Summary
Back in the day it was hard to render in-depth realistic graphics, but a clever workaround was to look at the world from a wide-scale, which could look a lot more convincing. This might be one of the reasons why the great strategy game boom happened relatively early in the lifetime of video games, and it has led to the birth of many great franchises that are still going to this day.
Whether it’s the continent spanning ventures of wandering warlords or franchises that stretch across time and into fantasy settings, theselong-running strategy franchiseshave long and storied careers that deserve to be remembered.
One of the primal fantasies of gamers is being able to simulate large-scale wars and being able to make the tactical decisions to carve a path to victory. Few franchises do it quite as well asTotal War, which has brought its trademark mix of in-depth micro strategy on the battlefield to a larger macro scale of an entire civilization across many different periods in history, both real and fictional.
ThoughTotal Warhas long enjoyed a dedicated fanbase, it’s hard to imagine it being more popular than the release of the relatively newTotal War: Warhammer 3, which was the ultimate encapsulation of a trilogy of games adapting theWarhammeruniverse that features a vast variety of play stylesacross its many different factionsand even bigger world. It’s the epitome of the franchise, and it’s one that all strategy gamers need to play.
Although strategy gamers are a strong crowd, they’re not always in the gaming mainstream, with the exception of theCivilizationfranchise. Starting from a very simple premise of taking a historical civilization, building it up, and using 4X fundamentals to dominate the map,Sid Meier’s popular game seriesis still going strong well into the modern day.
The games are well known for their addictive “just one more turn” gameplay loop, with new building and units always being churned out by ever greater cities spurred on bya wide variety of leaders the player can inhabit. Though the tenets of the games have shifted massively since the original, every new iteration is an important milestone in the strategy games calendar.
Where games likeCivilizationhave dominated the grand strategy conversation in mainstream gaming, theAge of Empiresfranchise is likely many gamer’s first foray into the realm of RTS games. Based initially in early history but soon becoming a game that stretchesacross the Ancient Age up until the Renaissance,Age of Empirestakes the well-trodden RTS truisms of games likeWarcraftand transposes it into a rich and vibrant portrayal of the past.
These games, particularlyAge of Empires 2, have garnered a rabid fanbase, many of whom still play a remastered version ofAge of Empires 2to this day, even making it a credible and exciting e-sport as well asan ideal first entry into RTS gaming.Age of Empiresis one of the legends of strategy gaming, and its lifespan is a credit to its mechanical innovation.
Though most people may know the world of Azeroth from the indelible and earth-shattering MMOWorld of Warcraft, some may not know that the world was originally conceived of and developed in theWarcraftseries, a franchise of beloved RTS games that were renowned for telling brilliant stories and innovating graphically with each entry.
The franchise peaked in popularity around the release ofWarcraft 3, which, with its state-of-the-art animated cutscenes, dominated the gaming cultural landscape with the tragic story of Arthas and his descent into becoming the Lich King. It’s one of the best stories in gaming, and it introducessome of the most powerful characters in the lore.
It’d be no surprise if most gamers hadn’t heard ofThe Settlersor the subsequent franchise. Yet, despite lying under the surface,The Settlersis an exceptionally important historical point that brought the traditional “German style” of strategy board games, digitizing them, and forever shifting the design principles of strategy games that would come thereafter.
The game is primarily known as an economic RTS, where players don’t control the units so much as they set specific conditions for units and buildings. This results in complex supply chains, which sounds a little boring on the surface, but when the machine functions, it’s more satisfying than most other games. It definitely deserves a place in strategy game history because of its contributions, even ifsome of the entries are no longer playable.
