Some genres receive a lot of attention while others are pushed off to the side and almost entirely ignored by the entire gaming culture. Deserving more credit than it ever receives, isometric turn-based strategies were one of the original genres that bridged the gap of pen and paper into the electronic realm. Game for game ITBS games make the entire genre one of the most difficult and complex genres to play leaving casual gamers crying for their mommy and hardcore gamers wishing there were more hours in a day and for their friends to stop calling your mom a cougar.
So in an effort to rehash on some happy years of gaming and to shine the invisible medals of games once defeated, I've taken some time for inward reflection to ponder which ITBS will always stick out and helped define the genre for what it is. That time of meditation produced the following list which is not in any particular order but was chosen due to each game's importance to their respective system over the years. Danger: This list contains games that still pass me middle school notes which to this day I still check yes, I do like you.
Shining Force 2: Sega - 1994 - Genesis
If you were lucky enough to own or know someone that did own a Sega Genesis, there was a slight chance that you could of played one of the first console ITBS games. And yes, since this is written in English, I'm not talking about all the possible previous Japanese games (notably the Fire Emblem series has resurrected into something worth playing).
This game was one of the first to introduce the idea of an RPG style game in which you could control a group of up to 12 characters at once and doing all of the playing on a grid style map. Characters were all very unique and allowed for choosing which were a waste of time and which would be the workhorses of killing the armies of Zeon. And on a brighter note, this game also had involvment from mythical centaurs which are so rare nowadays that seeing one in the shower applying Old Spice bodywash is the only chance at catching a glimpse of these majestic animal/humans.
The main character was named Bowie to aid you in becoming delusional enough to believe his first name was David and he was taking a quick smoke break in Labyrinth to save another civilization with his dance moves and action batch.
Final Fantasy Tactics - Square - 1998 - PS1
Years later the genre was quite stale if you only owned consoles, and especially if you were without one of those expensive personal computers. There were a few choices but most had no storyline or terrible gameplay. Enter the king of console RPGs to venture into the ITBS arena and squash the competition with FFT.
FFT took everything that makes a good ITBS great and trimmed the fat of annoyances. Tons of story, different classes, and true strategic gameplay kept PS1 gamers so enthralled that owning an original version of FFT to this day can reward you with over $50 to collectors. Fans of previous FF games saw for the first time the entire ensemble of old class choices combined along with a few extra to boot the most amazing of which was the Calculator. If you were lucky enough to level the proper classes to unlock the Calculator, your mathalete skills could be put to use to heal or do damage to all characters on screen reminiscent of craps, trigonometry, and the board game Sorry.
X-Com UFO Defense - Mythos Games - 1993 - PC
Crank up the VGA display, whip out the 3.5-inch floppies, and start up MS-DOS, it's X-Com time! Right when PCs were becoming a booming economic staple in everyone's home, competing against Coke's mission statement to have a vending machine every mile, X-Com made gamers some of the most patient people around. Well patient or full blown domestic extra-terrestrial abusers. X-Com was one of the most difficult ITBS games around and in case the first time through was too easy, you could also scale the difficulty higher to grind your teeth at night for the next century.
X-Com showed the world a game in which the era of the Internet and TV would give people even more reason to keep staring into the stars as shows such as X-Files and the Sci-Fi channel took off. Set all across Earth, the X-Com (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit) attempt to save the world from the on-going threat of alien terrorists much like the similar threats of Predator, Ko-Dan, Killer Klowns, or Martians from Mars. As you spend global amounts of cash on bases and research, you attempt to reclaim Earth from these invaders using their technology against them while hopefully not creating a deficit over 2 months. Yes, the US has had a deficit for almost the entire 21st century but blow your budget for 2 months and it's game over.
Much of the games acclaim over the years has been the intertwining of a Sid Meyer's Civilization-esque game and joining an ITBS with a great interface, sounds, and gameplay. X-Com was also one of the first ITBS games to use projectile weaponry and urban military tactics within a game without shortchanging on fun. While games such as Wolfenstein and Doom were busy making bullets per second enjoyable, X-Com was slowing the speed of battle down to where claymation directors felt at home. So if you've ever played and finished X-Com: UFO Defense, you deserve a free beer to trade war stories over. If you didn't get enough of X-Com the first time it is again available on Steam as well as it's many sequels.
Jagged Alliance 2 - Sir Tech Canada - 1999 - PC
Where would Jack Ryan be without clandestine black operations? Well Tom Clancy might be flipping burgers and we wouldn't get great games such as JA2. Not to skimp on the prestige of JA1, JA2 gave Rambo a reason to go back into Burma with the same cheesy lines and almost as much gore. Ok no where near as much blood and guts but the same attitude.
Taking a small group of mercs into the fake Eastern European country of Alruco, you attempt to free the civilians of the country from the evil clutches of dictator Deidranna. Overthrowing her husband Enrico who escaped the country after her attempt at framing Enrico for her father's murder, you are fronted a small amount of cash, a laptop with direct links to all the websites a merc would need, and a one way ticket into the country.
Rich with voice acting and distinct personalities for an array of characters, JA2 makes replayability unique and a quite varied experience each time. Some characters such as the Russian brothers Ivan and Igor make such a lovable pair you begin to prevent their deaths at every turn sometimes reloading savepoints until you can't stand it anymore. JA2 plays on the map overview strategy mixed with turn based battle action made famous with X-Com and takes the fighting to a new level introducing more layers of physics down to differing bullet calibers and ballistics.
You could hate ITBS games but the storyline presentation in JA2 is one of the more humorous around. As you progress further into Alruco freeing town after town, Diedranna receives reports from her assistant Elliot who then in return receives a proper beating for each piece of bad news. After a while it becomes one of the oddest rewards systems for a job well done. Well those that can't feel sympathy for digital Urkel wannabes find it laughable since we can't save the rest of the Family Matters cast from Jaleel White's suspenders.
Fallout - Interplay - 1997 - PC
Two men enter, none leave. There are a few games here and there that touch on a futuristic Earth but none had ever been as bleakly honest as Fallout. Some would show the world uniting in an effort for space exploration, others would have humanity unite in order to defend off invading aliens, but Fallout would go and say no to handholding togetherness and instead stay on the edge of suicide when resources become scarce and care not about the repercussions of scorching the Earth. This post apocalyptic environment becomes one of the biggest characters and gives a great sense of being alone and fearful of death around every corner.
Set in Southern California in the year 2161, you are a survivor of World War III living in an underground vault. The vault's water chip breaks and you are chosen to go into the wasteland to search for a replacement.
Much of the personality of the game is contained in references to pop culture a lot of it 1950's related. The presentation of the RPG portions of the game are done through a Monopoly man type character that makes light of the darkly vast wasteland that is now the world. The childhood innocence clashing with the dark humor makes for quite the combo making the entire journey unforgettable.
Fallout became one of the starting RPGs to flirt with the idea of choices and repercussions morbid as many would be. Any NPC can be chosen to become a target for random violence even down to children. Prostitution and drug use can become hobbies while you choose to either help your vault or totally ignore them and become the wasteland's biggest fan. Multiple endings can be gained depending on choices made throughout the game even down to the last seconds as you receive an ultimate reward for helping your vault. All of these aspects took ITBS games to a new level of quality and expectance including the atmosphere and ethics.
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