I was maybe a little bit off in my prediction that 2023 would be a landmark year for strategy games. Disappointments, delays and the purgatory of early access meant that it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Games like Jagged Alliance 3, Age of Wonders 4, Aliens: Dark Descent and Company of Heroes 3, even with its wonky campaign, kept me going, but it's not proved to be the most memorable of years. 2024, though? It's a year that could stand out.
Some of 2023's heavy-hitters ended up being kicked back to 2024, joining an already impressive list of impending launches, alongside some games you may have forgotten about leaving early access. We've got large-scale modern battlefields, fleets colliding in space, gruelling tactical sims and some throwbacks for those of us who never left the '90s. 2024 is going to be an interesting one, that at least is guaranteed.
Homeworld 3
March 8
Let's get the big one out of the way. Homeworld 3 alone makes 2024 an important year for strategy games. The return of one of the most beloved RTS series of all time, from a studio that's already shown it has a good handle on Homeworld thanks to Deserts of Kharak, is enough to get any fleet commander excited.
What's really got me salivating is how 20 years of tech improvements have allowed Blackbird Interactive to realise space to a much greater degree. The freedom of movement and scale of the maps made Homeworld and its sequel an incredibly impressive game, but there's no denying that space was a bit empty. Not so in Homeworld 3, where BBI has filled the heavens with terrain, from shipwrecks to megaliths to asteroids, forcing commanders to make tactical decisions that weren't present in the original.
Capes
2024
I've got a bone to pick with you lot: far too few of you played Marvel's Midnight Suns. I don't know if it was due to being exhausted by the MCU (which Midnight Suns is entirely separate from) or because Firaxis really didn't do a good enough job of showing it off, but one of the best tactics romps and easily the best superhero game in years really did not make the splash that it should have. Thankfully, this hasn't put off Spitfire Interactive, which is due to release its superhero-themed tactics game in 2024.
This is more of a pure-tactics deal, without the social element of Midnight Suns, but that might make it an easier sell for folks who just want to fight some villains and not spend hours giving heroes gifts and having heart-to-hearts. In Capes' universe, the villains won and criminalised superpowers, but now a new generation of heroes is going to take them down. What I'm really keen on are the synergies. Every hero has a unique skillset, but their abilities can be combined on the battlefield to create new attacks. I love me some teamwork. Check out the Steam demo.
Menace
2024
At first, Menace seems like a bit of a departure from its predecessor, Battle Brothers, swapping the low-fantasy setting and boardgame vibes for gritty sci-fi and 3D battles. But it promises to maintain a lot of what made Battle Brothers so compelling: it's a sandbox where you must manage and develop squads of soldiers while facing overwhelming odds, random encounters and live with the fact that death is likely inevitable.
You'll need to unite a system full of mercs, corporate goons and pirates against an alien threat while managing resources, picking missions and figuring out how best to prepare for them: do you lay the groundwork for an assault by taking out anti-air defences, allowing you to bring in the big guns, or do you risk it all for a swift infantry assault, to hell with the human cost?
Outpost: Infinity Siege
February
Outpost: Infinity Siege looks ridiculous. Like a 'roided out Natural Selection where you can freely switch between playing it as an FPS and an RTS tower defence dealio. You'll face armies of hostile critters that fill up the screen, using your own quick reflexes and the mobile outpost at your beck and call to annihilate them. Expect a lot of explosions.
The vibe is firmly ambitious and janky, and the threadbare Steam page offers few details, but I'm fully expecting this to be a hoot, even if it's likely going to be a bit on the rough side. I'm a sucker for games that play around with scale and perspectives, so Outpost's premise is right up my street.
Solium Infernum
February 14
Solium Infernum is a reimagining of the 2009 game of the same name, a byzantine social strategy game that got a lot of love from those willing to invest time in it. It required planning and forethought, though, and necessitated finding some friends to play with in asynchronous multiplayer. This new version, however, promises to be a bit more accessible (and pleasant to look at) and adds a singleplayer campaign, along with other ways to play.
