Gizoku said:
Hey all,
I've recently been made redundant and I'm looking for something pretty specific to fill the current void in my day. I'm looking for a tactical RPG or strategy game for the PC, similar to stuff like Ring of Red, FF Tactics, Fire Emblem, Shining Force etc. I think I've pretty much exhausted all my console options. I think King's Bounty - The Legend is about the closest I've found so far.. But something with a bit more story/character development would be good. Or even stuff erring towards Civ or Gal Civ. Just as long as it's not an RTS
Any suggestions guys?
Thanks in advance!
Believe it or not, your genre of turn-based tactics is one of my favorites. If you want an incredible genre-blending game witha huge difficulty curve where all the combat is turn-based tactics with individual micromanagement with stats, equipment, and rank, you need to play X-Com.
I know I'm the 13th post (As of this writing), but X-Com and the newer UFO series really ARE part of what you're looking for.
Another wonderful example is JAGGED ALLIANCE. Jagged Alliance and JA2 especially are probably the best RTT/TBT games I've played. Like, say, Shining Force, moving around a town and dialogue is in real time, but all the combat is turn-based.
X-Com Apocalypse had the option of being turn-based or real time, and I played and finish the game in turn-based mode. However, it was a very difficult game to get into, compared to the original X-Com.
Another incredible series is the "Silent Storm" series. I was going to link all of these to wiki pages but there's no point because you can just look 'em all up yourself.
I would personally encourage something like Fallout Tactics or Freedom Force, but they're in REAL TIME, so you might not like that. I love the Close Combat series, especially Close Combat III: The Russian Front, because your troops grow and can be applied into different positions as time goes on. For example, the character that is "you" in the game might start out as a sniper or a member of an infantry squad, and by the end of the game, you have a special T-34 with a flag that boosts the morale of friendly troops near it. However, again, that game is in real-time. Of course, it has a "pause" key, and I spent over 80% of my time in a battle "paused" and issuing orders while the game was paused, but it might not be your taste. I love it though.
Note that most of these games are sci-fi/"war" themed, not fantasy.
If you want fantasy, I'll highly recommend Heroes of Might and Magic - however, it's less of a squad-based tactical RPG of a turn-based-strategy game, like Master of Magic and Master of Orion and GalCiv and Civilization, etc...
Oh, Gorky 17 is one I've heard of but personally haven't played.
I sadly paid for Shadow Watch, and it really isn't that good - your characters are too specialized to really have multiple members that can actually accomplish anything, and most of the combat plays out like "Well, if I had THIS guy over here, I could have used my cloaking device and taken out this guy so my demolitions expert could get to the forcefield, but instead the guards set off the alarm and we need to fall back to that room I cleared earlier...Time to load my saved game!"
Steel Panthers isn't bad... Uhhh...
If you're looking for a DND style game, you should really try Disciples of Steel, even though it was old, I remember it being quite good, and the combat was party-based, and turn-based.
If you want a wonderful party-based RPG, even though it's in real time, I encourage you to play the Baldur's Gate series, 1, 2, and both expansions - they have some of the most memorable characters and settings I can remember, and of course you can pause combat to issue orders and whatnot.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you have with the games I mentioned, and I hope this helps you out a bit.
Edit: Ohfuck, I forgot about Spellforce. I just opened up steam and remembered that it "was" on sale. It probably isn't anymore, but meh. And Warlords is another civilzation-style game. I have warlords 1, 2, battlecry (that one is an RTS,) and warlords 4. Warlords 4 is like HoMM (Heroes of Might and Magic) 5, and those are both wonderful examples of a TBS, but perhaps not an SRPG.
Edit 2: MISSION FORCE CYBERSTORM, I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS GAME AND CYBERSTORM 2. Basically take Earthsiege, which was Basically Mechwarrior, and turn it into a hex-based strategical RPG with pilots (bio-derms, clones you grow, lol) that gain experience, have stats, and missions that are dynamic and changing depending on what the other corporations in space do as you try to make a bunch of money and research and build new HERCs for your pilots to take into battle as you protect your mining operations to KEEP RAKING IN THAT CASH.
Either way, it's more of a spreadsheet management game between money, time, dice-rolls, and min/maxing, but that's the way I like it best.
