Many Starcraft fans will be dying to play a game like it since there isn’t going to be a new version any time soon. These games will help you scratch that itch.
The real-time strategy genre has been an important part of PC games for many years. This success has been helped by the fact that the games take place in a lot of different places. There have been shooters set in WWII, fights in mythology, and wars in Ancient Egypt. The StarCraft series from Blizzard Entertainment has been the most popular future science fiction RTS games for a long time.
When it first came out, StarCraft won a lot of awards, including Strategy Game of the Year by GameSpot and Real-Time Strategy Game of the Year by PC Gamer. StarCraft 2 is one of the best-reviewed games on Metacritic and is better than the first game. There are many RTS games like StarCraft that people who like Blizzard’s main game can play when they want a change of pace.
Ashes Of The Singularity (2016)
Stardock Entertainment put out Ashes of the Singularity. They are the same company that made Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations. The RTS game is different from others in its genre because it has huge maps with thousands of units fighting at the same time. This makes the game feel ahead of its time.
It wasn’t a huge hit with reviewers when it came out, but the Escalation expansion made up for it when it came out six months later. The update came out at first as a separate product, but it has since been added to the main game.
Ancestor’s Legacy (2018)
The best things about Ancestor’s Legacy are, like most RTS games that let you play on a historic or national level, the historical setting, the famous leaders, and the correct army units and tactics. Different parts of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe are among the places the player can go, either on their own or with friends in online mode.
In the game, you can play as Vikings, Slavs, Anglo-Saxons, and the Teutons, a Catholic Order of aggressive fighters. The Saracens are in a DLC pack called Saladin’s Conquest. This game is different from other historic RTS games because it cleverly uses real events as part of a bigger campaign. For example, the Viking mission uses the raid on Lindisfarne’s Monastery as a lesson.
Grey Goo (2015)
Some things about Grey Goo are like StarCraft. For example, both have a science fantasy storyline and let you choose between four different races and a single-player or co-op game. Another unique feature is that each race has its own power or perk, such as the ability to teleport or move faster. Players must figure out how to best use these unique skills.
Five hundred years from now, people have gone into space and met the Beta, a race that is working on a kind of tunnel that will allow them to return to space after a long break. They are hurt when an angry alien race shows up and attacks them and everything else in the sky. You can fight them or join them to take over the stars.
Rome: Total War (2004)
Not many real-time strategy games are as well-known and praised as Starcraft 2, but Rome: Total War is one of them. Even though it came out almost 20 years ago, this StarCraft-like strategy game is still one of the best ones out there.
Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War were both released before Rome: Total War. But the 2004 game is known for introducing many of the features that have become recognizable with the Total War series.
Empire Earth: Gold Edition
Empire Earth was launched in 2001, and it was the first game in a series that included four more games before an improved Gold Edition came out in 2007. Some games in this genre base their fights on real-life settings and historical events. This one does the same, but it also has other features that are common in RP games, like a morals system.
This helps the player become more immersed in the game and cares more about how it ends. Heroes can play as either a Warrior or a Strategist. The Strategist role is more about planning and mystery, while the Warrior role is more about fighting and force.
The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth 2 (2006)
When Sierra Entertainment said that The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring would come out in 2003, there was a lot of excitement. A real-time strategy game set in Middle-Earth always sounded like a dream come true. The game wasn’t very good, but fans wouldn’t have to wait long for the next RTS Middle-Earth game. Just over a year later, EA’s Battle For Middle-Earth came out.
The game did well with both critics and customers, so soon after, a sequel was revealed. People love The Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth 2 for its Middle-earth features that make it feel like StarCraft. It’s also a great RTS game in its own right.
Total War: WARHAMMER 2 (2017)
Like Battle For Middle-Earth, Total War: WARHAMMER is the kind of game that series fans will dream about but not think they’ll ever see. When Total War: WARHAMMER came out in 2016, it got good reviews, so work on a follow-up started right away.
The fantasy ideas in WARHAMMER 2 aren’t just a trick. They give games like StarCraft extra depth and strategy by giving players a huge number of different units to control and fight.
Rise Of Nations: Extended Edition (2014)
Rise of Nations came out in 2003 from Microsoft Game Studios, which is now called Xbox Game Studios. Big Huge Games made the extended version game. They are also known for making Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, an action RPG that came out in 2012. The game combines turn-based strategy elements like attrition fighting with RTS elements in a way that works well.
Fans of turn-based strategy games were interested in Rise of Nations in the early 2000s. The game’s development team was lead by Brian Reynolds, who had worked on Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Civilization 2.
Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition (2019)
Even though the Age of Empires games take place in a different time period than the StarCraft games, they still deserve to be on this list because they are some of the best RTS games ever. Age of Empires 2 improved on the model that Age of Empires made famous and changed the RTS game.
Age of Empires 2 takes place in the Middle Ages and is mostly about managing resources, building bases, and sending troops to fight. At the end of 2019, The Definitive Edition came out, giving the popular game amazing new graphics. It’s the best way to play the classic strategy game and comes with all of the add-ons.
Total War: Attila (2015)
Total War: Attila is a great RTS game for people who like how realistic and true to history it is. At the time, it is late antiquity, around the 4th century CE. Classical Rome was ending and the Middle Ages were beginning. Back then, Europe and Asia were in the middle of battles that would determine their fate for hundreds of years. This game lets the player experience some of that rough past.
The term is meant to make you think of a certain time period instead of a specific person. There’s still a lot to do before Attila himself shows up, since he’s not available until about halfway through the game.
