My Ten Favorite Science Fiction Games

From primitive man’s first attempts to understand the nature of the starry firmament above them, to the marvelous moment forty years ago when America succeeded in putting men on the moon, humanity has always been fascinated by outer space.  Not surprisingly, that universal impetus to get ‘out there’ and explore has often been manifested in gaming. 

Being a gamer of more than a few decades, I have had the pleasure in experiencing many a game designer’s vision of what a science fiction future might well bring.  From the sublime to the horrific, gaming has had more than a few memorable games.

Here are some of my all-time favorites:

10.  Defender

 Developed by Williams Electronics way back in 1980, Defender was a great side-scroller that put the player in the classic role of stopping an alien invasion.  Piloting a strikecraft armed with lasers and smartbombs, the player had to shoot down a variety of alien craft that went about a map abducting humans from the surface.   Helping him in his mission was a radar display at the top of the screen that increased the player’s situational awareness and helped him to prioritize his targets, something that was a neat innovation way back when.
 
Combat was fast and furious, with the player needing to rush here and there saving the unfortunate souls that were being lifted to oblivion by the many perfidious UFOs.   While this game suffered from the primitive graphics of the day, it is also one of those classic games that still managed to transcend its limitations and create an atmosphere of impending doom from above.  Defender proved that even alien invasions could be just too much fun.

9. Sundog: Frozen Legacy

I first came across this game back on the old Atari 1040ST, back in 1985, and instantly new that it was something special.  Produced by FTL Games, Sundog can best be described as one of the first science fiction RPGs.  The player stepped into the shoes of Zed, a former slave who inherited his dead uncle’s spaceship.  Needing to fulfill his uncle’s contractual agreement to help a fledgling colony get off the ground, the player sets out into a big star system with just a broken down ship and a few dollars in his pocket.
 
The game had two portions. The first was life on your new ship. The player was presented with a top-down cross section of Sundog in which he could maneuver with a simplistic avatar. Getting around was important because Sundog would need routine maintenance, requiring the replacement of parts that were damaged in battle or simply worn out. Because of this, Sun Dog really seemed to behave in the fashion of an actual ship rather than just a piece of eye candy like vessels in so many other games.

As the player warped from planet to planet, star system to star system, he would encounter other ships, from merchants to pirates. If I remember correctly, there were even occasional police ships for law and order and tow-ships that would bring the player back to a star port if he was adrift after being on the losing end of a battle.
 
What made Sun Dog different from other games, though, was the ground portion of the game. After landing at a planet’s star port, the player could detach his ship’s ground transport and drive through various cities.  Cities were presented in much the same fashion as SimCity, with a slightly skewed top-down perspective. These buildings weren’t just eye candy, but functioning establishments including fast food restaurants, motels, gun dealers, commodity exchanges and more! The player could park his vehicle (be sure to park legally, otherwise the player would find a wheel lock on the vehicle and a fine from the local cops!) and walk inside where he could watch other patrons go about their business and conduct his own, of course (nothing was so much fun as doing a business deal at the local burger joint!).
 
Considering Sundog was only a 16-bit game, the amount of adventure packed into such a small package was remarkable and will always have a fond place in this gamer’s heart.

8. Ogre

For reasons I’ve never been able to divine, science fiction games that deal with ground combat in a somewhat serious fashion have always been few and far between.  Strange.  Whatever the reason, to this very day the best ground combat game in a sci-fi setting remains Steve Jackson’s masterpiece, Ogre.  Originally a boardgame (one that continues to be avidly played since its first publication in 1977), Ogre was converted into a computer game by Origin Systems in 1986 and quickly developed a large group of fans.
 
The core gameplay revolves around the Ogre, a robotic super-tank bristling with all sorts of nasty weaponry.  While the Ogre was playable, the real fun was had by the commander of a mix of units comprised of infantry, tanks, and artillery, to name a few.  His mission:  stop the ever approaching Ogre from crushing the player’s base under its massive treads.  While the concept was simple, the gameplay, in a very chess-like fashion, was remarkably deep because of all the different tactics and strategies available to both the Ogre and the traditional forces.  Should the Ogre make a beeline for the enemy base or would it be better to destroy the opposing forces before they could fall back on the base and make a formidable last stand?  Should the opposing forces target the Ogre’s treads to get a mobility kill, or are the Ogre’s big, long range guns a better target?  These are just a thin sample of the tactical consideration inherent in this addictive game.

What really set the computer game apart from its boardgame counterpart was the unrelenting pacing.  Because the players were free from dice-rolls and CRT calculations, the gameplay flowed much better, even if the game remained turn-based.  To have a massive Mark III Ogre lumbering towards the player’s base as he desperately tried to hold the line is an experience that no Ogre fan has ever forgot.
 
When, oh when!, will this wonderful and popular game make a reappearance on the modern PC?

7.  Starfleet I:  The War Begins

Developed by Dr. Trevor Sorensen, this game could rightly be called the ultimate tribute to Star Trek (or in today’s parlance, a Paramount lawsuit waiting to happen). Developed in 1983, this program put you in command of your very own starship, tasked with patrolling the galaxy and looking for a fight with the Klingon-like enemies (their ships even had cloaking devices!).

