The strategy game genre is always popular. With subgenres including real-time strategy andgrand strategy, and a whole host of games that merge different gameplay styles into a unified whole. Many successful strategy games spawn entire franchises, to keep players coming back for more year after year.
However, there are some strategy games that only ever received a single release. For some reason, the developer never produced a sequel. And while this is understandable for games that were poorly received, there have been some excellentstrategy gamesthat, for some reason or another, never received a second helping.
7For The Glory
Historical Grand Strategy
This is an older game that uses the same game engine as the Paradox Interactive titleEuropa UniversalisII. Touted as a historically correct strategy game covering the period from the Middle Ages to recent times, the player can choose a nation and compete for control of the map.
The player has a full range of tools available to them in their quest to dominate. These include conflict, economic power, diplomacy, and technological supremacy. The map is geographically accurate, with 180 nations in play, and historical events taking place regularly. For an older game,For the Glorystill manages to tick all the boxes that modern strategy game fans look for.
6Arsenal Of Democracy
World War 2 Military Strategy
Arsenal of Democracyaims to be a historically accurate military strategy game that coversWorld War II. Where most strategy games allow the player to use diplomacy, trading, or espionage to achieve a win,Arsenal of Democracyis more focused on conflict.
The player takes control of a nation, and then has to navigate the complex political situation in the period from 1936 to 1946. Raw resource production, manufacturing chains, and technological advancement are all essential aspects of gameplay, as the player attempts to increase their military might and rise to victory.Arsenal of Democracyis perfect for players who prefer a game that promotes conflict over diplomacy.
Paying Homage To Total Annihilation
Ashes of the Singularity
The human race has expanded into the galaxy thanks to the wonders of the technological singularity. You have become so powerful that you can manage vast armies across an entire world that provide you with an ever greater galactic empire.Now, humanity is under assault by a new enemy. Calling themselves the Substrate, they seek to annihilate the human race from existence. You, as an up and coming member of the Post-Human Coalition, must deal with both this new menace as well as renegade humans trying to lay claim to their own worlds.Play as the Post Human Coalition or their eternal foes the Substrate and battle for control of the galaxy. Experience maps of unprecedented size and detail with the unparalleled power of the world’s first native 64-bit RTS engine, Nitrous.Enjoy the game online with friends in ranked or unranked multiplayer mode or play it by yourself against a powerful non-cheating AI in skirmish or campaign mode. No matter what mode you play, strategy is the key: deciding what technologies to research, where to send your armies, how to manage your economy, and what units to construct are crucial to victory.Experience a massive-scale real time strategy game where you wage war across worlds with thousands of units. The conflict has escalated, and it’s time to choose a side.
Gamers who remember that classicreal-time strategy game,Total Annihilation, will likely love playingAshes Of The Singularity: Escalation. It is obvious that the developers wanted to recreate the classic, chaoticTAgameplay in a more modern title. Combat in this game can become unbelievable at times.
By the end of the game, players will be constructing hundreds of units on a map, and engaging in humongous battles with the enemy that could involve thousands of units. The campaign mode is a little quirky, with less-than-stellar storytelling, but this isn’t what this game is about.Ashes Of The Singularity: Escalationgets a place on this list for overwhelming players with bullets and explosions.
4Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak
A Prequel To The Homeworld Space RTS Games
TheHomeworldfranchise is best known for its excellent space-based real-time strategy games. However,Deserts Of Kharakis ground-based. It acts as an introduction to the lore of the franchise, and is set prior to the events ofHomeworld 1. The storyline covers the Kushan expedition, which led to the original mothership being constructed.
The storytelling is excellent, and fans of the main franchise will find it interesting to have the background fleshed out. The game is visually stunning, with detailed desert maps. Gameplay is fluid, and less restrictive than usual for anRTS game. The player needs to stay mobile much of the time, rather than establishing and defending a base.
3Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
Old But Still Good
Considering thatNexus: The Jupiter Incidentwas released two decades ago, it still holds up well today. Its graphics still look great, although it is missing modern technology such as advanced shaders and lighting. From a tactical viewpoint, the game has a lot to offer. This is not a typical RTS, with the player simply sending groups of units at the enemy. Instead, the player needs to use each specialized unit tactically, to achieve specific goals on the battlefield.
