1. Rts Games

Regardless, you’ll find none of those mediocre titles here, as we’re only interested in writing about the best of the best in the RTS genre. Expect to find some fan favorites and more than a few games that flew under everyone’s radar. We’re including them here because that’s where they belong.We’ve decided to catalogue the 20 best real-time strategy games of all time in the following pages. These date back from way before RTS became a popular genre, to the most up-to-date titles.

Art by Click on the next slide to begin! 2016 Addition: 8-bit Armies. From the makers of Command & Conquer comes this Minecraft-looking game that pits polygonal tanks and vehicles against one another. It’s minimalist, but it’s a great RTS experience that takes the whole real-time strategy thing way back to its roots. It doesn’t have a story, but you’ll be so caught up in the gameplay that you won’t even think about it. 2016 Addition: Ashes of the SingularityThis 2016 release reinvigorates the RTS genre with all the gameplay and UI aspects that one can come to expect from a modern game. It’s basically a new take on sci-fi classics like Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, and it delivers this sort of mass, macro RTS gameplay in spades.

Players choose from two distinct factions and wage war over large swaths of ground to control the map. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is the prequel that takes place in the events leading up to Homeworld. A planet is dying, and its inhabitants’ only salvation is a mysterious and ancient derelict spaceship found in the desert. In this prequel to the interstellar series of space strategy games, you take on the role of the scientist leading an expedition into the harsh and unforgiving deserts of Kharak to recover an ancient artifact that will come to be the salvation of your people.

2015 Addition: Grey Goo. Developed by Petroglyph, the makers of Command & Conquer, Grey Goo is a return to form.

In the game, players fight for survival on a planetary oasis by commanding one of three factions: the defense-oriented Humans, the versatile Beta, or the all consuming Goo. The game caters to a myriad of play styles, including the ability to turtle, by offering players the ability to construct impenetrable walls, dominate from strategic outposts—or become the Goo and overrun your enemies.

2015 Addition: Total War: AttilaSet during the Dark Ages against a background of famine, disease, and war, a new power of steppe warriors rises in the East that threatens to overrun the fallen kingdoms of the classical world. The warrior king approaches, and he has his sights set on conquering Rome. Company of Heroes 2 is the sequel to the World War II RTS that made headlines years ago. It features a huge single-player campaign, cooperative play and a host of standalone expansions allowing players to go head to head in cooperative online mode.

Late Addition: StarCraft IIStarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and its two expansion packs is the trilogy sequel to the multiple award-winning StarCraft and its own expansion StarCraft: Brood War. The graphics are beautiful and the strategies are more complex than ever before. The little known game wasn’t a typical RTS. Although it played very much like every other RTS on the market at the time, it contained a persistent single-player campaign that allowed you to salvage the technology of enemy units to incorporate into your own armies and use as an edge against enemies.

Ground ControlGround Control is one of the earliest RTS games that put players in control of a set amount of units in each mission instead of getting players to construct buildings or worry about build queues.Instead, you were given a set of units in each mission that you had to use to properly defeat your enemies without taking too many losses, as losing your dudes early on severely handicapped you later in the mission. The game was very much a tactical challenge. World in ConflictWhat Ground Control started, World in Conflict perfected. Set in a scenario in which the Cold War became very much a Hot War, seeing both Europe and America invaded by the Soviets, World in Conflict puts players in the role of an American commander who must take charge of the remnants of the US army and drive back the Soviet invaders–first by activating the nuclear arsenal and then through ground-pounding force.Like Ground Control, also made by Massive Entertainment, World in Conflict sees players take charge of a small company of units and exercise tactical superiority instead of worrying about build orders and the like. It’s a game that very much puts you on the front lines. Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian SunTiberian Sun was the long-awaited sequel to the first Command & Conquer, and one of the first games to use voxel graphics ahead of 2D sprites, or even 3D polygons.

The game’s use of voxels gave it an impressively unique aesthetic that lent a ton of charm to the game as a whole.Like the first game, the game offered two campaigns split between separate discs that put you in command of the Brotherhood of Nod or the GDI. It was one of the first games to make heavy use of the environment by allowing your soldiers to become poisoned, and even mutated by Tiberium fields. Ice and destructible terrain also played a role in the game, by allowing you to knock out bridges to close off approaches or funnel the enemy units towards a killzone. Supreme CommanderSupreme Commander is the spiritual sequel to Total Annihilation.

