For me it's the GOAT. So underrated. As czech a have to thank to our polish brothers, they keep the game alive still to this day. New patches, fixes, balance changes and even multi-player. Still worth playing. And sadly still waiting for expansion and posibble the owar 2
Got this from a Humble Bundle back in the day and launched it on a whim ine day and was hooked. The music and slow meticulous gameplay is what sets it apart.
allways found the realistic grass system fascinating. You start with tall grass, if you walk over it, it will lie down and after some time rise back up. But, if you walk over it for too long, it will turn into dirt.
One of my all time favorites! I really love the fact, that every unit is an actual unique and unreplaceable individuum and that instead of spawning new units you have to retrain your existing ones for what ever different task you need. And the setting is also very fascinating to me and I would really love to see more of it.
One of very few rare examples where time travel was made good and not a justification for bad writing... also Spellcross from the creators of (in)famous John Chaser game
It helps that it's one-way trip, and you don't really see it influence the future (beyond the different circumstances between the USA and Russian campaign backstories). The EON could've been a stargate, the entire thing could be set on a different planet, and it would work exactly the same, the time travel aspect doesn't really matter. It's just a reason why the expedition is isolated and reliant on limited resources.
Grew up with this game. Was pretty neat. Hard as hell. Didn’t think much of it for years until recently, when I replayed it - and oh boy. Being older and understanding English made me realise how much more of this I want, and how sad I am that there is nothing else like it. Delightful, yet hard game. Very in the spirits of late 90s sci-fi.
to clarify, this game is a total classic for a certain generation here in Czechia due to the great graphics, the iconic Czech dubbing ("MacMillaneeeee!"), the cool story and the original gameplay... ahh the memories... is that a tear in my eye??
hi, i do speedruns & multiplayer games in original war you can disable the automatic pause on dialogues in settings also, its possible to skip dialogues altogether by pressing enter or backspace
Loved Original War, I remember some Croatian game magazine giving it abysmal score, but review itself didnt made it sound that bad, and whole premise intrigued me so much I had to get it myself and it turned out to be one of my favorite RTS. Only game I got because of low review score.
I've been curious about this game for a while. I wasn't aware of this at the time, only finding it late on steam. It's only my wishlist and look at it when there is a sale on and even with good discounts I haven't taken the last plunge. Have a great Christmas and New Year.
Thanks for being here, Zade. As far as I know, you're the best RTS online person rn! Please keep doing whatever you want to do, I'm here for it! Love your focus on both nostalgia and new releases!
Oh how I do appreciate you covering this unsung gem of its time, as a mega fan back from when it appeared on a demo disc! Big thanks from me As you mentioned, treating it more as Real Time Tactics game in the vein of Commandos and Desperados will make its diversions from traditional RTS design more appealing. Frankly the resource and base building also has more in common with colony management. There is no such thing as booming your economy and winning by attrition. My personal pro tips: No matter what your preference is, birth year or whenever you got into games - this game’s campaign SHOULD be played at 4:3, black bars be damned. The mission maps are positively TINY by any metric and your sense of discovery and intimacy with your squad will diminish dramatically when playing in widescreen. The game is simply not designed, in any possible timeline or future, to have that much screen space estate. And in relation to this more micro focused navigation; Take the time to read the in-mission provided tips - use space bar to pause and alt key to move units in formation in bigger battles to alleviate frustration, as vehicles almost universally has to obey strict laws of aligning their wheels and armament to be used effectively. Respect and use the terrain. The game rarely allows for death ball approaches. Feel free to ask for any other adaptations if you’re struggling with parsing what Original War wants to teach the player, I’d be happy to share the knowledge I have 😊
Very good game and bit of a hidden gem. Has a completely unique art style, music, great story, comedy and it's also quite challenging. You are right that it's not your typical meat grinder RTS.
I picked this up as a kid, could never beat it. Have some memories of finally finishing it at some point, but I probably found some way to cheat, or found a good walkthrough, was quite difficult! Music is certainly surprisingly good too.
Original War was as the name of the game says quite an original and interesting game, a mix of RTS and RPG I also recommend you to check out an equally great but forgotten RTS, at least in the West, which was Earth 2150 It's sad that there are so many great games that are forgotten and never got the attention they should have. Before the Witcher series came out, I remember that in Poland Earth 2150 was treated as a flagship product when it comes to Polish game development.
