If you think this is all there is for strategy games you're in for a pleasant surprise! Watch my other list videos in the playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLYVqUDxY6COh7bkuJoBb1koNRX7mAX2yp They're the most comprehensive upcoming games lists you'll find!
Zakh, you’re doing a great job. I want to help you out: the word “ahistorical“ actually means “not historical.” It’s like atypical, apolitical, or asymmetrical. The word you’re looking for is just “historical.” Keep cranking out great content!
@@GraysonKamm Thank you! And I do actually mean 'not historical'. It's because those games aren't following history, they just have historical themes and designs but are not historical at all. Like Civ and Humankind, they are not historical games. 'Ahistorical games' tend to mean that they look historical, but aren't. In some cases it's 'alternative history', but not always.
We've been immersed in the world of "Heroes of Might and Magic," starting with the third installment, then progressing through parts 5 and 6. While my friends weren't as enamored with it, I appreciated the impressive graphics. Eventually, we ventured into the seventh installment. After three years, the excitement waned, and unfortunately, the Heroes series didn't live up to its past success. Eager for a new hotseat game, we happily stumbled upon "Song of Conquest," which evokes the nostalgic charm of the Heroes series.
Haha well apparently SimCity ended up okay. They expanded city size and removed the always online DRM, but it couldn't save it because Cities Skylines was already a thing. If Paradox didn't swoop in, SimCity would've done a lot better.
Curious about Millennia and Songs of Silence. I'm an alpha tester for Ara and that game is shaping up really REALLY well. I'm actually not sure if I'll even bother picking up CIV VII because of how much potential Ara has. They have been releasing dev diaries for a bit and they are worth the watch.
Age of Wonders FTW !!! My very first turned based strategy was Civ followed closely by Master of Magic (each time they try to remake it, it's a total failure) After that, in 3rd position, it was Heroes of Might and Magic 1 ! I can also clearly remembered how I got obsessed over Civ 2 Test of Time (and playing the atlantean with their underwater empire). But since I discovered Age of Wonders, it's the only turned based game I'm obsessed by. (I only wished they would make underwater a plane)
@@GamerZakh If I remember correctly, there were underground, underwater and the sky... It was almost too big, but the underwater plane was quite pretty + I loved the feeling of being able to come up at any point and surprise the enemy. Now, Solium Infernum is the one I'm really eager to get my hands on. (they also will make, finally, a PC version of Neuroshima Hex, now it's more simple and tactical rather than strategy but I'm a fan of the board game)
Songs of silence's turn based overworld and real time combat reminds me of a very old turn based game in the vein of HoMM called lords of magic. Alliance of the sacred suns, Revival: Recolonization and Zephon sound interesting, gonna keep an eye out for those.
Civ 2 your first game? Such a young lad. I played Civ 1 in the 90s. So much that I remember the game vividly to this day. And my back and knee hurt, not because of the games, just because of my age.
I'm in my mid-30s and been married for a decade, at what point did people stop calling you a young lad? Because I got back and knee pain too haha. And Civ 2 wasn't my first game, it was my first 4X.
@@GamerZakh I'm 39, but people don't perceive me as a young lad because of my bald head. So we are not that different in age, but you look to be under 30, congrats!
Solium Infernum is releasing on 2/22/24 (5 days from when I'm watching this vid). It's interesting that this used to be Nightingale's release date, which was moved to 2 days earlier. Looks like early 2024 is gonna be fun! Another great vid adding to my already immense wishlist. 😀
Personally not that interested in a 1 hour grand strategy game. Part of the pleasure is settling in for the long haul. Makes it feel like the stakes are more real, even if it means playing over several saves. That's just me though
I've found it takes about 10 hours to 'get' a grand strategy game. Under 10 hours and it's not that you're bad at the game but it takes more time to even understand the rules and mechanics.
I loved HoMM 5 but gawd damn it took so long to finish a single game , i always wished for a fast paced version of it ! Fast paced is something u can finish under 3 hours in this case xD
@GamerZakh, have you ever played Kohan, immortal sovereigns, and its follow up game, Kohan, Ahriman's gift? They have amazing things going on, with novel mechanics and a really cool lore. Unit composition and city management systems are truly original I suggest everyoner eading this check the games out.
I agree, Kohan were great games with a superb combat system. Kohan and Humankind have the two best combat systems. Civ needs to dump the combat resolution in place since the first Civ game.
So, I just posted this on the other video, but the section here seems to be copied so I will post it here too: It's a bit surprising that you didn't mention Millennia's biggest gimmick at all: Alternate Ages. A possibility of different development of world technology and mechanics seems interesting.
