4 – Aliens: Dark Descent
I’m actually playing Aliens: Dark Descent right now, and it’s not at all what I was expecting. When I heard about the game, I thought that in this real-time tactics (RTT) squad-based action game set in the iconic Alien universe, players would command a team of hardened Colonial Marines individually to contain a catastrophic Xenomorph outbreak on the moon Lethe in the year 2198. What players do is control the squad as a whole, and that is the sole unique focus of the gameplay, which makes it a very strange and very unique approach to strategy games, placing an immense emphasis on the survival of the squad as a whole (even if it limits tactics, because why can I not use my machine-gunner to flank aliens? You might say this is not realistic, and I would agree, but I want to flank the aliens anyway). The game is a tense blend of squad management, survival horror, and real-time strategy, where players must issue commands and utilize class-based abilities to navigate large, persistent, and open levels, where squad and ability placement, as well as some stealth, are essential for survival.
Between missions, you manage your base on the USS Otago, customizing and leveling up your marines across five classes, while also managing their mental health and stress levels, which can lead to permanent psychological traumas if ignored.
3 – Call to Arms: Ostfront
Call to Arms – Gates of Hell: Ostfront is a semi-realistic World War II real-time tactics (RTT) and real-time strategy (RTS) game and is essentially a direct descendant of the much-beloved Men of War series. Unlike Company of Heroes, which includes a lot of base building and resource gathering (capturing), what makes Gates of Hell: Ostfront unique is its complete absence of base-building and its immersive, ground-level gameplay focusing on small unit tactics. Players can command units in a classic top-down RTS view but can also instantly switch to directly control any unit—be it a single infantry soldier or a tank—in a third-person or even a first-person gunner perspective. This allows for deep, direct management of firefights and vehicle aiming, emphasizing tactical realism and detail. The game is constantly being updated, with hundreds of vehicles (the Steam page states over 250 vehicles and 100 heavy weapons are available) and units, and hundreds of missions and maps if you account for the several existing DLCs. The game also has authentic combat mechanics, including armor penetration values, modeled vehicle components, and ballistics. The game shines especially in multiplayer, with a vibrant competitive community and plenty of co-op experiences on custom-made maps against the AI.
2 – Door Kickers 2: Task Force North
Were it not for my personal experience with the number one game on this list, I think that Door Kickers 2: Task Force North would be a legitimate top contender. It’s not just one of the best real-time tactics games of 2025, but one of the best strategy games ever made that spent years in Early Access, perfecting its formula, always adding new content, and constantly improving to become an absolute masterpiece of strategy. This is a top-down, real-time tactics game with pause-at-will, putting you in command of military Special Operations Units on daring counterinsurgency raids. Unlike its predecessor’s SWAT setting, this sequel places you in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Nowheraki, tackling threats from terrorist groups. The core gameplay revolves around meticulous pre-mission planning and synchronized execution: you draw paths, set actions like breaching doors, throwing grenades, and covering angles for each of your special operators, and then hit ‘play’ to watch the plan unfold in real-time, with the option to pause and make immediate adjustments. Have you ever played the original Rainbow Six games, where you had to plan the mission beforehand? Door Kickers and Door Kickers 2’s entire crux is completely focused on doing just that and seeing things come together.
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