Good videogames set in the Ancient World suggestions

[SckizoBoy]

I think they toned down Yuan Shao confederation madness since release, but year it was pretty crazy so I'd usually kill him pretty quick. Would really suck when he'd absord your ally or an enemy you were about to finish off.

The same roster for everyone is true when compared to warhammer, but if you compare to medieval/rome then it's not that different, everyone has a couple of unique units and the yellow turban rebellion has completely unique rooster.

As a Total War die hard, I'll definitely get it at some point (the moment I get a new desktop), and for all that I comment regarding the unit rosters, I enjoyed Napoleon inordinately much even though I realise it's not ranked that highly within the series, even by myself(!)

 

[wings012]

While not exactly historically accurate and really just fantasy - I really did enjoy Age of Mythology. Unlike Empires, there's more narrative focus through the story campaign. There's a main character, they have conversations and lines etc. and it's more like Starcraft in the story respect.

I played it back in the day when my Internet was still rather poo and I ended up pouring hours into reading the in game encyclopedia. Which is basically a wikipedia for Greek, Egyptian and Norse mythology.

 

[xmbts]

The Sands of Time trilogy comes to mind, but weirdly enough it seems to be one of the rare ps2 era trilogies that wasn't remastered at any point.

 

[Agema]

I know this isn't terribly helpful, because I'm not sure what I'm really looking for, so I guess I'm asking for some suggestions of what games might be worth trying out. I realize the inherent issues involved in this request, because the ancient world tended to develop at a MUCH slower pace and was at a much smaller scale compared to later eras and trying to make this engaging/fun isn't nearly as easy as other, later time periods.

I mostly play RPGs and Strategy.

1) Imperator: Rome (Paradox Interactive)

Part of their Stellaris / Hearts of Iron / Europa Universalis / Crusader Kings family. Sure, they're all different, but they're all kind of the same, too. If you've played any of them, you'll know what to expect.

2) Field Of Glory II and Field Of Glory: Empires (Slitherine / Matrix Games)

Field of Glory I & II are tabletop-style turn-based wargames set in ancient to early medieval era - pretty good for that sort of thing. The devs recently made FoG:E as a grand strategy game. Similar idea as but won't be as polished as Imperator: Rome. I think you can export the strategy map battles from FoG:E to FoG II if you have both. Fight the battle in FoG II, and then export the results back into FoG:E. Cumbersome, but gives you a sort of Total War experience with turn based tactical battles.

3) Slitherine/Matrix are probably the top wargames dev/pub company around, although they do other strategy games. They'll have plenty of ancient era setting stuff. Quality, complexity and polish may not always be top notch, but that's indy games for you.

4) Age of Decadence. This is a fantasy RPG, but it's very heavily based on ancient Rome.

 

[Chimpzy]

The Sands of Time trilogy comes to mind, but weirdly enough it seems to be one of the rare ps2 era trilogies that wasn't remastered at any point.

Gonna be nitpicky, but I don't think Prince of Persia is ancient world. While I don't remember if there's ever a specific year mentioned, the islamic title Sultan exists in Sands of Time. So the earliest it could realistically take place is 11th century, since Mahmud of Ghazni was the first ruler to go by the title of Sultan, and he ruled from 999-1030AD. Then again, the series takes a bit of an anachronistic kitchen sink approach to middle eastern culture, so it's still up in the air.

 

[Agema]

Gonna be nitpicky, but I don't think Prince of Persia is ancient world. While I don't remember if there's ever a specific year mentioned, the islamic title Sultan exists in Sands of Time. So the earliest it could realistically take place is 11th century, since Mahmud of Ghazni was the first ruler to go by the title of Sultan, and he ruled from 999-1030AD. Then again, the series takes a bit of an anachronistic kitchen sink approach to middle eastern culture, so it's still up in the air.

Yeah, it's medieval Middle East, clearly based from the Thousand and One Nights, post-Islamic invasion. Although I think the 1001 Nights' origins are actually a few centuries earlier than the 11th, maybe 8-9th.

 

[xmbts]

Gonna be nitpicky, but I don't think Prince of Persia is ancient world. While I don't remember if there's ever a specific year mentioned, the islamic title Sultan exists in Sands of Time. So the earliest it could realistically take place is 11th century, since Mahmud of Ghazni was the first ruler to go by the title of Sultan, and he ruled from 999-1030AD. Then again, the series takes a bit of an anachronistic kitchen sink approach to middle eastern culture, so it's still up in the air.

Fair, the aesthetic just brought it to mind and they're games that I like, ergo I plug them.

 

[SckizoBoy]

1) Imperator: Rome (Paradox Interactive)

How is Imperator: Rome these days? I heard it had a rocky release and boring/repetitive gameplay out the gate and suffered from Paradox DLC syndrome more than usual.

 

[Dalisclock]

Gonna be nitpicky, but I don't think Prince of Persia is ancient world. While I don't remember if there's ever a specific year mentioned, the islamic title Sultan exists in Sands of Time. So the earliest it could realistically take place is 11th century, since Mahmud of Ghazni was the first ruler to go by the title of Sultan, and he ruled from 999-1030AD. Then again, the series takes a bit of an anachronistic kitchen sink approach to middle eastern culture, so it's still up in the air.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the Sands of Time Trilogy(even if Warrior Within wasted a perfectly awesome idea, with the Island of Time being very generic....something.....looking) but it doesn't quite hit that vibe.

 

[Agema]

How is Imperator: Rome these days? I heard it had a rocky release and boring/repetitive gameplay out the gate and suffered from Paradox DLC syndrome more than usual.

No idea. I merely read lots of reviews and pondered hard on it.