It offers ultra large maps and equally huge robotic armies that march across the battlefield. The game allows you to get down and dirty by zooming close into your units or a strategic overview that sees you controlling icons that represent your units from way above.Playable across multiple monitors, the game offers a sense of scale missing from almost every other real-time strategy game as you send hundreds of units to battle countless others—all of whom are dwarfed by some super gigantic units that walk across the battlefield like titans. Shogun 2: Total WarShogun 2: Total War revisits the setting from which the first Total War originated—Japan. Like the original game, you take charge of a Daimyo pursuing the position of Shogun—or overlord of Japan.Throughout the game, you’re tasked with managing your cities and your territory while commanding your army into battle against enemy samurai and their peasant followers. Depending on which territory you start in, you will possess a multitude of strengths, as well as weaknesses to contend with. Conquering territories will gain you access to more units, wealth, and better technology to use against your opponents.

Command & Conquer: Red AlertRed Alert is the not-quite-sequel to Command & Conquer. Why, it isn’t even set in the same universe. Instead, we’re presented with a Cold War-themed world in which Hitler never rose to power because Einstein, in all his intelligence, decided to shake hands with the dictator before he rose to power and extinguish him from history. His actions had irreversible consequences that caused the Soviets to rise to power instead of being diminished and set back by the Germans during the Second World War.Predictably, the Soviets construct a war machine larger than anything Hitler could’ve envisioned and stage the invasion of Europe.Like the original Command & Conquer, the game’s campaign is split across two discs and allows you to tell two versions of the story based on which army you decide to command. Rise of NationsThe success of Age of Empires 2 gave rise to many copycats, but Rise of Nations stood above the rest by actually being its own thing instead of copying Age of Empires feature by feature.The game offered a persistent campaign that enabled your conquest of the world turn by turn.

Every decision you made counted towards (or against) your absolute victory as you rose through the ages from prehistory to the modern age. Medieval: Total WarMedieval: Total War is arguably the best game in the long-running series of war games by Creative Assembly.

You play the role of a monarch of one of the many kingdoms that ruled during the middle ages, and it’s your task to expand your kingdom and conquer the known world by establishing a dominion larger than any other in history.Throughout the game, you’ll research technology to aid you in your conquests and take command of armies of thousands of soldiers to pillage your opponents’ kingdoms and decimate their armies—all the while attempting to keep the peace with Rome, so they don’t dispatch an army after you. Dungeon KeeperDungeon Keeper is one of Peter Molyneux’s last great games, and one that defined his career as a kickass game developer. The game puts you in the role of a Dungeon Keeper—an overlord, a boss, and fascist king dictator of a monster-filled dungeon.With the help of your monsters, you must expand your dungeon by digging through the earth, uncovering treasure and mining for gold, and making it a desirable place to live for your evil minions. Having a successful dungeon also makes it an enticing target for the goodly terrestrial heroes who want nothing more than to claim a slice of your treasure and extinguish the beating heart of your dungeon.

To that end, you have to construct elaborate traps and hire minions capable of falling even the mightiest knights—or better yet, turning them to your cause. HomeworldOne of the most epic stories ever told in the history of games, Homeworld is also the first of its kind—a space RTS which takes place in three dimensions, as opposed to a two dimensional plane. The game tells the story about a race of humans in the far-flung future who discover a buried alien spaceship in the desert of their planet—a relic of their distant, spacefaring past. In their wisdom, they decide to get off their rock and find their way back home by following interstellar markers left by their ancestors.As their home planet is destroyed by a race of other hostile aliens, they have little choice but to proceed on their voyage. They must elude hostiles, make contact with benevolent alien races, and uncover the secrets of their heritage on the way home. Myth: The Fallen LordsMyth: The Fallen Lords is a little known game by Bungie (yes, the same Bungie that made Halo) that puts players in control of a commander of a unit not unlike the Black Company in the eponymous series of books by Glen Cook.

Like other Bungie titles, it’s very heavy on story.The game features highly detailed 2D sprites within a three dimensional environment, which allows you to deform the terrain with explosives, bounce or roll grenades off hills, or even blow up your own units by accident if they stand in the way of the throw. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2It’d be an injustice to Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 to describe it as Company of Heroes with a Warhammer 40K skin. We understand that such claims would be made given that they’re both from the same developer, but in fact, there are so many element unique to the game that it’s a completely different game with a strong set of strengths to set it apart from its WW2-themed predecessor.Much of the focus in Dawn of War, like Company of Heroes, is on the command of small groups of units instead of build orders and rock-paper-scissors style gameplay. Each unit can be lead by a sergeant or a commander who attaches himself to the unit, earning experience points and even items to bolster his strengths.In the single player campaign, the player takes charge of a set group of heroes who must drive back the alien forces and undertake missions in a persistent campaign that takes both wins and losses into account as you play through the game.Multiplayer is an entirely different beast, allowing players to play as one of the many alien races in addition to the Space Marines. There’s even a horde mode of sorts that allows you to level up your character as you—along with other heroes—fend off waves of enemies. Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsAge of Empires II is the widely acclaimed sequel to the first Age of Empires and is set in medieval Europe. It contained several campaigns which saw players liberating France as Jeanne d’Arc, the rise of Frederick Barbarossa, and the conquests of Ghenghis Khan across Europe and the Middle East.