If you're interested in old euro strategy games, I'd love to hear your opinion on 1821: The struggle for freedom, a game by greek devs about the Greek war of independence made in the 2000s. It's a surprisingly deep turn based game, if a bit junky here and there and it's really hard to beat as well. It's now offered for free at the devs website in both Greek and English.
Man, I need to get this game running again, never beat it but I own the gog version. It just became so slow and the final mission for anyone but the allies has you constantly lose people to tranquillisers and mind control.
Have you ever heard of the RTS Achron? It has a very unique time traveling system. You can look back and forward in realtime and give orders to your units. For instance, destroy your enemies unit producing building (like a war factory) in the past, any units made from that will disapear in the present/future since the factory was never made.
I found this game quite late, from a game magazine who offered a dvd with 20 og games, one was Original War. Simply amazing, story, gameplay, world building, ect. For me, having some time to chill in the mission and plan/build/micro/macro manage feels awesome, for you as you said, it feels slow and boring. There are also decisions and character who can play a role in the future campaign, if you keep them alive. The multiplayer though, i am sad i missed at it's peak, the strategems you could do, especially with arab faction. My most favorite is the "fake supply trap" when you put few crates on the map, mine them and wait for enemy truck to grab them or the fact you can enhance explosions with fuel barrels or siberite/aleskite (albeit, that would be kinda waste).
My perspective as a veteran player ... The more I play it, the more I see the problems and limits of this game. It appears as a complex gme with numerous decisions, but the replayability is very low. Most of the time, there is only one way to win a mission, not offering any room for experimentation or creative approaches. The decisions don't have any real impact, and it's obvious which ones are the good/correct ones. The people are unique only for their faces and voice lines, but playing it for the hundred times, I treat the people only by their stats, seeing them merely as another generic units. Albeit the active community is very dedicated, it's really just the most entranced ones that happen not to be bored by this game after two decades. Plus, the community is lacking a certain perspective, because when they write a very positive review of this game, there are new players that get hooked by it, only to end up disappointed, usually due to the nicheness. You're not the only one not being invested in it. I've heard some streamers and tubers who straight up said it bored them. Another fun fact, despite Bohemia Interactive charging a price for this game, the community support and the community server runner (the only one for the multiplayer) get nothing from it.
Got this game years ago on disk because of the cover. I replay it once every few years when I get the itch to go back and enjoy the nostalgia of it all. I agree that it can be very slow at times and the game is clearly unfinished in places.
To me they story boarded this thing and asked 'and therfore' or this happens 'but'. They clearly did not do , 'and then'. The experience of playing a throroughly thought thru story
Hello from CzechRepublic. The game here was not much advertised. Atleast not in that fashion of "new game with CZECH voicing" whitch was rare at the time and very attractive to czech players. This was not the game we waited to came out, simply because we didnt know. Later that year I stumbled over cracked copy and fell in love... happily ever after, yada yada.
I think the unique concept would couple well with modern day rts mechanics but i also sadly never made it through the first mission. The game felt clumsy to control and super unforgiving.
Hey Zade, I don't know if I missed a video or announcement somewhere but, are you still going to finish Starcraft? Or have you decided not to make a starcraft review?
Except I have, and I absolutely love it, a very unique game, absolutely adore it, it might not be the best in any category, but it is damn sure one of the most unique games in the genre. It's up there with Battlezone as impactful games of my youth.
If it weren't for the thumbnail I wouldn't have realized that I actually own this game xD I don't remember anything about it other than the artwork of the guy.
To me this is the best strategy game. And who know what came first if love for RTS or love for Original war. I could say that you have problem with this game because you are looser (joke) but i would 100% be too. However i did play this game when it was newly released (and bought it 5 times, and finished like +40times) So i know almost every unit´s location on the map, and cant remember how hard it was for me to play it. The main difference from other RTS is that here each unit is like a "resource", strongly indispensable and therefore one has to concentrate hard on the micro. (its not like in AOE2 when you loose a villager you can calculate how many resources of worth was it) PS: if I do remember it right. Its Original War because of word "Origin"
So, another game which has nothing interested to justify playing it today. It has nice setting and some ideas, but they never work up to something good and it is more like trying out a concept. There is plenty of that. A lot of games from back then are like that and people are full of nostalgia how good they actually are.
