The Stronghold Within

The best genre of game, out of all of them, but it is so hard to find it!

My favorite genre of games, regardless of whether it’s Action, Adventure, RPG, MMO, Casual, Farming, Strategy, or even Metroidvania, for me those words are secondary, just something I can do while I focus on the main part of the game, the base building and management.

There are a couple of titles that are personal highlights, where with those games, I could achieve something terribly difficult for my personality, I’ve played them several times. Some titles I replayed immediately after finishing the main campaign, while others that were a bit more mentally demanding I needed to take a long break before attempting them again. But this replay factor is something very difficult for me. If there’s no surprise, if I know what happens next, or if it becomes too repetitive (not grind-like repetitive, that’s different and I actually like a well-done grind, it’s hard to explain this other type of repetitiveness), but I don’t rewatch movies or series, I don’t reread books, and I don’t replay games, not even a “new game+”, once the credits roll up i’m done, can’t even go back to finish some sidequest or something. Playing a game twice and enjoying it the second time is very challenging for me, but there are a few titles throughout the years that accomplished it, true replayability.

And a while ago, out of nowhere, I reflected upon the previously unanswered question: “What kind of games do I like?” An important question for someone that can’t go a week outside the digital-fantastic-scifi-world. After some thought, putting together my favorite games and identifying what made me like them so much, to the point of replaying them over and over throughout the years, I came to a conclusion that I like Base Building and Management, regardless of the “main” game genre.

Starting with Fire Emblem, and within this franchise starting with Awakening, and pun intended, the game that awakened me to tactical/strategy games. My first step into this great franchise and also into the strategy world. But there are plenty of strategy games out there, and I tried most of them, after Fire Emblem Awakening I was hooked, I wanted to try all that I missed and everything new in strategy. I tried Final Fantasy, Tactics Ogre, Banner Saga, Triangle Strategy, and plenty of others with a similar tactical approach. However, although some of them had high scores and positive reviews everywhere, for me they were just ok-ish. I enjoyed them while playing, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, and in most of them, somewhere after the halfway point, I was rushing to finish the campaign. They aren’t bad games, they just didn’t have that thing which for many is an extra, but for me is the main part, the base building.

Fire Emblem Awakening for me was more about base and relationship building than the tactical chess-style combat. Of course, the combat was nice and I spent hours grinding my way through impossible challenges, but the combination of spending half my time in intense combat and half of it relaxing while improving my base and army was just perfect. Even though I finished the game with most items and relationships maxed out, I immediately started another campaign as soon as I finished it the first time. And I repeated it again some years later, a few times. Even though I played the sequels and enjoyed them, Awakening is still the best for me, because the other titles in the franchise focused a bit more on combat and a bit less on the base and relationships, or like Fates and Three Houses that focused so much in the story that they forgot the other elements of the game (and even the story on both games is kind of cliché).

XCOM, another milestone for me. I started with Enemy Unknown, and again pun intended, because this franchise was completely unknown to me. I didn’t even buy the game directly, it came in a Humble Bundle (back when Humble Bundle was good). After a few months sitting in my backlog I decided to try it, since nothing else new was left for me to play. And I regret not starting it sooner, or not knowing about it sooner, it was marvelous, a mind blowing gaming experience. Exact what I wanted. The whole focus of the game is improving your base, and the combat missions felt like just excursions to gather materials and intel.

I loved XCOM so much that I immediately started another campaign as soon as I finished it the first time. However, the second run wasn’t as pleasant because with the knowledge I had gained as a player, I unlocked and completed the entire base of operations way before finishing the main story, and with only combat left it became boring. Still, I loved that Firaxis tried to keep the same vibe in the sequels, and you bet I played them all as soon as I could.

Mass Effect. Although there is very little base building in these games, the feeling is still there, the Normandy upgrades, the War Assets, the crew relationships. It all made the experience so much more enjoyable for me. I had avoided these games for years because I don’t do shooters. I remember that I even tried the Mass Effect 2 demo back on PS3, but it was just lasers and shooting, just “meh“. But when I eventually got Mass Effect 1, I don’t even remember how, probably in another package or sale, but I was again hooked. The whole space opera, the crew building, and even those small specs of base-building made it click just right.

People say Mass Effect 1’s space exploration is terrible, but I enjoyed mining planets more than killing aliens, and the story, such a great story for a game, so well written, so much so that I even bought the books (and even read them! And liked them!!). The Mass Effect Franchise (1, 2, 3), is one of my top games of all time. Every once in a while I replay the whole trilogy, always attempting a “Renegade” path and failing miserably.

Fallout 4, another great and popular game, and again a shooter, but this one with a twist because depending on your play style it can feel more like a turn-based shooter than an action shooter. It’s also on my list of top games of all time (a bit further down, but still). What fascinated me wasn’t even the story, although the story is so good, so complete, so complex it even became a TV series. What stuck with me was something that is commonly hated or ignored by the Fallout fans, the base building and trading routes.

I spent days, weeks, just building fortresses, putting walls, weapons, and traps to secure my settlements, making better houses no one would use, trying to make everything more secure, efficient, and prettier. Once a settlement was done, I immediately started the next. My goal in Fallout 4 wasn’t to beat the game, or join the Brotherhood, or kill robots. My goal was to build every single available settlement, make them stronger and interconnected. Anytime I left a settlement, it was with one objective, to gather resources. I don’t even remember if I finished the story, but Steam says I played for around 200 hours and I know the real number is at least double, because I played for weeks before even owning it on Steam.

It is difficult to find AAA games with strong base-building experiences, but fortunately the indie scene came to my rescue. Tons of games where, even if base building isn’t the main focus, it is still a big part of the experience. They aren’t on my top list because many lacked polish or depth in gameplay and mechanics, but I enjoyed every single minute of them, games like Moonlighter, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, My Time at Portia and My time at Sandrock (awesome games, maybe I’ll replay Portia some day), Valheim, Cult of the Lamb, The Wandering Village. All excellent games, all from different genres between them but all with some base-building focus that is just perfect for me. I wish the AAA industry did more of this, but I guess only shooters sell.

Well, while I wait for the next big game with some base building in it, I’ll go back to play Cities Skylines for the hundredth time. After all, what better base-building game than one where the only point, the only objective, is to build your city?