Original War. 13 great games that were financial flops

Marek Jura

Original War

  1. Release date: 2001
  2. Genre: RTS
  3. Greatest advantages: non-linear campaign, story concept, units, base development

At the beginning of the 21st century, the RTS market was dominated by Heroes, Settlers, Age of Empires, Stronghold, Total War and Warlords. Original War wasn't really inferior to them, but – apart from a small group of fans in Central Europeit never turned out to be a production recognizable enough for larger industry mags to devote much attention to it. Anyway, in 2001, the Internet was just beginning, so breaking into the mainstream for such a small studio was sometimes impossible.

Even ardent fans of strategy games sometimes don't recognize Original War. I confess that even though I played all the games mentioned above, I only recently found out about the existence of this particular game, which I regret immensely. Because even two decades after its release, the game can impress with innovation – what a huge impression it must have made at the beginning of the 21st century!

It's about a global conflict – the Soviet Union, which managed to survive the thaw, threatens the existence of the Western world (who would have thunk?). In an attempt to curb the imperialist attempts of the Russians, US soldiers are sent on a mission to extract oil from... the past. At the same time, however, they discover something much more important – the Alaskite, which is an almost infinite source of energy (sort of like, I don't know, Uranium). Then things get complicated, and the political intrigue in which both European states and Arab countries are involved is one to match the threads of the best Hollywood productions. And yet, the story is just an excuse to get into strategic skirmishes. One can only regret that the game, which was truly original, didn't allow the ambitious Czech studio to make a killing.

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Marek Jura

Author: Marek Jura

In 2016, he graduated in philology at UAM. Since then, he has been reviewing prose, poetry, movies, series, and video games for GRYOnline.pl. He took his first steps in the journalism industry as a newsman in a local tabloid. He ran his own company - he designed, created, tested, and sold board games. He published several short stories and is also preparing his debut volume of poetry. Trains martial arts. A feminist, vegan, fan of pineapple on pizza, cat lover, dislikes Bethesda and Amazon, likes Lovecraft, Agents of SHIELD, P:T, Beksiński, Hollow Knight, performance, abstract art, game mods and dumplings.