Austerlitz
Austerlitz allows you to replay the battle of Dec 2nd 1805 between Napoleon I and Alexander I from the viewpoint of the two commanders. 75,000 French troops v 95,000 Russian and Austrian, battling over a map of 104 sq miles. This game is CERTAINLY NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MOST GAMERS, if you consider yourself a casual gamer. Simply because the interface is old and there’s tremendous amounts of off-PC record keeping and documents to view (this game was made before interfaces could keep the type of data required).
– Real player with 19.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro Strategy Games.
Waterloo
If you know this game from nearly 30 years ago and want to get your hit of nostalgia, go for it. I had no technical troubles whatsoever. Keep in mind though that you need some form of map, the manual etc. to fully experience to game (just google it.
If you never played this game, only go for it if you a die hard grognard. You will need offline material for planning, you don’t know how your generals interpret orders or if they received them and when, you never get detailed reports. It is a simulation of army command as far as it was possible to program with the technology around 1990.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro Strategy Games.
Super Huey™ 1 & 2 Airdrop
I bought it mainly because I had it when I was a kid for The Atari XL/XE And the c64
Huey 2 was the best one
Huey 1 is okay for its time but controls are choppy. I only liked the Exploration bit
This version is only the C64 version Not the Dos version or the Atari XL or Atari 7800 version
I liked huey UH2x the best!
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro Combat Games.
Sword of the Samurai
Today I’m reviewing the 1989 release of the “Sword of the Samurai” by Microprose.
My father originally bought this game back in the 90s, which is thirtysome years ago! As with any game from that time, the graphics aren’t the best and the AI is as dumb as a slug. That said, this game excels as a samurai role-playing game, and the re-playability of this game is practically endless!
You first start off by choosing a name (or not!), a difficulty level, and a starting province which will impact the 2nd phase of the game when you become Daimyo for your clan. Until then however, you start at the bottom as a samurai serving a hatamoto with only a handful of retainers to defend your lord’s lands.
– Real player with 108.7 hrs in game
Sword of the Samurai is an unbelievably deep and charming game. The ancient graphics hardly distract from the incredibly solid mechanics, especially since retropixel style is all the rage these days. Sword of the Samurai offers essentially three minigames under an umbrella of casual strategy roleplaying. The one-on-one duels, one-on-many melees, and full-scale battles all have their charms, but by far the most satisfying (and difficult) play experience is to be found in the melees.
Sometimes you’ll be minding your own business when you come across a band of uppity ronin whose heads need to part ways from their necks. Sometimes you’ll be stealing into your lord’s mansion in the dead of night to stab your way to a promotion when a tripped alarm turns your stealth mission into Kill Bill Volume 1. Sometimes your psychotic father-in-law keeps breaking into your house to kidnap your son. It’s delightful!
– Real player with 26.1 hrs in game
Armoured Commander II
I strongly recommend Armoured Commander II to anyone who likes turn-based strategy games, games set in WW2 and/or roguelikes.
These are the things I love about the game:
1. Realism: Cannon shells can bounce off armour depending on the range, calibre and armour thickness. Weather conditions influence movement, hit and spotting chances. Units in cover are much harder to hit. Different weapon and ammo types are useful to different degrees depending on the situation. Your crewmen can not only be killed if your tank is destroyed. If you leave their hatches open, even a machine gun volley or sniper shot can wound or kill them. The performance of your crewmen can be affected by injury or shock. Each crewman who dies is gone for good.
– Real player with 824.8 hrs in game
A fairly unique and well-presented tank roguelike that does an amazing job of immersion in spite of being relatively simple in terms of scale and unit count. In most other tank games, you’re happy to have the biggest gun. In Armoured Commander II, you get to feel the pinch of having the biggest gun, because that means your tank barely has any ammo, especially HE. Oh and it probably doesn’t have very many machine guns.
And you want those machine guns and HE. By God, do you want them.
Armoured Commander and Armoured Commander II are the only tank games that I’ve played where the player is forced to care about MGs and HE because it isn’t laser-focused on tank duels. Quite frequently, you’ll find your tank under serious threat from infantry, ATGs, soft vehicles, etc. MGs and HE are useful both in the tactical hex battles and on the campaign map for purposes of recon-by-fire.
– Real player with 666.2 hrs in game
Fields of Glory
Old time dos game.
Easy to learn & Lots of fun.
I love the cav charging through a wind mill.
– Real player with 19.7 hrs in game
Old style PC Game, historically accurate though patently dated.
What’s not to love?