It also had a fantastic multiplayer mode that gave rise to the meme “wololo.” 5. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty + Heart of the SwarmWings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm take place after the events of the first Starcraft.

Rts Games

Starcraft II is the sequel to the game many regard as one of the best real-time strategy games of all time. Building upon Starcraft II is its expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm, which sees the addition of many new gameplay mechanics and makes Starcraft II, which we originally left off this list, deserving of its position on this list. Warcraft 3: Reign of ChaosAs the third title in Warcraft and sequel to the massively popular Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3 had huge shoes to fill, and they did so by including an actual narrative that put to shame just about every other previous RTS on the market.

It was the first RTS to feature main characters who could level up and equip items—RPG elements, in short.The game followed the stories of Arthas, Thrall, and Tyrande Whisperwind as they traversed across the lands of Azeroth in the lead of armies of humans, orcs, and night elves. Total AnnihilationTotal Annihilation is the first real-time strategy game to feature actual 3D units and structures in a 3D map which took the vertical axis into account. In other words, weapons had to be fired over buildings and over terrain in order to hit their targets.

The game also took velocity into effect, so your bullets would have had to lead moving targets or they would very easily miss them.Units in the game were designed by Chris Taylor, a toy maker by profession, who made each unit and building in Total Annihilation something you’d want to play with for real. StarCraftStarCraft is arguably the best competitive game of all time, surpassing every other game in mainstream popularity. The game is so popular that it’s frequently shown on TV throughout South Korea. I don’t think I need to explain the game or what it’s about.

It’s StarCraft. Company of HeroesCompany of Heroes is the number one highest rated real-time strategy game of all time, and with good reason: it’s a damn good game. While I could very easily argue that the reason it’s also #1 on this list is because it’s #1 on everyone else’s list, my reasons for putting it way up here are purely from personal experience.As an RTS, it’s the only one that managed to get me to give a damn about my soldiers, all of whom exhibited some manner of personality while earning veterancy ranks to give me good reason to want to keep them around.

Not only is the single player campaign, which is extended through the Tales of Valor and Opposing Fronts expansions, it’s also host to a damn good multiplayer experience that has more to do with actual battlefield tactics instead of build orders. Eat your heart out, StarCraft.

In space, no one can smell your cigarWhen it arrives on store shelves tomorrow, Blizzard's much-hyped real-time strategy title will have a lot to live up to. The original 88 was released a dozen years ago to strong reviews, and eventually became one of the best-selling PC games of all time - and, in countries like South Korea, a national obsession. Indeed, for many gamers, StarCraft is the ultimate, genre-defining real-time strategy game.While 12 years is a long time to wait for a follow-up, StarCraft is getting not one but three separate sequels, with Wings of Liberty - which focuses on the Terrans, one of the three playable races from the original - the first to arrive.

Will the new game be as good as fans hope? Since the game was not made available to reviewers in advance - multiplayer is a huge part of StarCraft, and Blizzard wanted to ensure that critics would experience the game along with the full gaming community - we won't know the consensus reaction for a few weeks.But StarCraft II will have to be very good indeed to crack our list of the top strategy games of all time. Below, we look at the 10 highest-scoring PC strategy titles in Metacritic's database, an elite collection of games that - yes - does not include the original StarCraft, which just missed out by a single point. (Insert complaint here.) Not wanting to waste a good opportunity, we have also included a short list of the worst strategy games of all time. Your own personal rankings, of course, may differ from the lists below; feel free to post your own picks for the top strategy games of all time.The 10 Best-Reviewed Strategy Games for PCTitleYearPublisherMetascoreUsers120052K Games947.5'A game with this much depth, this much strategy, this much replayability, and multiplayer is totally unheard of in this space. Civilization IV stands alone.

No fan of strategy games should leave this on store shelves.' - GameSpyStill the gold standard for turn-based strategy games after five years (heck, we've played it as recently as last week), Sid Meier's empire-building classic was the 2005 game of the year in many publications.

Famously difficult to stop playing, the addictive game offers generally better gameplay and graphics than previous versions, although some fans prefer the equally high-scoring Civ 2, especially for combat. Civilization V arrives in September, promising a new take on the nearly 20-year-old series. Related titles:94 (1996)90 (2000)84 (2006)86 (2007)83 (2008)22006THQ939.0'You've never seen a strategy game with combat as intense as Company of Heroes.'

