And, after others have done their sales, it’s time for GOG and its collection of DRM-free games to have a go.
For the ones who don’t know, DRM-free games are games that don’t impose restrictions on their use. They don’t impose limits to how or where you play them, and usually don’t require a third-party tool to run. DRM-free games are more flexible and give you more freedom without the need for serials, installation activation, online verification or other enforced restrictions. Of course, copyright rules still apply and it is assumed that you don’t pirate the games, of course.
So, what does GOG has to offer on the realm of space-based, science-fiction themed and great strategy gaming?
Here’s our list. The must-buy ones are the first three :) Unfortunately we don’t have reviews for the rest. So, at least check GOG’s rating before buying. Warning: Some of these titles are quite retro. Enjoy!
Highly Recommended:
- FTL: Faster Than Light (9.5/10) [Review] (25% – $7.49)
- Master of Orion 1+2 (8.9/10) [Review for 2] (50% – $2.99)
- Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (50% – $2.99). One of the best sci-fi strategy games ever!
Other Space and Sci-Fi strategy deals (all 50% off):
- Space Colony HD ($4.99)
- Moonbase Commander ($2.99)
- Total Annihilation: Commander Pack ($2.99)
- Star Control 1+2 ($2.99)
- Star Control 3 ($2.99)
- Earth 2140: Trilogy ($2.99)
- Earth 2150: Trilogy ($2.99)
- Earth 2160 ($2.99)
- Haegemonia: Gold Edition ($4.99)
- Star Wolves ($4.99)
- UFO: Aftermath ($2.99)
- UFO: Aftershock ($4.99)
- UFO: Afterlight ($4.99)
- Startopia ($2.99)
- Dark Reign + Expansion $4.99)
- Dark Reign 2 ($2.99)
- Nexus: The Jupiter Incident ($4.99)
- Fallout Tactics ($4.99)
- Master of Orion 3 ($4.99)
- Battle Isle: Platinum ($4.99)
- Ground Control + Expansion ($2.99)
- Ground Control 2: Special Edition ($2.99)
Other Space and Sci-Fi non-strategy deals (all 50% off):
- Freespace + Expansion ($2.99)
- Freespace 2 ($4.99)
- Descent 1+2 ($4.99)
- Descent 3 ($4.99)
- Wing Commander 1+2 ($2.99)
- Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger ($2.99)
- Wing Commander 4: The Price of Freedom ($2.99)
- Wing Commander: Privateer ($2.99)
- Space Quest 1+2+3 ($4.99)
- Space Quest 4+5+6 ($4.99)
- Starflight 1+2 ($2.99)
Other great strategy (all 50% off):
- Heroes of Might & Magic ($4.99) <- Oh, the memories… :)
- Heroes of Might & Magic II: Gold Edition ($4.99)
- Heroes of Might & Magic III: Complete Edition ($4.99)
- Pharaoh + Cleopatra ($4.99)
- Zeus + Poseidon ($4.99) <- Among the best city-building strategy ever made.
- Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard’s Throne ($4.99)
- Sid Meier’s Colonization ($2.99) Retro, but so good!
- Jagged Alliance 2 ($4.99) <- Very good if you like X-COM.
These deals are included in the GOG Holiday sale which has almost all of GOG’s game catalogue at 50% off during the holiday season. The sales end on January 3rd 2013. Note that some promotions may end sooner.
\Edit: GOG is offering special deals each day in which they discount games even further (75% or so). To ensure you receive the maximum discount, you might want to wait until the game you’re interested in becomes available as a daily deal, or then buy it before Jan 3rd. Thanks Bryan!
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Similar to the big Steam sales, GOG is offering special deals each day in which they discount games even further (75% or so). To ensure you receive the maximum discount, you might want to wait until the game you’re interested in becomes available as a daily deal. If it never does, then on the last day of the sale (January 3rd), you can still grab the game at its less-steep discount (50% off for most games).