The storyline is compelling, even though the voice acting can be a little cheesy at times. The only criticism of this game is the serious ramp-up in difficulty following the first few introductory missions. But overall, this is a fantastic older RTS, with some unique gameplay to offer.
Great Indie Real-Time Strategy
NEBULOUS: Fleet Command
Take command of a fleet of space warships tailored to your exact play-style. Favor a small task group of robust, flexible multi-role combatants, a large group of specialized ships, or something in between. Do battle in a heavily simulation-based tactical game featuring everything from kinetics and beam weapons to realistic radar and electronic warfare. Nebulous seamlessly blends the thoughtfulness of pre-mission planning, tension of battle decision-making, pressure of real-time action, and pain of inevitable sacrifice into an intense tactical space game that will keep you reflecting on every decision (and mistake) for hours after each battle.Skip the economy management: you’re here to dominate in battle. Drop into the battlespace with your full fleet and engage the enemy in a tense back and forth where a single mistimed advance, poorly executed withdrawal, or missed shot can turn the tide of battle. Deep, methodical combat based on thrusts, withdrawals, and counter-thrusts keeps the tension ratcheted up without numbing you with a screen constantly full of explosions. With no reinforcements coming, every hit hurts and every loss counts - victory favors thoughtful planning and precise execution.It’s in your hands, Commodore.Take unparalleled control of every unit right down to their individual mounts. Keep your entire fleet together, dynamically split off task units, or give each ship its own assignment. Large maps with lots of cover and radar occlusion make methodical positioning and sight lines critical. Massing firepower in one place is not always the best solution, as the enemy could come from any direction in the fully 3-dimensional battlespace. Covering your retreat is always in order.Group your weapons and task them to different targets or focus fire with everything you have. Selecting the appropriate weapon to engage a target is as impactful as deciding which targets to engage at all. Weapons have compounding benefits and drawbacks, all of which can be compensated for and planned against.Intelligence is key to victory and your situational awareness is never a given. Asteroids and gas clouds can hide ships behind their radar shadows, preventing enemy sensors from detecting their presence, and ensuring enemy illuminators and fire-control radars are unable to mark targets for missile systems.When out in the open, electronic countermeasures take the lead as they attempt to jam, scramble, or otherwise mitigate enemy sensors on board their ships and missile systems alike. Multiple ships moving in close proximity produce a larger signal, making them more easily spotted by enemy sensors, and ships can opt to run cool, turning a variety of systems inactive in order to more easily hide from detection at the cost of some functionality.Occlusion, passive signal detection, balancing radar signature size, and the ability to deceive the enemy makes the fight for intel a critical part of every battle.Fleet design allows you to choose between multiple classes, configuring everything from their munitions storage, power supply unit, and electronic warfare capabilities to their damage control systems, point-defense capabilities, and armaments - right down to the types of missiles each bay carries.A point cost system keeps fleets balanced as you design battleships, cruisers, frigates, corvettes and more, arriving at the battlespace with little idea as to what your opponent might be fielding. Scouting enemy fleet composition and adapting to their designs will be essential to securing victory, and at times you may spend half the battle (or more) trying to accurately determine your adversary’s capabilities so that you may strike with precision and force. Express your tactical identity through the design of your fleet, and each individual ship within.Each system and subsystem aboard your ships perform specific tasks and are tracked and simulated individually. Their position on your ship can determine optimal facing when unleashing a salvo, or the risk factor when enemy systems open fire. Vital systems should be protected with the help of point-defense systems and defensive maneuvering that presents auxiliary systems towards incoming fire while keeping essential systems hidden behind the armor plating and hull.Damage is modeled for individual components, determining which ship systems remain active under enemy fire, and damage control teams work rapidly to repair what they can as they move from compartment to compartment. Retreating from active combat to repair damaged components before re-engaging is not only a viable strategy, but at times, an essential maneuver, and in a worst case scenario, a ship with a breach in its reactor can be quite a potent weapon in its own way.Nebulous has extensive modding support, with hundreds of player-made mods available on Steam Workshop including new maps, ships, weapons, and more.
NEBULOUS: Fleet Commandpays homage to the popular book series and TV show,The Expanse. It attempts to recreate the realistic space flight and combatThe Expansewas lauded for. This means that victory in battle requires sound tactical decisions, rather than simple might. The player needs to make a choice on most maps, whether to invest in a few larger ships, or go for a fleet of smaller ships.
