Articles, reviews and guides for real-time strategy games such as Starcraft, Command & Conquer and League of Legends.
Logarithmic action. That cryptic label was how Sega defined Gain Ground, their 1988 action-strategy hybrid. And the more I play it, the more accurate that description becomes in my mind. Gain Ground combines the cold logic of strategic planning with the fiery tradition of arcade action. It’s a wholly unique game, rewarding and often misunderstood.
After the decade-long Ōnin War (1467-1477) ended without a clear victory, Japan fell into a state of constant war and conflict. With the power of the shogunate in tatters and the emperor relegated to a purely ceremonial role, local warlords known as daimyos fought over land and influence, hoping to reunify the nation under their power. It’s a romantic age, an era of change and turmoil in which a newly found meritocracy subverted a social order previously seen as untouchable. Amidst the might of tradition, the chaos of treachery and the smell of gunpowder, laid the opportunity to forever define a country and set its future for centuries to come.
Sphere of Influence, the fourteenth entry in the Nobunaga’s Ambition series, let’s you revive that opportunity.