I was kind of wanting to say that the game is 40K-like, because it's clearly 40K but without the licensing. But listening back I didn't actually say '40K-like' but I just said '40K', my bad.
I hope one day we'll have 4x strategy games... that you can say... ok put me in first person in the government building or on the battlefield or in a space battle or in a plane or something... a crazy strategy game that an AI could generate the 1st person view of that world on the fly. Probably gonna take 20 more years.
Most people don't consider Heroes of Might and Magic to be 4X. No diplomacy, no procedurally generated maps, no settling, etc. Great video. Wish I had time for good stuff like this...
You would have a lot more experience discussing the 4X genre haha, I just wouldn't say those limitations stop a game from being a 4X. Diplomacy isn't really a part of explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate, neither is procedurally generated maps. Settling is part of expand but conquering other cities counts for that too.
@@GamerZakh it's a debate for the ages, but if we look at the games that define the genre, like Civilization, Master of Orion, etc, then diplomacy and procedural maps are aspects of the genre. The "4Xs" aren't the only criteria for a 4X game, in our humble opinion ❤️
Looking forward to Civ7. Hope they move back towards the Civ5 style graphics, keep the Civ6 district system, and put some effort into "flattening" game complexity between the eras- by that I mean making the early game more engaging/complex, but making the lategame less overwhelming. (Am I the only one who often plays until the industrial era and just starts a new game?)
Me as well... 50% of the time was that I liked the earlier game music of each nation and industrial era onwards the music all sounded way too "epic" for my liking
Civilization franchise is my first and favorite love. Im a late comer to the Stellaris games and with a wife and 3 kids I cant quite get a handle on it.
I'm also a fan of the Age of Wonders games. First one is still my favourite, even though I can acknowledge some of the good changes that were made in later games. There's a certain beauty in simplicity though, and in allowing for more customisation and player freedom, I feel like the factions/races ended up getting more and more generic with each title. Why have a bunch of different races in your game if they are all functionally the same?
Version numbers don't have a standard format. Many games don't go 0.1 to 0.9 then 1.0. They go to 0.10 (ten) if they're still in development. Rising Lords isn't on 0.2 (point-two), it's on 0.22 (point-twenty two).
I've tried some of these games. My opinions are as follows: Songs of Silence (demo): Looks like a good introductory game for someone new to the genre, but not much here to interest veterans. It's kind of like Age of Wonders with cards and an auto battler. Revival Recolonization (demo): Very generic 4X. Nothing here gets me excited. Songs of Conquest (Early Access): This is basically HOMM with minor upgrades, which is a good thing, and makes it considerably better than the last couple of HOMM releases. Solium Infernum (demo): Looks like a decent game with some depth. This is the one I'm most excited for. I'm also following Ara:History Untold and Millenia with interest
As you say it's not quite the right category, even if they call itself a 4X it's a little different than the other games here. But also the first line of the description says it'll release by the end of 2023, and it is likely that it'll be delayed into 2024 but I feel I have to stretch a bit too far for this list. I can however have it in the general strategy list no problem.
Yeah a few of these were in there but most are new. This year I'm just gonna make a video for every subgenre because I've realised people often don't watch unless it's exactly about what they're looking for. Got a DM the other day asking for a 'Spore-like' list even though I covered all those in the God Games list. So I'll probably just redo that list to just the Spore-likes a bit down the line.
What an absolute let-down Stellaris Nexus is. I'm so sick of the push to make multiplayer games for everything. Yes, there are some games that are best enjoyed with friends, but 4X games aren't it. Yes, I understand some people play them with friends, but the vast majority play single-player. The 4X games aren't exactly filled with young teens eager for action, its usually middle-aged people that want to take their time and enjoy the grand strategy and depth that 4X games bring.
If Paradox is throwing in their weight on a 4X title it will probably scare CIV a bit. What I have seen so far of Millennia I do have some doubts if it will reach that level. But I am at least hopefull to see more games in the genre. Paradox should be consider a long term "threat" if they commit and Millennia is successfull.
I wonder if Stellaris Nexus is having legal issues with their name. Paradox has a lot invested in the Stellaris franchise and I doubt they would be happy with a 4X using such a similar name.
