Four years ago, I looked at the once mighty RTS—the genre that had, throughout the '90s and early '00s, so dominated my free time—and questioned whether it could ever come back from the brink of death. Only a small number of developers seemed to remember it existed, and 2010's StarCraft 2 remained its last great success story. "The genre needs a spark," I said, "but lately we've just been blowing on dying embers." Two years later, I'd done a 180.
"Real-time strategy is back from the brink of death," I proclaimed prematurely. So naive. So filled with hope. But with good reason. Homeworld 3, Company of Heroes 3, Tempest Rising, Stormgate, Dune: Spice Wars, The Great War: Western Front—so many exciting games on the horizon, in all sorts of different configurations. It was dizzying. And this list just scraped the surface. I'd never been happier to be proven wrong.
