Description of the game "Fire and Sword"

It is well known that Eastern Europe has always lagged behind Western European countries and the USA when it comes to game development, although lately our developers have begun to deliver original, interesting, and commercially successful projects.

However, back in 1999, when Western dominance in the gaming industry was absolute and unwavering, an event occurred that shook Europe and, unfortunately for us, remained largely unnoticed. A small but very proud company, Infinite Loop, based in Sofia, the capital of the glorious Bulgaria, released a strategy game called Tzar: The Burden Of The Crown (The game "Tzar: The Burden of the Crown" in Russia and the CIS was published only in 2001 by the company 1C under the title "By Fire and Sword").

The game itself may not be particularly surprising to players today, but at the time of its release, it astounded with fresh ideas, an original approach, and other positive aspects. Essentially, the game is a medieval strategy with a hint of fantasy. In the game, three factions collide in battle: Asians, Arabs, and Europeans, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the greatest advantages is the fact that there are countless tactics to achieve victory. You have armies at your disposal that, with successful military actions, gain experience and become stronger, and with a built warrior guild, can become Heroes. In general, guilds are another innovation in the game. Guilds represent incredibly expensive but useful buildings that contain technologies allowing you to throw your opponent far back in some aspect of local warfare: you are offered to build warrior, mage, priest, merchant, and special guilds. Since guilds are expensive, building one of them seriously advances the tactic along a specific line. Thus, it is often necessary to choose how to suppress the enemy - through brute force, support, or mass (if choosing trade as the primary tactic and having the capability to buy numerous warriors), however, at the lower levels, of course, you may manage to acquire almost all guilds and eliminate your opponents with little effort.

Of course, the main emphasis in the game is placed on troops. In battle (I am not talking about minor skirmishes over bits of resources), between 25 to 180 warriors from each side participate. On the screen, a real war unfolds, a melee where lovingly drawn and animated armies of noble swordsmen, wise samurais, and fierce Arab satraps (along with archers, catapults, and ballistae - there are countless ways to kill and destroy) clash, obeying the will of their arrogant monarchs, whom we, the players, represent. Each faction has its own characteristics - the light cavalry of the Asians (chariots) is weak in attack and defense but can endure like crazy, the Arabs are known for their aggressiveness, while the Europeans boast the best archers and knights armored like tanks, whom you need to spend a lot of resources to reach - but it is worth it.

A few words must also be said about the voice acting. The sound is magnificent. Every movement, event, whether it's a peasant digging with a shovel in the garden or a joust between cavalry - all of this makes the world feel even more alive and vibrant. There is also another feature that personally delights me. For some time now, we have been used to the idea that heroes or troops die in games silently, only softly sighing or saying a scripted farewell phrase. In "Tzar," it is all real. Who said that when a person is pierced by a sword, he quietly wheezes? Here, all troops, when dying, simply tear their vocal cords with screams of pain! During battle, the roar resonates across the field, and it inevitably sends shivers down your spine. Yes, this is true medieval warfare.

The music of the game is beyond praise. It would be enough for a couple of operas or musical performances. High passages soar upwards, and the blood freezes with anxiety at the blaring of trumpets; sometimes, the music presents something like a melodic arrangement of ancient folk songs, which makes one feel warm and cozy, and you can sense that this game was made by "ours," the Slavs. Naturally, I speak of the tracks present on the actual compact disc (and on the compact disc rip, of course), not of those twisted MIDI compositions offered to us at the start of the game. I personally recommend using a music rip program from audio compact discs and listen to all the game's music just for fun, or as background while playing the game - it's worth it, trust me.

It didn't lack a plot either. I left it for last for a reason - it tells us a grim story of state restoration, and throughout the campaign, the question "What the hell am I even doing here?" never leaves you. However, in the Russian version, "By Fire and Sword," the campaign became a work of art. I don't know how 1C managed to translate and add their own touches so skillfully, but the campaign of this game from the Russian publisher is filled with healthy humor and an interesting plot, which the original developers seemingly either didn't have the time or imagination to create.

Tzar is almost a legend and a hit that was overshadowed by the better-financed Age Of Empires 2, which, despite its undeniable merits, never allowed most people to know what true "burden of the crown" was....

Taken from the official game website - http://tzar.compufa.ru