14 DAY TRIAL // The most important piece of news to come out of the recent PAX East event is that the development team at Firaxis is currently working on a new Civilization title called Beyond Earth, which is in many ways designed to serve as the spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, one of the most loved turn-based strategy titles ever launched.
I loved the original, which was designed largely by Brian Reynolds, despite the fact that it bears the name of Sid Meier on the cover, and I intend to spend hundreds of hours with the upcoming Firaxis experience if the company managed to recapture the magic of the concept.
I am already spending more than ten hours each week playing both the original and the DLC campaigns for Total War: Rome II, and The Creative Assembly has already said that it plans to offer more support for the title in the coming months.
I am also engaging regularly with titles like Wargame AirLand Battle and Companies of Heroes 2 and I would love to have more time in order to spend it exploring more of what Age of Wonders III and Warlock 2: The Exiled have to offer.
And, on top of that, I have a constant and solid addition to the grand strategy titles from Paradox Interactive, especially Crusader Kings II, which can easily eat up hundreds of hours on their own.
Clearly there are not as many strategy title launches as first-person shooters or MOBAs or RPGs, but I do believe that we are currently living in one of the best periods for strategy of the last 20 years.
Gamers have options and can try out a variety of experiences that appeal to a large array of tastes and the best current strategy experiences appeal to both the hardcore and more casual players.
And if there’s a player out there for which Total War: Rome II, Company of Heroes 2, Age of Wonders III and the rest are not enough, there are also mods created by the community that deliver sometimes more content than the original release.
The only issue with living in a golden age for strategy gaming is that only a small number of gamers have both the time and the money they need to enjoy all the experiences listed above.
Another danger is that developers might soon run out of ideas and that the coming years might represent a more barren period for strategy lovers.