As the title says. The story and the mechanical changes from the first game make this the best for me.
Install the 25th Anniversary Mod to play. Make sure the settings app can write in the game's installation folder so run it as administrator. Works like a charm afterwards.
I haven't even tried the other Battle Isle games, I have to admit. Incubation is great and everyone should play it. The only problem is that GOG has been dragging their feet for 9 years now and the version you download from here will likely not work directly on Windows 10/11. You either need to replace a dll file (sound.dll) with one downloaded from the internet (god knows why it is not included with the game at this point), or get the 25th Anniversary Mod. I suggest you get the mod, because it'll allow you to set the graphics to more modern resolutions and they won't be stretched out from 640. On my ultrawide monitor Incubation was pretty horrid with the original aspect ratio, but with the mod it still looks great (albeit somewhat blocky, of couse).
I bought this in 2021 and played it then. I forgot why I quit and as I just finished a game of King of Dragon Pass and came to this, I remembered. The game is still a fun narrative engine but I really hate how the raids were made into a series of choices through a menu. They do not feel as impactful and in the end you default to just a few. I think the KoDP model was perfectly fine. It has tension when you picked your tactics at the beginning and then had pivotal moments that could ruin your characters or bring a swift end to the fight, or swing it one way or the other. Here it's a push and pull kind of system with a few meaningful choices and multiple mediocre ones in the middle. I don't enjoy it and won't be playing this anymore after this. I think giving more pivotal moments per combat is fine, but I don't need to tell my troops to always advance advance advance fight fight fight each and every battle. They are not that central to my enjoyment of this sort of game. The narrative and the long-term game is what I'm here for. The fights can just be a simple choice of tactics with a bit of spice thrown in now and then. I don't know if the second game of Six Ages has the same system, but I assume it does and so I removed it from my wishlist.
Liked it a lot. If you have played Baldur's Gate before then this'll feel just the same, just with a more modern vibe. If you haven't played Baldur's Gate then here's your chance to get in on some great, tactical, story-driven action, with the caveat that you are able to stand reading massive amounts of text. The story itself is fine, although it might resonate more with people from less secular countries and the quality of the writing does fluctuate somewhat. If you have ever read any serialised fantasy novels, you will know what you're getting into. It's quite good at times and so much drivel at others. All in all a fine game and now that the basics are in place, it can only get better. Lastly, at the time (version 1.02), people have been complaining about game breaking bugs. I didn't run into any but your experience may vary.
