The Forgotten PC Games 05.22.08: Strategy Juggernauts

Posted by Chris Vicari on 05.22.2008

Here is but a small taste of some of the greatest strategy games to ever grace the PC gaming platform. Sadly, there are so many out there that attempting to put them all in one column would be impossible. Nevertheless, you owe it to yourself to try these gaming classics and witness the magic with your very own eyes.

An overpowering feeling of nostalgia creeps into my mind as I think about all of the strategy games I have played throughout my lifetime. So many of them still stand out even today and I often find myself enjoying some of them more than most of the current interpretations of the genre. These games helped me get through high school and at times even college. When life decides to drop a nice big heap onto your existence, taking a few hours out of your time to wage bloody warfare with massive armies is definitely what I would call a stress reliever.

From XCOM: UFO Defense to Civilization and Starcraft, the strategy genre has had a bright and vibrant history and it continues to honor that history to this day. The genre continues to evolve and I look forward to see when the next shift happens. For the time being, here are three games which were hailed as groundbreaking and absolutely fantastic. I believe these are some of the best examples of the genre.

Grit and Style



Myth: The Fallen Lords and its sequel Myth II: Soulblighter are two phenomenal strategy games developed by Bungie, makers of the also-wonderful Marathon series and the ever-so-popular Halo franchise. Released in 1997 and then the sequel a year later, the Myth series won several Game of the Year awards and has also been inducted into Gamespot's "Greatest Games of All Time" list. While a third Myth game was released in 2001, it was created by a different company named MumboJumbo since Bungie sold to Microsoft. Garnering less interest from the Myth community than its peers, Myth III: The Wolf Age is agreed upon to be the worst game of the series and is typically passed up for the other two.

What set the Myth series apart from the rest of the pack was the removal of typical strategy genre flair, a wonderful 3D engine with realistic weather effects and physics engines, and a riveting narrated storyline. The Myth franchise deserves all the praise it receives and I'd say these are some of the best strategy games to come out. Everything in the series from the individual units, environments, the story and even the music, breathes a certain quality and passion that not every game visibly contains.

Two major selling points these games share is multiplayer support and a phenomenal modding community. The community has released hundreds of mods, dozens of full conversions and a boatload of tweaks. When Bungie sold to Microsoft and no longer supported the multiplayer aspect, the modding community took it upon themselves to ensure the Myth franchise stays alive. Project Magma, one of the biggest places for Myth support, has released several patches for all three games while Mariusnet.com hosts the multiplayer servers themselves.

Currently Myth II and Myth III can be played at Gametap but they are older versions of the games and cannot be updated potentially limiting multiplayer possibilities.

Instead, please do yourself a favor and go to Amazon and buy a brand new copy of Myth: The Total Codex for only 25 bucks. It contains both Myth games, their player's guides, and a heap of user-made content. With the latest community-created patches, these games run adamantly on the latest operating systems and I still play them to this day.

Synopsis

In both Myth games you play the forces of Light which is the human civilization along with its allies who battle against the forces of the Dark and the undead. The first game pits you against the Fallen Lords which are the leaders and generals of the Dark. Dubbed the Great War, the Light is faced with a losing battle as it attempts to do all it can to fight back. In the sequel which takes place sixty years after the first game, your foe becomes Soulblighter, who is one of the last remaining Fallen Lords who survived the initial conflict.

Before each mission begins, the story and mission objectives are fleshed out with high quality narration, writing and drawings. While there is much debate within the Myth community as to who the narrator really is, I'll just say that he is a soldier in the Legion who writes down what he witnesses. Through these beautifully-crafted intro sequences, you get a small dose of the quality this game provides. The music, the words and the voice are a powerful combination.

Bloody mayhem anyone?

What made these games so popular all those years ago and still even today was not simply what they did, but what they didn't do as well. The Myth series was devoid of any base building, unit manufacturing or resource hunting of any kind. For each mission you were allotted a certain amount of units and that is all get. An emphasis on squad tactics and individual unit control got the nod while massing armies and turtling received the boot.

Each side of the conflict is also very unique from the other requiring completely different strategies to achieve objectives. The forces of Light employ your typical warriors and archers, but also host a unique blend of giants, warlocks and barbarians. Probably the most famous unit of all are the dwarves. Instead of wielding an axe, the dwarves throw explosive Molotov cocktails which turn enemies into juicy goodness while spraying the battlefield a nice crimson color. The Dark on the other hand are all undead which gives them many advantages. They can breathe underwater indefinitely letting them ambush an enemy, some can travel over any terrain and others simply explode.

The game's weather system also forces the player to make tactical decisions on the fly. Rain can make Dwarven cocktails dud when they are needed most, wind can deflect arrow trajectory and snow can help an enemy track you down.

A pitched three minute battle using Myth 1 models modded over to Myth II.- Movie created by oogaboogan

A short conclusion

The Myth franchise is the epitome of fun and bloody mayhem. If you haven't experienced the magic for yourself, please take the $25 plunge and give it a shot. If you're still not convinced, you can find demos for both of these games at your favorite gaming website.

