Twelve Games of Christmas #6 – Hegemony: Philip of Macedon

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 18, 2010

Hegemony: Philip of Macedon is a game I only discovered a few weeks ago myself. It’s an unusual real-time strategy game with, like, real strategy.  It is the kind of game we dreamed of seeing as a AAA game years ago, but the technology wasn’t there yet. By the time technology caught up, the mainstream games biz wasn’t making these kinds of games anymore. They’re back to making games about space marines (or modern marines) instead.

You take on the military campaign of Philip of Macedon, father of  Alexander the Great. There’s a lot of historical authenticity built in, but don’t let yourself be fooled for a moment into thinking that means boring or dry.  It’s deeper than about any other RTS I have ever played, yet still remains playable. That’s a tall order, and they managed to pull it off pretty dang well. It’s an impressive accomplishment. There’s a real campaign-based strategy game going on, with the ability to do things like set up supply lines and so forth.  And tactically – well, the tactics are as advanced and interesting as any mainstream RTS out there.

To top it all off, the game is beautiful. I particularly love the smooth transition between the board-game / war-game view of the campaign and the real-time tactical views. They did an amazing job with the visuals.

In fact, I’m going to quit talking about it here, and just let you watch the video instead:

So there ya go.

I hope they sell a million copies of this game. I would like to see more indies doing amazing stuff like this. I’d love to see some mainstream game studios taking a few more risks and making stuff like this (again) too. My general feeling is that this game is a boot to the butt of the mainstream games biz, which quit taking these kinds of risks over a decade ago. The last “historical” RTS was Age of Empires III, and that one pretty much dumbed down everything  I loved about the first two games in the series. I’d love to see Longbow Games get rewarded for their audacity.

If you are interested, head on over to these guys’ website. You can grab the free demo and give it a try and see if it’s your cup of kykeon.

Check out Hegemony: Philip of Macedon from Longbow Games.

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Strategy Games - Comments: 4 Comments to Read



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