Paradox DLC puts me off a lot of their games. Expansions that are plainly not worth the cost for what they add to the game, but leave you feeling like you're missing out if you don't get them. I think it was £180 or so to get Crusader Kings 2 and all the DLC (although lots of them are basically just pretty sprites and a couple of events for a nation at £2) last time I looked. Just no.

Or Stellaris, which has undergone massive reworking to the basic mechanics of the game. I get that it's nice they're supporting it lovingly for so long after reelase, and the expansions are de facto paying for staff to make the free patches for everyone, but it begs the question why not get it more right first time round?

 

[Iron]

How is Imperator: Rome these days? I heard it had a rocky release and boring/repetitive gameplay out the gate and suffered from Paradox DLC syndrome more than usual.

Broken, buggy dogshit. It's a year after release and it's slowly starting to get basic features.

 

[meiam]

No idea. I merely read lots of reviews and pondered hard on it.

Paradox DLC puts me off a lot of their games. Expansions that are plainly not worth the cost for what they add to the game, but leave you feeling like you're missing out if you don't get them. I think it was £180 or so to get Crusader Kings 2 and all the DLC (although lots of them are basically just pretty sprites and a couple of events for a nation at £2) last time I looked. Just no.

Or Stellaris, which has undergone massive reworking to the basic mechanics of the game. I get that it's nice they're supporting it lovingly for so long after reelase, and the expansions are de facto paying for staff to make the free patches for everyone, but it begs the question why not get it more right first time round?

Getting it right the first time isn't really an option, the game shift a lot trough the way people play them. Stellaris started with them trying to make into a grand strategy (more akin to crusader king) but switched to a more traditional 4x style over time. Crusader king gained a lot more RPG element over time.

 

[Dalisclock]

Appreciate all the feedback. I grabbed Children of the Nile since it looks interesting and put Rome 2 : Total War on my steam wishlist next time there's a sale. I do find it interesting how there's the Emperor Edition but the DLC(which looks like it contains several campaigns) is listed separately and not part of the package....and it's giving me Paradox flashbacks.

I might give Ancestors:Humankin Odyessy a shot when it comes to Steam.

 

[Iron]

Appreciate all the feedback. I grabbed Children of the Nile since it looks interesting and put Rome 2 : Total War on my steam wishlist next time there's a sale. I do find it interesting how there's the Emperor Edition but the DLC(which looks like it contains several campaigns) is listed separately and not part of the package....and it's giving me Paradox flashbacks.

I might give Ancestors:Humankin Odyessy a shot when it comes to Steam.

The dlc are campaign packs, sort of the predecessor for the Total War Saga. There are campaigns for Belisarius's invasion of the west, Charlemagne, and the civil war (the one with Constantine winning at its end). Each has their own fun experimental mechanic.

 

[Dalisclock]

The dlc are campaign packs, sort of the predecessor for the Total War Saga. There are campaigns for Belisarius's invasion of the west, Charlemagne, and the civil war (the one with Constantine winning at its end). Each has their own fun experimental mechanic.

I admit the Sparta one has me interested but do any of the Roman centered ones really stand out for quality or just pick which ones I find interesting?

 

[Iron]

I admit the Sparta one has me interested but do any of the Roman centered ones really stand out for quality or just pick which ones I find interesting?

Oh I think I mixed it up, and talked about the Attila dlc's. I loved those. Rome 2 has Empire Divided which is very good (Gallic Empire Vs. Aurelian Vs. Zenobia, with rebellions in between), Rise of the Republic is also nice, good scripted events and historical flavor but not varied in unit types (It's located only in Italy). I actually didn't get to play Wrath of Sparta, go figure.
*It's funny Attila base game is dogshit but the dlc's are just *chef's kiss*

 

[SckizoBoy]

Appreciate all the feedback. I grabbed Children of the Nile since it looks interesting and put Rome 2 : Total War on my steam wishlist next time there's a sale. I do find it interesting how there's the Emperor Edition but the DLC(which looks like it contains several campaigns) is listed separately and not part of the package....and it's giving me Paradox flashbacks.

Emperor Edition is all the free updates to RII up to its release in 2014 and it's basically the one to get as it has all the bug fixes and politics reworks (original politics system was crap, well, crapper than now). For the culture pack DLC's probably don't need me to tell you to research which ones you actually want to play as they're mostly not worth the expense and a couple of them were really lazily assembled.

So, there's a whole bunch of campaign packs which vary in quality: Caesar in Gaul, Hannibal at the Gates, Imperator Augustus, Wrath of Sparta, Empire Divided & Rise of the Republic.

The last two make a nice contrast, but RotR has almost no replay value IMO. For a Rome-centric campaign, IA is pretty good, though it took me a while to 'get on' with it. HatG appealed to me most as I'm a nerd for the Second Punic War, but the gameplay mechanic restrictions means it's difficult to emulate. WoS got most play from me, if only because I used it as a prelude to playing AC:Ody. -.-

 

[SckizoBoy]

Oh I think I mixed it up, and talked about the Attila dlc's. I loved those. Rome 2 has Empire Divided which is very good (Gallic Empire Vs. Aurelian Vs. Zenobia, with rebellions in between), Rise of the Republic is also nice, good scripted events and historical flavor but not varied in unit types (It's located only in Italy). I actually didn't get to play Wrath of Sparta, go figure.
*It's funny Attila base game is dogshit but the dlc's are just *chef's kiss*

Age of Charlemagne - *double chef's kiss*

I wouldn't call the base game dogshit, but given how it, without pretense, goes out of its way to screw you over can make it an exercise in frustration.