This doesn't seem that original when Red alert exists (time travel + macGuffin resource ending in "ium"). The units also look fairly generic, but maybe I'm missing something, I only remember seeing the name and cover art at the time
For me it's the GOAT. So underrated. As czech a have to thank to our polish brothers, they keep the game alive still to this day. New patches, fixes, balance changes and even multi-player. Still worth playing. And sadly still waiting for expansion and posibble the owar 2
:) The only person who can release patches for the game is Stucuk (he has the source code) and he is Scottish. But yes, Polish is a big community.
nice... there are some great game from there. inquisitor was great.
In Poland that game was very popular. I loved playing it a lot. Next you can check Earth 2140 and my favourite 2150 especially Lost Souls expansion.
Because it was part of cheaper releases, half of price of other games on premiere day. This is how I got it and 2140 :)
@ Earth 2140 was made by polish studio and at that time I was watching terminator 2 a lot.
Yes, planned for next year!
@@Zade_95 can’t wait!
@@truenetgmxI remember this game being ridiculously cheap in the States. Like at one point, I picked up another copy for 90 cents.
Got this from a Humble Bundle back in the day and launched it on a whim ine day and was hooked. The music and slow meticulous gameplay is what sets it apart.
allways found the realistic grass system fascinating. You start with tall grass, if you walk over it, it will lie down and after some time rise back up. But, if you walk over it for too long, it will turn into dirt.
One of my all time favorites!
I really love the fact, that every unit is an actual unique and unreplaceable individuum and that instead of spawning new units you have to retrain your existing ones for what ever different task you need.
And the setting is also very fascinating to me and I would really love to see more of it.
One of very few rare examples where time travel was made good and not a justification for bad writing...
also Spellcross from the creators of (in)famous John Chaser game
It helps that it's one-way trip, and you don't really see it influence the future (beyond the different circumstances between the USA and Russian campaign backstories). The EON could've been a stargate, the entire thing could be set on a different planet, and it would work exactly the same, the time travel aspect doesn't really matter. It's just a reason why the expedition is isolated and reliant on limited resources.
Grew up with this game. Was pretty neat. Hard as hell. Didn’t think much of it for years until recently, when I replayed it - and oh boy. Being older and understanding English made me realise how much more of this I want, and how sad I am that there is nothing else like it. Delightful, yet hard game. Very in the spirits of late 90s sci-fi.
I wanted to do something productive, but then I saw an Original fucking War from Mr. Zade and the next 15 minutes of my life were decided for me...
to clarify, this game is a total classic for a certain generation here in Czechia due to the great graphics, the iconic Czech dubbing ("MacMillaneeeee!"), the cool story and the original gameplay... ahh the memories... is that a tear in my eye??
hard same
Haha, appreciate the kind words, for real :)
hi, i do speedruns & multiplayer games in original war
you can disable the automatic pause on dialogues in settings
also, its possible to skip dialogues altogether by pressing enter or backspace
Loved Original War, I remember some Croatian game magazine giving it abysmal score, but review itself didnt made it sound that bad, and whole premise intrigued me so much I had to get it myself and it turned out to be one of my favorite RTS. Only game I got because of low review score.
I've been curious about this game for a while. I wasn't aware of this at the time, only finding it late on steam. It's only my wishlist and look at it when there is a sale on and even with good discounts I haven't taken the last plunge. Have a great Christmas and New Year.
Thanks for being here, Zade. As far as I know, you're the best RTS online person rn! Please keep doing whatever you want to do, I'm here for it! Love your focus on both nostalgia and new releases!
Thank you king ♥️ means a lot!
7:39 AAAAAAH Warzone 2100 gets mentioned 🎉🥳
Oh how I do appreciate you covering this unsung gem of its time, as a mega fan back from when it appeared on a demo disc! Big thanks from me
As you mentioned, treating it more as Real Time Tactics game in the vein of Commandos and Desperados will make its diversions from traditional RTS design more appealing. Frankly the resource and base building also has more in common with colony management. There is no such thing as booming your economy and winning by attrition.
My personal pro tips:
No matter what your preference is, birth year or whenever you got into games - this game’s campaign SHOULD be played at 4:3, black bars be damned.
The mission maps are positively TINY by any metric and your sense of discovery and intimacy with your squad will diminish dramatically when playing in widescreen. The game is simply not designed, in any possible timeline or future, to have that much screen space estate.
And in relation to this more micro focused navigation;
Take the time to read the in-mission provided tips - use space bar to pause and alt key to move units in formation in bigger battles to alleviate frustration, as vehicles almost universally has to obey strict laws of aligning their wheels and armament to be used effectively.