I am baffled that next to none of the Space 4X games have come close to the feel of Master of Orion 2 neither the other MOO titles nor many of the "spiritual successors" somehow they are all lacking. Usually it is the tactical combat, sometimes it is the actual planet management. (Seriously who makes systems where you can build like 2 improvements on a small planet and 5 on a huge planet) best one I've found so far is Stars in Shadow
I don't think any of them have been confirmed for consoles yet, but console announcements and releases tend to come later for strategy games. Like Civ 6, that released on consoles 3 years after the PC release.
@@GamerZakhThat'd be perfectly acceptable of course. More options is always a good thing, but there'd need to be the option for something more lengthy as well.
2023? Definitely not, even the shortest game announcements are at least 2 months before. We have seen nothing of Civ 7, so a surprise release would be terrible marketing.
I wouldn't call Solium Infernum 4X at all. There is no exploration, you only have one 'city', ways of building up your domain are limited. It's pretty unique experience.
There's many different definitions of 4X people are using. One was that HoMM isn't a 4X at all because there's no diplomacy. Even though 'diplomacy' isn't one of the Xs, the original 4X games had diplomacy so some have that as a requirement.
@@SkyFly19853 I have listed all of those multiple times in the past for years. It's just they aren't upcoming anymore and it's not like Paradox isn't in this list multiple times already.
I was kind of wanting to say that the game is 40K-like, because it's clearly 40K but without the licensing. But listening back I didn't actually say '40K-like' but I just said '40K', my bad.
I don't understand why no one just does HoMM with modern graphics? It's always gotta be some additional gimmick, like cards, auto-battle, or other artificial limits instead of the classic stuff that HoMM near-perfected.
@@GamerZakh I do like it, but the last time I played it I got bugged in the middle of a campaign and it made me drop it. Also, could take or drop the graphics since I don't care either way about pixel art. It can look beautiful at times, but can also look too busy so you're not sure what you're looking at.
@@GamerZakh I did like that, and the Sunrider series which is also sci-fi. But I also like historical and grand strategy, such as Field of Glory: Empires.
Can we have a new game monarch for this genre? No Because older games were made with soul and passion They were clunky They had terrible graphic whee you could count the pixels But they had an engaging gameplay The birth of One more turn for tonight and then I quit The developers could not count on flashy effects 3 d views and models good animations They had to focus on good gameplay It is the reason why even after playing modern games like the last age of wonders might and magic civilization Many people still compare them in their mind and still find better games like age of wonders 1/2 might and magic 2/3 and civ 2/3 The problem is that the level today of the gameplay is far worse And it doesn’t help that many games go out gutted of the main content that will be realeased as paid dlc Sometimes to comical bad levels like paradox stellar is Europa universal is hoi and crusader kings where the base game cost 30 and you have 300 of dlcs
It's not going to replace long 4X games but it's something that's becoming a standard option to have. Like Civ 6 got 30-60 minute game modes but it doesn't replace the main game.
'alliance of the sacred suns' is just a remake of 'emperor of the fading suns'. nothing new under the sun. still playing aow og. works fine on windows 10, no vid card needed.
When a game title is similar like that, it's specifically trying to be a spiritual successor. They'd make a sequel if they owned the license. Emperor of the Fading Suns copied older games too.
@@GamerZakh yeah, but i never got to play those older games it was based on. bloody hard game, too. do you remember ssi's general series? i believe i had all of them, at one point. their "successors" diverged enormously from the originals. actually, now that i consider it, space general may have preceded EoTFS, but i could be wrong about that. i also used to enjoy koei's romance of the three kingdoms games. had several of them over the years, too.
Underwhelmed by so many games with cartoony graphics and "board game" or "card" mechanics. Man, I love AoW1. Shame about the ease of making superheroes in it.
But half of this is the same as the other one. What's the point of two half-identical videos? Is it an experiment on which title and thumbnail attracts more views?
Because it turns out, most don't watch these videos unless it's exactly what they're looking for. I'm getting DMs of people asking me to make a video on 'games like Spore', even though those are already covered in the God Games list. They didn't watch the God Games list because they don't think Spore is a god game. Last year, I reuploaded the Strategy list but just the RTS games, and the RTS list got 3 times as many views as the Strategy list that already listed all the RTS games. Even this video, it's been live for less than half the time as the Civ list, but has as many views, and those views across these two similar-ish videos are from mostly completely different people. I can tell you from the analytics, those watching the Civ list are older, while those watching this one lean younger. The Civ list is more US/UK viewers, while this one is more spread out globally. Generally keep in mind that about 65-70% of viewers are not subscribed to a RU-vid channel, so on the Civ list and this one, only 12,000 viewers on each are subscribers out of 193,000 subs, and those 12,000 aren't the same subs on both videos. So taking the same games and just relisting them with a different context reaches completely new audiences. And not doing that is basically keeping games hidden from people who are looking for something very specific.
