The Real-Time with Pause Zone
Games where real-time action can pause for planning, orders, and tactics.
See the best Real-Time with Pause games
See the free Real-Time with Pause games
Do a power search within Real-Time with Pause games
Latest Standouts
Recent releases that landed well, newest first, filtered to games with enough reviews to trust the score.
States of Power - Command your nation's armies, economy, and diplomacy in this WWII Grand Strategy Wargame. Easy to start, hard to master and a full match fits in one session. Play singleplayer and multiplayer, or create, play and share your own custom scenarios with the built-in Scenario Editor.
Aug 26, 2026
Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes - In Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes, take command of a fleet escaping the annihilation of the Twelve Colonies. Manage crises on board as you prepare for the next encounter with the Cylon Fleet. Times are dire, and hard choices must be made. Your only hope: rejoin the Battlestar Galactica.
May 11, 2026
Extinction Day - End humanity using disasters, plagues, and war. Spread chaos worldwide, combine catastrophic events, and stop them before they escape to the Ark.
Apr 10, 2026
Here Comes The Swarm - Here Comes the Swarm is a survival RTS with a pause button! Create your strategy, build, manage, and defend your settlements at your own pace. Take the fight to the hive mind and lead expeditions to deliver a deadly blow and eradicate your foes. Will you reclaim Ulora from the relentless Swarm?
Mar 5, 2026
On Sale Now
Discounted 25% or more right now, limited to well-reviewed games, steepest cuts first.
Tower of Time - A new kind of RPG awaits you. A story-rich dungeon crawler with innovative real-time combat that lets you pause or slow time. Tactical thinking is essential to succeed. Now with RPGlite and Permadeath for fast-paced game.
Apr 12, 2018
Deadly Days - Deadly Days is a unique strategic rogue-lite in the zombie apocalypse. Manage and protect a group of survivors and help them to stop the catastrophe. Discover and use a large number of wild and crazy objects, even wilder and crazier survivors, special abilities, and deadly weapons.
Sep 19, 2019
Lords of Magic: Special Edition - Urak, once peaceful, is now a land of darkness, chaos and death. The people yearn for a champion to drive away the forces of evil. That champion is you.
Dec 3, 2015
Bounty Train - Explore the dangerous life, the accurate historic events and contemporary inventions of the North American/US 19th century. Acquire one of the most legendary steam machines and transform it into a fortress on rails.
May 16, 2017
Train Valley - Build railways, manage traffic and stay accident-free. Play in Europe, America, Japan and USSR in 1830-2020. Complete the story mode from the Gold Rush of 1849 to the first manned spaceflight, and then explore the random mode. Management. Construction. Trains. Welcome to Train Valley!
Sep 16, 2015
Frostpunk - Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?
Apr 24, 2018
The Red Solstice - 2280 A.D. The last few survivors of a ruined Earth seek a new home: Mars, a planet whose inhabitants didn't take too kindly to outsiders. The Red Solstice is a tense, tactical, squad-based action game. Fight to survive with up to 8 players in co-op, or lead your own squad in single-player mode.
Jul 9, 2015
Distant Worlds: Universe - Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time 4X space strategy game. Experience the full depth and detail of turn-based strategy, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game.
May 23, 2014
Divinity: Dragon Commander - You are the Dragon Commander. Your mission it is to reunite a broken empire and become the new emperor. Success depends entirely on your ability to efficiently rule your empire, build invincible armies and lead them to victory.
Aug 6, 2013
Europa Universalis IV - Rule your land and dominate the world with unparalleled freedom, depth and historical accuracy. Write a new history of the world and build an empire for the ages.
Aug 13, 2013
Nexus - The Jupiter Incident - Ambitious megacorporations monopolize the conquest of space and the colonization of the solar system. At the very edge of the solar system, the companies make a discovery that will shift the technological advantage and upset the balance. And so a new conflict is born: "The Jupiter Incident."
Jul 3, 2007
Infested Planet - Command a team of 5 elite soldiers against an alien horde of 100,000. Surrounded on all sides, you must outmaneuver and outsmart the enemy.
Mar 6, 2014
Top Rated
Defining examples of the genre, all rated 85%+ across 1,000+ reviews.
Door Kickers 2: Task Force North - Command military Special Ops Teams in gripping tactical combat against a Middle East-based terrorist network. Sequel to RockPaperShotgun's "Best Tactics Game of 2014".
Feb 10, 2025
Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal - Creeper World 3 is what happens when cellular automata takes over a strategy simulation. Instead of discrete units that attack your base, a fluid-like substance spreads over the terraformable terrain. Your base, your weapons, your strategy... you must adapt them all.
Mar 27, 2014
From Glory To Goo - From Glory To Goo is a Sci-Fi survival RTS set on an alien world. Serve as humanity's bulwark by establishing a colony and supporting your colonists still in orbit. But beware, for The Goo, a relentless and shape-shifting force approaches from all sides, even above and below.
Apr 2, 2024
FTL: Faster Than Light - This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.
Sep 14, 2012
Heat Signature - Heat Signature is a game from the developers of Gunpoint where you break into spaceships, make terrible mistakes, and think of clever ways out of them. You take a mission, fly to the target ship, sneak inside, and make clever use of your gadgets to distract, ambush and take out the crew.
Sep 21, 2017
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition - Uncover secrets of past lives in this story-rich, tactical roleplaying game set in Sigil, a dark fantasy city at the heart of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. Explore the planes, survive combat alongside a party of bizarre companions, and solve puzzles unlike any ever seen in the genre.
Apr 11, 2017
STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II - The Sith Lords™ - 5 years after the events of the award winning original, the Sith are on the verge of crushing the Old Republic. As a lone Jedi, will you follow the light side or succumb to the dark?
Aug 23, 2012
Door Kickers - Door Kickers is an innovative realtime strategy game that puts you in charge of a SWAT team and lets you command them during a tactical intervention.
Oct 20, 2014
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - The classic returns! Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition restores the full original adventure and Tales of the Sword Coast, now polished with quality‑of‑life upgrades for a smoother timeless Dungeons & Dragons journey.
Jan 16, 2013
