There are two PC games I vaguely remember whose identities have been bugging me for years:
One I remember playing on a computer in the school library back in the late 90s. It was set in medieval Europe (so historical, not fantasy) and you could play different factions, but the only one I can remember specifically was the Vatican. IIRC, most of the gameplay took place over a map of Europe where you had diplomatic/economic relations with the other factions but there was also battle element if you went to war with someone (it was either top-down or isometric, can't recall specifically) where you had things like archers and swordsmen and the like as troops you could purchase. The only other part of the game I can remember was you could build pre-set or design your own castles by laying down a floorplan of where the walls and such would be along a grid. Over time and with proper funding the castle would then be built similar to when you laid down a residential or industrial-zoned area in Sim City 2000. I only ever saw/encountered the game on that one school computer and haven't been able to find out what it was since. All I can say for certain is it was NOT one of the Stronghold games.
The second game was an early 2000s point-and-click (fully 3D) adventure game where you played a female protagonist in a far-future setting where most of the western world had amalgamated into one government. IIRC, part of the lore premise of this high-tech future world was that it was matriarchal (or at least females had more/higher social status than males), marriage had been abolished, and children were raised by the state. Your character is a police officer or detective of some sort investigating a murder that (I think), over the course of the game, reveals a conspiracy of some kind that threatens the current world order. That's genuinely all I can remember about it besides one scene were the main character contemplates flirting with the bouncer at a club she was visiting as part of the investigation. I had picked it up thinking/hoping for an experience similar to The Longest Journey or Syberia but was sadly disappointed. I remember it not being that great of a game, the puzzles weren't interesting and the story fell flat (or just became generic), and I sold it back to the store I bought it from soon after finishing it - back in the days when we could still do that for PC games.
Any help in identifying these games would be greatly appreciated! If for no other reason than to put the nagging memories to rest at long last.
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