The Perfect Strategy Podcast
March 14th, 2009 Soren Johnson Posted in Games | 5 Comments »
It’s called Three Moves Ahead, and the cast of characters is Tom Chick, Bruce Geryk, Julian Murdoch, and Troy S. Goodfellow, all familiar names for strategy gamers who like to read about their hobby.
In the latest episode, they tackle an issue that I am going to be addressing in my next GD column (#5), which is whether separate strategic and tactical sub-games can live together happily in one single title. They use the Total War series as the primary data point, and I’m not surprised. I’ve never enjoyed the tactical battles of the series – too slow and ponderous for my RTS tastes weaned on StarCraft and Age of Kings - while also finding the strategic levels too vague and opaque to enjoy, with simply not enough meat on the bone. Having the top-level game be constantly interupted by the unwelcome tactical battles certainly didn’t help matters either. However, the mix can be done well, as games like Lord of the Realms or X-Com prove. The trick, in my mind, is to make sure that one half of the game is always subservient to the other half. X-Com, for example, is clearly about the tactical combat while Lord of the Realm is clearly about the strategic level. Still, in general, I’m not sure it’s a challenge that is worth tackling. It’s a lot easier to make one great game than two good (let alone great) ones that actually fit together.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Not perfect yet, but I’m glad you’re enjoying it Soren. Maybe we can have you on as a guest sometime.
BTW, I do post links that go with the podcast, but on the Flash of Steel side. The main page for the ‘cast is:
http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/three-moves-ahead/
March 15th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
“It’s a lot easier to make one great game than two good (let alone great) ones that actually fit together.”
Ironic coming from someone working on Spore.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Sure, Troy, I’d be happy to be on. Hope you guys are prepared for more talk about board games than video games, though…
March 17th, 2009 at 10:03 am
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March 28th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Interesting, I personally find the duality of the TW games appealing. It’s nice that you can play either all-strategic (automating battles) or all-tactical (quick battles and scenarios). I think they’ve handled both levels surprisingly well in a single title even though they play very differently. Then again, I’ve not played Realms or X-Com to compare.