2005 Strategy Game of the Year

2005 was a banner year for Independent Strategy Games.  While 2004 saw only a small handful of games, 2005 didn't just see a large number of games, it saw a good number of *great* games, so much so that this category was probably the most difficult to do as several solid titles (Supremacy, Battalion, Curator Defense) didn't even make the list.

However, what that means is you are looking at five VERY deserving games that each would be a worthy addition to any gamer's library.

5th Place - Land of Legends

Developer: Tiny Hero Game Studios		Players: 1-2
Website
System Requirements: 600Mhz, 256 MB RAM, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 9.0c+

Lands of Legend at first glance might be mistaken for a Role-Playing Game. In some ways it actually is. In fact if you combined a RPG with Advance Wars you would probably end up with a game not too much unlike Lands of Legend. With that in mind when you look at screenshots of the game it all seems to make sense as the graphic style is certainly reminiscent of the Advance Wars look, even if none of the characters look similar.

While the look may be similar, Lands of Legend changes up a lot of the rules that strategy players may be familiar with from the Advance Wars / Military Madness games with its inclusion of a RPG side. Each of your units is really a character in the game with a specific number of hit points instead of having 10 of each unit represented by the unit onscreen. Hit points vary a little from character to character as does its available movement.

Attacks come from ranged weapons or hand to hand combat, with the aggressor being the only one who can inflict damage unless the defender intentionally did not use up all of its action points the previous turn (and of course ranged fire cannot be returned). With really its own set of rules and many races, characters, scenarios and an intriguing story line to go along with it all, LOL stands as a very strong strategy game that will ensnare even the casual strategy fan.

4th Place - Trash

Developer: Inhuman Games		Players: 1-24
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/XP/NT/2000, MacOS X(10.1+), DX 8+, 500mhz CPU, 128 mb RAM

The Earth is in ruins, a large scale nuclear war has turned parts of the populace into vicious mutants, and the remaining humans have to fend for themselves making use of what's left over from their once proud civilizations: Endless heaps of Trash.

Unlike many indie strategy titles, Trash doesn't try to take short cuts or be minimalist. Instead, Trash is busting at the seams with intelligent details and hidden as well as obvious features.

Players get to choose to side with Humans or Mutants, though alliances in multi player are not only possible, but can prove to be very beneficial. To fuel their expansion and ongoing war, players have to harvest trash using dump trucks, and establish an infrastructure of pipes and roads to provide a closed supply chain. The pipes are especially important as being piped together allows allies to share resources and upgrades!

The tech upgrade system distinguishes Trash from its competition. While most games have a retroactive upgrade system – you buy the upgrade, and instantly all applicable units use it – Trash only applies these upgrades to new units. Old units need to be placed near an engineering facility or be serviced by a mechanical unit in order to be upgraded. Now, the cool thing is that these mechanics can install upgrades in your allies' units, as well!

This and a plethora of other game rules allow teams to become more than the sums of their parts – and with up to twenty-four players in a practically lag-free online game, this difference makes you wonder whether you'll ever want to go back to single player or ganging up on computer opponents.

3rd Place - Darwinia

Developer: Introversion Software		Players: 1
Website
System Requirements: Windows 98/XP/2000, 600Mhz, GeForce2 graphics card, 128mb RAM, DirectX 9+ (Mac and Linux versions available as well)

Clearly Darwinia's world is inspired by video games and the amazing promises of computing from decades ago. The Darwinians themselves are stick figure characters that would fit into old Atari 2600 games. The landscape is polygonal yet modern and fits the theme well. You really need to see the game in action to appreciate what would be considered "outdated" graphics in other games. In fact, each character in the game seems inspired from classic games and movies, from the ‘Centipede’ mutant virus to the ‘Space Invader’ airstrike squadrons. The retro/polygonal graphics compliment the story, and you really feel like a part of the world.

The back story is also great: Dr. Sepulveda, renowned game developer, created the much-hyped Protologic 68000 in 1986. Unfortunately, the game console had major flaws that weren't easy to fix, resulting in warehouses full of unsold and returned machines. Sepulveda started to experiment with the machines, linking them together in a quantum grid. He created a virtual world called Darwinia where each inhabitant has its own "spirit" that is be released upon the Darwinian's death. That spirit is then imprinted in a new Darwinian life, which means that new Darwinians learn from their past.

Unfortunately, some of the "digital DNA" was corrupted, resulting in a virus-like infection that spread using the same manner of evolution and reproduction that originally helped the Darwinians. Dr. Sepulveda has attempted to protect the Darwinians by isolating areas, but large portions of the world have been overrun. You managed to hack your way into the network, which surprises Dr. Sepulveda, but he is desperate and requires help. You must destroy the viral infection and save the Darwinians.