Ultimately, though, it's still a game of political manoeuvring as you try to plonk your bottom down on the throne of Hell. There are wars to fight and giant demons to raise, but it's really a game of manipulation, forcing you to outwit your enemies rather than simply slaughtering everyone. Hell, it turns out, is extremely bureaucratic and full of rules, but that lends itself nicely to a strategy game, giving you lots of objectives and avenues to pursue your infernal victory. You can try the Steam demo now.
Stormgate
2024 (early access)
Since Blizzard won't give us Warcraft 4 or StarCraft 3, Frost Giant Studios, formed by StarCraft 2 vets, is going to give us what we want instead: Stormgate. It's a sci-fi RTS with asymmetric factions and smartly designed units with loads of utility, channelling StarCraft, but with maps evocative of Warcraft 3, including the feature of neutral creep camps promising lovely buffs.
Playing an early build back in the summer, I was seriously impressed by how good it felt even at that early stage. Every time I got myself a new unit and learned their ins and outs, I couldn't help but utter "That's so cool", as my Atlas dropped balls of electricity on the ground or my Vulcan mechs leaped over seemingly impassable forests. A lot of how good it feels to play is down to the UI design and the level of automation. It's a frictionless experience that cuts out a lot of faff without endangering the tactical nuance. So far, it's shaping up to be an impressive StarCraft successor.
Tactical Breach Wizards
2024, hopefully
Tactical Breach Wizards puts you in charge of a squad of spellslingers decked out in kevlar as they storm buildings and use their arcane abilities to take out a magical paramilitary corp. It's slapstick Shadowrun, and that is absolutely doing it for me, and the promise of magical experimentation, where you can combine spells to create unexpected effects, sounds like it will give each mission a welcome dose of chaos and playfulness.
I'm a big fan of Tom Francis's games, and not just because he's a former PC Gamer boy; they tend to be dense with systems that encourage a lot of joyful mucking around, but never seem to become too much like other system-heavy sims. I'm sorta cheating a wee bit here because TBW doesn't actually have a release date yet, but I've been waiting since 2019 and I'm extremely hopeful we'll be able to get our hands on it in 2024.
Tempest Rising
2024
A lot of RTS fans never really left the '90s, and their reward is Tempest Rising, a game that wears its Command & Conquer influences on its sleeve. After a nuclear war, a trio of factions now fight over a new resource, mostly by blowing each other up. You've got base building, asymmetrical factions, a pair of 11-mission campaigns, skirmishes, custom games and ranked matchmaking. All the bases are covered.
We were originally expecting Tempest Rising to appear in 2023, but its launch was unfortunately pushed back. The good news is that you can get a taste of it now, as there's a Steam demo.
Broken Arrow
2024
Broken Arrow is a large-scale RTS filled to the brim with tanks, helicopters and paratroopers—300 of them, in fact, and each customisable, letting you fiddle around with ammo, fuel tanks, countermeasures and all sorts of specific components. Publisher Slitherine loves its grognardy, hardcore war games, so expect it to be systems-heavy and more than a bit complex, but it's already shaping up nicely.
It looks like it will be going head-to-head with the successor to the fantastic Wargame series, Warno, from Eugen Systems, which also throws you into a modern conflict with a vast array of units duking it out on massive battlefields. That's in early access at the moment, but I expect that we'll see a full launch in 2024, along with Broken Arrow.
Xenonauts 2
Out in early access, full launch expected in 2024
Xenonauts 2 is a tactical romp for folk who thought XCOM was too forgiving and missed the cruelty of old school X-Com. There's heaps of micromanagement, and the punishment for not being incredibly cautious and making meticulous plans is death. Lots and lots of death. As well as fighting aliens, the sequel introduces a human faction aiding them, the Cleaners, whose operation you'll have to dismantle by raiding their bases and assassinating their leaders.
Developer Goldhawk released the game in early access back in July, where it was expected to be for a year, but potentially longer. Hopefully we'll still see a full launch in 2024. In the meantime, however, the early access gives you a mostly complete campaign experience for those who can't wait for their alien hunting fix.
