History of Hungarian PC games, Part 2

We have already discussed the successes of Hungarian PC game developers in the ’90s and the early 2000s. Now let us take a look at five games from the more recent times. Strategy fans will be the most pleased with this list.

Haegemonia: Legions of Iron (2003)

Another space strategy by Digital Reality after Imperium Galactica II. This time, the player is involved in the intergalactic conflict between Earth and Martian colonists, which the player has to solve on either side. As the game progresses, these two human factions will be accompanied by some alien civilizations as well. Haegemonia is a much more complex game than it first seems: players can manage their economy by taxing smaller planets, terraforming newly discovered worlds, steal from the enemy and engage in climactic spaceship battles. The fully 3D interface might seem confusing at first glance, but the monumental atmosphere affects anyone interested in space travel.

Armies of Exigo (2004)

Andy Vajna’s Blackhole Entertainment development team was one of the most promising enterprises in Hungarian PC game industry. Armies of Exigo is a great proof of that. This fantasy RTS strategy game – depicting the conflict of the human-elven-gnomish Empire, the savage Beastmen and the otherworldly Fallen – received much inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment’s best-selling games, Warcraft III and Starcraft, but it also improved their concepts in multiple ways. These improvements include multi-levelled maps, complex tactical tricks and three well-balanced races, not to mention the stunning visuals. Unfortunately, the game had a quite poor marketing and it was released at the same time as the long-awaited Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth, which hindered its sales, but Exigo still managed to gain a cult status among RTS fans.

Codename: Panzers series (2004-2009)

Another tank war game by S.W.I.N.E.’s Stormregion, but this time they moved to a more realistic topic: World War II. The Codename: Panzers series is a trilogy: Phase One was released in 2004 and followed the major tank battles between Germans, Soviets and the Western Allies; Phase Two followed a year later and added Italians and Yugoslavian partisans to the palette; and finally, Cold War was released in 2009, jumping several years in time and depicting the conflicts between NATO and the Soviet Union. These three games are currently holding the best ratings on critical forums like Metacritic that Hungarian PC games have ever reached.