Syphilization: A turn based strategy game to empathy, co-operation, and historical facts
A review of Nikhil Murthy’s post-colonial 4X gaming experience
Video games that engage with representations of society, are my favorite kind and this column has, over the years, has featured reviews of a variety of games where I have had the opportunity to look at how game-makers and their games interpret the reality we live in.
Some of my favorites have been Beecarbonize – the card-based game to combat the climate crisis, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s recreation of Harlem’s musical history. Nikhil Murthy’s Syphilization, this year’s first game review is another I would like to add to the list – a 4X turn-based strategy game that explores the history of the 20 th century in a post-colonial setting.
What distinguishes Syphilization from other 4X games like Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, or even the forthcoming Sid Meier’s Civilization VII (or VI) is its desire to offer a post-colonial outlook to the genre by offering players the possibilities to pursue friendships, cooperation, and work towards beating the game collectively.
The game achieves this through its premise of a group project that four school students are working on, where you play as one of them. Your job is to unearth early 20 th century history while determining the dynamics of the group – you can either do this by befriending the other three or by fighting them till you are the only one left standing and the rest of the members accede to your demands. This entire dynamic is captured on a 4X map where you must discover your group mates the way you would discover other tribes or nations in similar games by scouting and encountering them.
The game’s novel concept is implemented quite well and as you proceed on your map by acquiring new territory you can deploy research and building tasks to your territories. As you conduct research you are rewarded with facts that go into your report and the game tells you if you have progressed in unearthing the right ones for the report. The game even has a tutorial on shared research, and I was happy to see the amount of effort put in by the makers.
Syphilization’s strength lies in its ability to force us to rethink the “to the victor go the spoils” approach to history and the amount of research that has gone into making the game possible.
Despite its many strengths and quirky music, the game is let down by a poorly explained tutorial and it took me over 40 minutes to figure out what I was doing. This is something that needs fixing immediately because the potential of the game to be used in history classrooms across the country is huge. Also, the game works on aging PCs as it still supports Windows 7. While there are bugs and crashes still need some fixing, the game has received key updates regularly. This is a great game to learn, play, and master history of the participatory kind.
Strongly recommended.
Sneak Peek:
Title: Nikhil Murthy’s Syphilization
Developer and Publisher: Why Not Games
Game Type: Turn based strategy, resource management and world building
Platforms: Windows PC
Price: INR 459 on Steam
Verdict (all scores out of 10):
Innovative Gameplay: 8.5
Game Handling and Quality 7.5
Value for Time 7.5
Overall 7.83
What Stands Out:
The game’s unique approach to turn-based strategy where you can pursue friendly relationships with all the players/factions on the map is novel – as well as the game’s setting where all the players are part of a group working towards a school project.
The research, technology, and other menus are well thought out and there’s room for a lot of intricacy if you are searching for novelty and interesting tidbits about 20 th century history.
Fails to impress:
The introductory sequence and tutorial sections of the game aren’t effective in conveying the game’s mechanics. It took me over half an hour to understand what was happening, but once I did it was smooth sailing.
There are a few bugs and glitches that still need ironing out but the game’s update record is quite healthy and the developer is always open to feedback.