- Games RadarRelic's real-time strategy classic is set during World War II, taking players through the Battle of Normandy, including the Americans' D-Day assault on Omaha Beach. Heroes was a hit with players and critics for its blend of chaotic action, demanding strategy, and historical detail. Related titles:87 (2007)70 (2009)31999Sierra Studios939.0'Engrossing RTS play matched to a vital and visually intense story make this a gaming experience like no other.' - PC GamerIt might be over a decade old, but this is the game that StarCraft II must beat to become the highest-scoring sci-fi strategy game of all time. In fact, many longtime PC gamers consider Homeworld (another Relic title) one of the best games ever made, thanks to its compelling story, cinematic 3D graphics, excellent soundtrack, and challenging gameplay. A 2003 sequel didn't add much to the experience, and certainly wasn't the groundbreaking release that the original was. Related titles:89 (2000)83 (2003)42002Blizzard Ent.928.6'The yardstick that will be used to measure strategy games for some time to come.'

- Gamers' TempleThe third major installment (and the final one in the real-time strategy genre) in Blizzard's Warcraft franchise that began with 1994's Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and includes the world's most popular MMORPG, Reign of Chaos was a monster hit, becoming the fastest-selling PC game of all time shortly after its 2002 release. With four very distinct playable races, the title offered a lot of replay value, while also wowing in the graphics and story departments (even if it borrowed some elements from Blizzard's StarCraft). Related titles:88 (2003)93 (2004)52004Activision/Sega928.9'Many games are excellent world-builders, and many are deep real time strategy war games. Rome: Total War sets out to be both and pulls it off wonderfully.' - Gaming AgeThe best-reviewed title in Creative Assembly's ongoing historical combat strategy series, Rome: Total War is set just before and after the formation of the Roman Empire. Ostensibly a real-time strategy game, Rome also incorporates elements of turn-based strategy in its empire-building aspects, which can span hundreds of turns and in some aspects can rival Civ 4. But it is the game's intense and highly detailed battles that are its calling card, allowing players to command thousands of soldiers at once.

And anyone annoyed by the game's historical inaccuracies can download the Rome: Total Realism mod. Related titles:84 (2000)88 (2002)82 (2005)79 (2006)88 (2006)90 (2009)81 (2010)61999Microsoft929.2'If you've ever liked any other real-time strategy game in this classical style, then you'll clearly see why this one deserves so much credit, even in direct comparison to the finest examples in its category.' - GameSpotSet during a thousand-year span encompassing the Middle Ages, the second AoE title took an already acclaimed series and made it even better (especially in the AI department), becoming a huge financial success in the process and influencing countless RTS games that followed. Another full sequel and spin-off titles like Age of Mythology would follow, although none would achieve quite the level of critical acclaim as AoE II.

Related titles:83 (1997)88 (2000)89 (2002)81 (2005)71999Electronic Arts929.8'It is, by all accounts, one of the best turn-based strategy games ever made and perhaps the best ever of its kind.' - Adrenaline VaultWhile it's arguably a sequel to another strategy game mentioned elsewhere on this list, the thought-provoking and story-driven Alpha Centauri is different enough from the Civilization series to merit inclusion on its own.

Picking up where Civilization ends (at least in one scenario), SMAC ventures into the science fiction realm, following a group of colonists who set out into space and crash on a mysterious new world. The game was compared favorably by many critics to Civilization II, but there has yet to be a sequel to this popular title (though there was a 2000 expansion, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire).82001Electronic Arts907.2'One of the most unique - and enjoyable - strategy games we've seen this year.' - GameSpyIf there's a single game on this list that doesn't belong here, it might be this one. Legendary game designer Peter Molyneux was instrumental in the development of the so-called 'god game' genre, and Black & White - based on part on his own Populous from over a decade earlier - is his most famous example. Critics initially lauded this ambitious RPG-strategy-sim hybrid, which allowed gamers literally to play as a god while attempting to take control of multiple villages and battle the evil god Nemesis. But, over time, the critical consensus moved into a grey area, with publications like GameSpy (yes, the same one quoted above) finding the game.

