15 – Phantom Brigade
Since version 2.0 of Phantom Brigade came out, the game went from being a fun, but overall forgetable turn-based strategy game with a cool premise (the whole “you can predict what your enemies are going to do thing”), and became a must-play for anybody remotely interested in two things: turn-based strategy, or mechs. The premise is simple: you’re part of a resistance movement and have to liberate the world map by fighting mechs and tanks, using your very own mechs. You can kit them out as you see fit, assign and develop pilots, and acquire new parts after each victory.
14 – Hard West 2
Hard West 2 is XCOM set in a supernatural version of the Wild West, where your cowboys have otherworldly abilities and can ricochet bullets like crazy, making no flank ever feel safe. The first Hard West is also pretty fantastic, and you probably already have it in your Steam library, but if you don’t, pick that up as well; it’s dirt cheap. My recommendation goes to the second one because it’s just a much more polished experience, with a lot more content, and the character abilities are much more developed than they were in the first. Also, there are a lot of new supernatural enemies, and the first game can become quite repetitive after a while.
13 – They Are Billions
We don’t see a lot of new stuff these days about zombies, but there was a time when these undead chompers were all the rage (with The Last of Us and The Walking Dead being cultural phenomena), and it seemed like games were never able to fully capture the scale of a real zombie, especially strategy games. That was until the release of They Are Billions, a real-time strategy game that simulates what a real-world-ending apocalypse and a truly massive zombie horde would look and feel like fighting against, with up to 20,000 units in a horde. After a lengthy stint in Early Access, They Are Billions released with a full-length campaign that’s nearly 60 hours long, and a gauntlet of challenge runs to go by.
12 – Distant Worlds 2
Steallaris might be the fan-favorite, and the obvious choice for a newcomer looking for a grand-strategy title that’s set in the endless expanse of space and sci-fi. However, and assuming you already know that (and possibly even have Stellaris), I’m going to recommend you Distant Worlds 2 instead. This is one of the most systems-rich strategy games ever made, with a living galaxy filled with independent factions, ever-evolving economics, pirates, existential cosmic threats, and wars. The game lets you decide how gradually you want to control it by allowing players to manually direct individual mining ships or to automatically let the game’s AI run entire areas of your empire for you, making the experience a lot more manageable for new players. Can you remember a game that was widely praised for adding this kind of automation recently? Yup, Europa Universalis 5 did the same thing, and it’s something that players seem to enjoy a lot. I actually reviewed Distant Worlds 2 when it came out, was so surprised at the amount of detail on display, and I often recall, when talking to my friends, how what impressed me about it was the moment I found out that, to talk to other alien races, you have to first learn their languages. Now that’s an immersive strategy game, and a core memory that will never go away.
11 – RimWorld
What can I say about RimWorld that hasn’t been said and repeated millions of times? It’s the best colony-sim in existence, and a game that will have you playing for thousands of hours if you fall in love with it.
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