5 – LEGO Rock Raiders
I know, I know, the hardcore wargamers amongst you are already looking at this and thinking “What the heck is wrong with this guy?!” – Folks, listen to me, Lego Rock Raiders is an amazing strategy game for the time. Besides, most Lego games are good games anyway. I describe Lego Rock Raiders as if someone picked up the original Dungeon Keeper and asked themselves: “How can we make this into Lego?” and that’s basically how we got Lego Rock Raiders. All jokes aside, Lego Rock Raiders is a tough-as-nails management/real-time strategy game about exploring caves, building your base, keeping your minifigs alive (by avoiding landslides, lava and native cave dwellers) and being supplied with oxygen as they drill ever deeper in search of more crystals. You could even control a single Rock Raider and play with him, 20 years before Call to Arms! There’s a fan remake of it available for download right now, so if you’re curious, give it a go here.
4 – Tzar: Burden of the Crown
Do you want to know how to spot old RTS games? Look at gameplay and see if their user interface is on the side, instead of being at the bottom. That’s the case for Tzar: Burden of the Crown. Released at the dawn of the new millennium, and developed by Haemimont Games, Tzar: Burden of the Crown can now be considered a cult classic RTS. Looking back at it, it’s a very basic RTS with base building, resource gathering, unit building and fighting, but it has some phenomenal pixelated graphics, incredible sprite animations (rather smooth for its time), and a lovely fantastical feel. It’s well worth going back and revisiting this one, especially if you played it as a kid.
3 – Phantom Brigade
I still believe that Phantom Brigade lost a lot of visibility due to its self-imposed exile on the Epic Games Store, where it stayed for nearly 3 years, coming to Steam only in 2023. It’s a turn-based tactics game where your mech units have a time device that gives them the ability to look 5 seconds into the future- allowing them to see the enemy’s actions and act out their actions in the best way possible. Imagine a more complex Into The Breach, and this is it. The game is also split between two layers, the world map, and the tactical battles. On the world map you manage your units, build and customize your mechs, and then take them to fight. It’s very vanilla in that sense, but the mech customization is cool and in-depth: you can swap almost any part and try and build your perfect squad.
2 – The Lord of the Rings : The Battle for Middle-Earth
In the early 2000s, some genius guy realized that the Lord of the Rings could be a great strategy game in the vein of Age of Empires, and so The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth came to be, and it didn’t take long until it became one of the most beloved RTS ever put to code. An instant classic. It’s very much a classic RTS with base-building aspects based on the major 4 factions (Gondor, Rohan, Orcs and Uruk-Hai) of the titular series. There are a couple of interesting twists: units that operate in groups, hero units (Gandalf, the Witch King, Frodo, and so on), special powers, and veterancy. The Battle for Middle-Earth also did massive special combat units like Trolls and Ents long before Total War: Warhammer. Now that I think about it: where’s my Total War: Lord of the Rings?
I don’t think you can buy The Battle for Middle-Earth anymore, so you’ll have to do some digging if you want to get this one up and running.
1 – They Are Billions
I still think that They Are Billions never received the widespread acclaim and recognition it deserved by the wider gaming community, despite it seemingly being a massive financial success. They Are Billions is a Steampunk real-time strategy title set in a land overrun by zombies looking to feast on the few remaining humans. You are tasked with building your town, its defences, economy and army and defending against the massive hordes of undead, and while there might not be billions of them on screen, there are certainly a couple thousand. It’s heart-pounding, hard, and so satisfying to play as a player who loves turtling and- building cumbersome, non-practical, borderline non-function, but impressive fortresses and defences.
There’s a guy from the development studio on Steam still answering questions, saying that the studio is alive, so the hope for a They Are Billions 2 is still real.
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