Pike's List of The Top Ten Strategy/Tactics Games of All Time
Good evening ladies and gentlebots! I've made up a list of what I consider to be the ten definitive strategy and tactics games of all time. Yes, I left a lot of very good ones off of here - I had to be selective. Yes, I admit there are some games I haven't played that should be on the list but that I can't judge yet. Oh well. :monkey:
10. XCOM Enemy Unknown - Coming in at a very respectable #10 on the list is Firaxis's XCOM remake from last year. It's pretty amazing what Firaxis managed to accomplish with a small budget, and although they could certainly have benefited from some more cash in their pockets, this game really shines with all the depth of the original (regardless of what the haters say) and, more importantly, its white-knuckle tension as well.
~
9. Victoria II - Possibly Paradox Interactive's finest hour, Victoria II puts you in charge of a country in the 19th century and... well, that's the whole point. You can go to war, of course, but that's not the goal here, per se - the goal is to be more prestigious than all the other countries via any means possible, whether it's diplomatic, political, or economical. Staring at a map and a bunch of spreadsheets was never so captivating.
~
8. Age of Empires II - A delightfully fun and very well made romp through history with all the hallmarks of a great real-time strategy game. The game still holds up today just as well as it did when it first came out, so grab a friend or two because the multiplayer is a blast.
~
7. StarCraft: Brood War - To me it was a tossup between this and AoE II for the title of Greatest RTS of All Time, and StarCraft barely won out. What gave it the edge, to me, is the fact that somehow Blizzard managed to create three races that were all very distinct in flavor and mechanics but who all managed to balance each other out perfectly. I have no idea how they did it, but they did. No RTS has surpassed it since.
~
6. Rome: Total War - It could have just as easily been Medieval 2, but in the end I had to give the title to Rome. The whole point of Total War is to shift you between the "strategy" and "tactics" side of the war coin, and this game does this with aplomb in a way that no other game really does. Plus, there's nothing like controlling a thousand guys on the battlefield.
~
5. Crusader Kings II - I'm rating this higher than Vicky II because of the polish and the fact that Paradox succeeded in putting personality into the strategy genre. CKII is about families, dynasties, and people, all of whom have individual stories - stories that you'll invent as you play. Combine this with being able to mod any fantasy scenario you want into it (Game of Thrones, The Elder Scrolls, et al.) and the replayability is off the charts. Grognards may turn their nose up at the lack of a million pie charts, but the rest of us know that this is a very excellent game indeed.
~
4. Master of Orion 2 - Oh, now we're getting to the good stuff. What is there to praise about MoO2 that hasn't already been praised elsewhere? It's the 4X of a generation; it's influenced every turn-based space game ever since, and to this day people are still remaking it and porting it to every system under the sun. It's a space opera turned video game, with different types of alien races to meet and planets to colonize and ships to build, and while a few truly great space 4Xs can claim to stand alongside MoO2, none can claim to have surpassed it. Not yet, anyway.
~
3. Civilization IV - This is, bar none, the best Civilization game. We'll get this out of the way right now. II was very good as well, I and III had their moments, and V is, well, pretty heavily flawed. Civ IV, though, did everything right. From the standpoint of pure mechanics, this is probably the greatest 4X ever made. Between the civics, the wonder system, the tech tree, the espionage, and the sheer wealth of options and empires to choose from, this is very definition of a flawless turn-based strategy game.
~
2. X-Com UFO Defense - I've yet to play another videogame where I was pressed up against the monitor, straining my ears to just listen. But that's what happens when you play X-Com and that terrifying "Hidden Movement" screen pops up. One misstep could mean that your entire party is destroyed in one turn by a rogue grenade- you can never be too careful with X-Com. Oh, but that's all smalltime compared to the later enemies which Microprose gleefully throws at you as you progress through the game, losing your soldiers left and right. It's terrifying, it's intense, it's ballbreakingly difficult and it's brilliant.
~
1. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - What sets SMAC apart isn't the mechanics (although they are still very good), or the difficulty (although it can still be very hard), or the customization (although SMAC has that in spades.) It's not even in the Planet Busters and their ability to literally wipe out half of the playing field in one shot. No, what sets SMAC apart is that it's hard science fiction, it's philosophy, it's religion, and, ultimately, it's human nature, all wrapped up tightly in one interactive package. SMAC goes beyond being just a game or a piece of entertainment. It makes you feel, and it makes you think. The fact that it insists on doing so while you're sitting breathlessly on the edge of your seat is a bonus.
~
Honorable Mentions go to: Europa Universalis 3; Darkest Hour; Space Empires IV; Warcraft 3; Medieval II: Total War; Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, and various other games that I'm probably forgetting.
:squee: LET'S TALK ABOUT STRATEGY GAMES! :squee:
