I’ve been trying to recall a game I played briefly as a kid at a friends house.
I feel like it was similar in style to Settlers 4 with an isometric view, typical click and drag a square around who you want to control, and a focus on building and combat. What makes me think it wasn’t Settlers 4 is I don’t recall it having that kind of cartoon style and I vividly remember there being some kind of cheat code that would reveal the map.
The reason I say it’s around 2006 was because I originally went to buy it in a Future Shop (a Canadian store that was bought by Best Buy) but my mom said I should get Civilizations 4 instead because she recalled my uncle talking about it.
Could it have been Empire Earth? The cartoony look doesn’t really match, but I distinctly remember that EE2 had a cheat code to reveal the whole map, and it would fit well time-wise.
I think you’re right. EE did have really vibrant textures though, with some panels of solid colour; that might be what they’re remembering as “cartoony”?
I think that is it.
I had to look up what the early era looked like though.
I meant less cartoon than Settlers 4 with their kind of mascot people. I remembered it look a bit more realistic and slimmer smaller people.
Oh I see! I read that totally wrong, it was pretty early here haha 😂 Well, you can get it on GOG.com for just a few bucks if you don’t have a copy already - enjoy the nostalgia, it was a great little series :D
I looked up the gameplay because I don’t think we ever proceeded very far but that looks like it! Thanks a lot!
Awesome, glad I could help! What’s funny is that the only reason I remembered that was because of the “cheat that reveals the whole map” - someone from school told me about EE2 because of that exact cheat, and it was my introduction to the concept of cheats :D