Summary
- Strategy games with simple gameplay mechanics can offer accessible experiences without sacrificing depth or strategy.
- Tooth and Tail provides an accessible real-time strategy experience with minimalist gameplay and charming pixel-art visuals.
- Games like StarVaders and Tinyfolks offer simplicity, strategy, and immersion in different genres.
Strategy games are often complex experiences that take time and patience to learn. However, there remain a variety of strategy games that make perfect use of simple gameplay to provide players with accessible experiences.
Best Strategy Games With Great Graphics
These excellent strategy games deliver striking visuals and graphics to go along with their dynamic strategic mechanics.
These games feature easy-to-grasp concepts and intuitive controls, championing simplicity above all else. This results in often elegant designs that are relatively free of frustration, allowing for a pain-free experience that remains strategic.
8 Tooth And Tail
An Accessible RTS
Tooth and Tail
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 80 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- September 12, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4
Tooth and Tail is a real-time strategy game that's immediately approachable with its charming pixel-art visuals. However, it's also a tremendously accessible experience thanks to its minimalist gameplay, stripping back typical RTS mechanics to provide players with a game that doesn't require speed to be successful.
Best Slow-Paced Strategy Games
Strategy fans who prefer a more methodical and slow approach to their favorite genre should look no further than these games.
Instead of commanding units from above, Tooth and Tail gives players control of their own character to explore and command from the ground. This also minimizes micromanagement, allowing for breezy real-time battles that can easily be controlled with just a few inputs.
7 StarVaders
A Simple But Tactical Deck-Builder
StarVaders
- Released
- April 30, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike, Deckbuilding
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: April 30, 2025
- Developers: Pengonauts
- Genre: Roguelike Deck-Builder
StarVaders is a roguelike deck-builder with a structure that takes inspiration from Space Invaders to provide players with a unique experience. In the game, players control a battle mech via a variety of simple cards, maneuvering around grid-based battlefields to take out enemies before they reach the bottom of the screen.
The simplicity of this gameplay loop also brings with it a great deal of clarity, allowing StarVaders to be a constantly readable experience. This allows players to work with all the information they need, and well-telegraphed enemies also help to keep the experience free of frustration.
6 Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers
A Simple But Strategic Blackjack Roguelike
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2024
- Developer(s): Purple Moss Collectors
- Genre: Roguelike Deck-Builder
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is a roguelike deck-builder that some will find immediately easy to grasp, as it's based around the popular table game of Blackjack. Despite its simplicity, however, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers remains a fun and strategic experience.
This is thanks in large part to its roguelike elements, which dramatically gamify the experience and extend/break the rules of the game. Furthermore, the game features a surprisingly immersive ambiance that provides ample backdrop to the card play.
5 For The King
An Elegant Strategy RPG
For The King
- Released
- April 19, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ironoak Games
- Publisher(s)
- Curve Digital
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
For The King is a strategy RPG that can be played either alone or cooperatively, excelling with its tactical overworld exploration and refreshingly simple combat system. In the game, players control one to three adventurers as they venture across the land, battling enemies and delving into dangerous dungeons to complete quests and find more powerful items.
Open-World Games That Focus On Combat Over Exploration
These open-world games might feature a mix of exploration and combat, but they focus more heavily on combat and challenging encounters over discovery.
The combat itself is relatively simple, with a healthy dose of RNG that keeps players on their toes and often forces them to adapt. What keeps For The King engaging, however, is its variety of playable classes and abundance of items, allowing players to tilt the odds in their favor.
4 Shogun Showdown
Action-Packed Turn-Based Strategy
Shogun Showdown
- Released
- September 5, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Roboatino
- Publisher(s)
- Goblinz Publishing, Gamera Games
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, Roguelike
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Despite being a turn-based game, Shogun Showdown is an action-packed experience that moves at a fast pace. This is arguably the game's greatest strength, and that's thanks in large part to the elegant simplicity of its design.
This breezy roguelike deck-builder features tile-based gameplay that tasks players with controlling a character on a single axis, battling a variety of enemies along the way. The encounters are small in scale but incredibly dense thanks to engaging enemies. Furthermore, the game's design emphasizes combos that can be tremendously satisfying to carry out.
3 Tinyfolks
Minimalist Turn-Based Strategy
Tinyfolks
- Released
- June 1, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
With its charming, minimalist pixel-art and buoyant chip-tune soundtrack, Tinyfolks is an immediately enchanting and ultimately simple experience. This carries through to its gameplay, which offers players an accessible take on turn-based strategy that remains engaging thanks to finely-tuned mechanics and an addictive loop.
Combining turn-based combat encounters with light town management gameplay, Tinyfolks is instantly comparable to Darkest Dungeon. However, rather than crushing players with an immediate and unforgiving difficulty, Tinyfolks offers fun through simplicity and accessibility, allowing it to stand out on its own.
2 Thronefall
A Simple Blend Of Tower Defense & RTS
Thronefall
- Released
- October 11, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- GrizzlyGames
- Publisher(s)
- GrizzlyGames
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, City Builder
- Platform(s)
- PC, Nintendo Switch
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Thronefall's minimalist art-style and simple gameplay loop offer an immediately accessible combination of RTS and tower defense. The inclusion of well-known genre trends, stripped back to their bare minimum, allows Thronefall to be a remarkably simple experience, but the slight intricacies and additions to the formulae give it a unique feel.
In the game, players build a miniature kingdom while defending it from waves of enemies. Its loop will be immediately familiar to many, but Thronefall remains engaging thanks to the addition of action gameplay and, more notably, remarkably intuitive RTS mechanics.
1 Balatro
A Simple But Fun Roguelike Deck-Builder
Balatro
- Released
- February 20, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- LocalThunk
- Publisher(s)
- Playstack
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, Digital Card Game, Roguelike
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Android, iOS
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
For anyone familiar with the popular table game of Poker, Balatro will be immediately easy to grasp. In the game, players must work through a series of score-attack encounters, playing hands of standard playing cards in order to achieve as high a score as possible.
Though simple, the game is made more interesting via its roguelike elements. The game features a variety of clever twists on standard playing cards, introducing a wild array of its own unique and imaginative Jokers that allow for player expression. As a result, Balatro is able to offer simplicity and fun in equal measure.
Most Experimental Strategy Games
Some developers aren't afraid to experiment and take risks, and the results lead to strategy games like these.