Charm and Wit



Ever wanted to run your own dungeon, recruit monsters and set traps for would-be heroes invading your domain? Enter the excellently crafted Dungeon Keeper series by Bullfrog Productions in 1997 and then 1999 for the sequel. Earning immensely positive reviews and several awards for its unique spin and humorous take of the strategy genre, Dungeon Keeper is definitely a game worth playing and it's still considered a quality game even by today's standards.

Sadly both games lack any concrete multiplayer support but both are still a lot of fun regardless. The second Dungeon Keeper also added skirmishes and a "My Pet Dungeon" mode for added replayability.

Synopsis

As the name of the franchise implies, you play the role of a Dungeon Keeper who has the urge to remove all the do-gooders on the surface above and to do that you must build a workable dungeon to attract various monsters into your fold. That's about it when it comes to the plot but these games definitely make up for it in the gameplay and humor department.

As mentioned above, you must attract monsters to your dungeon since they are your only means for combating the forces of good. To do this you must build different rooms such as places to eat, sleep, and train or to avoid boredom such as the casino to attract and keep your monsters happy. With the help of your imps, who are the lowly servants at your command, you can transform a small one-room dungeon into a thriving underground community. Well, as much of a community that can be created between a host of evil creatures.

Once proper rooms have been created you can start attracting minions, but depending on the rooms you created, you may only attract certain monsters. For instance, if you build a library you will attract wizards but if you build a workshop you will attract trolls. Some minions cannot be attracted at all but are made in your dungeon. Skeletons come when someone dies in your prison, vampires spawn when your graveyard fills up and ghosts form when someone dies in your torture chamber. Oh I forgot to mention that, you can torture people.

Central heating you say? I'll check into that.

Dungeon Keeper's difference from the norm, besides the room system itself of course, is that you do not have direct control over your minions which is quite similar to the Majesty games if you're at all familiar with those. They eat, train and interact with each other all by themselves. Your means of ordering them about are minimal, but you can slap them so they work faster or pick them up and drop wherever you want. Don't expect them to dally about for long if there's nothing to do though.

Dungeon Keeper's humor is evident throughout the entire game but especially during mission briefing, cutscenes and unit interaction. Before you play each mission, your advisor tells you about each area but he also cannot comprehend why people aren't torturing or killing one another either. Unit interaction though is by far the most amusing aspect. Some creatures will have a strong distaste for another such as flies and spiders and will attack each other but sometimes minions will just get annoyed with another. Wizards will get pissed at anyone cutting in on their research time, and the same goes for trolls in the workshop, but some will just kill anything in their way when they're just bored such as the Horned Reaper, one of the most powerful units in the game. One other hilarious encounter is when one of your minions wins the jackpot in the casino. Every monster will stop what they are doing and dance, fireworks will go off, and the song Disco Inferno will play in the background.

Loads of fun

Dungeon Keeper is a barrel of laughs and a load of fun. These games can still be found online and I would heavily recommend purchasing them. The ability to run your own dungeon is a very tough opportunity to pass up.

Innovation



There is nothing that can be said about Homeworld except that it is absolutely one of the best and most unique strategy games to this date. Released in 1999 and then 2003 for its sequel by Relic Entertainment, well-known for its Warhammer 40K and Company of Heroes strategy franchises, Homeworld is practically everything you could want in a strategy game. It has beautiful visuals, in-depth gameplay, a well-crafted story and quality sound and music. Winner of several awards, most of which were Game of the Year, Homeworld and its sequel are games truly deserving to be remembered for many years to come.

Both games also ship with full multiplayer support and it's a blast massing an entire armada and duking it out with other people. Due to the series' massive popularity, a robust modding community also took form. When the source code for the first game was released in 2003, total conversion mods like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon 5 came into existence as well.

Synopsis

In the first game, you can assume the role of either the Taiidan and Kushan alien races but the story remains the same regardless but the plot and sequel assumes you select the Kushan. You inhabit the planet of Kharak and are currently working on a Mothership for interstellar travel and exploration, but on the ships' maiden voyage your planet is attacked and completely destroyed by the opposing faction. The remaining survivors, all of whom are on the mothership, vow for revenge and seek to obliterate the enemy race while also searching for a new home. The second game takes place after the events of the first one but this time you get a new Mothership built for war rather than exploration and a new enemy called the Vaygr joins the fight. Similar to Myth, the story is narrated and visually depicted extremely well during pre-mission cut scenes.

Space battles never looked so good courtesy of Homeworld 2.

Homeworld can be considered similar to other strategy games in that you harvest resources, build units and wage war, but Homeworld does it so much different than anything else that it truly is spectacular. Battles are fought in a complete 3D space environment, units can be moved in all axis rather than just X and Y, and your Mothership is your main base that builds everything for you. It can build all manner of ships from small fighters, bombers, frigates and cruisers, all the way up to capital class ships. Battles are simply stunning as dozens of ships and fighters battle it out for space supremacy.

It has everything that counts

The Homeworld franchise is absolutely amazing and possibly the best space-based strategy game to come out. It looks stunning even by today's standards and many games still cannot capture the magic that Homeworld managed to grab a hold of all those years ago. You seriously cannot go wrong with these precious gems.