With a Bachelors in History, spurned on by a childhood love of Crusader Kings , the thrill of stepping into history through a video game is not what it once was for me. The more knowledgeable you are on the time period, the more likely the particular mechanics of a game like Crusader Kings or Total War will pop out as ahistorical to you.
As a lifelong obsessive over games like this, I am beyond astounded at the level of historicity that is on display in Rise and Fall: Bronze Age. Never have I played a game which so accurately portrays the period of history it represents, both through it's graphics and its mechanics.
Lets start with the graphics. Ludwig Lorekhan deserves some sort of award for the character portraits. I see them in my dreams. Egyptians are brown, wear skirts, have lashed whips upon their belts (Narmer, who?), jewelry about their necks and arms. Sumerians are lighter skinned and wear EXACTLY what is depicted in historical art. The Kaunakes skirt. The polka dotted cape from the Standard of Ur. Braided beards and curly hair. Long flowing robes a la Gilgamesh. Its divine, there are no two ways about it.
I have played many a historical game and I do not exaggerate when I state that this is the most period accurate clothing I've ever seen in a video game, especially considering it's a period where many people wouldn't be able to tell if it wasn't. The only games that comes close are the Field of Glory games. Sometimes I'l just launch this game up to look at my ruler. Compare it to "Maryannu - The Bronze Age" mod for Crusader Kings 3, and Ludwig's genius will make itself apparent.
Now, onto mechanics. Starting off with a game at 3400BC, the Pre-Dynastic Period, you centralize your state, broker power with nobles and priests, develop increasingly complex funerary practices, establish god-kingship, discover the piety in marrying your sister, manage a state bureaucracy through scribes, defend your land from reclamation by the nile through irrigation, sponsor farming projects, struggle with the corruption that arises from your massive income, invest it into high pop counties to begin developing cities, unite the Upper and Lower lands, realize you made a massive mistake building so many palaces, revoke noble privileges to weaken the estate which threatens your reign, etc. I'm not using creative language to make the game conform to history, there are buttons and mechanics that directly cover every single thing I just talked about. This is not a game that wears history like a costume (COUGH COUGH PARADOX COUGH COUGH). Historicity flows through the veins of this game. It animates every motion and every sound made.
My praise is effervescent not for some sycophantic love for the developer or the period. Quite frankly, I wasn't too interested in Egypt when I bought this, I did so for the Sumerian nations which (I didn't closely read the steam page) are not playable yet. However, I played one game and really liked it. Then I moved on. However, I began listening to Dominic Perry's "History of Egypt" podcast and I was gobsmacked. Everything he had talked about, I had experienced in the game. After getting further in the podcast and picking up "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt" by Toby Wilkinson, I found Rise and Fall: Bronze Age was EVERY. SINGLE. THING. Teenage me had wished Crusader Kings would be for Medieval history.
My praise is effervescent because, despite being still very early in it's development, I see such care and passion within the sinews of this project that I dare say it is an evolution of the Grand Strategy genre. Where Paradox makes games, Ludwig has made history. For those who want to play history, not just a game, this is a paradigm shift. I can not sing the praises of this project higher because this is made for the exact audience that Paradox has abandoned.
Oh, how wonderful it is to find my home anew!
