GameStack

Strategy

Battle Chasers: Nightwar
Indie
79Metacritic

Battle Chasers: Nightwar

Oct 3, 2017
RPGStrategyIndie

This is a turn-based role-playing game with strategy elements, featuring classic JRPG combat and exploration. Players navigate a desolate overworld, uncovering dungeons, bosses, and lore while managing hero abilities and equipment. The story unfolds non-linearly through discovered lore, with key moments presented in 2D animation.

238 reviews · Metacritic
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
AAA
82Metacritic

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

Mar 6, 2007
ActionShooterStrategy

This is a tactical shooter game featuring squad-based combat. Players control elite soldiers called the Ghosts, using an advanced system to coordinate strikes and navigate a 1,900-mile border conflict. The campaign takes place in 2014 along the U.S./Mexico border, with a 72-hour time limit to stop rebel forces.

106 reviews · Metacritic
King's Bounty II
AAA
64Metacritic

King's Bounty II

Aug 23, 2021
RPGStrategy

This game is a turn-based tactical RPG with strategy elements. Players control one of three heroes in a non-linear open world, making decisions that affect the narrative and environment. The story is set in the fantasy realm of Antara, where a spreading blight forces choices between survival and moral consequences.

59 reviews · Metacritic
Empire: Total War
90Metacritic

Empire: Total War

Mar 3, 2009
Strategy

This strategy game is set in the 18th century and focuses on empire-building through turn-based global management. Players control major factions like Great Britain or Spain, handling diplomacy, economy, and colonization on a strategic map, while battles unfold in real-time with historically accurate unit behaviors. Naval combat is introduced for the first time in the series, featuring interactive ship-to-ship engagements.

276 reviews · Metacritic
King's Bounty: Dark Side
73Metacritic

King's Bounty: Dark Side

Aug 14, 2014
AdventureRPGStrategy

This game is a turn-based strategy RPG with adventure elements, where players control one of three protagonists from different dark races. Core gameplay involves managing armies, completing quests, and engaging in tactical combat while exploring a world divided by racial conflicts. The story follows Orc-Baghyr, Neoleene, and Daert as they unite against a common threat from the forces of light to prevent their races' extinction.

93 reviews · Metacritic
Toribash
Indie

Toribash

Jul 12, 2010
ActionStrategyIndie

Toribash is a turn-based fighting game featuring ragdoll physics mechanics. Players control joints on a character's body to execute moves, with turns advancing frame-by-frame. Matches take place in a ring-based arena where the objective is to outscore or knock out the opponent.

Too early to review
Omerta - City of Gangsters
48Metacritic

Omerta - City of Gangsters

Jan 31, 2013
RPGStrategySimulation

This game is a strategy simulation with turn-based tactical combat and RPG elements. Players assume the role of an immigrant in 1920s Atlantic City, building a criminal empire through territory control, recruitment, and progression. The setting includes historically accurate locations and features both single-player and multiplayer modes with persistent gang progression.

68 reviews · Metacritic
Fortified
Indie
66Metacritic

Fortified

Feb 3, 2016
ActionStrategyIndie

This game blends third-person shooter, real-time strategy, and tower defense mechanics. Players defend against waves of Martian invaders using a mix of direct combat and building defensive structures, switching between approaches as needed. Set in a retro-futuristic Cold War-inspired sci-fi universe, it features characters like a jetpack pilot and a space cowboy, with cooperative multiplayer options.

126 reviews · Metacritic
Shadowrun Returns
Indie
76Metacritic

Shadowrun Returns

Jul 24, 2013
RPGStrategyIndie

This tactical RPG is set in a cyberpunk future where players control a customizable shadowrunner in Seattle. The core gameplay involves turn-based combat and investigative missions, including a linear campaign with branching dialogue. The story follows the protagonist as they uncover a conspiracy linked to a serial killer and a dead man’s switch.

732 reviews · Metacritic
Desperados III
84Metacritic

Desperados III

Jun 15, 2020
ActionStrategy

This is a real-time tactics game set in the Wild West during the 1870s. Players control a team of five specialists, each with unique abilities, to complete missions through stealth, sabotage, and combat while avoiding detection. The game features a variety of environments and mission types, with an emphasis on strategic planning and execution.

218 reviews · Metacritic
Clicker Heroes
Indie

Clicker Heroes

May 13, 2015
AdventureRPGStrategy

Clicker Heroes is an idle game where players repeatedly defeat enemies to accumulate gold and upgrade characters. The core mechanic involves using hero souls, earned from bosses, to purchase Ancients that provide permanent stat bonuses, requiring players to reset progress to optimize upgrades. The game features a campaign mode with missions and an online multiplayer mode, but lacks a narrative-driven storyline.

Too early to review
Drawful 2
Indie
74Metacritic

Drawful 2

Jun 20, 2016
StrategyCasualIndie

A party-style drawing and guessing game where players sketch prompts on their devices and others must guess the intended subject. Players type their guesses, and all participants vote on the most accurate interpretation, with scoring based on correct matches. The game supports local multiplayer and streaming, allowing for user-generated prompts and expanded tools for online play.

315 reviews · Metacritic
Black & White 2
75Metacritic

Black & White 2

Oct 4, 2005
StrategySimulation

This is a strategy and simulation game where players assume the role of a deity, choosing between benevolent or malevolent actions in a warring 3D world. Core gameplay involves influencing tribes to either coexist peacefully or wage war, commanding creatures that learn abilities and lead armies, and using miracles like rivers of fire or earthquakes. The setting features evolving landscapes, structures, and ecosystems that dynamically change based on the player's moral decisions and actions.

