Codicier

Relaxing Strategy Game Suggestions

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To put it bluntly there are days where i'm just too damn tired, or stressed to wade into many strategy games.

Not wanting to worry about my reaction time when tired rules out a lot of RTS's, and after a bad day many turn based strategy games just seem a bit more intimidating than they do after a good one.

But that doesn't mean that i just want to load up a action game, i still want something with that distinctive satisfaction that comes with playing with fascinating problems inside a interesting system.

It something which has been rattling around at the bottom of my brain for a while, it bubbled to the surface first after watching the Idle thumbs Kickstarter 'party'.

Pikmin seemed ideal relaxing game in some ways, sadly it wasn't exactly easy to get hold of. So i opted for what seemed be a bit of a Pikmin clone, Overlord. I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun i had with it. Perhaps the virtues of 'lean back gaming' are sometimes bit overplayed by some console evangelists, but oh boy after plugging a wireless controller into my PC i really did find the experience of playing qualitatively different in a way i didn't expect.

Restricting a search to PC games with joypad controls wouldn't get me very far, but i think it has given me a clue to what kind of game i should be looking for. Constraints of the joypad control system seem to naturally a fair amount of streamlining in any design that most PC games don't have to do.

So anyway I've just picked up Euflouria which looks like it could be just the thing i need. but i know there must be a few others out there.So if anyone can suggest either games or ways of playing games conductive to a nice relaxing evening i'd love to hear.

Alternatively: If you find complex games or multi-player RTS's relaxing id love to hear why too.

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To put it bluntly there are days where i'm just too damn tired, or stressed to wade into many strategy games.

Not wanting to worry about my reaction time when tired rules out a lot of RTS's, and after a bad day many turn based strategy games just seem a bit more intimidating than they do after a good one.

But that doesn't mean that i just want to load up a action game, i still want something with that distinctive satisfaction that comes with playing with fascinating problems inside a interesting system.

It something which has been rattling around at the bottom of my brain for a while, it bubbled to the surface first after watching the Idle thumbs Kickstarter 'party'.

Pikmin seemed ideal relaxing game in some ways, sadly it wasn't exactly easy to get hold of. So i opted for what seemed be a bit of a Pikmin clone, Overlord. I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun i had with it. Perhaps the virtues of 'lean back gaming' are sometimes bit overplayed by some console evangelists, but oh boy after plugging a wireless controller into my PC i really did find the experience of playing qualitatively different in a way i didn't expect.

Restricting a search to PC games with joypad controls wouldn't get me very far, but i think it has given me a clue to what kind of game i should be looking for. Constraints of the joypad control system seem to naturally a fair amount of streamlining in any design that most PC games don't have to do.

So anyway I've just picked up Euflouria which looks like it could be just the thing i need. but i know there must be a few others out there.So if anyone can suggest either games or ways of playing games conductive to a nice relaxing evening i'd love to hear.

Alternatively: If you find complex games or multi-player RTS's relaxing id love to hear why too.

Personally, some of the better Paradox games, like the recent Crusader Kings II, play great as relaxing hands-off experiences, but maybe that's just me. If you play a small count in Ireland or Wales on a slow speed setting, it's a fairly pleasant experience not unlike tending a garden or something.

Actually, on the subject of gardening, I may have an actual suggestion. How do you feel about Dungeon Keeper-type games? Looking at my shelf, I see Evil Genius and Startopia as two titles I remember having a very zen feel to them. I don't think they'd work well with a gamepad, but they're certainly not clickfests.

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Dungeon keeper was a old favourite, and games like it do have a nice feeling of smooth gradual progression. Part of the problem here is me, I'm a instinctual min-maxer. Give me a game with a lot of complexity, room to tweak variables, and I can't help myself.

Might give evil genius a go when I finish with Eufloria (which has been excellent so far), how well has it help up to the passage of time?

Any idea if its Is worth also considering one of the Sims franchise? I remember Tom Chick doing a excellent write up of Medieval a while back

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Dungeon keeper was a old favourite, and games like it do have a nice feeling of smooth gradual progression. Part of the problem here is me, I'm a instinctual min-maxer. Give me a game with a lot of complexity, room to tweak variables, and I can't help myself.

Might give evil genius a go when I finish with Eufloria (which has been excellent so far), how well has it help up to the passage of time?

Any idea if its Is worth also considering one of the Sims franchise? I remember Tom Chick doing a excellent write up of Medieval a while back

Any management game has this for me, Evil Genius among them, Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster Tycoon and the Sims fit the bill.

