Introduction
The Ancient World is the perfect choice for turn-based strategy games. You decide what move you’ll make to counter your opponent’s move, or maybe go four steps ahead of him. Such games include Sid Meir’s Civilization Series, The Total War Series, and King’s Bounty.
There are many classic titles of the 2000s that covered Classical Anqutitiy; Total War, Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and Civilization. In recent years, we’ve seen a drastic decline in the coverage of games focusing on the Classical Anqutitial period or even the Bronze Age.
Having played Expeditions Rome recently when I first heard the announcement from THQ Nordic. This was a CRPG that combined turn-based strategy/tactics with good storytelling and DND mechanics set in the Ancient World. It also featured turn-based combat as well, allowing you to pause and make decisions in the story.
Why aren’t there enough turn-based strategy games in 2022 that cover these time periods? What could a full-scale Bronze Age Mythological game look like with turn-based combat?
What a Full Scale-Bronze Age Mythological Game could look like in a CRPG setting:
The Story
Imagine the world of the Bronze Age; The Powerful Middle Kingdom spanning from the lands of Cyrene to the Phoenician City of Tyre and bordering the mighty Hittite Empire, then you have Greece with the Mycenaeans and the Minoans, and you also have the swooping Empires of Babylon and other city-states at the ready.
There is a powerful chess board with thousands of city-states, kingdoms, and empires, each complete with its own religions, cultures, and ideals. The Bronze Age is such a period that its legendary mythology would be perfect for a video game adaptation in any of the gaming genres, be it open world, turn-based, or RTS.
Let us imagine the story of one man, a scribe named Tuten, who is sent by the powerful Pharoah of Egypt, to retrieve the stolen idol of Anubis. This idol was stolen by agents of Babylon who believed Anubis to be their God, and that the Egyptians simply copied. The Babylonian creed that worships the Mesopotamian God, Enlil did this.
He is jealous of the power that the Egyptian Gods possess over the world. And he wants war. By kidnapping Anubis, he may be able to seal the Egyptian Underworld and prevent Egyptian Souls from entering. Enlil plans a massive invasion of the Egyptian Afterlife while preparing his human puppets to wage war on Egypt.
Now it’s up to Tuten, and a band of misfits and rogues to stop Enlil. You could have numerous side-quests, turn-based combat, and an immersive world as well as fun to explore. You could even have boss fights, quests fights, etc. There are many mythological beasts from both Egyptian and Babylonian Mythology that you can add. Or you could go for a good vs evil story.
I envision this as a game that would be familiar with Expeditions Rome and Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. This is what I would imagine a game like this of this scale and magnitude to look like. This is what I would imagine a game like this of this scale and magnitude to look like. It only takes one spark to light the flame!
Conclusion
The Ancient World is full of stories to make video games on. Especially in the turn-based combat genre. One can pick from many illustrious events; The 2nd Punic Wars, The Roman-Macedonian Wars, and the Wars of Egypt vs the Hittites.
This article would not be enough to cover every subject that I would like to cover. Are there video games that have recently covered this period? Yes. Ancient Aggressor’s Rome for one, Expeditions Rome, etc.
In another article, I’ll be covering this in a top list of games in the Ancient World that you need to check out in 2022. But I believe that in the future, we need more video games in the Ancient World that combine good storytelling, with great turn-based strategy gameplay and fun.
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