What are the best strategic games on PC? Someone will say Starcraft II, someone Civilization VI, and someone will say in general, Civ 4 was the best.
At this point, we will stop listening, because what's the difference. Join us to explore the collection of the greatest hits of the genre, from beginners to classics.
Funny Fact: The genre of the strategy was first invented in 1938, when Winston Churchill looked out of the window of the aircraft over France and thought: Hey, it would be a cool video game from this that it would be. Maybe. Since then, about a hundred million different strategic games simulate as many different types of struggle have been created, how many people, people have reasons to fight with each other.
Step-by-step or real-time, grand strategies or tactical ... This genre is so diverse as possible. But what are the best strategic games on PC? Well, just drag the selection field on our body and right-click on the horizon, and we will learn. Our team now has editor strategies, so we can not make mistakes.
Crusader Kings III
Let's talk about the murderous bastard of a big strategic game. Although only time will tell whether this dynasty, an emergent-historical succession on the throne of his predecessor Crusader Kings 2, which is now a free game, she definitely began its board with royal superiority.
Crusader Kings 3 significantly reworked the previously confusing interface of the series, making it a desired proposal for new players, while maintaining most of the depth of which the series is famous for. It may look like a traditional Grand Strategy with cards, and although in it, of course, there are deep systems for warfare, the heart of Crusader Kings 3 lies in her personal, often religious stories.
Will you capture power with military power, wealth, religious influence, diplomacy or tricks? Each character for which you play has your own character and lifestyle, and every member of your dynasty will form your empire, for the better or worse, before you make it the next one in turn. This is a game in which personal conspiracies behind closed doors are as important as the battles between states.
Do not forget to familiarize yourself with our brusader kings 3 review, if you have not yet decided on the choice. For tips, there is a guide to the starting characters Crusader Kings 3, CRUSADER KINGS 3 beginners and guide to Crusader Kings 3 mods while we are waiting for new DLC for Crusader Kings 3.
Offworld Trading Company.
Offworld Trading Company is located at the other end of the spectrum of the strategic games from Civilization, although its designer, Soren Johnson, also worked on CIV IV. While CIV covers history and some perspectives of mankind, talking about his progress, Offworld Trading Company is devoted to earning a state on the development of our red neighbor - Mars.
This RTS, crossed with the intricacies of the best managerial games, in which the victory is not achieved by the fact that you throw tanks on enemies or destroy their bases. Instead, your weapon is the resources and money that you use to manipulate the market so as not to just get rich, but fully bypass your competitors. You do not expect from the economic strategy of great aggressiveness, but Offworld Trading Company encourages you to be as hostile as the warring party.
When you view the menu, you plan to build on that sell, against which company to start hostile absorption, it is no less exciting than when you send infantry by artillery fields, or make second air attacks on the enemy fortress in the company of heroes or Starcraft II. The same developers have just released their own option 4X games / civilizations called Old World - Check out it.
Xcom 2.
XCOM 2 is one of the best step-by-step strategic games, and we put it a very good assessment in our XCOM review 2. It contains the best features of the series - a cruel struggle, a different group of heroes, insidious aliens, dense tactical battles - and added improvements for improvements.
You can argue whether the War of the Chosen extension is objectively the best, but there are many excellent modes for XCOM 2, which can bring vanilla game to perfection. Both additions are offered different, but equally useful impressions. There are also many other DLC for XCOM 2.
Battles will be complex and diverse, full of terrible opponents with cunning and unexpected abilities, but the greatest changes will occur at the strategic level. You will travel around the world, creating cells, penetrating black objects, hunting for resources to have more powerful weapons and tools - all this attracts attention, and not something minor.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
BlackBird Interactive did seemingly impossible with Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. And it is to transfer elegant, minimalist space wars of the original Homeworld game for one planet, creating one of the best strategic games. Somehow it works. Really good.
This is a trip to the huge desert aimed at saving civilization. Each battle is associated with the previous one, as well as those that have yet to play. Each surviving unit will live to fight another day in another mission in a permanent war for survival.
Haval, despite the fact that is the giant desert, is a fantastic battlefield size with a planet, which makes for the ground the same thing that the original games were made for space. Adding relief and highlights reproduces three-dimensional battles of previous games, and sand dunes provide shelters, secluded places and elevations from which destructive blows can be applied.
Like its predecessors, the game has one of the best artistic designs, which can only be hoped to find in RTS, which means that you can make wonderful screenshots Homeworld. In combination with incredible sound decoration and really interesting narration, Deserts of Kharak is a classic.
Total War: Warhammer II
Okay, good. No matter how I wanted to admit it, but Total War: Warhammer 2 is probably the best game of the Total War series. This is easily the most creative work of the studio today, as well as the final expression of the long forgotten Universe Warhammer Fantasy, but there are also convincing arguments in favor of the fact that the tactical component of the game is pretty good.
Nevertheless, the games of the Warhammer Fantasy Total War series as a whole made miracles for a strategic level, offering a more diverse and exciting experience than ever before. These improvements served as a source of inspiration for the strategic level of Total War games: Three Kingdoms and Total War Saga: Troy, which are pretty decent historical strategies and are distinguished by tactical battles, more relevant classic games series. Read our review Total Warhammer 2 if you need more evidence.
