The Wonder Years 5.22.08: Week 56 - Herzog Zwei

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 05.22.2008

German real-time strategy? Mmm... efficient.

Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console or Xbox Live Arcade at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:

HERZOG ZWEI

(TechnoSoft, Genesis, 1990)

Inevitably, when you think of the early days of the real-time strategy genre, thoughts turn to Windows-based PC systems, the genre-defining Command & Conquer series, games based on Frank Herbert novels and other titles of their ilk by Westwood Studios; and if you're me (which, admittedly, not many of you are), the thoughts also include memories of my friend Dr. Sheeplove and his relentless borrowing of my Red Alert disc, only to return it progressively more scratched each time, the git. Ah, but I got him back that one network game where I hid one soldier behind a tree in the corner of the map and he took over an hour to find it after destroying all my other troops. Glorious. Anyway, it may surprise fans of the genre, and indeed other folks who may be too young to know their gaming history, that the very late Eighties in fact saw the genre's genesis. My goodness, but that was a fine pun. Yes, it was indeed Sega's console that saw one of the first (I'm hesitant to call it first outright, as someone would be bound to find evidence to the contrary) real-time strategy titles released, in the shape of Herzog Zwei.

Developed, surprisingly, by TechnoSoft (more well known at the time for their Thunder Force series of arcade shooters), Herzog Zwei was generally discredited and ignored on its initial release in the US, and wouldn't go on to be released in any other territories. It's understandable, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, strategy videogames up until that point had been entirely turn-based, taking their cues from the more sedate world of roleplaying and board-based gaming. People fear change, and people fear the Germans, so combining the two (yes, the game isn't actually German, but it certainly sounds like the dirty work of Johnny Foreigner) was never likely to succeed initially. Secondly, there's the simple fact that RTS games just don't work on consoles; there's a reason why they're the preserve of PC gamers and have been for the past decade and a half. However, as time passed people began to see the value Herzog Zwei had to offer, and even came to laud its forerunning position in the history of the genre.

The actual conceit behind the game is mind-numbingly simple - two armies go head to head in order to destroy the opposition. There's little, if any, story to speak of. Of course, while this may discourage gamers who have come to know and love the RTS genre as bearing a backbone of exposition, invariably Cold War in nature, it's actually surprisingly refreshing to gamers who simply want to dive right into action. By modern RTS standards, Herzog Zwei is distressingly limited; there are only eight different world maps on which to engage, and a mere eight land units with which to do battle. The object of the game is simply to defeat the AI opponent on each map four times, and then a rather non-descript ending is trotted out. However, it's the journey rather than the destination that proves the meat of the game. Rather than simply assigning the player a quasi-God role, you're instead dumped straight into the action via an air-based robot, which covers the dual guises of both war general and attack craft. Orders can be delivered directly to your units via a half-dozen or so different programs, and you can also throw caution to the wind and launch an all-out attack directly with your avatar.

It's battlefield tactics that prove the order of the day. Each of the eight different conflict zones provides a variety of terrain and environmental obstacles that must be overcome, from the lava rivers of Vulkan to the swamps of Waldug. The game soon becomes impressively strategic for a console-based military game, as weak enemy AI is compensated for by a vast discrepancy in numbers of troops, forcing the player to adopt a less aggressive strategy in order to counteract the opposition's vast armies. Unfortunately, the game does tend to slow down drastically once sixty or so units are present on the battlefield (even though the theoretical maximum is 100), but even so, the quest to conquer your opponent's main outpost, along with the dozen or so mini-bases that litter the map, is never less than enjoyable. However, with the 16-bit computer intelligence so often called into question, it's the two-player mode in which the game really shines, as a split-screen perspective allows opposing armies to battle on the same console. Here, tactics really do have to be spot on, as short of a signal-splitter and two television sets (much like the manner in which GoldenEye multiplayer die-hards like to play), you're going to be able to get the jump on your opponent through simply spying on his screen. The result is that individual games tend to last for hours, which is a pleasing change from other early Genesis two-player outings.

It's perhaps no real surprise that Herzog Zwei has adopted the status of a cult game, as very few early-90s Sega fans had the patience and attitude to adopt such a wildly different style of gaming that proved pretty unique to the console. A fully-featured and updated remake of the Herzog brand name could prove a hit on the PC, but console gamers have long since realized that the real-time strategy genre just doesn't sit well on their systems. Instead, HZ is more likely to remain an idiosyncratic curiosity, a game that defied its very nature to prove one of the more cerebral experiences on the Genesis, and a rather unexpected hit for a development company that specialized in arcade games. In a way, it's the fusion of arcade sensibilities with modern RTS preconceptions that prove to be Herzog Zwei's undoing, as the game could never really find a concrete audience. Give it a chance, though, and you may well be surprised at the depth it can offer for a console strategy game.

Herzog Zwei trivia

• With the game's predecessor appearing only on the obscure MSX system and a planned sequel for the 32X ditched, this is the only Herzog game to attain any prominence.
  
• The title translates into English as "Duke Two", which means even less than its German counterpart.
  
• Dune II, the Westwood title often accredited for popularizing the RTS genre, actually appeared two full years after this game, which cements HZ's place in gaming history.
  

The Videosphere

Let's take a look at this week's video highlight of Herzog Zwei in action. Here you can see the two-player mode, which admittedly could have done with a slightly more zoomed-out default camera angle, but was still pretty fun to place against an equally spoddy friend.




Reactions and interactions

Someone was unusually prescient after last week's look at Forgotten Worlds...

Posted by: oiadg

"Herzog Zwei sucks balls..."

Kudos on your prognosticative ability, sir. However, I submit that the game does not in fact suck balls, or indeed anything else.

Posted by: Archer

"This was hands down one of my favorite arcade games when I was in middle school. I wish they would do it for the playstation network or Xbox Live. That, Afterburner, and Space Harrier would make me very happy"

Good games both. I remember the 3D arcade cabinet of Space Harrier, which didn't really do anything except hurt your eyes in the grand tradition of "3D" things. Good times!


And finally…

Thanks for reading folks; as always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - time to finish him! Or her. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.