Games That Made Me

Games that made me is an article I originally wrote for KGM. In this article, I’ll share with you my most influential gaming experiences, games that made me,a ‘gamer’. I go by the internet handle frags, which was something I thought up in the old Counter Strike days of mine. I’ve been playing computer games for about 20 years now and if I had to pick a genre of games that I felt most endeared to, it has to be strategy games. After the jump, I talk about strategy games I grew up with.

Strategy games aren’t the first genre of games I’ve played, obviously first person shooters completely blew me away when I first saw them(Wolfenstein 3D). Adventure games were plentiful in those days with Space Quest being one of the earliest funny games I’ve played. And the simulation genre was at its peak with the Jane's series of flight simulators and of course, Comanche.

But strategy games are different. They hook you with deep game mechanics, with the promise of making you ‘the boss’ or ‘the leader’. I worry if this somehow is evidence of some inner megalomaniacal tendency that I might have, but I digress. Being the leader isn't easy though, and often requires managing lots of things, planning, strategising, and acting upon it. I was mesmerised by this ‘new’ gaming experience which depended on your brains, rather than reaction time. Below are nine strategy games that has influenced me as a gamer the most (in no particular order and this isn’t a best of list):

 

Dune 2 (1992)

Possibly the first ever computer strategy game I played. This is the game that introduced me to the possibilities of what this genre could offer. I was not really familiar with Frank Herbert’s books, but this game was one of the first games which had three unique factions, house Harkonnen, Atriedes, and Ordos fight for control of Planet Arrakis. The units for these factions are generally the same except for some special/uber units which were unique to each faction. They weren’t really well balanced and House Harkonnen(the evil faction) which got the most powerful tank unit, the devastator, obviously felt the most powerful and easiest to play with.

House Atriedes were the good guys and they got a flying unit(called the Ornithopter) which was weak but gave it mobility and of course who can forget, the irritating(or awesome depending on which faction you chose) sonic tanks. House Ordos was the mysterious faction that always kept the other houses guessing about their real motives. Ordos had units that could mind control enemy units. Pretty frustrating when you see it happen and have your own units turn on you.

Dune 2 wasn’t just a standard RTS, but it had an interesting base building mechanic where you needed to build a concrete base(or build them on solid rocks) to build your base on. The reason? Arrakis was infested with these giant sand worms. Any units or buildings that is on sandy ground risk getting attacked by this menace. There was another reason why I remembered this game very fondly. This was the first ever game I played with a sound card on my computer. I heard people talking in a computer game for the first time! Exciting times.
 

Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996)

I missed the original Command & Conquer and when Red Alert was released, it opened up entire new battlefields for the RTS genre. The most biggest addition was naval and air combat which meant players had to keep an eye on a few fronts. In multiplayer, this was the game which took over all the cyber cafes in the mid 90’s by storm.

The single player campaign was pretty lengthy compared to todays standard and followed the Command & Conquer type full motion video cutscenes in between mission to further the story. It was a really ridiculous story(what with Einstein going back in time to assassinate Hitler) but being the first few games that used FMV’s, it worked well for Red Alert. Many other games would copy the FMV style cutscenes that this series had introduced.

Red Alert had interesting units such as Tanya(the super commando chick played by Kari Wuhrer, sorry Jenny McCarthy, but you'll never replace Kari Wuhrer) which was prone to saying ‘cha-ching!’ a lot, attack dogs(German Sheppards really), tesla coils(electric death devices that defend your base), the destroyer(naval unit)and many more. More importantly, it had two asymmetrical sides which had its own strength and weaknesses which you had to be mindful about and tailor your strategy while taking them into account.
EA has since released Red Alert for free which you can find here and here. Getting them to run might be a little tricky for some people but it’s definitely playable.
 

Civilization II (1996)

Before Brain Reynolds did Rise of Nations, he was with Micropose working on Civilization II. The second in the series is probably one of the most memorable game for many people because of the introduction of advisors. You had advisors that advised *cough* told you what to do. They were actual people, full motion videos, and many of them were hilarious. Like the domestic advisors which was an Elvis copy cat. This is actually the real truth on why Civilization II is so unforgettable. The image of Elvis and the war mongering military advisor, the nerdy technology advisor has forever been burned into my memory.