Age Of Mythology (2002)
It’s clear from the name that Age of Mythology is a game that comes after Age of Empires. Adding people to the original Age of Empires game adds an interesting new layer of detail. Because it takes place in a fantasy world, Age of Mythology is a better game than other games on this list that are like StarCraft.
The game is mostly about Egyptian, Greek, and Norse myths, and it has famous mythical characters like Zeus and Ra in it. It works a lot like Doodle Baseball; controlling resources, building bases, and sending troops to fight are all important parts of the game.
Company Of Heroes (2006)
With its great graphics and sound effects, Company of Heroes from Relic Entertainment is rightly thought to be the best WWII strategy game. When it came out, THQ’s real-time strategy gem got a lot of awards, including IGN’s Best Strategy Game award in 2006.
Keeping track of win points is a big part of the game. These places are spread out around important parts of the middle of the map. They are controlled and taken in a way similar to Call of Duty’s famous “dominance” mode. There is also a mode called “Annihilation” that gets rid of these winning points and lets players win by destroying all of their opponents’ houses.
StarFront: Collision (2011)
A lot of people in the gaming business look down on mobile games. A lot of people don’t like how many “cash-grab” games it has that are meant to get people to spend money. There are a lot of games like StarCraft out there, but there are also some real stars in mobile gaming.
SkyFront: Collision is one of these gems. Besides having the same name, StarFront is also a future sci-fi RTS game where players can choose between three races to direct. If a player is a die-hard StarCraft fan, these three races are the best choice because they play almost exactly like the Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss races.
Dune: Spice Wars (2022)
There are a number of computer games based on the Dune books. Since the stories are about different royal houses fighting over land and even whole worlds, it makes sense that these games are RTS. Dune: Spice Wars is one of the newest games in the series. It’s a 4X RTS game with classic style and modern images.
The game takes place on the desert planet Arrakis, and the goals are to control as much land as possible and get as much of the valuable spice, which is also called Melange, as possible. A mix of negotiation, collecting information, and physical power is used to do this. A player can take charge of the Fremen, the Smugglers, or one of three royal houses, which are the Atreides, the Corrino, or both.
Warcraft 3: Reign Of Chaos (2002)
The company that made Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos also made StarCraft, so it’s easy to see how the two games are similar. Fans and players alike were let down by Warcraft III: Reforged, the modern version of this game, which had problems with internet and bad graphics.
The game added many new features to make it better than the ones that came before it. These included strong heroes, a day and night cycle that changes how the races play, and Creeps, who guard important resources and are unfriendly to all players. It looks and plays a lot like StarCraft games from the same time period.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War 2 (2009)
Even though THQ went out of business, it’s back on this list with a Warhammer 40,000-themed RTS game. The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is in the far future, in the 42nd millennium.
Warhammer 40,000 is a unique game setting because it blends science fiction and magic fiction. Dawn of War 2 took away the ability to build bases from the first game and put more emphasis on the defense system. The cover concept works well and makes it different from games like StarCraft.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 (2016)
This series of games has been going strong since the early 1990s and has a lot of great games in it. Its main goals are based on the four “x” factors of RTS games, which stand for discover, attack, grow, and kill. The player can build a society big and strong enough to crush or absorb their opponents. They can play against the computer or their friends.
It was easier to win peaceful conquests based on cultural gains in the most recent game, which added new leaders and cultures and made changes to the exploration and civics trees. The sixth game in the series is currently the last one, but two add-ons have been released to make the game even bigger.
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (2001)
Galactic Battlegrounds is a real-time strategy game with Star Wars themes. It was only available for PC and Apple computers when it first came out, and it never got the attention it earned. Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 all use the same graphics engine, and some of the game play is the same.
Players get resources to build bases, armed troops, and weapons. They can then either defend their base or attack other players’ bases. You can join the Jedi or the Sith side and build ships, shrines, droids, and other Star Wars-themed items.
Homeworld (1999)
The setting of Homeworld in space set it apart from most other real-time strategy games, but that doesn’t have the same effect on people today as it did in 1999. It still focuses on the main parts of RTS games that make them fun to play. Some of the most important parts of the classic are resource management and unit output, but the best part is the online mode.
Homeworld 3 is the third movie in the series, and it will come out in 2022. The game was made by Blackbird Interactive, and if you want to play a current science fiction real-time strategy game, you should keep an eye on it.
Supreme Commander (2007)
The story of Supreme Commander takes place in the 37th century, a very long time from now. When the game came out in 2007, its strategic zoom got a lot of praise. It may seem like a small thing, but it gave players great tactical views of their fights.
Also, the bigger screen size made the new feature useful because it let players see the whole map, and other games in the same genre would copy the better zoom. Because of this, the developers, Gas Powered Games, did a great job making sure that each unit was the right size for its environment.
Halo Wars (2009)
When it came out, Halo Wars was a dream come true for fans of both Halo and Call of Duty. The Halo theme and detailed lessons make the game great for people who have never played a game like this before. Ensemble Studios, the company that made the game, turned the famous sci-fi series into an RTS.
The game didn’t try to be new; it stuck to established RTS tropes like managing resources, building bases, and making units. In the meantime, a second Halo Wars game came out, but it didn’t get very good reviews.
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007)
It’s not easy to choose just one Command & Conquer game to play because they are all different in terms of quality and setting. For instance, the first Command and Conquer is a great pick.
Not only is Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars a great RTS game, but it also has a huge number of tasks spread out over three different storylines. The writing and story are also different from other games, which rely more on reality.
