We Need More Games Like This

My personal passion for Mesoamerican history and a big thumbs up to Tlatoani: Aztec Cities

About a year and a half ago I fell hard down the rabbit hole of Mesoamerican history: of Aztecs and Maya, of Olmecs and Zapotecs and the stunning ruins these peoples left in their wake between the valleys of the Mexican highlands and beneath the deep olive blanket of the Yucatan jungle. When Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors arrived in the Aztec Empire: really an alliance between the city states of Tenochitlan, Texcoco (remember, that ‘x’ is a ‘sh’ in the Nahuatl language) and Tlacopan who ruled over an array of vassals, the Spanish found the first of those 3 cities to be ‘as large as Seville and Cordoba’ and sitting upon a lake, just as Venice sits upon water.

In truth, it was even further beyond what Cortes could imagine. Tenochitlan is estimated to have had a population between 300 000 - 400 000 people: at least 5 times larger than London at the time and easily one of the largest, greatest urban centres in the world; the cultural and culinary contributions of the native peoples of Mexico and Central America to the world cannot be understated. Chocolate, tomatoes, chili, turkey, maize, tobacco, God’s green Earth gave us these generous gifts but the people of now-Mexico were the ones who accepted them most readily and thankfully.

1519 Painting of Tenochtitlan upon Lake Texcoco

In the centuries following, Lake Texcoco has been gradually drained like a New World version of the infamous Aral Sea and in Tenochtitlan’s place Mexico City has arisen: beautiful in its own right and the seat of a state born of the cultural syncretism between the former Aztec peoples and the newly arrived Spanish: of the men of the cross and the men of the Feathered Serpent: Quetzalcoatl.

Early this year, I was browsing Paradox Interactive’s YouTube to see if there was any news on the then unannounced, worst kept secret in the world: Europa Universalis 5 when I stumbled upon something that made me do the Dwayne Brow.

After finishing the trailer, I put it on my wish list.

10 Minutes after that, I put it in my Steam basket and slapped myself on the wrist “Just wait an hour! Don’t get carried away by the hype.”

It didn’t work, my finger clicked purchase faster than my brain could reign me in.

Tlatoani: Aztec Cities is a city-building and economics game that tasks the player with building, maintaining and expanding an Aztec city state; you contend with Mayan raids, the geopolitical conniving of your neighbours, civic issues like fires and waste management, external trade, all that good stuff. But where Tlatoani really shines and stands head and shoulders above the rest of the genre is in its commitment to providing an authentic vision of Aztec society, particularly in regards to the relentlessly misrepresented religious practices of this culture.

For the vast majority of people and I suspect for many of my readers unfamiliar with the subject, their image of Mesoamerican religion looks a bit like Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

Apocalypto is a really awesome film that I recommend whole-heartedly (hehehehe) with a commitment to on-location filming, the use of the Mayan language and Mexican actors of Mayan descent it’s a visceral, enjoyable time… but it’s also woefully inaccurate and features a bizarre mish-mash of Mayan and Aztec historical features and religious practices.

Tlatoani on the other hand provides a more faithful depiction of these religious practices. Yes, you can cut out the hearts of your enemies atop impressive pyramids, these things obviously did happen and regularly but the player also gets to explore other aspects of these practices, like the use of xocolatl: an Aztec beverage that would become the basis of our own hot chocolate (and the origin of that word) in religious practices. As well as this symmetry: the correct placement of religious and industrially significant buildings in order to best please the pantheon of Nahua Gods shapes every single decision you make while growing your city state and is of course based in reality.

A 1524 Map of Tenochitlan with clear symmetry: each road out of the city splits it into 4 equal segments.

The campaign for Tlatoani: Aztec Cities also pays great homage to the Aztec civilisation and has the player re-enact the Aztecs’ own foundation myth, travelling south from the semi-mythical land of Aztlan: what may have been the state of Chihuahua or New Mexico today down south into the founding places of the great city states.

I’m not going to review Tlatoani: Aztec Cities in this post, only show my appreciation. I’ve barely scratched the surface but my point is, when popular history and historical media so rarely set foot outside of the World Wars, Rome or Dark Ages England games like Tlatoani are a breath of fresh air.

We need more games like this.

Misunderstood history and civilisations viewed through a new lens, uncommon settings not often depicted, greater historicity and a focus on depth rather than scope; I love Paradox’s games and I used to love Total War but little games like Tlatoani are why the strategy genre is so rich and why there’s something for everybody.

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