Warcraft III Series Alternatives and Similar Games

If you love Warcraft, then you’ll probably love this fantasy series that combines RPG and RTS elements but adds and puts more focus on the role-playing elements than Warcraft 3. You start out by making your own character from a variety of classes and develop it as you improve stats, unlock new skills, acquire better equipment and many different spells throughout fun campaigns where you also get to control other heroes. You can’t go wrong with any of the titles in the franchise, but SpellForce 3 is the most beautiful title to get if you want great graphics alongside RPG and RTS missions. While the campaigns are more RPG-focused, you can enjoy your standard RTS gameplay in skirmish mode. Overall if you’re into squad-based RPGs that combine traditional RTS gameplay, then you’ll enjoy playing through these games.

This superb sci-fi RTS with competitive gameplay is still alive to this day, with tons of community-created maps and two action-packed expansion packs to jump into. The base game has recently been made free to play, meaning that you can play the amazing story-based campaign and ranked multiplayer for free. So if you didn’t get it while it had a price tag, now there’s no excuse to play through one of the best RTS games of all time.

Instead of using workers to chop trees and gather gold from gold mines, the Dawn of War series changes the system by letting you use infantry units to capture control points all over the map. All 3 entries in the franchise are quite different. If you’re looking for pure sci-fi RTS gameplay, then the first Dawn of War and its expansion packs are for you. Dark Crusade and Soulstorm are notable expansion packs for the 1st title as they feature a campaign where the goal is to conquer territories using one of the unique races you can choose from. Dawn of War II shifts from traditional RTS gameplay and puts focus on squad-based gameplay without any base-building, while the 3rd entry combines traditional RTS gameplay with MOBA elements.

An underrated gem that actually released a few months before Warcraft 3, while the expansion pack, Winter of the Wolf, came out a few months later. It’s a unique Japanese-themed RTS where peasants do not only build structures and collect rice and water. Instead, you also train them to become warriors. Building your army is unique and requires you to order peasants to train at the required building. After that, you can continue upgrading the unit at other buildings to create an even more powerful and diverse unit. The combat animations are great and give life to the many battles you’ll face across the campaigns. There are 4 factions, and they are all a blast to play with. Definitely play this if you haven’t already.

A mixture of RPG and RTS, Dragonshard features maps divided into 2 layers: the surface, and the underground. On the surface you get to raise and upgrade your army, as well as receive Dragonshards which fall down from the sky. A unique Juggernaut unit for each of the available 3 factions can be used and Champions are powerful hero units with various abilities. Captains, however, can automatically get soldiers with them to provide better defense. The underground shifts from the RTS quest-based gameplay and instead puts more focus on RPG dungeon-crawling, where you only get to use Champions and Captains without their soldiers. Here you get to fight many evil monsters and find loot while watching out for deadly traps. Overall if you like a mix of role-playing and real-time strategy where the role-playing might be more focused, then you’ll

Age of Mythology brings mythical fun RTS gameplay for all experienced and casual strategists. Here you get to upgrade your base by advancing through Ages, unlocking new technology, units and buildings to overcome your foe. You also get to choose a god at the start of the game, as well as another god every time you progress to the next Age. They give unique units and have their own special ability useful for specific situations.

No matter how much you are into RTS games, you have probably played at least one of the classics in this franchise known for their FMV cutscenes and gameplay. Whether you’ll blast your way through Red Alert 2 or fight aliens in the sci-fi Tiberium Wars, there’s plenty of joy to be had in this wonderful franchise.

Experience history as you develop newer and realistic technology by upgrading through Ages in this widely-known RTS series. There’s no better time to revisit these classics then now, as the first two entries have been remastered and the 3rd one still looks great.

Similarly to the Dawn of War series, you get resources by capturing strategic points across destructible environments. Both of the titles in the series let you experience immersive tactical gameplay with a great cover system as you control squads of infantry that can be equipped with a variety of weapons, including flamethrowers, useful for taking care of units inside buildings. If you want realistic RTS titles set in World War II, then you don’t want to miss out on this amazing franchise.

Based on the old Total Annihilation, this space RTS features a unique planet system where you get to build and fight on various planets at once with thousands of different vehicle units. Thousands of units can be seen battling it out as you enjoy the game’s unique visual style and make use of the powerful Titan units to change the tide of war. Even the planets themselves can be destroyed in a variety of ways and you can use the game’s planet editor to create your own unique planets to use and share with your friends. It’s definitely worth giving it a go as it is a ton of fun blowing up your opponent’s planets to pieces, especially online.