From fighting on the front lines in WW2 to sword-fighting on bloodied battlegrounds in medieval combat, strategy games feature a variety of thematic combat systems. While there are plenty of historical strategy games, some of the biggest and most successful titles in the genre have players fighting off alien threats.
Best Space Strategy Games, Ranked
Space strategy games have always been popular, including both grand strategy and real-time strategy games.
The most obvious example may be somewhere amid the XCOM series, with its unforgiving gameplay and brutal turn-based tactics, but games such as Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War and Aliens: Dark Descent are also frequently fun and highly thematic strategy games that give players plenty of opportunities to blast away aliens.
6 Starship Troopers: Terran Command
Real-Time Strategy And Iconic Satire
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2022
- Developer(s): The Artistocrats
- Genre: RTS
Based on director Paul Verhoeven's cult-classic Starship Troopers, Starship Troopers: Terran Command is a bombastic real-time strategy game that takes place on the desert planet of Kwalasha. In the game, players command chunky squads of gung-ho marines as they fend off massive hordes of alien bugs.
6 Beginner Tips For Starship Troopers: Terran Command
Starship Troopers: Terran Command may seem overwhelming for players unfamiliar with strategy games. These beginner tips should come in handy.
Success in Starship Troopers: Terran Command is all about tactical positioning, line of sight, and making use of the terrain. It's far from the twitchy play-style of games such as StarCraft 2, offering gameplay that's both action-packed and methodical. The only good bug is a dead bug, and thankfully, Terran Command gives players a variety of units to enforce such a mantra.
5 Creeper World 4
A Unique, Cult-Classic Indie Strategy Game
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2020
- Developer(s): Knuckle Cracker
- Genre: Tower Defense
This real-time strategy tower defense game tasks players with building and maintaining a base while fighting off an aggressive, oppressive alien foe known as the Creeper. This cult-classic indie series, developed by Knuckle Cracker, has long been a 2D franchise, but Creeper World 4 brings everything into the realm of 3D with tremendous success.
Creeper World 4 and its predecessors are known for their unique selling point: a liquid enemy that constantly crashes against the player, slowly creeping into their territory in an effort to overwhelm them. This presents a distinct strategic challenge, offering an addictive gameplay loop and an enemy that's always fun to battle against.
4 Aliens: Dark Descent
An Addictively Dark Squad-Based Strategy Game
Aliens: Dark Descent
- Released
- June 20, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Tindalos Interactive
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
Combining elements of real-time strategy and survival-horror gameplay, Aliens: Dark Descent is an incredibly unique and addictively dark strategy game that has players leading a squad of the iconic Colonial Marines through claustrophobic, Xenomorph-infested environments. Although the Colonial Marines are also known for their appearance in the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines, Aliens: Dark Descent - thankfully - uses them to much greater effect.
The gameplay of Aliens: Dark Descent lends itself to the squad-based structure, tasking players with commanding their squad as one unit and making individual orders. The game also throws in a healthy amount of resource management and features a strategic layer somewhat akin to XCOM that deepens the gameplay. For fans of James Cameron's 1986 classic, Aliens, Dark Descent is worth a look.
3 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War
A Stellar RTS In A Patently Grim-Dark Setting
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War
- Released
- September 20, 2004
- Developer(s)
- Relic Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- Microsoft Windows
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
The universe of Warhammer: 40,000 is a long and storied one, featuring worlds that have been painstakingly detailed over years of careful world-building. This rich, patently grim-dark setting has been the canvas for many video games, but unfortunately, the massive IP has been somewhat of a mixed bag when it comes to digital games.
Best Sci-Fi RTS Games
Some of the best RTS games on the market feature interesting worlds and designs of science fiction from new ideas and famous franchises.
Thankfully, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War and its immediate sequel are exceptions, featuring stellar real-time strategy gameplay across a variety of missions, as well as the skirmish and multiplayer modes. It's no surprise that Dawn Of War was a success, though, with Relic Entertainment - the developers of the acclaimed Homeworld - behind the wheel.
2 XCOM 2
Defending Earth Against An Overwhelming Force
XCOM 2
- Released
- February 5, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Firaxis Games
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, RPG
Featuring unforgiving combat and a gameplay loop that combines deeply tactical encounters with a strategic layer, XCOM 2 is an easy-to-learn but hard-to-master strategy game that tasks players with defending Earth from an overwhelming alien threat.
This often brutal title isn't afraid to punish its players for making mistakes, and the defense of Earth is implemented in a truly thematic way across a variety of systems. The aliens themselves are tremendously fun to fight against until they bump off your favorite soldier, that is. XCOM 2 won't be for everyone, and its campaigns can drag on for a good while, but it can be a truly addictive and thematic strategy game for fans of sci-fi.
1 Into The Breach
A Strategic Puzzle Box Packed With Variety
Into the Breach
This turn-based strategy game, developed by Subset Games (the team behind FTL: Faster Than Light), is an easy-to-learn but hard-to-master strategic puzzle box packed with variety and satisfying mechanics. Into The Breach excels with its replay value and incredibly well-telegraphed enemies, the Vek, an alien threat that stands to wipe out humanity.
In the game, players take control of an elite squad of mechs, piloted by unique individuals with their own unique strengths. These mechs have powerful abilities that the player needs to use effectively in order to efficiently defend civilians from alien attacks. If the player allows the Vek to destroy too many civilian buildings, the game is lost. This rogue-like structure, as well as the abundance of alternate mech squads that players can command, allows Into The Breach to offer a tremendous amount of replay value.
