Real-time strategy games require a lot of practice and study but are often some of the most rewarding experiences in gaming. Ordering an army in a wartime scenario and finding the most efficient way to harvest resources both make players feel like a tactical mastermind. The genre has struggled somewhat due to older entries like Starcraft II and Age of Empires II having very large learning curves, but these titles are starting to see a resurgence in the 2020s. Thankfully, 2021 had a great selection of RTS games like Age of Empires 4 to choose from - and here are some of the best.
Turn-based strategy games and card game roguelikes have mostly taken over the independent gaming scene, but even smaller studios are beginning to see the positives of designing a quick action-heavy strategy experience. News has mostly revolved around Age of Empires 4, but there have been some other games that deserve recognition. Competitive and casual alike, these games all provided deep strategic decision-making that brought people back even toward the end of the year.
Even non-traditional real-time strategy games have released to critical acclaim in 2021, with factory management games and colony simulators rising to the top of sales charts. While the mainstays of the RTS genre - like Northgard, Age of Empires 2, and Europa Universalis 4 - haven’t been replaced, these are worthwhile additions that might become classic with enough time. Here are some of the best RTS games that released in 2021.
Age of Empires 4 Brings Back The Classic RTS Experience
Of course, it's impossible not to mention Age of Empires 4, a return that feels nostalgic but also complex and well-developed. Modeled heavily after Age of Empires 2, the fourth entry in the series recreates what was so great about the originals and doesn’t over simplify the gameplay. AOE4's well-designed strategic Hundred Years War campaign and its intense multiplayer skirmishes are visually stunning and still allow newcomers to get acquainted with its controls and strategies, making this a great way to introduce friends to the series.
Microsoft knows that one of the strongest aspects of the genre is its competitive e-sports scene and has created a game ripe for optimization. Hotkeys haven’t changed beyond having a better user interface and the training challenges push players to not only improve their strategy but also their actions per minute and accuracy. Add on top of that mod support coming in 2022, and Age of Empires 4 could mark the resurgence of RTS games as a whole.
Beyond All Reason Is An Ambitious RTS In Alpha With Lots Of Polish
Starcraft II is one of the many classic RTS games worth playing today but a sequel is nowhere in sight at the moment. Fortunately, Beyond All Reason is here to give players a science-fiction-oriented competitive RTS for the modern era. The Beyond All Reason developers are open sourcing the game and have named Total Annihilation as their main inspiration. The big innovation that Beyond All Reason provides is real-time physics calculations and modifiable terrain in 3D environments, meaning that no two matchups or maps play exactly the same.
This is definitely a game that has to be seen to understand the scale. The large maps let players develop multiple fronts and lines of attack through the course of the game. The game stands with some of the best unique free-to-play games on PC and is in Alpha right now for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Even in its early state, Beyond All Reason shows lots of promise and provides a blisteringly tense and thought-provoking competitive experience. With a myriad of maps and units to choose from and a new unsolved metagame, this is a game for those that want to be at the forefront of creating new strategies and shaping a new RTS experience.
Timberborn Is A Colony Simulator Like Rimworld With Beavers
There are many games like Rimworld, but only one has a town full of beavers building a modern village near water. Timberborn is a game currently in early access which follows a similar template to other colony simulators like Surviving Mars, where players must save their colony, but with a couple of strategic differences. Gathering water and shelter quickly is important, as droughts will come by once a year which devastates the landscape. Keeping the beavers alive is the first priority - after that, players must find ways to generate power and create dams that will keep water flowing through times of hardship.
Timberborn is less of a competitive experience but a satisfying and challenging town simulator nonetheless. Currently, there are no other beaver colonies to interact with, but with updates, the game could become multi-player focused and cooperative. As it stands, building a beaver society is already a great hook but the visuals and an emphasis on vertical buildings make this one of the best 3D colony sims available on Steam.
Dyson Sphere Program Is A Grand Strategy Take On Factory Simulation
While traditional real-time strategy games might not be getting the attention they once had, management and factory simulators are better than ever. Satisfactory and its tricky efficient factories have proven there's a market for in-depth sorting and manufacturing gameplay and there are a number of titles like Factory Town and Voxel Tycoon that are taking the RTS genre to new heights. These games focus on taking resources and creating a factory with them that eventually fully automates the process of creating high-complexity goods. Dyson Sphere Program takes this subgenre and blows its scale up to massive proportions by tasking the one player with harvesting enough resources and crafting them into enough solar energy plants to surround a star and power the universe.
Optimization in this game happens by improving conveyor routes and planning efficient production mills on a galactic scale and the game does a fairly good job of easing players into their workflow. The ultimate goal might be overwhelming at times, but Dyson Sphere Program starts a player off with very few tools and asks them to develop small production lines before expanding their responsibilities. There’s always a problem to fix, a world to explore, or a new resource to research. Once players have a handle on the mechanics and organization of the factory they can begin to spread their designs across the solar system, creating an interconnected efficiency machine that generates massive amounts of power.
For now, these games are more than enough to sink hundreds of hours into. Like any good board game or turn-based strategy game, RTS games have nearly-endless replayability and there’s almost always something players can improve on. For those that remember or still play the classics, there are games that both mimic them and expand upon them in ways that still feel next-generation. And on top of that, the best RTS games of 2021 also have the possibility in 2022 to become great moddable projects, so it’ll be important to keep an eye on them for years to come.