What was so wonderful about this game was that, despite the complete lack of graphics, the game was so well designed you never missed them! The heart of the game was the smart maneuvering of a ship into combat, with the player needing to carefully manage his starship’s systems (phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, tractor beams, marines, mines) to overcome his wily opponents.  Sector terrain was important, as planetoids, star bases, and mines all served to channel combat. In many ways, the battles which occurred were very chess-like - victory was all about clever gambits and stratagems.

In the tradition of all great sims, damage control was decisive. It was here that the few graphics in the game were used to display a cross-section of the player’s ship with damage noted to each deck. Any would-be captain really needed to know how to prioritize DC, as a blown warp engine could spell death in short order. But while DC was both detailed and important, it was not complex; basically anyone who watched Star Trek would be able to get a handle on the situation. Like everything else about the game, it was handled with elegance.

On of the best parts of the game was when the player returned to base, proudly after a victorious patrol, or limping home in defeat. Once there, the player could refit and rearm his vessel, or if he arrived via escape pod, be assigned a new ship. Promotions and medals were handed out as well. The most interesting aspect was the ‘big board’ that tracked the progress of other warships in the fleet.  There always was something profoundly sad about watching a particular starship works its way up the list from rank amateur to proud veteran, and then, one day, discover that it had been destroyed with all hands.

In many ways, Starfleet I:  The War Begins had a depth that few modern starship simulators have even dreamt of exploring.

6.  M.U.L.E.

Definitely the lighter side of science fiction, this 1983 EA title (yes, that Electronic Arts) was all about colonizing an alien planet and what fun it was!

Allowing four players to compete head-to-head on the Atari 800, M.U.L.E. (short for Multiple Use Labor Element), pitted players against each other in a fierce, off-world business environment.  Each player would buy land and develop it to produce a specific resource (such as building solar collectors upon open plains to generate electricity).  At the end of each turn, the player could sell his resources for a profit.  The goal was simple:  be the most successful businessman when the colonial ship returned to evaluate the colony’s success.

What made M.U.L.E. such a great success was the wonderful way it made the players interact.  While it could be easy to be a ruthless entrepreneur, such as cornering the market on food and having your neighbors go begging, to do so would hurt the health of the entire colony and thus, make your overall performance suffer.  The trick was being just ruthless enough to be the wealthiest land baron, while ensuring a prosperous colony for all.  As such, the same sort of horse-trading often found in a game of Monopoly would often erupt in a game M.U.L.E., making it one of the best party games ever on a computer.

A second key to its success were the wild random events.  From meteor storms that could set back your Smithore production, to pirates that would land and clean out the town’s general store, you never knew what was going to happen in the next turn.  Did I mention the frequent Wampus hunts?  Just recalling that creature brings a smile back to my lips.

Modern game developers could learn a lot from M.U.L.E., particularly the fact that it is okay to have a science fiction game that stresses humor and cooperation along with competition.

5.  Space Invaders

Possibly the most iconic science fiction game of all time, Space Invaders has beamed itself into the hearts of millions of fans around the world, and in the process, has transformed from a game into an cultural phenomenon.  Brainchild of Toshihiro Nishikado, Space Invaders originally depicted enemy soldiers descending upon the player’s fort.  Fortunately, such a trite theme was judged to be politically incorrect so the enemy soldiers were switched out in favor of space invaders...and a classic was born.

Considering how spartan the game’s visual and audio elements are, Space Invaders is more than the sum of its parts.  In many ways, Nishikado created a minimalist masterpiece, from the instantly recognizable pixilated aliens that are just begging to be shot, to the hypnotic thrumming of the game’s sparse audio.  Even Space Invaders’ gameplay is remarkably simplistic:  rows of aliens steadily descend from the sky while a player-controlled mobile gun shoots them out of the sky and dodges alien fire behind defensive structures.  That’s it. 
 
Perhaps ‘less truly is more’ because as simplistic as the game is, people still cannot get enough of it.  Indeed, it is estimated that the various licensed incarnations of Space Invaders has generated well over $500 million dollars!

4.  Dawn of War

I think it is safe to say that Warhammer 40K creates some of the most fanatical devotees in all the world’s gaming.  There is just something special about Games Workshop’s grim, far future that sets its quite apart from any other science fiction universe, be it in or out of gaming. 

It is for that reason that when Relic announced that they had obtained the rights to convert this miniatures universe into a RTS game that its diehard fans were both overjoyed and frightened by the prospect.  After all, the history of computer gaming is littered with the bodies of classic franchises that were horribly butchered by ill-conceived conversions.  Heck, even 40K itself had more than a few mangled computer conversions over its long history.

Fortunately, Relic more than came through for the franchise’s many fans when it released Dawn of War back in 2004.   Being ever respectful of the game’s intricate backstory, Dawn of War managed to incorporate a lot of the mythos of 40K’s races, along with its dark humor.   From heavily armored Space Marines crying “For the emperor!” as they rushed into battle, to the cockney British accents of the overgrown pig-like Orks, Dawn of War nailed most of the important artistic flourishes that made the franchise so distinctive.