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Might give evil genius a go when I finish with Eufloria (which has been excellent so far), how well has it help up to the passage of time?

Time has not been entirely kind, but it's hardly ruined the game forever either. The biggest issue with me picking the game back up a few months ago was the incredibly heavy tutorialization through most of the campaign. There's a good stretch where you can't do anything without the game's say-so.

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Not exactly a casual game, but I really like Tropico 4 as a relaxing strategy game. It's got a great banana republic vibe, a decent soundtrack, and really nice looks. Plus, it just isn't all that hard. Or at least, it's not like you'll screw yourself and lose a scenario without ever having a chance. You can almost always fix mistakes, so there's not a ton of pressure, even though some of the missions are challenging.

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I second Tropico 4. Very nice and and relaxing game. Maybe a bit repetitive (though much less than Tropico 3) but that doesn't bother too much if you only play one or two missions a day (as you most likely would because they are quite long).

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I find Ascension for ios played offline against the ai pretty relaxing.

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There's a good stretch where you can't do anything without the game's say-so.

Urgh tutorial hand holding >_<, now there's a sin that has rightly been lambasted many a time.

@Rob & Nappi

What's the sound/music like on Tropico? I can imagine it being either supremely chilled out, or supremely annoying.Because to tell the truth though Tropico 4 has been on the edge of my radar for a while. The main thing keeping me from going for it is that my pc is not the most sprightly system out there, and Tropico looks like it needs a bit of horse power. The same goes for Anno 2070.

@Juv3nal I honestly find the way Ascensions implemented on the iphone a bit fiddly, but i did have a lot of fun with Neuroshima Hex Puzzles for reasons similar to the sort of solitaire play you talk about.

Having a very small cost of failure did it a lot of favours, some puzzles certainly weren't easy but i always knew at worst i would loose minutes of work and not hours.

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@Rob & Nappi

What's the sound/music like on Tropico? I can imagine it being either supremely chilled out, or supremely annoying.Because to tell the truth though Tropico 4 has been on the edge of my radar for a while. The main thing keeping me from going for it is that my pc is not the most sprightly system out there, and Tropico looks like it needs a bit of horse power. The same goes for Anno 2070.

The music is exactly what you would expect from a game in that setting. At least one review described it as repetitive and slightly annoying, but I'm perfectly happy with it. If the music starts bothering you, you can always turn it off and play your own chillout songs instead. In other words, the music is no reason to get or pass the game.

If you are worried that your computer might not be able to run the game, you should check out the demo first. I think the graphics settings go quite low.

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A quick aside: who owns the Evil Genius property? It was so very nearly a great game, but it wasn't; the sort of game that desperately needs a sequel to get it just right.

Beyond the hand-holding tutorial problem already mentioned, the other problem I have with Evil Genius is how I never seem to have as much control over what I'm building as I should, and I often resort to fiddly little tricks in order to create what I want with the imprecise tools I'm given.

(I realize that another Dungeon Keeperesque game need not be a sequel to Evil Genius, but I really liked the outrageous Bond villain spoof thing it had going on)

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A quick aside: who owns the Evil Genius property?

According to its Steam entry, it's owned by Rebellion right now.

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Rebellion are a weird company, I think they must be the only games company which started off adapting a big IP (Judge Dredd) and then ended up owning the company that produced it (2000AD).

Anyway, after a bit of a google it seems Evil Genius was one of 2 IP's Rebbellion grabbed when Elixir Studios closed down. The other IP? That was Republic: The Revelution

Which I must say wins my all time award for most disappointing game I've ever purchased, I remember at the time the game was hyped pretty strongly, and young fool that i was i fell for the marketeers charms. This was despite it going through a very public development hell for a couple of years.

It was a totally impenetrable game for me. It had one the worst UI's designs i have ever encountered, which combined with a bad manual and lack of tutorial to cause me to giving up in utter frustration and physically throw my copy in the bin after a couple of days.

Did anyone else try this very un-relaxing game?

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I'm gonna sound so dumb for saying, but when I'm looking for some strategyLite I always end up playing Pharoah, a weird little RTS from eidos I think.

Kind of mix between Sim City and Rollercoaster Tycoon, set in ancient Egypt. There's little to no War or combat and the most pressing concern is managing unemployment and keeping your richer citizens in fine clothes.

Some nice, sedate scenarios building up to some more advanced ones, like building monuments and tombs.