Graphically, the indie nature of this game is apparent. However, this shouldn’t put players off, as the depth of gameplay means that the visuals become less important.NEBULOUS: Fleet Commanddoes such a great job of implementing realistic physics in space combat.
Interstellar Grand Strategy
Terra Invicta
An extraterrestrial probe is detected approaching Earth. Unknown to humanity, an alien force has arrived in the far reaches of the icy Kuiper Belt and has begun mining a dwarf planet to prepare for an invasion.With Earth’s nations unable to unite to address the alien arrival, transnational groups of like-minded political, military, and scientific leaders develop covert channels to coordinate a response. With the aliens' motives uncertain, factions emerge, driven by hope, fear, or greed.You will control one of these factions.The Resistanceworks to form an alliance of nations to mount a coordinated defenseHumanity Firstvows to exterminate the aliens alongside any who sympathize with themThe Servantsworship the aliens and believe they will solve all the troubles of the worldThe Protectorateadvocates negotiated surrender as the only means to avoid annihilationThe Academyhopes the alien arrival heralds the opportunity to form an interstellar allianceThe Initiativeseeks to profit from the chaos and destructionProject Exodusplans to build a massive starship and flee the Solar SystemA distant anomaly, a mysterious crash site, and a spike in reported disappearances. Could this truly be humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrial lifeforms? As your field agents investigate sightings and your scientists race to explore new fields of research, you will slowly learn the truth behind the alien arrival.From early sightings and UFO crash sites to rampaging alien megafauna and robotic armies, it will rapidly become clear that the other six human factions are not your sole competition. Throughout the game, illustrated events will present you with difficult choices as you investigate growing alien activity on Earth. Uncover the mystery of the aliens’ origins and motives – unless, of course, you are Humanity First, and all that matters to you is extermination.Terra Invicta has a global research system that creates opportunities for both competition and cooperation. Shared scientific advancement unlocks private engineering projects. Factions can choose to focus on private projects, at the cost of weakening Earth as a whole and ceding influence over global research direction to other factions with different priorities. Left unchecked, factions like the Servants or the Initiative may steer the world’s efforts toward developing methods of social control, rather than propulsion or weapon systems.You begin on Earth as the head of a shadowy organization devoted to your chosen ideology. The aliens are coming – soon – but your first enemies (and perhaps allies) will be other human factions.Lead a faction united by ideology, rather than a nation defined by territory. This is a stark change from most strategy games – in Terra Invicta, you will not paint the map with the colors of some chosen nation. Instead you will rule from the shadows and compete with other factions for control points representing a region’s military, economic, and political leadership.Geopolitics is your sandbox – unite or break apart nations as best serves your ends, while using those under your influence to conduct proxy wars against the other six factions. Earth’s regions are modeled in detail, from educational levels and unrest to GDP and inequality. Gaining command over regions with great monetary wealth and military power can allow you to implement your will on Earth, but the war for the Solar System will not be won without also securing regions containing space launch facilities.Enact your will through a council of politicians, scientists, and operatives sent around the world (and even into space). The starting abilities of these councilors will improve through gaining experience and acquiring control over powerful organizations like intelligence agencies or wealthy corporations. A veteran commander may make the perfect choice to lead a tactical team under the council’s direction, while an experienced diplomat works to secure the funding needed to resist the alien invasion.Seek out like-minded populations and politicians and take actions to convert followers of opposing ideologies. Public opinion is modeled along multiple axes – the Servants’ alien worship and the Protectorate’s advocacy of negotiated surrender may largely align in terms of support or opposition to the aliens, but events that show the aliens can be defeated have the potential to convince followers of the Protectorate that resistance is a realistic choice.Terra Invicta bridges the gap between our modern-day world and the vast interstellar empires of other space strategy games, asking you to take humanity&
Earth is threatened by aliens, and it is the player’s job to fight them off and ensure that humanity remains safe. Yes, this trope has been done to death in video games, butTerra Invictatakes it and runs with it to produce something quite special.
This is a strategically challenging game that will force the player totackle Earth politicsas part of defending the planet. Alliances need to be forged to bolster the defenses of Earth, as the player needs to gain access to valuable resources, and set up complex supply chains to manufacture military assets.Terra Invictadoes a great job of immersing the player into a battle for the survival of humanity.
