BENGALURU: Sometimes I wonder why a lot of the games lately have taken to prequels, or a more historical format. Have all ideas for a possible dystopian future already been covered? Is the present not sufficiently interesting (except FIFA with its annoyingly consistent popularity)? Is it because history is so familiar and romantic? I have no doubts as to why God of War and Assassin’s Creed (Origins) jumped to a distant-past timeline — they were running out of good sequel ideas. But they aren’t the only new games linked to an existing historical storyline. Here’s a list of some new and upcoming games and what’s the best ‘historical’ thing about them that makes them so playable:
I thought Origins was as far the beginning as it could get till Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was announced. This game, unlike the rest in the series has a more dedicated focus towards RPG elements — building skills and relationships, rather than the typical solely mission focused events.
Although not hugely into historical RPGs, Europa Universalis IV: Dharma is something that I am looking forward to — ‘Dharma’ is the recently announced expansion the existing game. EU is a purely strategy-based empire building game. In this expansion, they have incorporate Indian Sultanate kingdoms and cultural bonuses with the Mughal Empire. I’m not sure what the new ‘government customisation’ includes, but it sounds fun!
Another from Ubisoft on this list, Anno 1800 is one of those rare games with a different style of strategy and subsequently a small and dedicated fanbase. After two games set in the future, this one takes us to the Industrial Revolution where we get to build cities on a blank slate of the world as it was.
If I could include mythical fantasy in it (which is peppered with actual history), I’d include the Norse Inspired Rune: Ragnorok, but that’s for another list.
The sad thing is the really good non-RPG games with a historical setting don’t release sequels very often. The immersive Dishonored series by Arkane, for example is now taking a break, and we aren’t sure if there’ll be more to the series. But it’s still nice to know that the historical revisits aren’t yet redundant and there’s always something different that each game offers.
Anusha Ganapathi
@quaffle_waffle
(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)