[DoctorEldritch]

Hello Legion Gamers!

Recently, @ZaidH and I appreciated the new Commandos: Origins trailer while talking about the Eurogamer top-100 games list. Commandos is an RTT game, short for real-time tactics, which is a bit of a rare breed genre these days, as opposed to, for example, TBT (turn-based tactics), of which there are plenty (think XCOM)

So I thought it may be a good idea to think about other good examples of this genre out there, more so as Commandos: Origins is coming soon, and we just recently got a good addition to the pile.

To be honest, when thinking about FTTs, one particular studio comes to mind, the German developer Mimimi Games. Since 2016 and until closing down a year ago, the studio was responsible for some of the best examples of FTT genres such as Shadow Tactics, Desperados III and, most recently (and just before closing down) Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. A good day to remember on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrr!

So now that Mimimi Games has sailed into the sunset, who picks up the mantel, you may ask. Meet the Polish studio Artificer! Previously they gave us a nice TBT Showgunners (worth a play if you like TBTs), they are broadening their horizons as earlier this month they released Simerian Six. So if cursed pirate crews are not your thing and you'd rather be doing Super Science Friends fighting nazis with a scientific Enigma Squad, then check it out!

And, of course, the abovementioned Commandos: Origins is coming out (and you can get previous parts with a discount this week, too!). But those are all the games I know in this genre. Maybe someone knows more good examples?

[ZaidH]

Oh man those are some very interesting looking games! Excited to see some more recommendations here 😄

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH There may be a few decent games in the works. Gamescom 2024 showcased Stone of Madness, for example:

But it is hard to tell how good it will be just from this. I mean, for TBT, The Lamplighters League looked good on paper but was not as good as I expected it to be. Though maybe it was a bit overhyped...

[ZaidH]

Wow the animation in this game looks phenomenal! Such an interesting premise as well. Part of me truly regrets not getting into this genre before 😅

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH To be fair, this genre is a bit poor for variety compared to others, not sure if you can really get into it, you'd run out of good games to play there pretty soon. But it is nice that it's gaining momentum recently.

[ZaidH]

Actually this is ideal for me cuz there's probably a clear consensus on what the top games are in this genre. Should make the decision paralysis easier 😅

[miskkie]

Hadn't heard of Stone of Madness before, looks very interesting. I've been more a turn based guy before, just recently gotten more to RTT's.

[CandelaSynth]

@DoctorEldritch @ZaidH

I didn´t know this was a thing! 😮
I have played action rpgs and turn based, but never heard of this genre. Is it more difficult compared to turn based? (just thinking about the time element, in turn based you can think, can you do the same here? heheh)


Hi @miskkie same here, but all the games featured here seem very interesting and immersive!

Agreed about Stone of Madness: They had me with "from the creators of Blasphemous" XD
(a bit of local pride displayed here, hehehe)

[ZaidH]

@CandelaSynth Apart from Commandos, I haven't played any other games in this genre, but I did have a slightly harder time with Commandos compared to turn-based games 😅 Since everything happens in real time, you really have to scope things out in advance and plan accordingly.