Times of Conflict

Times of Conflict is a 2000 real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by the French studio Eugen Systems and published by Microïds. While it is a deeply obscure, clunky, and largely forgotten piece of PC gaming history today, it holds a massive historical significance for one specific reason: this was the very first game ever created by Eugen Systems. Founded by brothers Alexis and Cédric Le Dressay in a small Paris apartment, this studio would later go on to become absolute heavyweights in the modern tactical RTS genre, creating critically acclaimed titles like Act of War, R.U.S.E., the Wargame series, and Steel Division.

Times of Conflict is a fascinating look at the studio’s early, wildly ambitious roots. The narrative drops players onto the alien planet of Edhaer, a world inhabited by a peaceful, simian species known as the Aaris. Unfortunately for them, the planet is rich in an incredibly valuable endemic resource called Aarine. Under the watchful eye of a mysterious Galactic Emperor, three massive, highly authoritarian human factions arrive to wage a brutal war for control of the planet’s resources.

Gameplay

Eugen Systems was incredibly ambitious right out of the gate. Rather than sticking to the standard StarCraft formula, Times of Conflict attempted to blend grand strategy with real-time tactical battles, a concept that would later be perfected by games like the Total War franchise.

Key gameplay mechanics and innovations include:

• The Dual-Layered Campaign: The game is split into two distinct phases. The macro-layer is a 2D, turn-based campaign map. Players move their armies across territories like chess pieces, managing supply lines and overarching strategy. When two opposing armies meet in the same territory, the game zooms into the second layer: a fully 3D, real-time tactical battle.
• Fully 3D Engine: While 3D strategy games were still in their infancy in 2000, Times of Conflict featured a fully rotatable, zoomable 3D camera with impressive lighting effects for the era. This desire to render large-scale, zoomable battlefields was the earliest precursor to Eugen’s famous “IrisZoom” engine used in their later games.
• The Aarine Economy: To fund your war machine, you don’t just harvest generic ore. Players have to conquer and control neutral Aari villages scattered across the map. Destroying the villages yields fewer resources, forcing players to tactically capture and hold populated areas to continuously extract Aarine.
• Macro-Orders: Recognizing that the battles were large and chaotic, Eugen attempted to introduce an early form of automated AI commands. Players could issue “macro-orders” that told units to automatically reinforce the front line, transport troops, or hold specific formations without constant micromanagement.

The Three Factions

The game features three wildly different, deeply authoritarian factions fighting for control of Edhaer:

• The Foundation: A cold, hyper-organized, bureaucratic nightmare. They run their civilization like a massive, soulless corporation divided into strict administrative sections. They rely on high technology and efficiency to win battles.
• The Alliance: A brutal, unapologetic military dictatorship where only strength is respected. They don’t do subtlety; their entire battle doctrine revolves around deploying the heaviest armor, the biggest cannons, and utilizing overwhelming, blunt-force trauma to crush their enemies.
• The Order of the Guild: A primitive, deeply fanatical religious cult led by Archons and Prophets. What they lack in raw, modern technology, they make up for with absolute zealotry, rituals, and numbers, making them highly dangerous and unpredictable.

Development and Legacy

Released in December 2000, Times of Conflict was met with highly mixed reviews. Critics recognized the sheer ambition of the Le Dressay brothers, praising the dual-layered campaign structure, the sci-fi comic-book atmosphere, and the spectacular 3D lighting.

However, the game was severely held back by its execution. It was notoriously buggy, prone to crashing, and suffered from incredibly frustrating unit AI. Units would frequently ignore orders, take terrible pathfinding routes, and the battles often devolved into messy, illegible clumps of units rather than strategic formations.

Today, Times of Conflict is pure abandonware, completely overshadowed by the massive games Eugen Systems would go on to create. Yet, looking back at it, you can clearly see the DNA of the studio taking shape. Their obsession with massive map scales, zoomable cameras, and deeply tactical combined-arms warfare all started right here in this flawed, ambitious 2000 debut.

Key Features:

• Eugen Systems’ Debut — Play the incredibly obscure first game from the legendary tactical RTS studio behind R.U.S.E. and Wargame.
• Dual-Layered Strategy — Command the overarching war effort on a turn-based planetary map, then zoom in to fight the skirmishes in real-time.
• Three Authoritarian Factions — Choose between the bureaucratic Foundation, the heavily armored Alliance, or the fanatical religious cult of the Guild.
• Early 3D Warfare — Wrestle with early-2000s 3D rendering, featuring a fully free-moving camera and dynamic lighting effects.
• Automated Macro-Orders — Experiment with early attempts at unit automation, instructing armies to hold formations or automatically reinforce the front lines.

Release Platforms:

• Microsoft Windows (PC) — December 2000
• (Currently abandonware; never digitally re-released on modern storefronts).