Oceans Rise, Empires Fall
Oceans Rise, Empires Fall
There are few things in life more satisfying than winning a long, challenging grand strategy playthrough. You can dedicate an entire afternoon to building up a single, beautiful empire in whatever setting you choose based on the game.
Grand strategy games are generally characterized by long individual, hours-long campaigns. You generally play as the leader of a political entity, be it a kingdom, country, city, or planet on a quest for total domination by any means.
Grand strategy games also fall under the slightly broader category of 4X games, which are generally understood as turn-based empire builders with mechanics that fall under these 4 criteria (from which the loose acronym “4X” gets its name):
4X games first made a name for themselves back in 1993 with the release of Master of Orion, which coined the term. The important thing that distinguishes 4X games from typical war games is the fact that domination isn’t the only way to win. Exterminate is only 1 of the 4 X’s. The others all relate to developing culture, building different kinds of structures, and using the resources around you to their fullest potential.
There are just so many strategy games on Steam, and it can be hard to pick the thing that’s going to scratch your brain the right way. Narrowing in on a specific genre can be your best bet. So, what are these incredible grand strategy and 4X games?
Very Positive (87%) | Multiplayer | $39.99
Stellaris is the best and safest way to accurately take on galactic conquest. If you’ve ever wanted to balance in-depth government espionage with giant alien space battles in the same minute, Stellaris may be the game for you.
Stellaris is one of many grand strategy games made by Paradox, and it’s completely different from anything else the company has done. You can leave your home world for a playthrough and experience life among the stars. Gather resources across a plethora of planets. Take on other space-faring civilizations. In Stellaris, the galaxy is your oyster.
Purchase Stellaris here.
Mixed (51%) | Multiplayer | $69.99
Civilization 7 is a brand new game this month, and, being a recently published triple-A game, it has some problems. That hasn’t stopped critics from raving about it, though. Civ 7 is the most recent game in the long-running, award winning video game series starting from Sid Meier’s Civilization back in 1991.
The general issues with the latest installment in the series seem to be with two things. First, there are bugs. This, though, is to be expected of brand new games, and the developer, Firaxis Games, seems committed to making sure this game has a long and healthy lifespan. The other main issue is with the UI design. To many people, it may not be intuitive enough. I personally don’t agree with this sentiment, as a complicated user interface is one of the most fun parts of grand strategy, but they also may change it based on community feedback as time goes on.
Civ 7 also has plenty of upsides, particularly from its graphics. This game is absolutely beautiful. Everything about its world screams perfect stylistic choices.
It may not be the right time to pick this game up just yet, but until then, you can always just play the critically acclaimed sixth entry in the series, since it has had 9 years to bake.
Purchase Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 here.
Very Positive (91%) | Multiplayer | $39.99
Let’s face it, most history buffs mainly care about World War 2. It’s just a fact of life that the Second World War has taken over pop culture. So many grand strategy games are focused on history and, another big fixation of history nerds, alternate timelines, it only makes sense that there would have to be a game for us to let our ideas out onto World War 2.
Enter Hearts of Iron 4. HoI4 is a game developed by everybody’s favorite grand strategy dev, Paradox Interactive. Take control of a Great Depression era nation trying to claw its way back to stability in this war-focused grand strategy game.
The base game has a great amount of content and a thriving modder community, but Paradox also just won’t stop releasing DLC for it. The game was first released in 2016 and they still actively put out new paid DLC.
Purchase Hearts of Iron 4 here.
Mostly Positive (78%) | Multiplayer | $29.99
This is absolutely the most beautiful game on this list. Songs of Silence is a story-rich 4X game with a focus on exploration and war, all bundled up within this gorgeous art-nouveau style. This game splits the difference between turn-based combat and real-time combat, implementing two separate combat styles that work together hand in hand.
Songs of Silence is also unique in the fact that it’s the only game on this list with an original plot to play through. You have a particular goal, stopping the apocalypse, and you aren’t going to rest until you’ve accomplished that.
Purchase Songs of Silence here.
Hopefully these games are all full enough on content to sate your hunger for in-depth strategy for quite a while. Most of them have nearly infinite replayability, so there’s no end to the number of strategies, or should I say, grand strategies, you can implement.
