Battle Isle Platinum (includes Incubation)

Squee! Squee! First, a shameful admission - I have not yet played the GOG version of these games, I am writing this, literally, two minutes after hitting the "BUY" button. My five star rating is for these classics being available for modern OS's. These games may not be for you - if you don't like turn-based, data laden, old school wonky wargame nerd fare. But if you do, you're in luck. The first three, the actual Battle Isle games, are straight up, hex map, science fiction wargames. Think Star General, or an SF take on the Kampfgruppe, Steel Panthers, West Front, Panzer General, etc. Desperate strategic thinking and tactical implementation, but no clickfest time pressure. If you don't like old, old OLD graphics, you may want to just play the third one, Battle Isle Three - the first two have great gameplay, but they really are from a completely older world, art wise. The second half of the love is for Incubation and its sequel / expansion, Wilderness Missions. This is pure low level tactical skirmishing, with Alien (the movie) inspired opponents. Good AI, tense, hard missions, great game mechanics. Think an updated (for late 90's definitions) version of the tactical part of X-Com, without the higher strategy wrapper. If it has a problem, it's that some of the scenarios are seriously, obnoxiously, evilly difficult, which will be a turn-off to some and an irresistable chhallenge to others. GOG, you just made my week. Enjoy my ten bucks - you deserve it!

I dont care much about battle isle or history line, tried them back in the old days and didnt like them much. But here´s the crown jewel of turn based tactical games: Incubation. If you like turn-based, tactical games you will love this one. It does everything right, from the mood to the graphics, the sound and -especially- the gameplay. It is not, as some say, a very difficult game. Of course, if your squad rushes in, all guns blazing, your marines will be alien fodder. But if you use timing, the environement and the different weapons to your advantage, every mission is very doable. It has nice RPG elements, as you progress your gear gets better and the aliens bigger; it does have this "just one more mission" and suddenly its 3 am effect. Just when i was seriously thinking about re-installing windows 98 to get this game running again from my original discs, GOG rereleases it. Huge Kudos to GOG!

I was never really into the Battle Isle games, but I do love turn-based squad tactics. Incubation first got on my radar over 20 years ago and sat as a "I gotta get around to playing that one day." Well that day came finally in 2020. Now I admit I have a soft spot for that really awkward early 3D graphics look, with super low polygon count and awful low resolution textures. But even without my bias, this game is SO GOOD. I was shocked that a 23 year old game blew me away like that. I've played many turn-based tactics games in those intervening years but Incubation was so good that I felt compelled to come here and tell everyone about it. The levels are all cleverly and intricately designed and walk a fine balance of challenging and possible. And they're fairly different with objectives being accomplished in very different ways. Incubation alone makes this pack worth it.

How do you review a package of games that span nearly a decade, and so many genres? I guess the short version is: If you like wargames and turnbased strategy and Science Fiction - this package is worth it for Battle Isle 3 alone If you like wargames and turnbased strategy and history - in particular WW 1 - this package is worth it for Historyline 1914-1918 alone If you like squadbased strategy - this package is worth it for Incubation alone. If you like more than one - or even all - of those things, then why are you reading this instead of playing these amazing games? They will steal your time, they will cause you to lose friends and family as you live at your computer to get to the next level. But it's worth it all. There are so, so very many great experiences and so many hours of gaming goodness in this package it defies description.