Strategery and You

Good Old Games is having a sale on strategy titles until Tuesday. 25% off, in fact. There are a bunch of great titles there, I bought the Castles and Castles 2 bundle mainly because it (and megarace) were the titles I remember renting from my local Movie Time when I was 5. That seems so quaint, now, renting games from a movie store. Anyway, there are two games in particular that you should pick up: Shiny's Sacrifice and Rage Software's Hostile Waters. Both games were landmark titles that looked at the RTS genre and said "why should I be stuck up here looking at my guys instead of joining in?" Both games have excellent production values, including top-notch voice acting and writing. Both games are well worth your time and if you buy them together (with this week's discount) it won't even set you back 10. So what exactly are these games about? First up we have Sacrifice. This trailer actually does a pretty good job of conveying how wonderfully chaotic the game is. Yeah, it's really like that in game. So basically you're a displaced Wizard who wanders into a plane of feuding Gods, who all want you to serve them in return for power. Being the self serving sort, you pick and choose which God to ally yourself with before each mission. James, god of earth and generally good guy, might want you to go rescue some of his worshippers for example, whereas Pyro(god of fire and industry) is more likely to send you to conquer more territory for his factories. Each god has his or her own motivations, and none is truly good or evil. One thing you'll notice is the absolutely stellar voice acting. I could go on an on about this so I won't. Suffice it to say that you should check out the Wikipedia entry on the game and see the voice acting credits. I will say this, though: It's always tempting to do whatever Stratos says because he's voiced by Tim Muthaf***ing Curry. So during each mission, you run around the battlefield casting spells and summoning creatures. Unlike most RTS games, you participate in the battle on the ground, and your view is locked to where your character is. This is one of the more jarring aspects of the game, but it really works. There are two resources you must control, souls and mana. Mana comes spurting out of the ground and powers your ability to cast all spells. Souls are, well, souls of creatures. Each creature has its own soul count, lower level units cost 1, whereas the "ultimate" monstrosities cost up to 5. When a creature is killed, its soul(s) are left behind. A wizard can reclaim souls of his own creatures instantly, however to steal the souls of an oppenent's creatures he has to cast a "Convert" spell on them. Oh, and when I said monstrosities, I mean monstrosities. Take a look at this lovely fellow. This is a mutant. He is an aberration of nature who attacks his enemies by ripping off chunks of his rotting flesh and flinging them at foes where they explode into putrid clouds that both damage and poison their foes. Surely this is a servant of darkness? A corrupt fiend of some kind? This unit belongs to Persephone, god of Nature, Peace, and Purity. Actually, one of my favorite things about this game is its aesthetic. I think the best word to describe it is macabre. The game takes pleasure in flipping fantasy sterotypes on their heads. Take, for example, the Phoenix. Everybody picture a phoenix in your mind. Let me guess: big red bird, noble, brilliant plumage, possibly on fire. Here's what Sacrifice calls a Phoenix: Let's do another one, shall we? How about an Ent? Ents are great! Mighty tree people, guardians of the fores-HOLY MOTHER OF GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING THAT IS STANDING THERE STARING AT ME Basically the point is that there is nothing in this game that is not dark, twisted, and brutal. "Noble"need not apply to Sacrifice. Even the Gods, the purest beings in the world, are scheming, backstabbing bastards who are willing to do anything for power. Your own character, Eldred, is running away from a demon he summoned in order to keep control on his home plane, 'cause he was a tyrannical despot terrorizing the populace (the Demon ate everything instead and is now pursuing him across the Astral plane. Whoops.) Hell, even the game mechanics are vicious - in order to kill a wizard, it's not just enough to reduce his health to zero (he'll come back.) What you have to do is sacrifice one of your creatures on his altar, desecrating it and banishing him from existence. It's black and macabre, and I love it. It's not all doom and gloom, though. Sacrifice has a wonderful (if a bit black) sense of humor. There are puns scattered everywhere( The God of Earth is a giant Earthworm named James, while the Stratos the god of Air is a helium baloon wearing a robe. It works, ok?) some hilarious spells (such as Bovine Intervention, in which a giant cow is summoned, shooting into the sky and Swan diving onto a single opponent, obliterating it entirely - destroying its soul) and brilliant dialogue. Charnel, god of death, gets by far the best lines with perfectly dry delivery (Persephone: "Charnel! Death is not the answer to everything!" Charnel: "Yes...Torture also has its merits"). That's all well and good, but how does it play? Quite well, fortunately. You run around, summoning buildings called manaliths to control sources of mana, creatures to do battle, and spells to cause direct damage to creatures or other wizards. The interface takes some getting used to, but once you do its very smooth. There is a gesture based menu system that allows you to give orders, assign formations, and even control the camera with a flick of the wrist. It's