Critics were also unimpressed with later expansions and a 2005 sequel. Related titles:72 (2002)75 (2005)69 (2006)92002EA/Crave909.6'The game's clever design and meticulously well-thought out, considerate presentation are accentuated by innovative gameplay that professionally melds the genres of RPG and strategy into a completely interactive and lively world.' - IGNWhile most of the games on this list are either set in outer space or are based on historical conquests, this 2002 release took a different approach, focusing on a team of original superheroes created by Irrational Games. Mixing real-time tactics with elements of RPGs, Freedom Force was hailed at the time as the best comic book-style game ever made, with personality to spare.102000Interplay899.4'Gorgeous, polished, groundbreaking, and a lot of other impressive-sounding adjectives, but it's also chaotic and lacking in the precise micro-management and complex planning that endears many people to the genre.' - Computer Games MagazineThis 3D fantasy RTS title puts players in the role of a wizard, able to cast a variety of spells and grow in powers as the game progresses, set in a world with five warring gods. Though Sacrifice was praised for its stunning graphics, original concept, and even its voice acting, it did not sell well, and was quickly forgotten.Games are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding.

Only major releases (with at least 15 critic reviews) were eligible for inclusion; expansions were excluded from consideration. Only the highest-scoring game in a series is included in the rankings; any sequels or prequels are grouped in the 'Related titles' listings and were excluded from the rankings.The 5 Worst-Reviewed Strategy Games for PCTitleYearPublisherMetascoreUsers12009Mezmer Games253.9'The worst game we’ve ever reviewed, and that’s being generous.' - Total PC GamingWhile the simplistic game was intended as a parody of World War II real-time strategy titles, it turns out that neither critics nor gamers found much to laugh at in Stalin vs. Critics could not single out just one single aspect of the game that was bad; instead, they found it truly awful across the board. It turns out that when infamous Russian leaders battle invading Martians, nobody wins.22006Left Behind Games384.0'Avoid this title like the plague.

Not only are you sparing yourself the discomfort of ham-fisted preaching and shoddy game mechanics, you’ll also be doing your part to ensure that this obscene mess of eschatological flotsam and apocryphal jetsam never sees a sequel.' - Worth PlayingIn theory, an evangelical Christian videogame about the Rapture doesn't have to be bad. But when the execution is as poor as it is here, the result doesn't have a prayer of a chance at success. Based on the Left Behind novels, the buggy Eternal Forces couldn't even convert the religious; some Christian groups criticized the game for its violence and lack of Christian values.32004Magnum Games429.3'To paraphrase an old psychology axiom, if the game sounds bad, looks bad and plays bad, it probably is bad.'

- Cheat Code CentralA team-based strategy game, Beyond the Law is set in a New York City overrun by mobsters. But this low-budget, low-cost title was also low on options, technical prowess, playability, and fun, according to critics, who were left frustrated and bored.42009Sega424.4'This frustrating, broken mess is one of the worst strategy games in years.' - GameSpotWhile the other low-scoring titles here were from smaller studios, Stormrise was developed by The Creative Assembly (of Total War fame) and published by Sega. But though it demonstrated some good ideas, this post-apocalyptic RTS title - also released for the 360 and PS3 - was still a major failure, thanks mainly to a widely-panned control scheme that somehow worked even more poorly on a PC than it did on the consoles.52005Strategy First Inc.446.2'There are just far too many better options out there when it comes to strategy games, so why bother with a poorly designed one that is in the end an exercise in frustration?' - Gamers' TempleThis futuristic title blends tactical strategy and RPG in a such a way as to disappoint fans of both genres as well as anyone hoping for a solid cyberpunk gaming experience. Critic after critic named the plot, voice acting, gameplay, and graphics as just some of the reasons not to purchase this tedious and poorly-executed release.What do you think?What are your favorite strategy games? Are you looking forward to StarCraft II?

Let us know in the comments section below. What about Evil Genius and the Dungeon Keeper series? Also SM Pirates or Tropico series? I have played almost all the games mentioned above and if I had to rank them.1. Civ 2/4 or SMAC for 4x turn based2.

Simcity 3 w/ Rush hour add-on - general sim3. Star Craft - smoothest RTS4. Master of Orion 2 - best space base 4x5. Evil Genius - Best evil/dungeon sim6.

Dawn of War - Best mix of risk-like strategy & RTSThe rest were good but those titles to me took there perspective genre's to the peak. Writing these lists is a pain because I have spent so many hours playing these games its hard to gauge what makes a game great. If it absorbs more of your time than another strategy title does that make it better?

I agree with staubin that Jagged Alliance 2 should have been on here. Many of the games on this list are games I've spent countless hours playing and are games I enjoy; but JA2, especially since the release of the source code, has taken away more of my life at my PC than any other game I've played, even Civ IV and the games from the Total War series.Also, I agree with al that Homeworld is such a great game that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. It's been about a year or two since I've played the original, but I still miss many of its gameplay elements that were omitted from the sequel.