4 – Total War: Warhammer 3

The release of Total War: Warhammer created a massive divide between those who exclusively enjoy historical titles and those who embraced this new fantastical turn that Creative Assembly was making. The last decade saw the release of the Total War: Warhammer trilogy of games, a series that saw the Total War franchise go from moribund to releasing some of the best-selling strategy games of all time.

My two personal favorites are Total War: Warhammer 2 and Total War: Warhammer 3, as those were the titles that saw the series really ditch its traditional faction design and 100% embrace the ridiculousness of the Warhammer fantasy franchise, where each faction is widely different from one another, with different armies, types of units, playstyles, and even campaign end-goals. On top of that, add the Immortal Empires game mode that brings all of the maps into a single, gigantic campaign, with hundreds of factions fighting for control, and I think it’s no stretch to say that hardly any other games out there offer this much value for your money, especially if you buy it on sale.

3 – XCOM 2

Now we’re down to the top 3, and this is where things really got complicated for me, and that’s because I think that any one of these games could be my number 1, and for a time, they were. So I’m going to go on how I feel about them looking back, as of right now, and I think that XCOM 2 deserves its third place, and before you get your pitchforks out, do let me explain why I think that is, because if we were talking about XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it would rank number one without a doubt.

While Enemy Unknown was a genre-revolutionizing game, a title that went on to single-handedly revitalize the turn-based strategy genre, not only for turn-based games, but for literally everything else that was played in turns, including RPGs, XCOM 2 did not have that impact, not even by a long shot. XCOM 2 was a solid addition to the franchise, and one that’s superior to the original in almost every way, aside from the setting, as I much prefer the original. The introduction of new stealth mechanics, new classes, enemies, and missions already made XCOM 2 into a top-tier turn-based strategy game, but the addition of the excellent War of the Chosen expansion made it, arguably, the best in the series for the majority of players.

2 – Into The Breach

One of my biggest regrets was never getting around to reviewing Into The Breach, and the fact that I already had the website running when it came out just stings even harder. However, that regret is balanced with the joy I had when I picked it up for the first time (and the following months), and I still vividly remember coming home from work, waiting for the game to release, and picking it up as soon as it went live. The 8 by 8 battlefield grid, paired up with the perfect information on what the enemy is about to do next, and a team of mechs who all work together to manipulate the enemies against themselves and the environment, created an addictive gameplay loop that kept me coming back for months! I unlocked every mech team and finished the game with all of them.

The game got updated some years after, and a lot more mechs entered the fray, but I still haven’t had the time to give those a go. If you’re just getting started with Into The Breach, the amount of content in here is just insane.

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