Thanks for your useful reminder Bryan. Always learning ;)
FTL is now 50% off as part of today’s daily deal. I grabbed it, been meaning to get it, and at that price, might as well!
It’s a pretty fun game, though a little lacking in longevity IMO. Think I put 20 hours or so into it. More than worth the price, even though I paid more for it as a Kickstarter backer than the game was actually sold for on release. :)
I really enjoyed FTL, particularly the early stages of the game, but the end game was just horrible. I wish they had thought of a better way to end it than that.
I kind of regret buying FTL, I mean its a fun game but I am a bit worried that it is too short. Replayability is pretty important for me and that is why I have an uber backlog
They also have Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, which is the last update of the game. It’s the only one I’ve played, so I’m not terribly sure how it compares with the first two. Usually, most people cite Shadow Magic as the best.
Warning: GOG has Alpha Centauri but not the expansion Alien Crossfire. Alien Crossfire was a pretty big update to the game. It was almost a sequel, really. However, because of that, Alpha Centauri can still be seen as it’s own product. Stlll lame though.
Doh, was hoping that was included when I bought it. Hopefully they’ll get that in the store soon since I just bought AC. Oh well, I think I have the CD around for both of them somewhere.
I found that the balancing in Crossfire was pretty bad, some factions did not even make any sense. For some reason I prefer the original game, it’s such a gem. I played it tons of hours, thanks to GoG it works flawlessy on my pc.
Yeah, the alien factions are WAY overpowered, still very fun to play though, particularly on higher difficulty settings.
It’s even fun to play against them because they’re always so powerful you often have to enter into alliances with other factions that you would normally not consider in order to take them down. Not sure if that was a design decision or not.
Yeah, I was trying to tap into that argument with the “Alpha Centauri can still be seen as it’s own product” statement. Still, I think SMAX is fun in its own right, and it’s sad that it doesn’t come with it.
Shadow Magic is definitely the best of the series, even though I liked the AoW2 campaign better. For one thing it’s a bit prettier, for another there are some new factions, but above all, it has a fantastic 4X sandbox game generator.
Speaking of AoW, I had hoped that Stardock’s Fallen Enchantress would be the AoW killer. Although Fallen Enchantress is mostly good, I still give the nod to AoW2/SM.
I think Fallen Enchantress could end up being insanely awesome. Keep in mind, in the grand scheme, it’s still a very new product. 4x games tend to age like wine, with patches, expansions, and mods. Compare release Civ 4 or Europa Universalis III or GalCiv II with the final products.
I’ve already enjoyed FE more than Warlock and Endless Space combined. At least it feels like it has some weight to it.
One thing I think AoWSM clearly did better was tactical combat. Still, FE’s isn’t as bad as I expected. From the complaints I was hearing, I expected a brainless, tedious experience. Instead, I actually find myself having to think things out, at least to some extent.
Just a quick update – GOG have updated a few EA games to include their expansions (Alpha Centauri, Wing Commander 1 and 2, Privateer) so anyone who’s bought them should have access to new installers with the expansions.
See http://www.gog.com/news/holiday_update_ea_expansions for full details.
another game on GOG I’d to recommend is eador genesis, a fantasy TB 4x strategy game by a russian indie developer. A mix of AOW, HOMM and Civilization, very deep epic gameplay.
There’s actually a reboot or sequel or whatever coming to Eador soon, which is why they attached the Genesis subtitle and translated it. It’s called “Masters of the Broken World” (I think it was original Eador: MotBW, and it still might be that in other territories); it’s from the same people (at least the same core people); and it looks cool.
Man, I wish it was on sale. I’d love to try it, but I don’t have much money and I already have 10,000,000,000 games I’m currently playing.
