Best Strategy Games With Unique Gameplay

Key Takeaways

• Dune: Imperium innovatively blends worker placement and deck-building for a strategic experience.
• Dune: Imperium offers diverse playable leaders and resource manipulation, elevating its unique gameplay loop.
• Dune: Imperium’s tutorial ensures accessibility, while a sleek user interface enhances gameplay.

Strategy games cover a wide variety of genres, ranging from the high-speed real-time battles of StarCraft 2 to the turn-based strategy of Darkest Dungeon. Within the many sub-genres of strategy, however, lie many tropes.

While these titles aren’t devoid of conventional gameplay, each of them offers a unique twist, setting, and/or innovation that tackles the genre from a different angle. From Dune: Imperium‘s careful blend of classic tabletop mechanics, to Cobalt Core‘s tactical deck-building, there’s something here for all kinds of strategy fans.

1 Balatro

A Score-Attack Deck-Builder That Blends Luck With Strategy

Balatro is a unique, addictive title that combines the casino game, Poker, with traditional roguelike deck-builder gameplay. This results in gameplay that’s truly distinctive, naturally combining luck with strategy, the latter of which mostly revolves around manipulating the former.

Fans of games such as Slay The Spire and even Luck Be A Landlord may enjoy Balatro for its unique blend of strategic gameplay and score-attack loop. However, players who dislike losing to bad luck may want to steer clear, as a well-crafted strategy will only get players so far.

2 SteamWorld Heist

Turn-Based Strategy With Manual Gunfighting

This turn-based strategy game stands out with its distinctive steampunk setting, memorable character designs, and unique combat system. In SteamWorld Heist, players take part in a variety of tactical, turn-based shootouts, but are given the ability to manually aim their weapons.

This unique system allows players to trick-shoot enemies by bouncing bullets off walls, resulting in gameplay that blends skill with strategy in equal measure. For fans of turn-based strategy, steampunk settings, and the charm of sci-fi such as Firefly, SteamWorld Heist may be worth a look.

3 Cobalt Core

A Tactical Roguelike Deck-Builder

Cobalt Core challenges players with duking it out in strategic space battles using a variety of cards, building a deck over the course of each run that represents the actions of their crew. The tranquil atmosphere, relaxing music, and charming pixel art all help make Cobalt Core a unique experience, but this title overcomes the trappings of the roguelike deck-builder genre with a distinctive tactical twist.

Both the player and enemy ships can move during combat, and cannons must be lined up correctly to hit the opposition. Players can also use this mechanic to avoid incoming fire, resulting in a unique experience that offers a careful blend of strategy and tactics.

4 Dungeon Of The Endless

A Genre-Bending Strategy Roguelike

Dungeon Of The Endless is a dark and gritty strategy roguelike with heavy elements of tower defense and resource management. Players can expect runs to go from quiet and calm to utterly desperate in a matter of moments, making Dungeon Of The Endless a consistently thrilling experience.

This gameplay is unique not only for the genre-bending that it does but for the urgency it provides players despite its nature as a strategy game. Fans of tower defense, real-time strategy, and resource management are sure to enjoy this unique title.

5 Dune: Spice Wars

A Unique Combination Of Familiar Flavors

Combining elements of the 4X and real-time strategy genres, Dune: Spice Wars may at first seem familiar, but the flavor presented by the many systems at play is certainly unique. This is primarily due to the game’s variety of win conditions and the careful blend of politics, warfare, espionage, and infrastructure.

In keeping with the source material, environmental hazards also play an important role in the gameplay, factoring into when and where players move their armies. Every playable faction in Dune: Spice Wars, from the oppressive Harkonnens, to the sneaky Smugglers, has a unique playstyle. This dramatically improves the replay value of the game, preventing its unique gameplay from becoming stale.

6 Wildfrost

A Distinctive Deck-Builder Packed With Charm

The roguelike deck-builder genre has become highly saturated with somewhat repetitive experiences since the popular release of Slay The Spire, but Wildfrost stands out with its unique gameplay loop and charming cartoon art style. The level of polish on display in Wildfrost is admirable, but it’s the strategic gameplay that gives it staying power.

Wildfrost uses counters to keep track of each character’s turn, which it dubs “cooldown.” Character (and enemy) cooldowns count down every time the player takes a turn. Any given deck is made up of characters and spells, much like Hearthstone, but players can move characters around at will without spending a turn. All this combined gives Wildfrost a distinctive flair.

7 Into The Breach

A Strategic Puzzle Box With A Commitment To Fairness

Between FTL: Faster Than Light and Into The Breach, Subset Games have offered players distinctive strategy games that challenge and delight in equal measure. Into The Breach plays closer to a puzzle game, but there’s a variety of strategic and tactical decisions to be made throughout each run.

Into The Breach tasks players with defending against an alien invasion with a squad of unique mech-suits. What makes Into The Breach unique, however, is its commitment to fairness, telegraphing enemy attacks and hazards with no restraint. This results in truly refreshing gameplay that takes the frustration out of losing and elevates the strategy elements, bolstered further by the ability to undo and reset turns.

8 Dune: Imperium

A Unique Blend Of Worker-Placement And Deck-Building

• Platform(s): PC, Xbox, Mobile
• Released: 2024
• Developer(s): Dire Wolf
• Genre: Board Game

This digital adaptation of the popular board game, set in the iconic universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune, is an innovative combination of deck-building and worker-placement mechanics that offers a uniquely strategic experience. Players need not be knowledgeable about tabletop games to enjoy Dune: Imperium, as its tutorial does a superb job of teaching the core mechanics, and the slick, intuitive user interface keeps the moment-to-moment gameplay relatively painless.

Dune: Imperium tasks players with sending agents to collect resources, which players then use to manipulate their odds of obtaining new cards, winning conflicts, or completing secret objectives. Agents are controlled via the game’s cards, many of which feature two benefits, one of which is triggered when played, and the other when left in hand. This results in a truly unique gameplay loop that’s only elevated by the game’s diverse variety of playable leaders, each with its strengths and weaknesses.