@@GamerZakh Weird to think people wouldn't consider Civ a 4X, but it was also weird for me to see Spore listed as a god game, so I guess everybody has their own sense of what is "common" sense, lol.
@@HanakoSeishin Yeah that's what I generally have to always explain, people just don't think of genres the same. There are also people saying HoMM is an 4X and those adamant it isn't. It isn't up to me to say who is right or wrong, so to be fair I should just upload every list imaginable and remix the upcoming games wherever they fit because that's how people look for games. It makes some people very angry at me for being 'wrong' about genres but that doesn't matter because no matter how I define a genre someone comes along and says I'm wrong. The choice is, do I get called wrong for saying HoMM is a 4X or do I get called wrong for saying HoMM is not a 4X? And is that really a choice? Some even say I'm wrong for even questioning it because the answer is 'obvious'. Even with the latest poll on whether Stronghold DE is a remake or a remaster, sure 'only' 17% says it's a remake but that's a solid 160 people who would disagree with me if I call it a remaster. Plus there are comments that literally say, "Definitely a remaster and there's no argument to be had. People who call games like this "remakes" are just plain wrong." Then I explain what the DE is and they realise they're wrong and they actually recognise it as a remake. People so sure of their stance but actually missing a key bit of information that would flip their opinion when presented. That poll is likely skewed by people who don't know Stronghold DE is rebuilt in a new engine.
@@GamerZakh Well, the way I see it, saying it's a remake might me technically correct and maybe useful for the developers, but it's not useful for the players, because for the sake of playing the game it doesn't matter what's under the hood, what matters is the experience you get. And if that experience is undistinguishable from a remaster, then it's more useful for the players to call it a remaster, because that way the term would actually describe your player experience.
I was kind of wanting to say that the game is 40K-like, because it's clearly 40K but without the licensing. But listening back I didn't actually say '40K-like' but I just said '40K', my bad.
The games you have shown here aren't even close to CV series. It doesn't matter CV 7 come or not those games simply doesn't have the potentiality to compete with CV.
4X as it stands pushes away a lot of gamers. Hexarchy just released as '4X in an hour' game and it's got a smaller but very positive following so far. Plus the shorter games seem to be maps or game modes, they can still go long.
SimCity was getting better, they got rid of the always online requirement and expanded cities, even got an expansion, but with Cities Skylines becoming a thing and dominating the market there was no point continuing to fix SimCity. Plus with CS being so big, no chance of another SimCity game because why bother competing. You can see no big publisher ever made another modern urban city builder since CS. If Paradox didn't swoop in there's a much bigger chance SimCity would still be a thing.
Saving doesn't help when you're working 2 jobs and have kids and you only get to play games once every 2-3 weeks. You save, life happens, come back after a few weeks and load up your save but you forgot what you were doing. A recent example, The Yogscast have a Civ channel. They've been playing through Civ 2 Test of Time. Video parts 1-5 ish were from one recording, then they took a 1 month break. The next part in the series they loaded their game and forgot almost everything they were doing. Things they built at the end of the last part, they forgot what they were for and just got rid of them. Cities they were going to build, forgot to be built, etc. A perfect example of how saving and loading a month later isn't a great experience.
@@thehellyousayWhatever you want to label it as, the 1-hour 4X games are quite successful. Ozymandias, Hexarchy, Nexus 5X. Even games like Civ have plenty of 1-hour experiences and scenarios in them, particularly for multiplayer. That's another area where 1-hour 4X is very useful. Yes you can save and load, but can you synchronise 4 different people playing together? That's almost impossible in most adult friend groups over multiple sessions. Either way, you're not the first to not get their purpose but it's already a foregone conclusion. Many 1-hour 4Xs have released now and people love them. Niche audiences compared to full 4X games of course, but for that smaller group of players it filled a need.
crazy to hear the words "live up to civilization". civilization was good for its time in the past, recently (last 15 years) firaxis just spits out unbalanced, uninspired nonsense that requires 10 dlcs
You can say that but Civ 6 is consistently in the top 25 most played games on Steam right now. It's still one of the biggest games in the world. No competition has come close to beating it.
i hate multiplayer and realtime. I don’t have the time for ‘real time’ because I have a real life😅 been gaming for 30 years and just want to game against AI. Play for an hour or 2 and the put the game away for a few days. Turn based is the game for me.
