Summary
- Strategy games vary in complexity, but those with simple designs can be more accessible and immediately enjoyable.
- Titles like Super Auto Pets, Tooth & Tail, and Tinyfolks offer simple yet strategic gameplay that balances accessibility and depth.
- Games like Thronefall and Balatro provide elegant gameplay mechanics with simplicity, making them addictive and engaging.
Strategy games can often be complex experiences that require time and patience to learn. Be it an RTS or a deck builder, these titles have varying degrees of complexity and difficulty that can range in accessibility.
Those that utilize simplicity in their designs, however, are often easier to learn. This not only improves accessibility but also makes the experience more immediately fun. These games can still ramp up in difficulty and provide interesting, complex decisions, but their core designs remain simple and easy to grasp.
1 Super Auto Pets
A Simple But Strategic Auto-Battler
- ESRB
- e
- Genre(s)
- Strategy
Super Auto Pets is a simple but strategic auto-battler with a minimalist art style. The game's simple looks allow it to appeal to a wider audience, but its gameplay is packed with opportunities for creative thinking and diverse synergies.
Best Strategy Games That Aren't About Controlling Territory
For strategy games who are tired of the struggle over territory, check out these titles for a change of pace.
Super Auto Pets is both friendly to newcomers and existing fans of the auto-battler genre, offering gameplay that's both accessible and deep. This is thanks in large part to its small squad size and tremendous build variety, offering an experience that's both manageable and diverse.
2 Tooth & Tail
An Accessible RTS
Tooth and Tail
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 80 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- September 12, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
Tooth & Tail offers minimalist real-time strategy gameplay that excels with its accessibility. Unlike many games in the RTS genre, Tooth & Tail doesn't require speed to play. This is thanks to its unique controls, which have players commanding small armies from the perspective of a controllable character.
With the simple ability to rally nearby troops, Tooth & Tail minimizes micromanagement without removing it entirely. Furthermore, it maintains a variety of unique units and a healthy dose of base-building and economy management. As a result, Tooth & Tail is able to offer an experience that's simple but fun.
3 Tinyfolks
Charming & Minimalist Turn-Based Strategy
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Tactical, Strategy
Tinyfolks is a charming, minimalist strategy game with turn-based combat and nostalgic pixel-art visuals. The game's buoyant chip-tune soundtrack and simple visuals provide an instantly accessible experience that's full of joy, elevated by a finely-tuned gameplay loop that's friendly to newcomers.
While the gameplay is simple, it isn't watered down. Tinyfolks provides strategic gauntlets of combat that tickle the brain just enough, without ever becoming overly complex. Combined with a relatively short playtime, Tinyfolks can be the perfect palette cleanse or the ultimate starting point.
4 Shogun Showdown
An Action-Packed Turn-Based Roguelike
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, Roguelike
Although Shogun Showdown is technically a roguelike deck builder, it's primarily centered around turn-based, tactical combat. In the game, players use a series of tiles to control their character on a single axis, avoiding enemy attacks and dishing out damage with satisfying combos.
Best Tactical Games That Are Immediately Fun
These excellent tactical video games forgoes the slow onboarding typical in the genre, providing fun and engaging mechanics right away.
This system is remarkably simple, and many if not all the tiles are clear and easy to grasp. This results in a strategy game with a superb pace, offering a simple and breezy experience that's great fun to barrel through.
5 For The King
An Elegant Strategy RPG
For The King is a strategy RPG that combines overworld exploration with classic dungeon-crawling and turn-based combat. The combat itself is quite simple, combining old-school RPG encounters with a healthy dose of RNG that blends strategy and luck to great effect.
This results in a tremendously accessible and often tense experience. While the heavy use of RNG does simplify the strategy, relying on the roll of the dice can also provide ample excitement. Furthermore, the game is elevated by a wide variety of classes and the addition of co-operative play.
6 Thronefall
A Stylishly Minimalist Tower Defense
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, City Builder
Thronefall is an innovative combination of tower-defense and real-time strategy that offers elegant design and stylish visuals. While the game is certainly a complex mash-up of mechanics and ideas, Thronefall has a clear dedication to providing simple and intuitive gameplay that's immediately fun.
Building structures, for example, is simple, but effectively managing the balance between defenses and economic buildings can be more involved. The RTS mechanics are limited, but micromanagement remains present, allowing for expression with simplicity. Best of all, the base-defense structure begs few questions, ensuring players can get stuck in right away.
7 Balatro
A Simple But Addictive Deck-Builder
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Gambling Themes
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, Digital Card Game, Roguelike
Balatro is a remarkably simple roguelike deck builder that draws heavily from the classic game of Poker to offer an accessible and addictive experience. From the tactility of its user interface and player feedback to the enchanting slot machine aesthetic, Balatro is able to offer an immediately charming experience.
What gives this title staying power, however, is the diversity in its gameplay. Contorting standard playing cards in a multitude of ways and supporting them with a wild array of special "Joker" cards, Balatro is able to facilitate diverse gameplay that encourages both creativity and analysis.
7 Best Strategy Games That Test Your Resolve
These strategy games test players' patience, but are well worth the effort in the end.