Summary
As a genre, strategy games have become one of the more popular in the industry right now thanks both toold favorites likeStarcraftand newer titles likeOld World, strategy games seem to constantly have new IPs being created every year. It’s not a genre in search of new voices these days.
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Unfortunately, some of the best strategy games have found themselves lost to the ravages of time. While some of them fell victim to mismanagement from studio execs or overexposure, others were simply dropped by the studio in favor of something else. As their peers continued to release new entries and maintain dominance, these franchises found themselves unable to keep pace.
In most strategy games set in a fantasy universe, the player controls righteous heroes as they attempt to slay an ultimate evil antagonist. But inDungeon Keeper,players are the evil onewho builds the dungeon. As players recruit and command minions to fight against the heroes that arrive, what the player can add to the dungeon becomes more intricate as they progress.
Developed by Bullfrog Productions and led by Peter Molyneux,Dungeon Keeperwas followed by a sequel in 1999 and an unfortunate mobile game in 2014. Since then, any hope forDungeon Keeper 3has been squashed. An unfortunate end for a series that held unlimited promise.
First released in 1997 by Cavedog Entertainment,Total Annihilationwent on to spawn a sequel in 1999. But when Cavedog closed down, the IP was purchased by Infogrames. Although they never did much with it, series creator Chris Taylor later founded Gas Powered Games, producing multiple spiritual successors under theSupreme Commanderlabel.
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Supreme Commandergot a sequel in 2010, but the series ultimately hit the brick wall with a canceled title in 2010, although a spiritual sequel in 2014 calledPlanetary Annihilationwas well received. Since the end of theSupreme Commanderline,Total Annihilationhas been sadly dead in the water.
When it first launched as a PlayStation 3 exclusive in 2008,Valkyria Chronicleswas met witha positive critical receptionand middling sales numbers. When the game was re-released on Steam, however, it exceeded Sega’s expectations. Set in the fictional land of Europa, the combination of turn-based strategy mixed with the player actually moving around in third-person to fire their weapons, it became an intoxicating cocktail that was difficult to resist.
Through two sequels on the PSP, the franchise didn’t quite become the household name Sega was expecting. A fourth entry launched in 2018 but also wasn’t quite strong enough to pique Sega’s interest in another sequel, leaving the fate of a fifth trip into Europa decidedly grim.
Set across multiple eras,Rise of Nationsis built around the concept of creating a civilization and protecting it throughout history. Crafted by a few veterans ofa similar series,Civilization,Rise of Nationsuses a real-time approach as opposed to turn-based. It also features a fantastic single-player campaign called Conquer the World akin toRisk.
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Though it was successful enough for multiple expansions and a brilliant fantasy-based sequel in 2006 calledRise of Legends, a full-blown sequel toRise of Nationswas canceled by Microsoft. Worse yet, a fully-completed sequel developed by 38 Studios went unreleased and the IP was purchased by an unknown entity in 2013, leaving the fate of this intriguing property up in the air.
Created by New World Computing, theMight and Magicfranchise began on the Apple 2 in 1986 and eventually spawned a series of highly successful strategy games during the 1990s and beyond.Known asHeroes of Might and Magic, this medieval fantasy-based strategy series was home to some of the genre’s best efforts.
After it was purchased by Ubisoft in 2003, the franchise continued for a while and even spawned a brilliant spin-off in the first-person RPGDark Messiah of Might and Magic. This excellent sub-series has been deathly quiet since the release ofMight and Magic Heroes 7in 2015.
As far as real-time strategy games go,Command & Conquercan certainly be seen as the one that codified the RTS genre moving forward. Establishing many of the norms and conventions that would define the RTS for years,Command & Conquerwas developed by Westwood Studios in 1995 and cultivated an enormous fanbase. The brilliant combination of addictive gameplay mixed withunique lore and bombastic villainsis still some of the best action players can find in the genre.
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After Westwood Studios was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1998, the franchise continued to release some truly excellent games in the form ofTiberian SunandRed Alert 2. But as time went on and the franchise started to feel a bit long in the tooth, entries likeTiberian Twilightand the maligned mobile release ofRivalssent the series into a downward spiral that it hasn’t recovered from. A mainline entry inC&Chasn’t been seen since 2010, a fact that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