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Fire Boy
The game tells the story of a boy whose life is changed when he finds an unknown artifact, soon after, a strange being appears asking for his help to recover the dinosaur eggs that were stolen from his planet, the boy receives a beautiful sword and silver fire armor, soon after being trained to master the fire, he begins his adventure by going to the planet Monstrengos in order to recover all the dinosaur eggs that have been stolen.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE GAME:
Unique Phases - There are 50 stages of pure fun, each stage a new mechanic or new enemy, flying platforms, which disappear and rotate, interaction with the scenario, enemy monsters, friendly monsters, one thing is certain, you will see many cute monsters and ugly ones too, in each level you will have to find 3 dinosaur eggs, and don’t even think it will be easy to find them, the little monsters hid them in unimaginable places.
Nice Gameplay - On the keyboard you play well, on the controller you play even better, controlling the hero is a pleasant and cool experience too.
Game Differential - The player will hear comic comments from the hero while playing, but will have the option of not listening to them.
Cute Graphics - Colorful, cute and nostalgic designs.
Original Soundtrack - With lively songs that make you want to hear them.
Armors and Swords - Each armor has its sword and a unique power.
Cool Collectibles - Achievements that will make you happier.
Find Love - I am creating this game with a lot of love and affection in my house, my focus is on the fun, so come and help the Fire Boy quickly recover all the dinosaur eggs and become a Hero.
A Legionary’s Life
Now at first glance you might write this game off. You would be wrong to do so. This feels like the first time defending was actually useful in a game. Combat has stance and fatigue to keep track of. Should your enemy lose their stance while attacking you you can then mount a counter-attack and take advantage of the situation. Fighting a tough enemy? Defend until they drain their fatigue. Fighting the rank and file? Go on the offensive and try to kill as many as you can. Missed your neck attack leading to stance loss? You better go defensive while trying to recover your stance or else the enemy might land their own attack on your neck or even land a feint further lowering your stance. Fighting multiple enemies at once? You better maintain a balanced attitude while fighting as if you go full offensive attitude and miss your opponents might capitalize on your loss of stance. Fighting consists of attacks and soft spot attacks targeting specific body parts where the enemy’s armour is weakest. Feints, shield maneuvers, recovery (restores stance) and respite (restores fatigue) also consist of what you use while fighting. There might not be breathtaking 3D graphics that require the best computer to play but when your see that hp bar deplete you will feel terror after sinking so much time into your character.
– Real player with 138.9 hrs in game
I’ve binged this one since I got it on sale, and if you are going to buy it that is the time. The game is fun, simple, and easy to quickly grasp. But, it is pitched to not give the AI cheats and that is a fairly blatant lie that will make you want to pull your hair out and frisbee your laptop across the room.
The Good:
-Very accessible
-Interesting (albeit short) story with some small branches en route to the end
-Simple battle mechanics
-Cool concept, decently executed
-Decent music
You get to play as a manipular Roman legionary, so anyone coming into this and wondering why their “highly trained Roman soldier” can’t beat some dirt farming Carthaginian is just not paying attention to the context of the game. Because guess what? You’re a dirt farming Roman when you start!
– Real player with 55.7 hrs in game
Gold Rush! Classic
Classic Sierra Adventure Games;
So, that intro from the beginning makes me sigh from the inside. These games (for me) are memories of growing up and sitting on my father’s knee and learning about computers…(the next step involved constructing my own PC from scratch, but that’s a different story for a different time)
Sierra INVENTED the adventure genre as far as I’m concerned, and “Gold Rush” is not only an excellent example of a classic adventure game, it is also the benchmark for self-involved concepts as well as being true to life history.
– Real player with 195.7 hrs in game
This game can be super annoying if you don’t know what to expect. Part of it is the primitive mechanics. It’s not like today’s point and click game where you click on a location and the character will move there. You have to use your arrow keys to direct every step of the movement. You also have to instruct the character what to do. Encountering another character will not automatically trigger conversation. You have to tell your character to ‘talk’ by typing this in. If you don’t type in the correct series of words, this will also halt your progress. And last but not least, there is potential to fall into a big hole in this game. Let’s say you did not pick up a certain something on level one, well if you don’t have it at level 10, you can forget finishing this game … Still, there is a lot of charm to this game with its graphics and story plot. I recommend it on sale. I would also like to play the updated anniversary edition.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Screensavers VR
Super fun. What a strangely unobvious but totally killer idea.
Also love to see how this game keeps expanding with each update. Hope the developers implement even more ideas. They seem to know what they are doing and VR needs fresh ideas.
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
Truly whimsical VR experience that beautifully transforms classic screensavers into the VR medium. Super fun and meta. Playing with the controls for each experience made me laugh out loud multiple times - the effects, writing, everything is lovely and holistically crafted. Highly recommended for anyone who loves unique VR experiences
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game