For the love of god! its only for 5.99!! you better go get it sale or not. I have to say that it is a very very great game and I got it for 4.79 during its release. I tried to sign up to MoTBW beta and still waiting for their email.
mate please do yourself a favor, sacrifice $6 in order to play this game. Its just so darn diddly great and too good to be true. I really worship HoMM3 and I could say that only eador could stand toe to toe with it.
Please buy it! Buy it now!
On one hand, you’re right, but I just started Fallen Enchantress and King of Dragon Pass, and I have yet to even play XCom and Civ 5 + expansion (I just got the expansion and XCom over Black Friday). I’m also playing Borderlands 2 (I want to at least beat it once), and I’m reading ‘Wise Man’s Fear’ by Rothfuss. I’ll get to Eador eventually (especially with the absolutely glowing words I’m seeing here), but I don’t have the space or the money for it right now. 6 bucks is little, but, when you’re low on money, you can’t spend 6 bucks on something you can’t possibly use yet…
Same situation. Football manager 2013, Xcom, Civ 5 plus GnK, Eador, Borderlands 2 (stuck at the part when the sanctuary teleported and my progress was hindered at that time due to the release of torchlight 2 and that is not including the DLCs since I got a season pass), FTL (bought at the last minute of the deal), Populous 2, Got the map pack for FE, I recently got the RPG maker vx ace and I am trying to create an RPG and a long list of backlog that stretches back since I got a job 3 years ago.
As of the moment I am chipping away King’s Bounty warriors of the north and play Eador after a quest or 2.
Hey Salvo!
Do you have eador? I was wondering if you got the event where you could throw a rock on the lake and lived to tell the tale ? ;) Lol
Yeah eador is just so darn great. its too good to be true. I thought its one of the games on GOG that I will just ignore after buying but now Im hooked. its like one of those times you wish they would combine the best of Civ,MoM and HoMM and they did and that is eador
yeah, I have been playing it a few days now. It’s really an indie jewel. Unfortunately there is no manual available yet, so I’ve changed now to the easiest difficulty level to learn the game. I really like what I’ve seen so far, though the game is unforgiving, even on the lower difficulty levels (I’ve started on skilled, which may have been too much), since you’are not allowed to save :-)
Btw, I haven’t gone into the campaign very far, as after having learned the basics I decided to try a random map
Wow, you really are brave! I played since it released on gog and I played it in beginner. The AI is ruthless in beginner because I noticed that it usually targets your core units first before your summoned units. As for singleplayer, its only a single shard and only in campaign where you invade multiple shards and try to unite the world though the shards and what they contain are random.
I am not someone who should say this since I am not that good but here are some tips based on what I have encountered:
– Be wary of your unit’s alignment and your actions. Using Necro and Chaos magic (Summon imp and raise skeletons) would incur you a morale penalty if your party is composed of lawful/good units (e.g Pikemen,crossbowmen,healer,etc.)
– Evil units would tolerate evil actions but mostly have a catch like you lose 15% of the loot after a battle or the province where you have a bandit would lose 10% of tax
– Dont rush things and please use the take a step back button while learning stuff (it only affects your final score and while learning the game you wont mind about your score)
– Make sure to read what your hero says before entering a battle like when he says the enemy is doomed or you will get crushed and use it as a guide whether you will fight or run away.
– Don’t follow your hero’s advice about the battle all the time. There are times that he says you could easily defeat an enemy but your enemies have some abilities that could make your life a living hell and would make the battle pretty hard unless you know what you are doing.
– always make sure your capital is guarded and garrisoned( guards for the region and garrisons for the castle) because you wont know when the enemy might decide to attack it and in case of surprise events like the inquisition deciding to turn your province into their holy land.
– Take note that you could only build 4 kinds of spell schools/troop recruitment/ and item shops in your capital and their upgrade(s) so choose your combinations carefully (not sure if you could delete buildings in the capital)
– Please make sure to explore your province 100% before leaving to conquer other provinces as this could net you +2 income and would eliminate the problem of having to reexplore it again once your province population rises and needs more explored space to expand.
