6 Strategic Games That’ll Have You Glued to the TV and Game Console

Few things are more engrossing than video games. Movies and television series offer a finite viewing opportunity and don’t typically incorporate interactive elements. That’s why popular video games earn legions of fans who are addicted to the experience. Browse this list of six strategic games to see how many have sunk their claws into your brain and kept you glued to the screen.

The Sims Games

While there are a variety  to choose from in this collection, gamers find The Sims 2, released in 2004, to have highly addictive qualities. (That’s not to say The Sims 3 isn’t worth your time because it is.) For starters, The Sims 2 has some fun, quirky elements that keep you entertained for hours. Rife with humor, difficulties, touching moments, and intense undertakings, this game mimics many situations and emotions from reality.

That’s why you have to keep in mind that playing any Sims game is about being the puppet master, creating scenarios, relationships, and entire communities, and then watching them unfold. Given that most people would love to be able to experiment with some level of enhanced control in the real world, this series of games earns major points for bringing gamers back again and again.

The Civilization Games

Civ IV and V let you shepherd a group of people from primitive hunt-and-gather activities to times beyond modernity in games for multiple platforms including PC and PlayStation. The endgame is to become world dominant while engaging in a range of strategies for navigating political, social, financial, and combat situations. With so much to do and so many variables to try to manipulate, you’ll have a hard time stopping. In fact, you may feel you can’t stop and take part in the real world because you’re so absorbed in the game. Seek addiction treatment if you miss sleep, meals, work, or school because of a video game.

The Warcraft Franchise

Delve into the world of orcs, elves, trolls, dwarves, and gnomes with the real-time strategy of these games. Thousands of gamers participate and interact within the same world simultaneously. Interwoven with sophisticated fantasy storylines, these games envelop any gamer who dares to start.

Total War Games

Take strategy to a whole new level with the games in this series. Among the standouts on this PC-based game are Shogun and Shogun II. They feature amazing visuals, especially in the war scenes where thousands of individually rendered graphical elements create a feast for the eyes. Rome and Rome 2 also rank high on the list for artfully combining intense, in-your-face battle experiences with turn-based activities off the battlefield. Brilliant for its combination of different strategic opportunities, gamers can’t seem to get enough Rome.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

Set in the far, far future (try to imagine the 41st millennium), gamers play against a savage and brutal backdrop that lets them put their military strategies to the test. This game for PCs drops you right in the middle of the action, making it difficult to pause and walk away. Engage in minimal building and management. Instead, focus most of your attention on intense warfare. This real-time strategy phenom infuses game play with an unusual amount of violence for this genre.

Company of Heroes

This game for Macs and PCs lets you feel what it’s like fighting during WWII. Supremely entertaining thanks to the developers’ attention to detail, this 2006 release has timeless appeal. Your introduction to the game begins on D-Day as the Allies invade Northern France during WWII. Gamers love this strategy test and can’t step away from it because it’s more about outsmarting your enemy than creating uber-weapons. Use infantry and engineers to develop traps and other measures to secure your position. Stretch your strategic thinking as you move across Europe, which is divided into tactical regions.

Strategy games make you think long-term and in the moment. This balance of planning and responding adds to the enticing nature of the games. Which of these strategy games do you find the most addictive? What qualities make a video game irresistible?