First it was teenie boys in uniform, who had to fight these powerful effeminate-looking alien creatures and pesky evil winged things.
Then it was little warriors and heroes who fought against dragons, gnomes and the undead, and who had a weakness for pub houses.
And now it’s tiny idle peasants who collect rice and water, and who can be trained into samurai.
Now it’s become very obvious to me…I love these strategy-sim games!
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Majesty, the game where there are warriors and heroes, is not a sim game, according to Strategy-Gaming. It is a “real-time strategy game”.
The story: Majesty is set in a fantasy setting currently besieged by all manner of evil. Your role in the game is that of a noble ruler seeking to unite the land. This is accomplished by going on various �quests�. The quests are essentially different maps to conquer. You have two abilities within the game that allow you to influence the heroes and it is gold that activates the ability.
And, according to Games Domain:
What makes Majesty so different to other fantasy RTS games, and perhaps to all RTS games? Well, the biggest difference is that while you can erect new buildings to allow you to create new units to order into battle, you can’t actually do any of the ordering yourself. Instead, you can pay for a new unit to be created, but once it arrives it’ll do whatever it chooses, motivated by desires that are unique to each type of character or unit that you can create.
GameSpy has this to say about Battle Realms:
Battle Realms is quite possibly the most graphically detailed real-time strategy game ever made. Oh, and it’s pretty fun to play, too.
Basic combat doctrines, such as using the high ground, are crucial to success in battle. And to top it all off, the terrain itself is gorgeous. Waterfalls flow with life, birds scatter from tree nests, streams ripple when warriors rush through it — the environment is truly alive. This is not only an aesthetic effect; rather it plays a critical role in the gameplay itself. For example, rainfall slows down units as they slog their way through bad terrain, unit movement is slower in forests…etc…
I can’t exactly put my finger on why these games hold such an attraction for me. I guess it’s partly the chance to “manage” the resources of a fantasy land, where the only risk I run is not being able to hit the QUIT button fast enough and see all my warriors die and all my buildings annihilated when the enemy overruns me.
I think it’s also partly due to the fun of making a community, and setting up buildings and facilities for “my people”. And partly because I just like seeing these tiny individuals walking or standing around, doing work, repairing buildings, having fun, doing stretching exercises, or just lazing around. In other words, it appeals to my megalomaniac tendencies. Mwahaha.
(P.S. Markie, thanks for introducing me to all these little boylets…heehee)
Posted under Navel-Gazing
