Summary
- Strategy games vary from turn-based to real-time, with multiplayer experiences often elevating the gaming experience.
- Total War: Shogun 2's complex strategic gameplay makes it suitable for lengthy multiplayer sessions with up to 2 players.
- Games like Wargame: Red Dragon and StarCraft 2 offer refined multiplayer experiences with strategic complexities and historical accuracies.
Strategy games have always been popular, and date back to the very earliest days of gaming. They come in different flavors, from 4X strategy games that can take days or even weeks for a campaign to complete, to simpler real-time strategy games that can be played in short sessions.
Best Grand Strategy Games For Building Empires From Scratch
Gamers who enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from forging an empire from scratch will find much to love in these grand strategy games.
When it comes to multiplayer in strategy games, the best of them tend to provide a modified gaming experience over and above that which is available in the single-player experience. Some of these games helped to defiance the genre. Others were and still are the backbone of competitive esports tournaments and professional gaming.
7 Total War: Shogun 2
Combat In Feudal Japanese Style
Total War: Shogun 2
- Released
- March 15, 2011
- Developer(s)
- Creative Assembly
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, Tactical
Total War: Shogun 2 is a game that combines aspects of turn-based grand strategy gameplay, with real-time strategy battles. A combination that the franchise has repeatedly leveraged with great success. Bringing this gameplay to a multiplayer environment must have been quite a challenge.
6 Best Strategy Games With Personalised Units
These strategy games come with a unique flair and have players bonding with their individual, customizable units.
Total War: Shogun 2 makes this list for being a game that manages to seamlessly combine multiplayer strategic gameplay on the main map, with multiplayer real-time battles on the tactical map. A multiplayer game can take many hours, especially with more than 2 players.
6 Wargame: Red Dragon
Fight The Cold War
Wargame: Red Dragon
The new reference in RTS at its best!
The Wargame series returns to duty, larger, richer and more spectacular than ever before. In Wargame Red Dragon, you are engaged in a large-scale conflict where Western forces clash against the Communist bloc.
1991: the two blocs confront each other in a new theater of war, Asia, joined by various other countries: Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
You command the military resources of all 17 nations involved, assembling your fighting force from a phenomenal selection of 1,450 units that have been meticulously reproduced from their source! Command tanks, planes, helicopters, new warships and amphibious units in intense battles of unequaled tactical depth. Master the relief of varied, ultra realistic battlefields, dominate the new maritime areas and rewrite history in a conflict that has been directed and designed in stunning detail by development studio Eugen Systems.
Wargame Red Dragon is thrilling in single-player mode with its new dynamic campaign system, and also offers an extensive multiplayer mode where up to 20 players can compete against each other simultaneously.
- Released
- April 17, 2014
- Developer
- Eugen Systems
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy, Simulation, Indie Games, Tactical
Wargame: Red Dragon is a real-time tactical warfare game. It is set in the era of the Cold War. Players do battle on one of the many included maps, based on real-world geographical regions. Most of the available units are historically accurate to some extent.
The game leans heavily on actual warfare tactics of the era, which leveraged the strengths and weaknesses of each type of unit. Players need to understand the required military strategy to defeat other players in multiplayer mode, as concepts such as flanking and other position-based attacks come into play in this excellent multiplayer military strategy game.
5 Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
Four Factions Fight for Supremacy
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
ONLY THE RUTHLESS SURVIVE
From the creators of the #1-selling action/strategy game of all time comes a new generation of chaos. Cunning, sinister, and seemingly unstoppable, the demonic Burning Legion prepare to launch their long awaited assault on the mortal world. Survival is a matter of strategy, as the Reign of Chaos begins...
- Released
- July 3, 2002
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Platform(s)
- Microsoft Windows, macOS
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos is a classic Western RTS game in every sense. Leveraging established fantasy tropes such as the races of Men, Elves, Undead, and Orcs. It follows the old-school RTS gameplay of gathering resources, building a defensive base, and training various units to create an invading army,
The game makes this list simply because it offers some pure, classic RTS multiplayer gameplay in the same vein as StarCraft and Command & Conquer. Skirmish battles were fast, furious, and finished quite quickly. Put simply, it was fun and not too complicated.
4 StarCraft 2
A Modern Update To StarCraft
StarCraft 2
As real-time strategy games go, StarCraft 2 is a big hitter. One of the first games to be used as the basis for big bucks esports tournaments, and still popular today. A game that is both simple to learn and complex to master.
The Top 6 Turn-Based Strategy Games With The Best Stories
These are 6 turn-based strategy games with the most enthralling narratives.
Why did StarCraft 2 make this list and the original StarCraft didn’t? Simply because StarCraft 2 offers a much more refined multiplayer experience. StarCraft 2 harks back to a time when developers wrote netcode for modem play and all of the downsides of this. StarCraft 2 is much more modern and plays extremely well in multiplayer mode.
3 Age Of Empires 2
Historical RTS With Great Multiplayer
Age of Empires 2
- Developer(s)
- Ensemble Studios
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 2
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
As a single-player game, Age of Empires 2 has much to offer, with its exquisitely crafted setting that focuses on historical civilizations. It incorporates research, resource management, and different ways to win the campaign. But how does this complexity translate to the multiplayer experience?
The developers did a fantastic job of incorporating multiplayer into Age of Empires 2. They kept the complexity of offline play and managed to add a layer of strategic complexity beyond the normal skirmish style of gameplay that other strategy games offer. No two matches are the same, as players battle to take control of the game map.
2 Command & Conquer: Generals
Frantic RTS Combat
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Classic Mac OS
- Released: 2003
- Developer: Danger Close, Aspyr, EA Pacific, i5works
- Genre: Real-time strategy, Action game, Adventure game, Strategy
The Command & Conquer franchise did much to define the RTS genre. However, the choice of C ommand & Conquer: Generals for this list might, at first, seem a little strange. The single-player experience in this game was criticized, mostly because it moved away from tried and tested mechanics.
7 Best Strategy Games With RPG Elements
The best strategy games featuring RPG elements approach these role-playing mechanics in different ways, both in and out of combat.
However, those very same changes that were criticized are what make it such a great multiplayer game. Command & Conquer: Generals is much faster-paced than previous games in the franchise, and also requires the player to capture certain areas of the map and defend them. Overall, it is a fun, action-packed game with even just 2 players. With 4 or more players it is pure chaos.
1 Age Of Mythology
Wield Devine Powers
Age of Mythology
HISTORY MADE LARGER THAN LIFE
9 LEGENDARY CIVILIZATIONS
STRATEGIC DEPTH
EPIC CAMPAIGN
3D ENGINE
REDESIGNED INTERFACE
- Released
- October 30, 2002
- Developer(s)
- Ensemble Studios
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy, Tactical
Age Of Mythology is well worth the top spot on this list. Featuring almost grand strategy-style gameplay elements such as resource management and base building, it still manages to pull off some frenetic real-time combat.
During multiplayer matches, players have access to all of the tools and abilities from the single-player experience. This includes all of the mythical units, and more importantly, any god powers they manage to unlock. This results in a real-time strategy game that is much deeper than simply building a defensive base and then throwing a never-ending stream of units at enemy players. Put simply, multiplayer in Age Of Mythology requires strategic thinking and carefully made decisions.
5 Best Strategy Games That Take Place On The Moon
The typical Strategy game gives players command of a nation on Earth, but these entries in the Strategy genre instead send them to colonize the Moon.