There is a modest but as creative set of DLC extensions for Total War: Warhammer 2, which will help to supplement the impressions of the basic game, as well as several excellent mods for Warhammer 2. We will not forget about the complement of Mortal Empires, accessible to the owners of both Total Warhammer which raises the old light to the level of the grand strategic epic from Paradox. All this prepares us to the newly announced Total War: Warhammer III (see below), which looks extremely metallic.
CIVILIZATION VI
You can argue about how the modern game Civilization is better, CIV 5 or CIV 6 (we even wrote an article about this), but with the extension exit Gathering Storm, the sixth part of the series will finally be proud of what is an excellent strategic game worthy of attention .
The embodiment is still another move that makes such functions such fascinating, Civilization 6 offers a much more mechanic to revive the world around you. This is not just communication with this country or the announcement of the war of this country - you should pay attention to how you affect the world and work to achieve your goals that are here a great set.
In CIV 6, the annual seasonal passing of New Frontier was recently completed, which added several more cities to the game, as well as many additional game modes and free and premium content. The april patch of the balance of 2021 was the culmination, which, although it was a little overpowering in quantity, left the game in the best condition in its entire history.
Civilization 6 has what to dive, whether it is a huge amount of DLC for CIV 6 available for purchase, or a bright and creative mods collection for CIV 6. This is a final strategic game for our time.
Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault
Company of Heroes 2 was gorgeous, but she did not reach the magic of his predecessor.Then Ardennes Assault appeared; In our review Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault We came to the conclusion that this is one of the best RTS games in which you can play.
American troops and German Ober-Commandos are fighting for control over Ardennes in the campaign, an inspired battle for the arc - in the style of a real military game. This features the game from Company of Heroes and its continuation, as well as from a nonlinear single-user campaign that unfolds on a strategic meta map. The Germans are dynamic, their retreating troops strengthen them, changing the tasks that are put as plot missions and dynamic clashes.
Although the campaign goes only from an American point of view, US troops are divided into three companies, each of which has a unique specialization covering air, auxiliary and mechanized roles. All these companies have special abilities of officers and improvement trees, and any of them can be used to fulfill the mission. Even if you focus on one of them, the other two will still be on the map and will be able to help, blocking the oppression of the enemy from the captured province.
The first battle in the company of Heroes have real weight to compete with the best games about the Second World War, but the series is not going to stop at what. Company of Heroes 3 has just been announced (see below), and it will bring with you a completely new level of the campaign, which will take into account the lessons learned from Ardennes Assault, and are adjusted to 11.
COMMAND & CONQUER: Red Alert 2
There is something to love Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. From the ridiculous types of units to banal FMV scenes, it will be difficult for you to find a strategic game with the same personality and charm as this RTS. Perhaps she is not so wild as Sicvel, in which Jay Kay Simmons took part, Tim Curry and George such, but there is a share of sincerity among the phenomena.
If you are simply looking for something solid in the genre of strategic games, then Red Alert 2 did not make a day for two decades who have passed since its release. You have to go through two diverse campaigns - one for the USA, another for the Soviet Union - and a balanced multiplayer game with a pair of infinitely exciting regimes. In no other strategic game, you can not fight democratic dolphins against Soviet squid, and only for it we will always adore RED Alert 2.
While you are here, look at our Command & Conquer Remastered Collection and Interview with the iconic actor Kane Joe Cookan.
Endless Legend.
In our review, Endless Legend we praised a 4x-game, which organically combines fantasy and science fiction, throwing stuck cosmonauts against the magic people of dragons in the absolutely striking world based on hexes. Diverse, gorgeous, it looks almost tangible, as if you can stretch your hand, take one of the carefully worked cities and squeeze it in your hands. Do not worry, citizens. We will not allow the terrible insect-cannibals to devour you and your families - we whisper into our folded palms.
Fascinating factions are struggling for domination over the apocalyptic world.Each of them is endowed with unique and interesting mechanics, which distinguishes them from each other and determines how they play them. For example, there is a terrible aforementioned race of carnivorous insects, necrophages that are so vile that they cannot conclude unions with other fractions, forcing them to always be opposition. And there are strange cultists - the faction of peculiar fanatics that can only build one city and are forced to rely on the absorption of other fractions if they want to expand.
Endless Legend is also blessed by a strong narration that gives it a strong sense of space. Each fraction has a set of plot tasks that many decisions will tell you, without changing you into the angle. In addition, the game has many side tasks and stories that create the feeling that you manage the world in which a real role-playing adventure occurs.
Starcraft II.
What can not like in the game where armored cowboys are fighting with xenomorphic aliens and cosmic elves? Starcraft II is the classic basic RTS in which you have to collect resources, build army and kill the enemy until he killed you, taking quick solutions and even faster with the mouse.
Starcraft II is one of the best multiplayer PC games. Your enemies are people; They will probably be able to click faster than you, give orders faster than you. You will probably lose frequently, but the more you play, the better become what makes this game one of the best RTS games for those who love to compete. If you prefer to watch the course of events, then there is a small in the game, but the devoted base of the energy players.