Respect and use the terrain.
The game rarely allows for death ball approaches.
Feel free to ask for any other adaptations if you’re struggling with parsing what Original War wants to teach the player, I’d be happy to share the knowledge I have 😊
I loved this game War Wind is similar in game play
OWAR MENTIONED LETSGOOOOO
Oh brother, I haven't played this one in a hot minute! Even downloaded it again back in like 2020 on Steam, gotta dive back in!
Love your channel bro :)
@ Likewise brother, have been watching yours for quite a few years! :)
Holy heck that concept is wacky, I love it!
Man, i love your channel after brinnging Dark Reign some of my fav RTS and now original war another amazing game! Keep the good work man
My pleasure mate. Thanks for watching!
Very good game and bit of a hidden gem. Has a completely unique art style, music, great story, comedy and it's also quite challenging. You are right that it's not your typical meat grinder RTS.
I picked this up as a kid, could never beat it. Have some memories of finally finishing it at some point, but I probably found some way to cheat, or found a good walkthrough, was quite difficult!
Music is certainly surprisingly good too.
Original War was as the name of the game says quite an original and interesting game, a mix of RTS and RPG
I also recommend you to check out an equally great but forgotten RTS, at least in the West, which was Earth 2150
It's sad that there are so many great games that are forgotten and never got the attention they should have. Before the Witcher series came out, I remember that in Poland Earth 2150 was treated as a flagship product when it comes to Polish game development.
Head north next and check Knightshift2/Polanie 2
A rough gem with a trove of good ideas that need to be stolen.
YES
This game is an absolute gem, one of the best stories ever in an RTS, and it's criminal how unknown it is
If you're interested in old euro strategy games, I'd love to hear your opinion on 1821: The struggle for freedom, a game by greek devs about the Greek war of independence made in the 2000s. It's a surprisingly deep turn based game, if a bit junky here and there and it's really hard to beat as well. It's now offered for free at the devs website in both Greek and English.
Actually, I did play this once or twice, while my brother enjoyed it so much we did multiple playthroughs over the years.
Man, I need to get this game running again, never beat it but I own the gog version. It just became so slow and the final mission for anyone but the allies has you constantly lose people to tranquillisers and mind control.
This actually looks really fun, especially the limited arsenal mechanic like an Xcom game.
Have you ever heard of the RTS Achron? It has a very unique time traveling system. You can look back and forward in realtime and give orders to your units. For instance, destroy your enemies unit producing building (like a war factory) in the past, any units made from that will disapear in the present/future since the factory was never made.
Game resonated with me from its premiere - there was nothing like it at the time and for me at least - still holds up :)
I've not played Original War yet but I loved UFO by the same developers.
oh god please do the ufo series one day another childhood game of mine
The mission One on One is still burned into my memory, heh.
One of my most favorite games. And a damn hard one too...
I found this game quite late, from a game magazine who offered a dvd with 20 og games, one was Original War. Simply amazing, story, gameplay, world building, ect. For me, having some time to chill in the mission and plan/build/micro/macro manage feels awesome, for you as you said, it feels slow and boring. There are also decisions and character who can play a role in the future campaign, if you keep them alive.
The multiplayer though, i am sad i missed at it's peak, the strategems you could do, especially with arab faction. My most favorite is the "fake supply trap" when you put few crates on the map, mine them and wait for enemy truck to grab them or the fact you can enhance explosions with fuel barrels or siberite/aleskite (albeit, that would be kinda waste).
Score
My perspective as a veteran player ...
The more I play it, the more I see the problems and limits of this game. It appears as a complex gme with numerous decisions, but the replayability is very low. Most of the time, there is only one way to win a mission, not offering any room for experimentation or creative approaches. The decisions don't have any real impact, and it's obvious which ones are the good/correct ones. The people are unique only for their faces and voice lines, but playing it for the hundred times, I treat the people only by their stats, seeing them merely as another generic units.
Albeit the active community is very dedicated, it's really just the most entranced ones that happen not to be bored by this game after two decades. Plus, the community is lacking a certain perspective, because when they write a very positive review of this game, there are new players that get hooked by it, only to end up disappointed, usually due to the nicheness. You're not the only one not being invested in it. I've heard some streamers and tubers who straight up said it bored them.
Another fun fact, despite Bohemia Interactive charging a price for this game, the community support and the community server runner (the only one for the multiplayer) get nothing from it.
