Macedonia is a land rich of history, environment and stories. Yet, it has been underexploited by the video games industry. As an already old gamer, I love to discover places by their historical background or through an immersive virtual adventure. I came here searching for ways to play some video games taking place in Macedonia, but I was a bit disappointed by the limited amount of options that I had… even if among them, great games were awaiting.

Alexander the Great, ideal hero

History is one of the greatest materials in video game making. Scenario, background, costumes and decoration are already set. And one of the biggest adventures that a gamer could experience has already been written by a young guy named Alexander. Indeed, a lot of video games are following his steps from Ancient Macedonia to India, fighting Greeks, Thracians, Phoenicians, Indians, and of course Persians – approximately everyone that would stand between the Vardar and the Indus. This backstory is ideal to set a video games experience, especially Real Time Strategy Games, allowing you to directly control units of Alexander’s army and using them to your advantage on the battlefield. The last and most famous of them is Alexander, developed by GSC Game World and produced by Ubisoft. This Real Strategy Game was edited in 2004, based on Oliver Stone’s movie. Starting with the mission “Taming Macedonia”, the game allows you to play Alexander as a hero, manage your city to build an efficient army to beat your opponents with special units such as Peltasts, Hypospis, War Chariots… You shall lead Alexander on his journey, or play Macedonia along with other civilizations in multiplayer mode.

But Alexander the Great story has one feature: most of it is happening outside of Macedonia. This is why most of the games based on his adventure aren’t taking place in Ancient Makedon but rather in Asia, fighting against the Persians. For example, Rise of Nations or Alexander: Heroes Hour start both in Thrace or Greece, skipping Macedonia’s land.

Rewrite history from Macedonia

Another kind of games that I’m really a fan of, are Grand Strategy games. They offer the player to manage the whole country through years, not only an army. Macedonia is a playable civilization with Alexander as a leader in Rome Total War, Sid Meier’s Civilization or Imperiums, with its specific features. But the most realistic games, that give you the opportunity of changing the whole course of history, are developed by Paradox Interactive Studios. This games series covers the whole history, allowing players to play as Macedonia through different times when it was existing. The first of them is Imperator: Rome, starting at the death of Alexander the Great: you can try to lead one of the Macedonian leaders to reunite the former empire before Rome rises as the main power of the Mediterranean. Later, Crusader Kings covers the whole Middle Ages, during which you can spread Christianity to the Slavs – or not; prevent the collapse of Tsar Samoil’s Empire or even claim the whole Balkan Peninsula… The following game, Europa Universalis, does not allow the possibility to play Macedonia, but Skanderberg’s resistance against the Turks or preventing the fall of Constantinopolis, or playing the Ottomans to conquer Europe are among the many alternate History that the player can create. Same for Victoria 3, which allows the player to create Yugoslavia, which runs through the modern times until 1936. But Heart of Iron IV, the last of them that takes place during the Second World War, is giving you the opportunity to play Macedonia as a country by releasing it from Yugoslavia – be ready for a challenging game if you do so. Those games are made for history lovers: if you’re not into it, it might get time to enjoy it completely, due to a large amount of information to deal with. Plus, it is focusing on world map, taking in account infrastructures, climate and environment, but without a closer look to what Macedonia was looking back at these times.

On the road again

In a completely different style, Euro Truck Simulator 2 is, as mentioned clearly enough in the title, a driving game with a truck allowing the player to go across Europe to deliver trade goods. The game released ETS 2: Western Balkans, with a full map of Macedonia among other states of the region. But if you want a more challenging driving game, you can also discover Yugoslavia by driving in Jalopy. This indie game (developed by a small independent studio) is taking place in the late eighties, putting you in the role of a youngster in East Berlin that must give a ride to his uncle until Istanbul. But you are driving an old East bloc car, a Laika. Therefore, you must ensure that the car isn’t breaking apart on the road going through East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to Istanbul. With really positive reviews, this game is chill and doesn’t require a lot of gaming experience to go along with it.

The exciting newcomer

All these games give a really limited virtual experience of Macedonia. That won’t be the case of the upcoming Macedonian video game, developed by Studio Dark-1: Skopje. In a gaming style close to Borderland, Skopje is comic-like animated with a lot of action. It is also a First Person Shooter, putting you on an individual perspective. In that game, the player is evolving in a post-apocalyptic alternate reality taking place in the 70’s Skopje. Free of its movement, he can go and explore the alternate capital of Macedonia, at his own risks: mutated monsters are hiding in the streets… First tests were already running this year, that is why we can expect its release in the upcoming months.

Youen Le Bris

Sources:
Paradox Wiki : https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com
Dark-1 Studio website : https://dark-1.com/
PC Gamer website: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/