Games worth discovering
The best 4X games in 2024
1K View2024-02-2010 games listed
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We’re well overdue for an update on this series, but for the time being, Civilization VI is still a fantastic game that has a huge selection of add-on content available to expand and enrich your experience. Whether you want to conquer the world through military arms or by spreading your culture to all corners of the globe, Civilization VI is still the best place to start your 4X journey.
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Soren Johnson’s Old World shares a lot of Civilization’s DNA—Johnson was, after all, the lead designer on Civilization IV. However, Old World narrows its focus on the ancient world, and adds a new dimension with the centrality of its key characters. Historical leaders and prophets, as well as their relationships with others, are important components of any nation’s strategy in Old World, making it a worthwhile evolutionary branch even for experienced Civilization fans.
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Age of Wonders 4 isn’t just one of the best fantasy 4X games ever made, it’s also the game that’s given me perhaps the most power I’ve ever had to truly shape my faction—and I mean that literally. Starting with a pre-built fantasy race or one you define yourself, each move you make in Age of Wonders 4 has an impact on that people’s development. As the game goes on, you’ll decide what magical schools they study, what kinds of alliances and enemies they make, and even whether they ride into battle on giant spiders. If you’ve ever dreamed of leading an army of cannibalistic battle toads in interdimensional conquest, this is the game for you.
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A compelling mix of 4X and RTS, Dune: Spice Wars is a smart adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune universe that leverages the asymmetric conflict on Arrakis into factions that feel meaningfully distinct, each fun to play in their own ways. The light real-time combat is perfect for players who don’t care for the super-sweaty clickfests that dominated the esports scene, and there’s a meaty economic model that creates conflicts and alliances in a world of always-scarce resources.
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The original Master of Magic launched way back in 1995, but you’d never know if from Slitherine’s 2022 remake. The updated Master of Magic feels fresh and vital—a real testament to the enduring strength of its game mechanics. A combination RPG and 4X, Master of Magic casts you as a powerful wizard, and it’s your job to lead your people to prosperity by learning new spells, researching new alchemical methods, and conquering your rivals on the battlefield.
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One of the most unique and original games on this (or any) list, Shadow Empire is a smorgasbord of game types wrapped up in a low-fi 4X game that looks like it was pulled out of a time vortex to 1997. Don’t let the low-fi graphics fool you, though: Shadow Empire is packed with depth, drawing from deck-builders and wargames to create a post-apocalyptic, interplanetary strategy game unlike anything I’ve ever played.
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If the thing that interests you most about 4X is the “exterminate” part, there’s no better place to go than the grim darkness of the 41st millennium. Warhammer 40,000 Gladius: Relics of War is light on the diplomacy and trade that feature heavily in other 4X games, but heavy on the warfare. You can take command of the Imperial Guard, the Necrons, the Orks, or the iconic Space Marines to field impressive unit rosters drawn from the tabletop game and the wider lore, and if you’re a fan of the 40K setting, this is a 4X you definitely don’t want to miss.
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One of the best-looking space 4X games ever made, Endless Space 2 has four unique races, each with its own interstellar mechanics to master. There’s a faction of tree people who extend “roots” out into the stars, for example, and another race called the Horatios that is made up of clones of one guy named Horatio. Surprisingly though, one of the most compelling parts of Endless Space 2 is its multi-party political system, which can add bonuses to your colonization efforts but only as long as you’re cooperating with the majority’s goals. Judging purely from vibes, Endless Space 2 is the chillest game on this list.
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Paradox specializes in grand strategy games and there’s plenty of that heritage present in its galactic conquest game, Stellaris. On a fundamental level, though, Stellaris is about exploration and discovery as much as it is politics and conquest, and so it’s not only right at home in the 4X genre, it’s one of the best to ever do it. After years of significant updates and massive patches that have added whole new ways to play the game, there’s never been a better time to get into this sci-fi sandbox.
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Similar to how Warhammer 40,000 Gladius: Relics of War stripped the land-based 4X game down to its warfare basics, Sins of a Solar Empire deemphasizes everything in the space 4X that isn’t cool-as-hell real-time space battles. Yes, there’s exploration, research, and economy management to stay on top of, but Sins is really about commanding massive fleets of cool spaceships and leading them to victory against opponents’ armadas. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion was billed as a standalone expansion to Sins of a Solar Empire, but in addition to all the new content it added to the base game, it included everything released for the game up to date, instantly making it the definitive Sins experience. In the years since it came out, modders have created a staggering amount of custom content for the game, so you’ll never run out of things to do with this one.
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