Mechs have long been a common trope of high-concept science-fiction stories, especially in video games. Thanks to their typical combat prowess and impressive stature, mechs make great playable characters and opponents.
Furthermore, the often modular nature of mechs lends itself well to video game customization options and upgrades. However, the use of mechs in video games is usually reserved for high-octane action and turn-based tactics games. Despite this, there are a few RTS games that use their mech theme to great affect.
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8 Phantom Brigade
Although Phantom Brigade doesn't feature the base-building and resource gathering normally associated with an RTS, its combination of turn-based tactics and real-time combat make it a worthwhile experience for fans of mech strategy games looking for combat that plays out in real-time.
In Phantom Brigade, players customize and kit-out a squad of mechs, taking them on missions in which players must plot out various combat maneuvers and place them on a timeline; once players finish plotting out their movements and actions, the timeline plays out in real time. Similar to Into The Breach, Phantom Brigade opts to give the player plenty of information on what the enemy is going to do, allowing the player to plan ahead.
7 Zero-K
This open-source spiritual successor to retro RTS games such as Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation is entirely free at the time of writing; Zero-K is a community-driven passion project in which players manage two unique resources, build bases, control a commander unit, and build heaps of robotic soldiers and mechanical vehicles.
Zero-K also features destructible terrain that helps it stand out among other Supreme Commander style games, as well as multiple commander classes to choose from at the start of each match that injects a little more variety into the game.
6 Iron Harvest
This hyper-classical RTS game takes clear inspiration from games such as Company Of Heroes, but focuses on broader strategy and micromanagement over individual tactics. The game does feature ground troops, but the heaps of mechanical hulks that players can control are the main stars of Iron Harvest.
Taking place in an alternate history in which an industrial revolution spawns unstoppable war machines in the form of mechs in all shapes and sizes, Iron Harvest's single player campaign can be played through as three distinct factions, and its narrative is surprisingly evocative for an RTS game. Furthermore, the destructible environments help to add a feeling of weight to the mechs as players send them through clusters of buildings to do their bidding.
5 Metal Fatigue
While Metal Fatigue does feature a series of tank-like units, the game's "Combots" - agile, customizable mech units - take the limelight. The mechs of Metal Fatigue are highly customizable, allowing players to design mechs for a variety of situations, with each faction having an array of distinct unlockable parts to use.
Metal Fatigue features both ranged and melee combat, and the 3D models and animations still hold up today, making for some truly spectacular battles between the variety of mechs. Furthermore, parts of each mech can come flying off in battle, and players can pick up enemy parts (or simply pick their own parts back up off of the battlefield) and apply them to mechs mid-combat. Each mech is also piloted by a unit, who can eject and retreat when their mech finally goes down.
4 Planetary Annihilation: TITANS
Taking clear inspiration from games such as Total Annihilation, Planetary Annihilation: TITANS tasks players with gathering resources, base-building on fully traversable planets, and building armies of mechanized units in order to take out opponent commanders. Planetary Annihilation is fast-paced, and doesn’t feature much in the way of customization, instead focusing on broad strategic gameplay.
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Planetary Annihilation features multiple-planet combat, tasking players with managing bases across multiple areas and fighting on multiple fronts. Planetary Annihilation focuses more on macro management than micromanagement, favoring the player who is most efficient at building and managing multiple bases while fighting large-scale battles simultaneously.
3 Mech Engineer
Possibly one of the most underrated games on Steam, Mech Engineer is a highly complex indie title that can be fairly inaccessible to new players, however, those that power through the game's initial barriers to entry will find a deeply strategic and evocative game with an immersive user interface.
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Mech Engineer's strategy mechanics are minimal, giving players a mere three options during the game's real-time-with-pause combat: order an artillery strike, order units to move to a specific location, or order them to make their own decisions. While this may sound like the player has little control, it creates an intense and immersive experience in which every decision the player makes matters. Furthermore, this lack of control in combat puts more emphasis on building the perfect mech squad with the game's detailed mech-building and customization options.
2 Beyond All Reason
This modernized spiritual successor to Total Annihilation is one of the most polished, streamlined mech RTS experiences in modern gaming, and at the time of writing it is entirely free to play. Beyond All Reason features single player, co-operative play, and competitive multiplayer modes.
Beyond All Reason features a large amount of variety in the form of various units of different tech levels and a great map selection. Furthermore, the game allows players to customize their experience through toggling settings such as fog of war and aerial combat, and the single player manages to be good fun in of itself thanks to a more than competent AI.
1 Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
Arguably one of the greatest RTS games of all time, this standalone expansion to the original Supreme Commander was an attempt made by Gas Powered Games to keep Supreme Commander's dwindling player base alive, but even after all these years, Forged Alliance remains a strong and competent RTS game that delivers large scale strategy packed with variety and visual spectacle, even if its graphics have begun to age.
Supreme Commander was created by Chris Taylor, co-founder of Gas Powered Games, who originally worked on 1997's Total Annihilation; as a result, Supreme Commander is the true spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, and it could be argued that none have managed to surpass the heights that Supreme Commander offers. The game's titular "Commanders" are hulking mechanical masses that the player can control directly, using them to build and lead an army.