Best of all, the gameplay was quite fun as well.  Tweaking the standard gameplay of a base-building RTS, Dawn of War gave gamers all the wild and bloody over-the-top battles that are the hallmark of the franchise.  While purists of the original miniatures version had some correct quibbles, for the most part Dawn of War became a fitting tribute to a thoroughly distinctive game.

3.  X-COM:  UFO Defense

Genius.  That is the only word that comes to mind when thinking about this 1994 sci-fi tactical wargame from Julian Gollop. 

X-COM is about saving the earth from an ever more aggressive invasion by aliens, from the initial ‘Greys’, to more advanced types that were something out of a nightmare.  The player was put in charge of an international organization that was responsible for recruiting soldiers, shooting down UFOs, researching the recovered alien technology and, ultimately, obliterating the alien threat with a strike at their base on Mars. 

There were two things that set X-COM apart.  First, we have the tactical portion of the game.  Whenever an alien craft was successfully shot down, the player would rush off with a rapid reaction squad that would hunt down the bug-eyed monsters with all sorts of weaponry.  The battles that resulted would often keep the player on the edge of his seat, as the game’s AI was respectable and required the player to use sharp squad-level tactics to take down the beasties and their advanced technology and mind-control tricks. 

The second component was the unmatched atmosphere.  We’ve all played plenty of games where we needed to kill our fair share of aliens, but there hasn’t been a single game since X-COM that made it such a creepy experience.  In many ways, X-COM was the gaming equivalent of Orson Wells’ panic-inducing War of the Worlds radio broadcast.  To enter a small Midwestern town - at night, no less - and explore a UFO crash scene (sometimes including surrounding wheat fields and darkened homes that were abandoned in haste) was a jumping-at-shadows experience that still sends a chill up my spine!

In many ways, X-COM was the world’s first sci-fi horror gaming title, and one that I believe has yet to be matched.

2.  Sins of a Solar Empire

While chess might have been the first computer game (not Pong as many believe), I suspect a spaced-based 4X game was probably the second.  4X sci-fi games – eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate – have always been popular, I guess simply for no other reason that conquering the galaxy is the ultimate power trip.  Whatever the reason, there have been more than a few 4X games that have developed an almost cult-like following.
 
The most recent entry to this genre is IronClad’s Sins of a Solar Empire, the surprise hit of 2008.  While past 4X games have stuck to the tried and true approach of turn-based conquest, Sins unflinchingly paved a new path by doing the impossible:  setting a massively scaled stellar conquest game in a real-time strategy environment.  Incredibly, it worked…and brilliantly.  Unlike other 4X games that are built around turns, Sins flows without any pauses, creating a thoroughly immersive gaming experience unlike any other 4X game.
 
The secret to Sins’ success is its interface.  Incorporating an ‘epic zoom’ function, Sins allows the player to effortless zoom out to see the entire breadth of his domain and just as easily zoom in until a single ship occupies the center of his screen.  In addition to this, there are a host of other clever UI ideas that convey the status of the player’s empire with a mere glance of the eye or a click of a mouse, alleviating any need to pause the game for a sitrep.
  
The icing on the cake is the spectacular battles, some which can involve hundreds of vessels.  Taking place in real-time, these clashes of capital ship and cruiser unfold with all the action of a summer blockbuster movie.  Best of all, unlike many contemporary games, Sins will not break the back of the average PC with all this graphical glitz.
 
With one great expansion under the belt (Entrenchment), a diplomatic expansion on the way and possibly a third expansion after that, Sins is poised to remain the king of the 4X genre for the foreseeable future.

1.  EvE Online

Quite simply, there is NOTHING that can match the science fiction epic that is EvE Online.  An ever-evolving work of genius by the Icelandic folks of CCP, EvE is the definitive science fiction experience of all time.  Bringing together well over 200,000 people from the around the world, EvE is what happens when a company is smart enough to create a detailed sandbox galaxy and allow the players to make their own game out of it.

And what a game it is!  The galaxy in EvE is nearly as big – and deep – as the real thing.  Players are free to choose to pursue just about any profession they can conceive of, from miner to mercenary, amassing wealth and power as they go along.  While players can never leave their ships (at the moment anyway – stand by for ‘ambulation’ in the future), that is not too much of a limitation as there is more than enough to do to keep the player’s butt firmly ensconced in the cockpit.   Running solo missions, banding together with others to form massive corporations, or signing up for the militia are just a few of the more structured ways of getting in on the action.
 
Being a ship-based game, there are plenty of ship classes along with a ton of ways to configure them, from shields to sensors.  Indeed, as a ship is the player’s avatar, the average EvE player takes a great deal of pride in how he outfits his vessel, something that adds a remarkable amount of passion to the game’s community.  Of course, a ship's configuration is more than being just about bragging rights, it is also about survival as this game has a very detailed, very unforgiving combat model.
   
While it has a very steep learning curve with a vast player skill tree that takes many, many hours to climb, this is definitely a game that well rewards any player who is willing to invest the time.  There is simply nothing that brings a science fiction future to awe-inspiring, thoroughly immersive life like a session of EvE Online.