It

It all used to be better, you know. The sun shone, cool winds caressed amber cornfields, everyone got all the Christmas presents they asked for, and real-time strategy was the dish of the day—the genre Goliath to which all others were mere Davids. Except they were losing. They were like David but they lost.

I’m losing the thread, but the point is that RTS games are good and, in 2025, tragically underserved. Still, chin up: the latest Humble Bundle consists of a whole bunch of RTS bangers (and some less-than-bangers) to tide you over in our ongoing real-time strategy drought.

Look, mostly I just want you to play Commandos which—speaking accurately—is more real-time tactics than strategy. Nevertheless, I have a great affection for the series and all its cousins—stuff like Desperados and Shadow Tactics. These are games which put you in command of a gradually expanding roster of little guys who each have their own special abilities, then task you with applying them creatively in order to complete your objectives across some really-quite-pretty maps.

Commandos has you doing that in World War 2, quite laudably, and the games packed into Humble’s RTS Bundle run nearly the whole gamut of the series. You’ve got Commandos 1 (plus its expansion pack: Beyond the Call of Duty), Commandos 2, and Commandos 3, which people liked a fair bit less than the first two but, hey, might as well grab it while it’s there. It’s not all Commandos, mind you. For the $10 (£7.34) Humble asks, you also get:

• Dust Fleet
• Men of War: Assault Squad 2 (which we scored 75% in our Men of War: Assault Squad 2 review)
• AI War 2 (which we scored 86%)
• Stronghold: Definitive Edition
• From The Depths
• Tooth And Tail (awarded a coveted Fraser Brown 80%)

Like I said, some bangers in there, but really it’s the Commandos stuff that perks my ears up. One note: both Commandos 2 and 3 have had HD remasters over the years, but they aren’t in this bundle. You get the plain-Jane OG versions instead.

Frankly, with both the remasters sitting at a tepid Mixed rating in the Steam reviews, maybe that’s for the better. Just be ready to tinker with stuff like the Commandos HD project if you’re keen to get them running at modern resolutions. You also won’t get Commandos: Origins, the series revival that released last April to relatively decent user reviews, because I imagine Kalypso is still keen on selling that at full price.

One of Josh’s first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he’s been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He’ll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin’s Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you’re all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.