It wasn't all funny videos thankfully, it was also a major step up for the series in terms of improving upon a formula that worked well. The game introduced many AI improvements, improvements to the combat(hit point and fire power was introduced), and how tiles were rendered. Civilization was a classic, but was rough and people felt the flaws of its system was obvious after extensive playthroughs. Hence came forth Civilization II, perfection was achieved!
 

Dungeon Keeper (1997)

I’ve never played Peter Molyneux’s Populous games, but to me Dungeon Keeper has got to be his best game. Incorporating an addictive mix of game mechanics, Dungeon Keeper required you to manage your evil minions, and basically build you lair(or dungeon) where you hatch your evil master plan and slay off foolish heroes that wander into your dungeon.

You had to attract your minions by building rooms that they are attracted to. A game of Dungeon Keeper includes slapping Imps to work faster, putting some of your own minion in the torture room to make them work harder, mining gold and not forgetting, slaying off foolish adventurers. It was one of those games where you don’t directly control your units, but you encouraged them to do things by placing them near something(or slapping them). I know it sounds funny(and it was) but it was bloody addictive.

Dungeon Keeper was also a game that represented the mouse cursor as an extension of the players hand. Using it, you interacted with the game world(did I mention you could slap your evil minions?). This idea would later be revisited by Molynuex in Black & White but it was not as successful as the Dungeon Keeper games(it got one sequel) in its implementation.
 

Railroad Tycoon II (1998)

PopTop Games was one of those companies that had a knack for making great, fun to play strategy games. Arguably their best game, Railroad Tycoon II took the railroad building aspect of the previous game(which was from Sid Meier’s Micropose) and expanded the business sim aspect of it.

It was really expensive to build infrastructure and you often had to weigh the cost of building railway lines very carefully to make sure you’ll make enough profit to cover the huge cost. The game world also simulated a world economy with recession periods and booms as well as other railroad companies competing with you.
Railroad Tycoon II also had what I consider as the best implementation of a stock market in game. Not only did it act as a platform for making short gains, you could also buy out your competition from right under their noses. There were some pretty impressive options available such as the ability to short sell stocks. The stock prices always fluctuates based on the performance of a company(and of course with the game world's economy).

On top of that, the missions in Railroad Tycoon II offers lots of variation and required you to rethink your strategy each time. A specific mission could have you in a map of UK where there is a strict anti air pollution law that prohibits you from using steam engines or another mission could be in a time period just before World War II where you have to take advantage of building tracks to munitions factories to make a good profit. This type of varied mission type followed on with PopTop’s later game, Tropico. Sadly Railroad Tycoon 3 wasn't nearly as addictive as this one.
 

Rollercoaster Tycoon (1999)

Chris Sawyer’s Rollercoaster Tycoon is the best theme park tycoon game. While just being a 2D game, it simulated physics for its rollercoasters with things like G-force and velocity coming into play. How you built your rollercoasters defined how it will be rated based on intensity and excitement. The more G-force you force upon the rollercoasters riders, the more intense it will be and will cause many sick riders. Pretty impressive for a 2D game.

The art of building a good rollercoaster was so balanced, there wasn't a perfect formula for building a perfect rollercoaster and that made the game very repayable. On top of the rollercoasters, you also had to manage the finance and operations of your park and balance out you park with less intense rides for the faint hearted visitor.

Speaking of visitors, Rollercoaster Tycoon was also one of the few games which modeled every visitor to your park. You could see what they were thinking, what they were doing, how much money do they have, how did they spend it and what they thought about your rides.

There is one aspect of Rollercoaster Tycoon which I have to speak about and that is ‘accidents’. If you built you rollercoaster haphazardly or used to many coaster, you might just create a disaster. People might get killed and you park along with that ride will be thought of negatively by visitors(and many people will avoid it). But aside from the financial management of the park, I had just as much fun just creating ‘accidents’. You just can't help it, seeing those little tiny people walking about talking smack about your park. It was pay back time, or as Don Henley(Eagles front man) sang, 'you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave'!

The series got a sequel which just expanded on the number of levels and content(more rides, more levels, etc). Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was made by a completely different developer and moved to a 3D engine. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was plagued by bugs and was never held as highly as the first game. The first is still the best.
 

Caesar III (1999)

Caesar III was a city builder that was not like the popular Maxis developed Sim City. Developed by Impression Games, Caesar III added a more intimate look at the citizens and inner workings of a Roman city. You needed to create and manage production chains with the needs of the people and the city.

