I dunno about you, but I sometimes forget about Kalypso because they sound a bit like those bright orange lollies that come in cardboard tubes. But beyond their place in the splash screens of the best SimCity of recent times, Tropico, the German publisher is also home to a venerable PC strategy series or two.
Bundle Stars’ $3.99 Kalypso bundle is testament to that. Within lie 10 Steam keys and 14 DLC codes for games from Kalypso’s back catalogue: some I haven’t heard of, and others well-known to you and me both.
Disciples III released to iffy reception in 2010 after a five year development cycle left a robust turn-based tactics system buried beneath bugs. But an expansion released a little later, entitled Resurrection, and purported to do that with a new Undead Hordes race.
That’s what you’re getting here – alongside Disciples’ twin in tactical PC history, the Jagged Alliance Collection. The Kalypso bundle includes both of the recent remakes – Back in Action and Crossfire – which stripped the series of its action points but kept the considered pacing and map metagame.
Tropico 3 Gold and bullet hell highlight Sine Mora are the best of the rest:
Tank Operations – European Campaign
Tropico 3 Gold (Tropico 3, plus Absolute Power DLC)
Dungeons Steam Special Edition (plus 2 DLC)
All 10 games run on Windows – only Jagged Alliance: Back in Action and Alien Spidy support Mac. And there’s a prize draw for those who buy in the next 48 hours, promising Steam keys for the upcoming Tropico 5 and Demonicon, among others.
Don’t get it for those, though: get it for the strategic but strangely serene Tropico 3. Do you think you might?