Got this game years ago on disk because of the cover. I replay it once every few years when I get the itch to go back and enjoy the nostalgia of it all. I agree that it can be very slow at times and the game is clearly unfinished in places.
Original War art style reminds me a bit of Sudden Strike
FPS and RTS Hybrid would probably be Silica by Bohemia Interactive. Y'know, the producer of ArmA3, and the ArmA Series
To me they story boarded this thing and asked 'and therfore' or this happens 'but'. They clearly did not do , 'and then'.
The experience of playing a throroughly thought thru story
Hello from CzechRepublic. The game here was not much advertised. Atleast not in that fashion of "new game with CZECH voicing" whitch was rare at the time and very attractive to czech players. This was not the game we waited to came out, simply because we didnt know. Later that year I stumbled over cracked copy and fell in love... happily ever after, yada yada.
A good RTS with choices that came out recently imo was Terminator Dark Fate Defiance.
Jedna z nejlepších her co jsem kdy hrál.
Ok seeing as we go down the rabbit hole of more unconventional RTS'. Try the Earth Series (Earth 2140, Earth 2150, Earth 2160) and Tribal Rage.
I think the unique concept would couple well with modern day rts mechanics but i also sadly never made it through the first mission. The game felt clumsy to control and super unforgiving.
My main gripe with Original war is story that judge me for being warhungry maniac who play rts to wage wars.
Hey Zade, I don't know if I missed a video or announcement somewhere but, are you still going to finish Starcraft? Or have you decided not to make a starcraft review?
🥶🥶🥶🥶
It's on my list of shame right now
I'll do my best for 2025 ♥️
one of the best rts, in my opinion.
and it's best to play with lower resolution.
nostalgia! i loved this game
instant buy while its on sale after seeing this
i once again ask you four you to remember earth2150 (and 40/60 too i guess)
this game is very similar to Earth2150
Earth 2150 planned for 2025
@@Zade_95 and 2140 in 2040 and 2160 in 2060?
i had it cd-rom :D FIrst i saw the video, and im thinking no way it that Original War... But here it is :D Ancient...
Feels kinda like Last Train Home in terms of limited new units and rpg elements
Yeah true!
I got this on Gog :)
my man
Except I have, and I absolutely love it, a very unique game, absolutely adore it, it might not be the best in any category, but it is damn sure one of the most unique games in the genre. It's up there with Battlezone as impactful games of my youth.
If it weren't for the thumbnail I wouldn't have realized that I actually own this game xD I don't remember anything about it other than the artwork of the guy.
He is truly an iconic dude
There have Some demo version of Original war Exist?! Have two short Mission as American.
So it's WW3 Black Gold but 2D
Terminator Dark Defiance wen?
Joke on you I played a shitton of it ! :D
yes
Jokes on you, I have played it
It looks a little like KKND.
Wrong. First time ever. Played many times years ago.
To me this is the best strategy game. And who know what came first if love for RTS or love for Original war. I could say that you have problem with this game because you are looser (joke) but i would 100% be too. However i did play this game when it was newly released (and bought it 5 times, and finished like +40times) So i know almost every unit´s location on the map, and cant remember how hard it was for me to play it.
The main difference from other RTS is that here each unit is like a "resource", strongly indispensable and therefore one has to concentrate hard on the micro. (its not like in AOE2 when you loose a villager you can calculate how many resources of worth was it)
PS: if I do remember it right. Its Original War because of word "Origin"
Yeah 13:10 And I love Battlezone (bought 4times 😅in my life)
Pfffff Its one of the best RTS games ever created. Right up there with KKND and Starcraft 1. You just didnt play it when it came out!
Dude 10$ for making old games work on modern hardware is ok . Just try any of ubisoft or ea’s old games .
Do You know about original war?
These was original plan to make new faction call: Aliens, According to wiki.
👩
Huh, I thought it's Polish
So, another game which has nothing interested to justify playing it today. It has nice setting and some ideas, but they never work up to something good and it is more like trying out a concept. There is plenty of that. A lot of games from back then are like that and people are full of nostalgia how good they actually are.
This doesn't seem that original when Red alert exists (time travel + macGuffin resource ending in "ium"). The units also look fairly generic, but maybe I'm missing something, I only remember seeing the name and cover art at the time
Gameplay is unique, its RTS/RPG hybrid where every invidual unit is unique and named.
Looks like boring Red Alert rip off 😂I guess because it is
Positive comment for the algorithm
thank you demon loser