Strategy Games For 2011

It’s a hard life being a strategy fan. Almost every other genre seems to get a blockbuster game every two weeks, and while the rest of you are playing Men Shooting Things In Corridors XIV, the strategy fan looks forlornly at his calendar, counting the days until the gods of gaming deign to notice his desperate plight. This week Stratagems has done the hard work for you, rounding up the top five games to put on the top of your strategy wishlist for 2011, and exactly why you need to have them.

1. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm



This one needs little in the way of introduction, but we’ll give you one anyway - with a story campaign that blew everyone’s expectations out of the water, and a competitive multiplayer that will dominate the genre for well into the next decade, StarCraft II’s first installment, Wings of Liberty, was a big deal. So it’s no surprise that Heart of the Swarm is going to continue that trend - and continue the story as well, bringing us into the Zerg chapter of the trilogy and hopefully more than a few sweet new units along with it (Lurkers please Blizzard, if you’re listening). Of course there’s every chance that Blizzard will be... well, Blizzard, and make us wait until 2012, or even longer, but that’s a risk that most people will happily take.




2. Shogun 2: Total War


There’s nary a strategy fan in the known universe who doesn’t get all misty-eyed at the memory of the original Shogun: Total War, and with Creative Assembly finally unveiling the first glimpses of its long-awaited sequel, it’s soon going to be time to relive those memories of feudal Japanese combat all over again. This next installment promises a number of sweeping improvements, including Hero units and upgradeable generals, as well as coastal landings. Overall though Creative Assembly seem to be playing it cautiously and incorporating the lessons learned from their time spent on the other Total War games into this sequel, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

3. Dawn of War II: Retribution


Boasting not one but two new single-player campaigns, and with one of them being the perennial favourites and my own personal role models the Orks, Retribution is shaping up to be a smashing success for Relic’s consistently excellent Dawn of War series. Details are still scarce on what else the game will offer in the way of multiplayer, though Relic have been taking pains to make sure that everybody knows they’re working on something special, hopefully to rival the Last Stand mode which proved so popular.



4. Age of Empires Online


A contentious inclusion in the list to be sure, but even the most cynical gamer has to agree that taking the proven Age of Empires formula and turning it into an accessible online game has extraordinary potential. A free-to-play business model may cause the lip to curl in distaste for some, but the idea of being able to take my Age of Empires game anywhere and play along with my friends is definitely worth checking out. Although it remains to be seen just how heavily (if at all) they’ll take to the game with a pair of feature-pruning shears, Company of Heroes Online proves that a free model can be accessible and fun without compromising on a core concept. We’ll just have to wait and see.


5. Jagged Alliance 3


One of the most on-again, off-again sequels in gaming history looks finally set to be released in 2011, with new German developers bitComposer Games having secured the worldwide licensing rights to the series from Strategy First in March this year. This follows the news that the long, long, long-awaited sequel had been scrapped again at the end of 2009, and fans of this much-beloved series were probably close to breaking point. No doubt feeling the pressure, bitComposer have assured fans that they are aiming for a release next year and are hard at work making the gun-toting, wisecracking game everybody is hoping for.