March of Giants Beta Test: First Impressions, Gameplay, and Tips

What Is the March of Giants Beta?

Ubisoft’s giant-scale battle experiment is finally in players’ hands, and the March of Giants beta answers the question everyone asked when the game was first shown: does commanding a walking war machine actually feel good? Based on beta gameplay showcases and community reports, the answer leans strongly toward yes — with a real learning curve attached. The March of Giants beta matters because this isn’t a reskinned hero shooter; it’s a lane-based, objective-driven war game where one player per side commands a giant while soldiers, tanks, and fortifications do the rest of the fighting.

If you want hands-on access, the entry point is the official March of Giants page on Ubisoft, which currently routes visitors to a playtest signup. From there, the community lives on Discord and the r/MarchOfGiants subreddit, where — according to the official site — the developers show up daily to answer questions.

March of Giants Beta at a Glance

March of Giants Beta First Impressions: Gameplay That Sets It Apart

The first thing the March of Giants beta teaches you is that your giant is not a one-man army. The tutorial walkthrough shows a control scheme borrowed from real-time strategy: right-click to move, right-click to target and open fire, and left-click for free fire when you need to spray. Notably, soldiers cannot be auto-targeted — you have to aim at them, which keeps infantry fights from feeling like an afterthought.

Abilities are gated behind merits rather than a timer. In the opening tutorial, players unlock their second ability at 1,000 merits and their third at 2,000, with autotanks positioned between lanes as convenient merit farms.

One of the most memorable pieces of beta footage features a storm-themed giant with wind-based area abilities and a battlefield drowning in voice lines — “the twisting wind shall be repaid,” “unleash the true typhoon.” That theatrical delivery is a genuine part of the March of Giants beta’s identity according to player experience, and it’s the kind of thing that either hooks you or grates on you fast.

Match Flow, Objectives, and the Win Condition

The March of Giants beta’s map is built around war-torn streets lined with outposts and bastions. Outposts sit at the front lines and are where units and soldiers clash first. Behind them, bastions defend the capital walls, and here’s the twist that separates this game from a straight lane pusher: destroying an opponent’s bastion disrupts their flow of soldiers and units, dynamically changing the battle’s configuration. The first team to destroy two enemy bastions wins.

That means winning isn’t about grinding a single lane. It’s about choosing which structural loss hurts the enemy most, then committing your giant and your regiments to it.

Progression: Merits, War Shell Upgrades, and Augments

This is the part of the March of Giants beta that separates thoughtful players from button mashers. Last-hitting units grants merits, and those merits are spent at the arsenal to upgrade your war shell. There is no leveling in March of Giants, so your war shell is your only progression track — spend wisely, because you can’t respec on a whim.

Community reports from beta gameplay break the upgrade tree into three rough buckets:

Augments are the most interesting layer. Each augment can only be purchased and applied to an ability once, so stacking projectile count on your best area attack is a permanent, irreversible commitment. If you are the kind of player who reads a skill tree twice before clicking, this system was built for you.

Soldiers, Battle Works, and Tactical Landmarks

If the giant is the headline, soldiers and battle works are the actual war. Every friendly soldier you encounter automatically rallies to you, and sending them into a charge maximizes their damage. They shred buildings, they can charge enemy giants to help bring them down, and they die instantly to a well-placed trench. Pressing F mid-charge pulls them back — a small detail that saves entire regiments once you internalize it.

Battle works are the defensive half of that equation. You collect supplies on the field and spend them to deploy trenches, bunkers, and other structures. Two rules matter here: trenches dominate ground offensives but are weak against cavalry and tanks, so you build bunkers to cover that gap; and battle works are fragile while they deploy, so you have to keep them alive until they’re operational.

Five Beta Tips Worth Stealing

• Bank merits toward 1,000 before your first real fight; that second ability changes every engagement.
• Time soldier charges for enemy reload windows, not for maximum aggression.
• Never walk into an enemy outpost alone — let cavalry support soak the targeting first.
• Treat battle works as investments, not instant walls; they need protection during deployment.
• Check the in-game codex, which the beta explicitly points players toward for each individual battle work.

For a wider view, our closed alpha retrospective, next playtest guide, beginner guide round out the picture from different angles.