Screenshots don't begin to convey how you'll feel when you play this game. You really start to care about the Darwinians. Introversion Software apparently worked with great care to create a living world. The Darwinians aren't just sprites moving about in a 3D world. They wander, they work, and they even have rituals! When Darwinian dies, it leaves behind a spirit. Any Darwinians in the area will gather around the spirit and sway to and fro. Eventually a kite is created which carries the spirit into the air. It's really a sight to behold. As hard as it is to describe this game, it's likely that five to 10 years from now people will reminisce about playing Darwinia much like people today talk about playing Amiga games and the original Doom.

2nd Place - Tribal Trouble

Developer: Oddlabs		Players: 1-6
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: MacOS X / Linux /Windows NT/2000/XP, Java, 700MHz CPU, GeForce 2 MX or better, 128 MB of RAM

The Natives of a small South Seas archipelago are not amused: A group of Viking raiders got so drunk that, thanks to navigational ineptitude and the occasional tropical storm, they were shipwrecked and washed ashore on one of the South Sea islands. What's bad about this is that the (now somewhat sober) Vikings decided to stay for a while and raid the native villages for fun and new loot.

Tribal Trouble only contains five kinds of units and three kinds of buildings in total - they are equivalent and have the same names for both Natives and Vikings, though the graphics are different, of course. The units are your faithful resource for gathering peons, cheap rock warriors, tough iron warriors, and the fearsome chicken warrior, all named after the main resource their weapons are made of. Yes, there are weapons made of tropical chickens in this game, and they absolutely rule!

The islands are large enough to grant a player a fresh start, but at the same time small enough to have everybody constantly quarrelling over bits of rocks and leftover lumber. Tactics are fun, and creative game play is usually rewarded. The outcomes of battles are often so close that, until the very last seconds, you may feel uncertain and are tempted to retreat. Hopeless situations can turn into glorious victories, as that last tropical chicken on the island that you pried from the cold dead hands of a peon may become part of the spear that kills your opponents' chieftain.

The battles are short, furious and very entertaining, and playing human opponents online adds to the fun. In fact the entire game is focused on being minimalist when it comes to units and buildings and instead focuses (and nails) the part of the game that is most important, the game play. If you want a break from the narrative strategy games that flood the market at the moment, or if you want a game that's really just a game, or if you think complexity takes the fun out of casual gaming - then Tribal Trouble is for you.

2005 Strategy Game of the Year - Oasis

Developer: Mind Control		Players: 1
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Pentium III 600 MHz, 128 RAM

Oasis is a game that really shouldn't work. The game takes the 'Civilization' idea of building up an empire which takes 40 or more hours to play, and reduces it to a game that is completed in 2-3 minutes!?! In so doing you would expect that the game would have to be stripped down to the point that there would be little strategy or entertainment left in the game. Instead, Oasis does exactly the opposite, packing a very powerful punch of both strategy and entertainment.

The game places you in the role of an Egyptian ruler. Each level starts out with the board hidden behind a 'fog' that keeps you from knowing what is out there. So the first thing our young leader will do is explore. Each step you take through the desert will add 'followers' to your cause. The followers will help you as you progress forward to do research, build roads and to build an army to protect your cities.

As you make your way through the desert you will find other types of terrain. There are mountains, which often block your path, but contain mines which make research possible. In addition to the mountains you will find farmlands. Farmlands are always within two spaces of a city square. When you find a city square it immediately becomes part of your empire.

The goal you are trying to accomplish is to build up your cities so that they can survive a barbarian attack that happens at the end of 85 turns.

The most entertaining part of the game for me comes in balancing your resources and determining what strategy to take. For example, you receive 2 followers for passing over a desert square, but within the desert there are also some 'nomad' squares which will increase your followers by a larger number. Conversely, searching around the Oasis will not give you any followers, and looking through farmland as you try to find a city will only offer you one follower.

Followers are used, as mentioned previously to build roads and to do research. Having roads between cities will increase their population, and help you bulk up defenses. Another use for followers is research. The more followers you assign to a mine the quicker you will research. Research occurs in a set pattern of researching both defensive and offensive weapons that will be used by every city when the barbarians arrive.

In addition to making all of the choices above you also have the choice to explore any one of your cities. Doing so may reveal weapons that will help defend the city, riches that will increase the score you receive, or advisors.  Advisors change the game play dramatically if they join you by granting special abilities for turns they are with you, such as extra defensive power, increasing city growth, or giving you more visibility of the map without exploring it.

When the barbarians come, the battle will be simulated for you on the screen with symbols showing your different researched and found weapons and defenses showing as the sides fight. Once you beat the on-coming horde you move onto the next board. Amazingly ALL of this happens in in 2-3 minutes! The game really is amazing, and the description above, if you can believe it, was quite simplified so as to not be too overwhelming.

The game is flawlessly designed to create a wonderful experience in strategy/world-building that even those who don't really get into the genre can enjoy.  As the Strategy game of the year it is a strong winner in a game category that was very difficult.