The PVE campaign is also interesting - Blizzard combined a mad action with a background of some of the best role-playing games in which you follow the feats of the Terran Mercenary Jim Reynor. You have to go through a number of missions, many of which have unique goals - for example, get resources on the map, which is periodically filled with lava, or defend against the waves of the zerg during a certain period of time. Between the missions, you will explore the center similar to RPG, where you can talk to people, explore new technologies and decide where to go on. In the Games of the RTS genre, it is very difficult to make the plot, and many developers resort to the help of Cutscenes or dialogues during missions, but in Starcraft II you can interact with the world outside the battle.
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock.
We add a new entry to help illuminate some less well-known heroes in the strategy space. There is not so many games like Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, but it is definitely an incredible space game, and, of course, the best game BSG on the market, if you sought a hole in the form of 12 colonies in your life.
In essence, this is a tactical cosmic combat game, but it is also the fact that we in business we call Wego's strategic game. In fact, both parties make and solve their moves at the same time.It can also be considered that this is a strategic game in real time with forced pauses. You give your moves and orders to ships of your fleet, and then they perform these orders for a certain period of time (usually 10 seconds), after which the game is suspended again. After that you can change the orders at your own discretion or leave everything as it is.
After the tactical battle is completed, you can see the repeat, where everything happens in real time without pauses, and the repetition cameras use frames and visual effects from the television show. In Deadlock, there is also an excellent single-user campaign that includes the construction of the fleet, resource management and even a little policy, since you are trying to keep 12 colonies in the ultrasound, simultaneously choking the invasion of Sylongov. If you do not like Battlestar Galactica, you definitely should pay attention to this game.
Humankind.
The Humankind game from the creators of Endless Legend (see above) should become magnum studio opus, a killer of civilization. Having covered the entire history of mankind, as the Firaxis flagship series, Humankind will allow you to conduct civilization through the century.
On paper, it has a lot in common with Civilization, but you will also see a lot of items taken from the Endless series from Amplitude. Fights occur in a semi-odd tactical layer, which relies on the surrounding strategic space. You do not choose one civilization for the game, rather, you are given a choice of civilizations from each era that will determine your gameplay, which means that as your nation increases and the development of your nation will have a legacy and history of a variety of previous national personalities. We have already tried the game, and we will not wait to get it into real hands when it comes out in August 2021.
Age of Empires 4
Time RTS has not previously passed absolutely, argue.
So far, the information about the fourth game of Age of Empires was scarce, we finally got a decent look at the game thanks to the preview for fans even in April 2021. There is something to rejoice, and we are getting closer to find out when we get it into our hands. The release date Age of Empires 4 is scheduled for autumn 2021.
Total War: Warhammer III
We all knew that this would happen, and the third part of the Fantasy Strategy Fantasy Strategy from Creative Assembly was confirmed in February a rather steep trailer, which we disassembled in painful details, because there are causes.
We know that Kislev will be one of the stars of the show - and this show is a tide of at least four fractions of chaos demons, invaded the old light - but the unexpected Race Warhammer 3 also appeared in the form of Kata. In addition, much has not yet been disclosed, but we have gathered everything you know about Total War: Warhammer III in one manual, especially the release date.The game is available for pre-order if you are already looking for who will take your money.
Falling Frontier.
Honestly, in the coming year on the horizon there will be a ton of truly interesting strategic projects. We are going to update this section of the list to alternate the upcoming indie projects that look cool. Previously, we already talked about Terra Invicta - a new game from the creators of Xcom's Long War.
Now we are going to tell about Falling Frontier. This is a cosmic RTS, which looks great and trying to find the balance between the scientifically reasonable and logistics gameplay and highly sounded science fiction, which gives us cool looking ships and Piou-Piou lasers. This is a bit old-old game, the original design of which is inspired by games like Age of Empires and Starcraft with their battle-based structure, but now a campaign is planned with a large number of narrative moments to truly fill the story and give great surroundings life and meaning. We have no doubt that the game is worth watching, and its release is scheduled for the end of 2021.
Company of Heroes 3
Announced in July 2021, Relic expands all borders to create the perfect continuation of Company of Heroes. The main feature of the game is a completely new level of campaign, in fact, the developers decided to hell, let's add Total War. The ambitions of this game are striking the imagination, and we hope that they will pay off, as Relic will define many new elements.
However, RTS still looks good. The changes here are thinner, but the same powerful. Now you can break into the busy buildings to clean them, and the interaction between high and shelter has also been improved, which made it possible to make cards with more diverse and realistic tactics of combat operations on the whole Mediterranean, which is the first for the main strategic war games, not to mention About the series as a whole.
Do not believe us for a word, you can familiarize yourself with Pre-Alpha version right now (until the beginning of August 2021), although note that the system requirements are currently quite high. We look forward to the exit of this game in a year, somewhere at the end of 2022.
So, that's all: the best strategic games on the PC, as we solved an absolutely legal (TM) way. While you are here, read the best MMO for PC to get a similar set of breathtaking applications. And if you need the best games, check out the best computer games of all time.