It used ‘walkers’(people that carry stuff from where they were produced to the masses) that distributed goods to your citizens. And since houses improved with better goods or services, you needed to make sure these walkers got to the areas you need them to go to. Routing walkers in Caesar III was a hit and miss affair and there wasn’t really any built in mechanic to block walkers from straying away(this was somewhat rectified in Zeus when they allowed you to build road blocks).

I suppose the mechanic of having the housing evolve into better buildings was a great motivation for building a perfect(or almost perfect) network of goods to your population. It really made all the frustrating effort of trying to get your walkers to where they should be going worth it. It was also a pretty sharp looking game for its day's.
 

Europa Universalis (2000)

Europa Universalis was an interesting game when it was released back in 2000. A grand strategy game that ran in real time and dumped the turn based approach most grand strategy games took. But how did it managed the huge number of nations, options and number crunching in real time? Well the answer to that is that it runs really, really slowly.

Of course you didn’t have to wait 5 minutes for 24 in game hours to pass, you could always speed it up whenever there was a lull. Whenever things got busy, you could slow things down. It also allowed you to completely pause the game and issue your commands/changes when paused(if you are the control freak type).
Europa Universalis is what I’d call a historical simulation, where you took control of a nation and lead it through the passages of time and history to perhaps a glorious position of world domination or wealth. It wasn’t a game that meant playing well equals conquering new territory. You could play a peaceful merchant state that made its cut from the trading system in the game.

You could play it using many different strategic approach due to its deep political and economic system. The most unforgettable campaigns were always the ones where I played a small nation like Malacca(you could play just about any nation in the game) and try to forge a strong coalition of states to strengthen a weak military nation. Europa Universalis is a game which has the most number of ‘what if’ scenarios thrown at the player.

Covering a period from 1492 to 1792, this was a huge game with a huge scope. There were many random and player driven events that occurred in the game world that kept the game fresh and interesting. Of course a game in which you viewed a 2D map of the world at all times isn't an enthralling proposition for everybody. It might not have had the mass appeal of a pretty looking RTS game and wasn't really a pick up and play sort of title. You needed to study it(the manuals for these game are about 200 to 300 pages in length), understand it, and take you time with it. Paradox has since grown into a very capable studio that makes quality grand strategy games and they even have their own digital distribution platform called GamersGate now.
 

Shogun: Total War (2003)

I regard Shogun: Total War as a milestone game. It mixed elements of two different type of strategy games, turn based and real time strategy into one wholesome package. The result was one of the most fulfilling strategy title ever made.

The tactical battles(real time battles) required using real world tactics and strategy to win. Much of this was made a lot less important in the newer Total War games(read Rome Total War) as Creative Assembly speed up the game, made fatigue less of an issue, and nerfed the bonus and penalties for uphill/downhill situations. Shogun was much harder and punishing than newer Total War games. But it was also way more satisfying as it wasn't as easy as the new Total War games.

When the battle ends, you are put in front of a map of Japan(Shogun takes place in the Sengoku period, from 1467 to 1573) and building your infrastructure, military buildings, and armies were you main priorities.
It was said that knowing your enemy was just as important as a decisive maneuver on the battlefield( I think an old Chinese general called Sun Tzu said that). On the strategy map, you would use spies to learn about your enemies plans. Information can often give you an added advantage in battle and anticipating the enemies moves could lead him right into the web of the spider(basically it means you could surprise the enemy). Spies could also be used for counter spy measures.

Assassin’s were deadly in Shogun. You could(if you trained them on lesser targets) take out heirs and even the feudal lord of a faction. There's nothing quite as satisfying like successfully assassinating a faction heir and later killing the leader in a battle(essentially killing of that faction entirely). The subterfuge, economic management and military tactics makes this one truly a special game. I will never hesitate to state that Shogun: Total War is my favourite game of all time.

So there you go, the games that made me. They changed the way I viewed strategy games and I've always measured up any new strategy title to these great games. Sure there were some big titles I missed out but these are what I played and what mattered to me. I hope we get new strategy games that strive to do new things and really build great systems for the player to discover and be lost in. The mark of a great strategy game is always something that makes you come back for more and makes you think about playing it even when you are not in front of the PC. Hope this article was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to reminisce on these old, great games.

PS : There will be more articles about some pretty old and classic PC games. Hint, one is considered to be the best RTS ever made, the other the best RPG ever made. No promises on ETA, but they’ll come.