I miss the old strategy games for the PC, nowadays everything seems to be either too complicated, or being too graphics intensive for my machine.
So i thought, having a 4 year old Android pad, pretty speedy still at 10" and such.
Any fun strategy games on the Play store? I need something i can buy, not be tethered to a payment system.
Needs to be readily understandable. Im born in the 60s and my mind isnt as quick as it used to be.
Seriously, just about everything I’ve tried is fundamentally a Pay-to-Win option, not a lot of help.
It isn’t really a strategy game precisely, but for a fun, lightweight game with planning elements, I’d recommend Fallout Shelter. Especially if you’re a Fallout fan of course. It’s more about base building, resource management, and collecting geegaws, but while you can pay for very minor geekups, I never needed to bother. It’s a great timewaster albeit with lots of downtime while you’re waiting for people to come/go, train, or reproduce.
Almost anything resembling a fun RTS for me was full of “watch this 30 second video” every 3-5 minutes or a microtransaction hell for pay-to-win or wait 24 hours for the next step with absolutely nothing to do in the meantime.
Having said that, my friends that are more phone-gaming rather than PC gaming (my vice) suggested the following:
Super 90s RTS style game, no sub or microtransactions, one time purchase of $1.99
I mean, it’s freaking X-Com, popular with my friends and myself in PC format. Again, no microtransactions or subs, but $14.99 one time purchase. My friend swears it’s a faithful (including the lethality) translation of the PC game, and I mostly trust them, but have zero personal experience.
Lastly, for Warhammer 40K fans:
Now, this I played on the PC. And I was… underwhelmed. There it felt like an Android/iPhone game scaled up to the PC, with utterly insufficient content. Especially at the price point they asked at the time I bought it (even on sale, at the time it was $19.99 for 50% off). But it should work well IMHO as a tablet game. I’d hesitate on the average phone, because you don’t want to try fiddly movement controls on a small touchscreen for this style of RTS/Shooter, but should work well on a 10inch tablet.
And it’s $9.99 - with no other paid features.
Still, as always, double check the android store to make sure it’s compatible with your tablet and current OS. 4 years is pretty long in the market, and of course, some tablets are more compatible than others.
Forge of Empires.
It’s a long game. Winning or beating someone isn’t a thing. But you need strategic skills. Which I have little of. But I can play at a low level and still enjoy.
Civilization VI is available for Android devices. 60 free turns then decide if you want to buy it. It does have a lot of DLC (just like the PC/Console versions) but that’s more nations and not subscription or “Buy ten more turns for 400 gems” nonsense. Reviews are mixed due to some people having problems with the game deciding they didn’t pay for it and performance issues. You do get sixty turns see how well it works on your device but there’s also…
Unciv is a lightweight, stripped down version of the Civilization formula. I haven’t played it personally but it’s well reviewed, open source and free without ads.
Outside of the “Grand Strategy” thing is Mini Metro, a well regarded strategy game and one-time purchase about developing a commuter system
Wow thanks guys! I have played Fallout (the original from the 90s), lots of civilization, and massive amounts if SimCity and SimCity 2000 – all on PC and Atari ST. So those are great recommendations for me.
Ill check them out guys!
I am so dismayed by all those “free” games with PTW, so im glad there are other choices around.