123 reviews · Metacritic
Dungeon Defenders
Indie
81Metacritic

Dungeon Defenders

Dec 16, 2010
ActionRPGStrategy

A hybrid game combining tower defense and action RPG elements, *Dungeon Defenders* involves players defending against enemy waves by building and upgrading defensive structures. Set in the fantasy world of Etheria, the story follows apprentices who accidentally unleash evil forces after tampering with sealed crystals. Players choose from twelve distinct classes, each with unique defensive strategies, equipment upgrades, and optional summonable pets to aid in combat.

284 reviews · Metacritic
Sid Meier's Railroads!
77Metacritic

Sid Meier's Railroads!

Oct 17, 2006
StrategySimulation

This is a 3D economic real-time strategy game focused on railroad management. Players build and maintain rail networks while competing in auctions for technologies and factories, with scenarios based on historical railroad magnates. The game supports multiplayer with up to four players via LAN or online.

61 reviews · Metacritic
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth
81Metacritic

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

Oct 23, 2014
Strategy

This 4X strategy game involves developing a new civilization on an alien planet after arriving with a colonial expedition. Core mechanics include resource management, technology research, diplomacy, and exploration, with victory conditions tied to different strategic resources or paths such as terraforming, technological dominance, or alien diplomacy. The setting features encounters with hostile alien lifeforms while expanding and adapting to the planet's environment.

284 reviews · Metacritic
Disciples III - Renaissance
Indie
56Metacritic

Disciples III - Renaissance

Dec 11, 2009
RPGStrategy

This turn-based strategy RPG features three playable factions—the Empire, the Legions of the Damned, and the Elven Alliance—competing for control of the fantasy world of Nevendar. Players create a custom hero, recruit party members, and lead battles using over 450 weapons, spells, and artifacts across 19 missions in three campaigns. The game offers single-player and local multiplayer modes, with lush 3D graphics and over 70 hours of campaign content.

68 reviews · Metacritic
The Guild II
Indie
61Metacritic

The Guild II

Jun 24, 2010
StrategySimulation

This strategy-simulation game allows players to establish a merchant dynasty in medieval Europe, blending economic management with life simulation. Set in 1400 within historical regions of modern-day Germany, players create a character and choose from professions like Patron, Craftsman, Scholar, or Rogue to guide their dynasty. The game features four modes—Extinction, Dynasty, Mission, and Time Limit—with adjustable difficulty and an economy based on supply and demand, alongside single-player and multiplayer options.

99 reviews · Metacritic
Atlas Reactor
Indie
81Metacritic

Atlas Reactor

Oct 4, 2016
Strategy

This is a competitive multiplayer strategy game featuring 4v4 team battles. Players control customizable heroes called Freelancers, modifying their abilities and selecting unique maps in a futuristic setting. The game includes seasonal story arcs where player actions influence the world, alongside regular PvP and ranked modes.

84 reviews · Metacritic
Humankind
77Metacritic

Humankind

Aug 17, 2021
Strategy

This is a turn-based strategy game where players guide a civilization from prehistoric times to the modern era. Core mechanics involve managing resources, diplomacy, and technological advancement while blending cultural traits from different historical eras. The setting allows players to shape their civilization’s identity and legacy through choices in governance, expansion, and interaction with other civilizations.

160 reviews · Metacritic
X-COM: UFO Defense

X-COM: UFO Defense

Dec 30, 1993
Strategy

This is a turn-based strategy game where players manage an organization defending Earth from alien invasions. The game alternates between strategic management of resources, research, and base operations, and tactical turn-based combat against alien forces. Set in a near-future scenario, players recruit soldiers, research alien technology, and engage in battles to uncover and stop the extraterrestrial threat.

Too early to review
Talisman: Digital Edition
Indie
51Metacritic

Talisman: Digital Edition

Feb 25, 2014
RPGStrategyBoard Games

This is a digital adaptation of a fantasy board game where players roll dice to move across a board, drawing cards and engaging in encounters. The game offers solo play against AI, local multiplayer, and online matches with 2-6 players, each controlling a character with unique stats. Set in a magical world, players compete to find the Crown of Command while eliminating rivals to claim the throne.

101 reviews · Metacritic
80 Days
Indie
84Metacritic

80 Days

Jul 30, 2014
AdventureRPGStrategy

In *80 Days*, players assume the role of Passepartout, valet to Phileas Fogg, as he attempts to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days under a steampunk-inspired 1872 setting. The game blends adventure, strategy, and simulation, requiring players to manage time, finances, and health while choosing routes, modes of transport, and interactions in a dynamic world with 170 cities. The narrative unfolds through interactive choices, with each playthrough offering unique events, challenges, and opportunities to uncover secrets or face disasters.

92 reviews · Metacritic
STAR WARS Empire at War - Gold Pack
Indie

STAR WARS Empire at War - Gold Pack

May 25, 2010
Strategy

This real-time strategy game allows players to control factions during the *Star Wars* Galactic Civil War, commanding fleets and ground forces across over eighty planets. Core mechanics include resource management, base-building, and tactical battles, with outcomes influencing the galaxy’s political landscape. Players can align with the Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, or a criminal syndicate led by Tiber Zann, featuring characters and locations from the films.

Too early to review
Strategy | GameStack