Those are a few tips for now and feel free to pm me on the forums if you need more help/tips and I will try to help you to the best of my abilities
thank you very much for your tips
The lack of a manual and no saving option (though that’s one of the features which make this game so compelling) can lead to some frustration, especially for beginners – I’ve restarted several times after having being trashed by supposedly weak opponents (an ogre in Eador is not like an ogre in FE :-))
Anyway. together with Dominions 3 one of the classic fantasy 4x strategy games available. I’m looking forward to the sequel coming out next year
Its not a sequel but a remake of the game and they say it is basically the same game with better graphics and richer plot progressions so probably some more new events. Its pretty hard to get information right now because their site is russian but they have this little board on english.
The game is pretty easy to learn as long as you play the campaign and do the first shard. As for the rest, like being wise enough to avoid centaurs, trolls and ogre, is something you can learn as you go. Also keep in mind that provinces could only hold 3 buildings so make sure to choose what you build for each province. Also not all provinces need have to be guarded so make sure you only hire guards to the vital provinces (like ones that hold resources) and build outposts(which will be upgraded to forts later) on these vital provinces. I got annoyed playing tug-of-war with the AI so I kind of set a border and made sure to build an outpost on those provinces.
Also keep an eye on guard contracts and be careful in using them. Some have negative effects like it would anger the population. I just got a troll guard contract (heck trolls are pretty strong because I think they regenerate health) and I am still trying to think of a province where to place them (probably a choke point if I could find one).
oops, thanks, didn’t know that the each province is limited to 3 new buildings, I had automatically added every one becoming available
I think I had better play through the campaign (at least the first shard as you say) before turning to the random maps
The income buildings are the first thing I build in the provinces (Mill for plains, Sawmill for forest, and mine for hills) then I will see if it will face any immediate threats (province near the borders of opponents) and build an outpost then hire guards. If not then I usually build a granary then either a store (if I want a province that is close by to do my hero repairs and it also adds additional income), Library (when I think I need a spell change), or a pub (if happiness is low and I welcome the added income).
From what I understood, the way things work in campaign is that each shard has a particular blueprint which you could unlock and use in the next shard so rather than researching techs, you choose which shards to conquer depending on which buildings you want. As for Singleplayer, it is only a single shard and the game ends when you conquer all your enemies. So far I haven’t finished a shard in the campaign other than the tutorial one (Its either I suck so bad at this game or the AI on beginner is just so good!!) I currently have a tiny shard which I played for 3 nights now and I haven’t even conquered most or half of it. KB warriors of the north is sort of tempting me as of the moment, I mean I hated KB before but I sort of fell in love with warriors of the north (must be because of the vikings and valkyries)
UFO: Afterlight for $5? At that price it is a steal. It was actually one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year. Highly recommended. I would also add that even though it’s a 4-5 year old game, the graphics are very appealing and hold up rather well, to say nothing of the great hybrid RTS/TB/RPG gameplay.
The original Ground Control plus expansion for $3? I loved this game back in the day and thought it was a work of art. I also loved the veteran voice actress Jennifer Hale (Bastilla Shan from KOTOR) doing the main character Major Sarah Parker. The trouble was, as I recall you could not do in-mission saves, which was very frustrating and kept me from completing the game. Maybe they fixed this with the expansion? At any rate I may have to give this one another try. Like UFO Afterlight, I thought the original Ground Control was a very underrated game.
Adam, thanks for the head’s up.
Dont forget King’s Bounty! I was a bit reluctant to play it but I fell in love with the latest game Warriors of the North. I think its because I love vikings and I almost dated one.LOL
Managed to get a hold of Populous 2 yesterday when it was only for $2.99
Cheers for the update Adam, I have now re-purchased some gems I’ve not played in many moons.
i m wondering, anyone else with payment errors? ‘payment declined’ notice by the website, my bank has transferred the money..anyway, hope support will figure it out.