Top Five Strategy Games: From Civilization to Warcraft

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Top Five Strategy Games: From Civilization to Warcraft

By Jacob Malewitz

It may easy to say that strategy games are superior to the straight shooter games like Halo and Doom. It is a matter of opinion, and opinions will always change. The fact is, I enjoy playing both, but tend to get addicted to strategy games like Civilization and Age of Empires for longer durations than the first person shooters.

For this article, I decided to expound on the strategy games that took time away from school (glorious), and away from the job (even better). I This article is opinion, and will focus on the games that, for me, have the most lasting value.

1. Civilization II: Civilization game kept me playing for years. Civilization has the qualm of being hard to use multiplayer on, as its turn based instead of real time. This would make it a hard sell nowadays; and the sequels to this hit never came close to the quality of this particular edition (as of this writing, Civilization 4 is hot, while Civilization 5 is a failure).

It not only improved upon one of the most important video games ever in Civilization, but did so with the highest of qualities. Take an empire from the stone age to the space age. Be a warrior and conquer the world by 200 AD (CE). The possibilities were endless for gamers. This hit can still be played to no end and, from what I have heard, beats the following games in the Civilization franchise. Any strategy gamer should start here.

2. Age of Empires II: Another sequel that improved upon a classic game. Age of Empires I set the stage for real time strategy games to make a mark on the industry. I thought going into this series that it would focus too much on quick clicking instead of strategy; I was wrong. What made Age of Empires so great, in its best times, was the online play. Zone.com hosted Age of Empires games for years, and was my first experience in playing online against other opponents. Suffice to say, I am still addicted. There are new ways to play online as well.

3. Warcraft 3: It seems the role playing games are ever popular, and the Warcraft RPG is one of the bigger ones. Warcraft 3 moved me away from the Age of Empires series. I wasn't sure I would like having heroes instead of loads of soldiers, but quickly the strategic aspects took over. The fantasy world kept me interested, much like a drug. And the story behind it was so original it has been made into a successful series of novels and comics. Blizzard has yet to make a poor sequel to the Warcraft series.

4. Master of Orion 2: This game can still be had on Ebay for a reasonable price. Having not played it in ages, I was weary of putting Orion on my top five list. But, “Civilization in space”, as it was called, deserves more recognition than it gets. This is the best space strategy game ever made. I haven't played Starcraft, but I still like turn based games like this better. I do own Galactic Civilizations, which owes some debt to the strategy Master of Orion, and came close to being put on this list.

5. Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Might and Magic is another nod to fantasy, and it is perhaps the easiest to grasp of all the games listed here. The graphics are not stellar, but the interface and varying difficulty make it a classic. You gather resources and recruit soldiers; all in a turn based game setting. It combines the best elements of fantasy games before it, from the fighting to the resource management. Recent sequels seem to not have done to well in terms of reviews, but the first couple editions deserve recognition.

There you have it: My top five strategy games. What did I leave out? Starcraft, Command & Conquer, and some newer games such as Age of Wonders.

Try not to lose too much time playing these games, as lawsuits over time lost would really hurt my grocery budget. On the other hand, playing strategy games is never a waste of time; they teach, they help you save, and best of all, they can give you some fun breaks.