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I love the Zeus Master Of Olympus skin of that game. Anything but relaxing when Posioden destroys your docks though!:P

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Hmm that rings a bell Jaraknarn, I feel like I've seen Troy mention that one on twitter at some point. Zen Garden style city builders seem to be a recurring theme in the discussion here. I think i'm still more tempted by Tropico (because of its prettiness) but what I remember people saying about this was near universally positive so I guess its another one to add to the list, along with evil genius.

Side note: A quick check of GoG reveals this which seems to fit the description you give of it. So I assume its the same thing with a expansion pack bundled in.

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I love the Zeus Master Of Olympus skin of that game. Anything but relaxing when Posioden destroys your docks though!:P

Haha! F***! F*** Ptah and his damn fires! I built you a temple you stupid Jackal!! Ahhhhh!! Stop burning my granaries!!! Oh great, now my fire station is on fire! Ahhh!!

I'm really selling this as a relaxing game, lol, ill get some more deets when I get home and look at the case, it might not be Edios.

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Thats the one, they made a whole slew of them with different skins and slightly upgraded graphics/mechanics.

If i recall, pharoah had absolutley massive monuments to build. i remember sitting waitng for hours for them (may have been economic failure on my part). Zeue, Master Of Olympus had the gods arriving at inoppertune times to rodger you.

Edit: looks like pharoah had naughty gods too! The feicers.

Looking at GoG, Zeus is the newer of them.

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NdeYep same.

The monument building was quite interesting, a lot of resource management and building placement, but not in the sense you imagine. You could designate which store houses would receive the stone, so would need to place them near monuments, but you also want them near the trade routes so that passing traders can add to your stockpile. Then Masons and Workcamps need to be near population centers to have access to recruits but, far enough away to not wreck the poperty values.

But, the systems all run under the surfaces, they could have done to surfface it a little more just to make some of it more streamlined. Like the bricklayers go get bricks and move them once thers enough stored up but, when th game fancies it, not when you think it should.

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You guys are talking about the City Builder games from Impressions, published by Sierra. I used to get demos for those games bundled with Sierra games all the time, so I played most of them even though I only owned a couple. They were great! And yeah, they've been talked about on 3MA before (I've only listened to earlier episodes so far, but I distinctly remember them talking about how the "walker" system of resource distribution from those games is not missed).

The games are indeed similar to each other, but they're different enough that they're more than just reskins of Caesar.

Zeus was, in my opinion, the best of the lot. I usually still have that installed and every so often I play through a scenario or whatnot.

If the game had a weak-point, it was when you needed things to fight other things on screen. The military aspect in general wasn't bad (and I actually liked that it was there); it was another thing you had to build infrastructure to support, and then you'd get more units to move around on the map of Greece. But when fights actually came to your city, you just felt helpless. I don't expect deep tactics or anything, but I would like it not to be frustrating or not be there at all.

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Yer, I checked my box when I got home, it is Sierra, I was getting it confused with Edios coz the box I have is a Soldout Software repackage and the logo are a bit similar.

Anyway, I think their great games, a lot of polish, no horrendous bugs. And all revelant info is readily available, especially with a game where a lot of the win-states depend on having a certain level of house develop in your city, having all the house development needs well surfaced is great. And the same system runs into the other scenario sscoring mechanics.

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Would the Origional Dawn of War count?

After you've learnt the basics, that turns into a bit of a snack food game, that's quite easy to play wiith ur brain half turned on, and then you can ramp up the difficulty when you fancy a challenge.

The Meta Strategy game in the later expansions also provides a nice bit of permanence outside the campaign, that you can pop in and out and play a random battle when you get 5 minutes.

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There's a argument to be made that all of the DoWs (& in particular DOW 2 Retribution) did big dumb action very well. While i'm not sure if I'd call it relaxing necessarily, but there are few better virtual punch bags in strategy gaming than a big old Ork waaaargh.

It all comes down to how people deal with stress, and/or what's stressing you on a particular day. Some days I like the ability to immerse myself in a world where everything for once makes sense, where it's all about constructing a amazingly efficient empire/city/machine. Other days I want to blow up huge hordes of screaming green maniacs.

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I know it's not a strategy game but my go to relaxation game is any of the Dynasty Warriors games. There is something about churning through hordes of soldiers that is just so satisfying.

For relaxing strategy, I'd probably go with any 'long form' strategy game (AI Wars, Civilization) but played on one of the lower difficulty settings so that I can just stomp my opponents without thinking too much.

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