I’ve been trying to recall a game I played briefly as a kid at a friends house.

I feel like it was similar in style to Settlers 4 with an isometric view, typical click and drag a square around who you want to control, and a focus on building and combat. What makes me think it wasn’t Settlers 4 is I don’t recall it having that kind of cartoon style and I vividly remember there being some kind of cheat code that would reveal the map.

The reason I say it’s around 2006 was because I originally went to buy it in a Future Shop (a Canadian store that was bought by Best Buy) but my mom said I should get Civilizations 4 instead because she recalled my uncle talking about it.

  • FooBarrington@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    Could it have been Empire Earth? The cartoony look doesn’t really match, but I distinctly remember that EE2 had a cheat code to reveal the whole map, and it would fit well time-wise.

    • voracitude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I think you’re right. EE did have really vibrant textures though, with some panels of solid colour; that might be what they’re remembering as “cartoony”? Edit: I read it totally wrong, they meant Settlers 4 looked cartoony, sorry OP!

      • CabbageOPEnglish
        4·
        4 months ago

        I think that is it.

        I had to look up what the early era looked like though.

        I meant less cartoon than Settlers 4 with their kind of mascot people. I remembered it look a bit more realistic and slimmer smaller people.

        • voracitude@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          Oh I see! I read that totally wrong, it was pretty early here haha 😂 Well, you can get it on GOG.com for just a few bucks if you don’t have a copy already - enjoy the nostalgia, it was a great little series :D

    • CabbageOPEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I looked up the gameplay because I don’t think we ever proceeded very far but that looks like it! Thanks a lot!

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        Awesome, glad I could help! What’s funny is that the only reason I remembered that was because of the “cheat that reveals the whole map” - someone from school told me about EE2 because of that exact cheat, and it was my introduction to the concept of cheats :D

        • jqubed@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          4 months ago

          I kind of miss the old school games like SimCity 2000 or Civilization 2 that looked like every other Windows program and had normal menus at the top of the screen. If you put in the right code a whole extra Cheat menu appeared with all sorts of options!