I have never been a massive gamer, but there's a few I've enjoyed over the years and recently two I've reconnected with, both from long, long ago!
The first is courtesy of my son, who purchased me a game on Steam, so that we can play together the game he used to sit on my knee and watch me play while offering helpful advice like, 'kill him, dad'.
This game is Age of Empires 2. It was originally released in 1999 and is a real time strategy game where you acquire resources, build locations and units, and conquer the map. Winning is generally by defeating other players - either online or game AI, however there are different objectives available such as remaining alive for a certain period of time, being the first to complete an objective, or the like.
That the game is still played and receiving updates and patches 24 years after release is testimony to it being both simple to learn, but not necessarily to master. Especially with the option to play against friends and strangers online, where the choice of civilisation you start with and strategy you employ will have a big impact.
The other game is even simpler. It's called Netropolis 3. This is an old fashioned web browser game and begins with you having 50k credits and access to a variety of towns in different countries. From their you build from a limited range of properties available and look to build your business to a point where you control either enough of the map, or have enough funds, to 'Hero' the map, which is where all your assets are automatically sold, and the proceeds placed in your off-shore account.
It sounds simple and, in the starter maps it is. It becomes more difficult as you move up to the more expensive towns and cities, where there are large well established companies with very deep pockets and little desire to relinquish territory.
As you see from the screenshots below, graphics are basic:
this first screen shows you the full map. Tiles owned by you are in blue, opponents are in red although you can designate specific colours for other players so it's easy to avoid or find friends or enemies. black spaces are unclaimed. Grey tiles are roads and brown tiles tracks. tiles next to a road tend to earn more income per cycle.
zooming in on the map allows you to see in more detail what buildings are where, and it's from this screen you click to construct new buildings. If you think they look much the same, they are. there are only a handful of different property types, though some of them have different sub-options.
Overall I probably spend four or five hours a week on these games and I find that much better than the hours I could easily spend daily on a mobile game. I've deleted all games from my phone.
If anyone plays either game and wants to connect in game, or on Steam, message me.
text and images by stuartcturnbull