5 Great Strategy Games With Unique Control Schemes

Strategy games are very fun, but the reality is that they’re not for everyone, as they require tons of patience, a good deal of tactical planning, and a deep love for sitting back and waiting for things to play out. Given how popular this genre is, there are strategy games touching on almost every subject. From ancient civilizations and World War 2, to futuristic interplanetary conflicts.

Playability is also a key concept that can make or break a strategy game, as some titles can be fun, but the way they’re designed to be controlled might leave something to be desired. Here are some great strategy games with unique control schemes.

5 Pikmin

The One That Started It All

• Olimar needs to collect all his ship’s pieces to escape the mysterious planet
• Some items require a specific amount of Pikmin

Pikmin starts when Captain Olimar crashes on a mysterious planet. He soon realizes that the only way to escape is by collecting his ship’s parts, which have been scattered all over the surface. To help Olimar, players will have to grow different Pikmin, as well as control them as a group to perform various tasks.

This sounds simpler than it is, as players will have to plan out how they want their Pikmin to do their tasks and move the various objects required to progress through the game. Many objects are labeled with a number, which indicates the Pikmin required to lift them. While the control scheme itself isn’t too complex or different in technical terms, the methods to control Olimar and the Pikmin to work together and achieve a mutual goal is very unique, and something that was rarely seen in other titles at the time.

4 Frozen Synapse

Player Control Relies Heavily On Planning And Different Routes

• Players must use the top-down view to control their characters and find blind spots
• As opposed to other strategy games, controlling units feels a little more restricted, but in a good way

Set in a futuristic environment, specifically in the city of Markov Geist, Frozen Synapse presents players with a unique concept, where the world has merged with a form of virtual reality inhabited by beings referred to as shapeforms. This game features turn-based combat that requires a ton of patience and careful strategic planning to ensure victory within the smallest possible timeframe.

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During combat, players will have to give orders to a small squad of armed combatants in an effort to eliminate all opposing units. What makes Frozen Synapse so interesting and unique in terms of control schemes is not related to technical concepts, but rather to how players can control their units. Proposed pathways are marked in green, and players must use the top-down view to their advantage to find blind spots and areas of coverage to both attack enemies and avoid being hit. Controlling units in this game is a unique experience, as it doesn’t feel as unrestricted as other titles, which might sound tedious, but somehow, it works.

3 Black & White

The Hand Of A God Has Many Different Abilities

• Holding down on the mouse allows for continuous resource collection from a specific source
• Players’ hand is the hand of God, which adds another layer to the experience

Players who’ve ever dreamed of being an almighty god with thousands of followers praying to them and building shrines in their honor will love Black & White. In this great strategy game, players will be in control of almost everything that happens in their world, including resource management, and the fate of it.

Depending on players’ decisions, the world will change for good or for worse, stemming from the choices of a kind, or an evil god. As players carry out godly acts, they will get more and more believers, which in turn makes them more powerful and able to control several aspects of the experience. One thing in terms of the control scheme that players would probably not have been able to figure out straight away without the tutorial, is that holding down the mouse on a specific resource like wood allows for its continuous collection. Moreover, the cursor is often represented as a hand, which can only be interpreted as the hand of God.

This changes things, as in strategy games, players are often just giving orders to units, but implementing an almighty force and seeing God’s hand literally in action, is something else.

2 Tom Clancy’s EndWar

Voice Commands Make Tactical Approaches Feel More Realistic

• Set in a world where an energy crisis has crippled modern society
• Players can use voice commands to tell their units who or what to attack

The events behind Tom Clancy’s Endwar begin when a nuclear terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia kills six million people and interrupts the Middle East’s commercial activities, including the import and export of oil. Soon after, the world plunges into a concerning energy crisis. Naturally, when something like this happens, chaos soon follows, and the world loses any established order that was ever in place. One curious thing about this title is that it was turn-based for handheld consoles, such as the Nintendo DS, and real-time for other platforms.

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What makes Tom Clancy’s Endwar‘s control scheme so unique, is that often, the controller is not needed. This game implemented voice commands that players could use to tell their units who or what to attack by simply using specific words. This not only helped add much more realism to the gaming experience but also gave the title a unique approach to combat and strategy.

1 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Controlling Pixel Byleth With The Switch’s Gyro Controls Is Very Fun

• Byleth is tasked with instructing students in a military academy
• Players can control pixel Byleth with their Switch controller

Although the main character, Byleth used to be a mercenary, he finds himself a teacher in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Tasked with instructing the young students of a prestigious military academy, Byleth will stop at nothing until the youngsters under his stewardship are well-prepared. Fire Emblem: Three Houses features amazing strategy mechanics that allow players to plan out their combat approaches in battle.

While this game doesn’t feature unique control schemes during the majority of the story, there is a very fun and hard-to-discover feature inside it. During the game’s loading screen, players will see a small pixel art Byleth at the bottom. While it might be hard to believe, it’s possible to control him and determine where he runs with the Nintendo Switch’s gyro sensor. This feature, while not at all useful in practical terms, is a fun little detail the developers added, and that took many players hundreds of hours to discover.

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