The RTS genre lives on.
Once upon a time, real-time strategy games ruled the world. What are we talking about if Warcraft III was so influential that both Dota and World of Warcraft were born on its own greatness. And your author’s first game on his first home computer was the first part of Age of Empires. Millennials usually cry two buckets of nostalgic tears, remembering the times in Red Alert, Rise of Nations, Cossacks and even impossible creatures.
But the RTS genre is considered dead. Developing these games is hard, takes time, and you still can’t do better than StarCraft II. And the budgets and hype of AAA console projects just don’t shine for old-school strategies. Does this mean there is nothing to play and you can only play old hits? Not at all. We have put together a selection of new, excellent real-time strategies that will take the place of the titans for you.
Age of Empires IV (2021)
The fourth part of Age of Empires is both the elephant in the room, because it is too famous and impossible not to talk about it, and our elephant, because it is super modern RTS, created according to the canons of the genre. And according to the canon of the series, too, because the game is similar to Age of Empires II, but with a standard implementation of the main mechanics of Age of Empires III, which received cold fans in 2005.
You are still building buildings, researching technology, and moving from generation to generation. The old audience will understand it immediately, and newcomers to Age of Empires IV are ready to be guided by hand. At the same time, there is something that many classic RTS’s lacked about history. While StarCraft and Warcraft offered very different gameplay for their respective factions, Age of Empires did not differentiate much between nations. This is now resolved. In the fourth part, almost every group has a unique mechanic. That is, roughly speaking, parties for England, Rus’ or the Abbasids will want very different things from you. And that’s cool. So don’t forget that AoE IV exists and is still good.
The North Gard (2017)
One of the strongest games in the genre in recent years. Northgard is based on Norse mythology and is mechanically more similar to Warcraft III, but if you only take the strategic part of it. That is, there are no RPG mechanics here. But it has a complex economic system, more similar to Civilization than to the classic RTS. That is, in a game about Vikings, fighting is not your main tool. And this is interesting.
Northgard has a great story campaign, but for some reason the developers at Shiro Games created a bunch of situations in it that limited the ability of the nuclear mechanics. But the game is still amazing, known and at the same time underrated. Make sure you give Northgard an afternoon and it’s worth the attention.
Sons of Valhalla (2022)
A wonderful trial called Sons of Valhalla, like Northgard, is based on the Vikings. But especially here we are waiting for a 2D side-scroller from the RTS world, which, you see, does not happen very often. It’s a cute little game with a tight but interesting combat system, building, and some really nice pixel graphics.
Of course, it is difficult to call Sons of Valhalla a full-fledged replacement for Warcraft III, but it is a good alternative in the short term. New, unique, with a completely different lens, but born from an egg that Blizzard laid in the early 2000s. Make sure you try it and don’t look at the reviews where people compare Sons of Valhalla and Kingdom and get confused. They do not understand anything.
Godsworn (2024)
Still in early access, but it will be a hit. Godsworn is like a new Age of Mythology. Only internally are the Baltic pagans fighting against the crusaders. The units are attractively drawn, everything feels nice, and anyone who has played Age of Empires or its clones will know the basic mechanics. Well, beauty!
For now, of course, it is difficult to estimate how deep Godsworn will be when it is released. But her early access is a huge success. A shiny new RTS that feels both an homage to a classic and a modern game put together by modern people. Godsworn is for the win. So we are waiting for the full release in 2025 and enjoying it. Such gifts for strategy fans do not appear every year.
TFC: The Fertile Crescent (2024)
Nice little indie strategy game similar to early RTS games. Again, the Age of Empires family would be the right reference right now. What is the main feature of TFC, apart from the beautiful pastoral scenery? Because resources here are not just extracted and that’s it, but can be extracted more or more efficiently depending on certain conditions.
Remember how we learned in the old games about watering and farms more food? Therefore, TFC operates a Pharaoh-like system. No, you don’t wait for the Nile to flood, but when you build the same farms, you choose the wettest areas of the land to improve your production. The game only looks cute, but it really punishes the player for making decisions without thinking, and that’s what makes it fun to play.
Diplomacy is not an option (2024)
A mix of RTS and fortress building simulator. And you and I know what this means. Diplomacy is not an option – New Fortress, just a lot simpler. But what does “simpler” even mean? Building and resource gathering mechanics are not that deep. But the fight with a large number of enemies and, of course, the siege are the reasons why you should not play Diplomacy in Choice.
The number of units is just huge. And at that moment when they are around your castle, you don’t know how to remove their protection. And the more valuable is the feeling when it works out. Or rather, if it works out. Diplomacy is not an option on hard difficulty as a hard base for psychopaths, and normal difficulty feels like high in other games. So keep that in mind.
Age of Mythology: Retold (2024)
A complete remake of the epic mythology game where you play as Greeks, Egyptians or Norsemen. Like with Age of Empires mechanics, but with divine magic, mythical units and artifacts. This is one of the greatest RTS games in history, and its remake is not a run-of-the-mill game, but a very cool game that keeps everything that made the great original. It’s time to remember what prostagma is and what malista is. Whoever understood, understood.
It’s great that Age of Mythology: Retold did really well at launch. Her ratings are extremely positive, and high online. And this gives us hope that real-time strategies will survive. Yes, it is impossible to replicate the mechanical excellence of StarCraft II. So what? We have other strategies. And they are good.