a good thing that controls are smooth, because games can be incredibly chaotic, with creatures, spells, and debris flying left and right. This is a game which combines strategy and action in a delightful blend - good tactics will give you the edge in battles, while action skills will allow you to turn your wizard into your most powerful weapon. A good multiplayer battle often has one player gaining the advantage until the other spots an opportunity and seizes it, and the match often oscillates back and forth in a way that's much more satisfying than typical RTS rushes. Speaking of multiplayer, another part of Sacrifice that I love and wish more games would implement is the spellbook. Normally in multipayer you select one god to ally with, and you get all the spells and creatures of that god. However, if you play through the singleplayer, you can ally yourself with a different God each mission. Each time you perform a mission for a God, you are given one Creature and one spell out of his/her arsenal. Thus, it's possible to mix and match creatures and spells to tailor a spellbook to your playstyle. For example, I like hit and run tactics, so in singleplayer I performed my first mission for stratos. This means in multiplayer, my level 1 units are fast and weak, and I get lightning as my basic damage spell. If I had chosen James, then I would get slow and tough 1st tier units and a rock-based damage spell. In order to prevent min/maxing and ultimate combos, Gods will cease to offer you missions if you've pissed them off by working for their enemies. It's really cool the way you can customize for online play- and you have to earn it, too! This post is far too long already, and I still have another game to cover, so I'll just say one more thing and be on my way. The top-level spells in this game are Epic. James' spell, bore, removes a large chunk of the world temporarily. Stratos can summon a giant Tornado that can suck up entire armies, throwing the mall over the map. Persephone summons "Meanstalks," basically those giant tentacle dudes from Half-Life, except they throw things around. Charnel summons death, who kills the seven closest creatures - no matter how strong - then leaves. My favorite is Pyro's Volcano, which causes a Volcano to erupt wherever you want, burning away the sky and sending flaming debris across the map. Epic. So go buy it. It costs less than an overpriced sugary coffee drink from Starbucks. Next up is Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. This game is a strange beast. It's one part action, one part strategy, and one part "Heart of Darkness." You control an "adaptive cruiser" which can manufacture its own fighting vehicles sent to destroy a Cabal attempting world domination. Each mission sees you gathering resources from battlefield debris, building units, and either piloting them yourself or loading them with a Soulcatcher chip. You see, the cruiser you pilot isn't new. In fact, it was just raised from the bottom of the ocean. Its crew were all killed, but their minds were saved and stored on Soulcatcher chips. Thus every autonomous unit has its own distinct personality which affects everything from dialogue to how well they pilot various vehicles. Ransom, for example, is a bloodthirsty pilot who is deadly in a helicopter and prefers close in engagements. Stick him in a tank and he's not so great. If his helicopter gets destroyed, you can just build a new one and send him right back into battle. It's a pretty sweet deal, with one sticking point. They're all lunatics. Yep, apparently the Soulcatcher mechanism has a ...destabilizing effect on the sanity of those who use it. Some of your soldiers were mentally unstable before they died, others simply resent being kept alive to fight. Some are just very, very, angry. Which makes it loads of fun to stick these madmen (and women) into warmachines and give them very large guns. Leading the nuthouse into battle is great fun. You can hop into any vehicle at any time and take control of it, or let your AI's take care of buisiness. You can issue orders from the cockpit or from a strategical view which pauses the game. Each mission has unique objectives, although most involve mass destruction. The enemy has production facilities which can crank out reinforcements on most levels, you can either destroy these or destroy their oil wells to cut off the flow of resources. Taking out AA cover will allow your powerful air units to wreak havoc almost anywhere on the island. Some of the weapons, like the warhammer mortar, have incredible ranges, allowing you to use a stealth buggy to act as a spotter while your heavy guns pound away from a distance. There's loads of strategic options available, and the action is solid, too. It's fun to pull an "Apocalypse Now" moment every once in a while and create a massive airforce of attack helicopters to lead into Epic Battle. The game also has some really...different cinematics. It's hard what to make of them, they're really well done and acted, but its a tad jarring to go from a game that's all about large explosions and mass destruction to a the following cutscene: The story is pretty engaging, and as you move deeper and deeper into the island chain strange things start to happen. My favorite cutscene follows. There's a minor spoiler, so don't watch it if you want to remain 100% surprised. There's no multiplayer in the game, and it's not terribly replayable unless you want to relive some of the bigger battles. However, it's well worth the $5 and a remarkable piece of gaming history. So what are you waiting for? Get both of them for $9, DRM free with as many downloads as you want.