Strategy games is an enormous genre in PC gaming, with real-time, turn-based, 4X and tactics games all flying the same flag to stake their claim as the one true best strategy game. Our list of the best strategy games on PC covers the lot of them. We like to take a broad view here at RPS, and every game listed below is something we firmly believe that you could love and play today. You'll find 30-year-old classics nestled right up against recent favourites here, so whether you're to the genre or want to dig deep for some hidden gems, we've got you covered. Here are our 50 best strategy games for 2023.
]]>We would never do anything to hurt you. Our loyalty is beyond dispute. That’s just how trustworthy we are on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. If anyone is the spy here, it’s you. I don’t even recognise you. Have you been to this website before? You look nervous. Maybe you’re hiding something. Maybe you’re planning to stab us all in the back when we’re not looking. Traitor! Traitor! Everybody look at the traitor and not over here, at our treachery-filled podcast.
]]>The slow hordes of fantasy zombies from Blight of the Immortals [official site] were first spotted back in 2010. “Hmm, there’s some undead from a browser-based strategy on the horizon” we thought. “Spawned by the folks who made Neptune’s Pride, looks like. But that’s fine, they are very far away.” Six years later and the zombies on our doorstep. And by “doorstep” I mean Steam. The browser version has been out for yonks but has been heavily spruced up via Steam Greenlight over the past few months and was released yesterday. You can now indulge in time-hopping single-player or team up with friends for “the slowest real time game you’ve ever played”.
]]>Subterfuge [official site] isn't a PC game, but it looks like one, plays like one, and is heavily inspired by one. I've just finished my first game of it, and I think it's better than Neptune's Pride for a number of reasons. Not least of which is that it's an experience I had which ended up guilt-free.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
If you have, you probably only played it once.
]]>Neptune's Pride 2 is the most exciting game I'm never going to play. The sequel to the space strategy backstab-'em-up has just been updated with a set of features that sound like it'll be more pleasant to be miserable than ever before.
]]>Few games have had quite as much emotional impact on the RPS (or indeed PC Gamer) team as the original Neptune's Pride. You can read the complete, epic account of our intrigue and anguish in this real-time browser-based strategy here. It was so affecting that it took over our lives for several weeks. And now it is BACK. Neptune's Pride II: Triton has quietly launched and I can hear the sound of inevitability ringing in my ears.
Tutorial overview video explains the new game, below.
]]>In case you missed it first time around in March 2010, this epic space conflict AAR is about as required-reading as this site has to offer.
Neptune's Pride is a slow-form multiplayer Strategy game. We got together with our friends from PC Gamer to play. Weeks of bloodthirst, treachery and violence on a galactic scale later, we stopped. Then took a few weeks to recover. And then we wrote about it. The results follow. They say more about the players than anyone would like to admit.
]]>If one thing gets RPS' collective heart racing, it's slowform strategy games with inscrutable diplomatic dimensions. Well, John's bit of the heart doesn't race to that, but it's cold and black, and makes this weird groaning noise... Anyway, one company which has been masterful in the production of these kinds of games is Australian outfit Iron Helmet, who have been responsible for first Neptune's Pride and now Blight Of The Immortals, both browser-based multiplayer strategies of excellent repute. We spoke to their mastermind, Jay Kyburz, and asked him to explain his activities.
]]>Since November, I've been playing one of two games all day, every day.
]]>Neptune's Pride is a slow-form multiplayer strategy game. We got together with our friends from PC Gamer to play. Weeks of bloodthirst, treachery and violence on a galactic scale later, we stopped. Then took a few weeks to recover. And then we wrote about it. The results follow. They say more about the players than anyone would like to admit.
]]>It's over! 17,000 words later and at last we have a victor for this, the most miserable and guilty of all AARs. Will the galaxy enter the rule of Kieron's glittering red Empire? Or will it be empurpled by the all-powerful, all-duplicitious Graham? Or perhaps blue underdog Jimothy Rossignol will at last spring his winning gambit. Read the grim and salty conclusion to our game of Neptune's Pride after the jump (or read it over at the PC Gamer blog here here).
]]>The battle for galactic domination has been reduced to just a handful of titanic empires. Victory, however, hangs in the balance. Will exhaustion finally exact its toll on the generals of this epic war? If you're enjoying these reports then EXCITINGLY SLOW SPACE WAR AWAITS YOU in Neptune's Pride. You can also read a version of this diary over on PC Gamer.
]]>Empires have risen, and now they are falling. The fifth part of our battle for Neptune's Pride sees the final contenders struggling for ultimate victory in a long, drawn-out attrition that would tax their very souls... (PCG's version of this diary is over here.)
]]>Who will rule space? No Sponge, that's for sure. But who else might take the crown? Could it be Graham's exploding Empire? Or Jim's embattled corner of space? Or the vast Empire of Quinns? Place your bets for part four... And maybe go sign up to Neptune's Pride yourself. (PCG are also running a version of this diary, over yonder.)
]]>The slow space war of Neptune's Pride continues with one more player knocked from his seat in the heavens. Who will it be? And can the others agree on a permanent alliance to win the game? (PC Gamer are also running this diary over here.)
]]>We've been playing the epic browser-based strategy Neptune's Pride, and marveling at its dark psychological potential. A mix of the galaxy's finest generals, hand-picked from the slightly awkward ranks of the RPS and PC Gamer (whose coverage is here), would decide the fate of our pocket universe.
Read on for the second part of the battle, where there is no love to be made: only war.
]]>Neptune's Pride is an in-development slow-form browser-based strategy game from Iron Helmet games, currently in open beta. You can play it now. Over a period of a month or so, we did just that, with intriguing consequences. We've joined forces with PC Gamer (who are also posting this diary here) to bring you the full story of what happened...
]]>The RPS battle of Neptune's Pride treads steadily on. We're reaching that late-1917 in WW1 period of exhaustion, and we're still trying to work out how we're going to write it up. However, to get a taste for it, here's Quinns writing about it for Game Set Watch. He sums up the game so...
]]>I haven't played this yet - though I've just signed up - but this beta interests me in a couple of ways. Firstly, it's by a new developer founded by ex-Irrationalite (i.e. Freedom Force, Swat, Bioshock, etc) Jay Kyburz with fellow Irrationalites. It seems I like writing "Irrationalites". Secondly, it may be the closest thing I've seen to what I wished for at the end of my Travian piece back in the day - diplomacy-heavy, low-maintenance, smaller-player-numbers strategy game you can slide into your day. Neptune's Pride is a online-only space-empire game. It's been in development for 4 months, but is already is functional and in open Beta. There's a video below which shows the basics, but you'd be better going to look around the site.
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