclined to do such a thing, then click this link on an iOS 11 device and you can go through the pre-order process in the App Store, and when The Ancients AR releases it’ll simply download right to your device like magic. Non-pre-orderers can look forward to buying the game the old-fashioned way in just about 3 weeks time.