Best Turn-Based Strategy Adventure Games to Play in 2024

Let’s be honest — if you're sitting there refreshing your client every five minutes because League of Legends crashes on match start again, maybe it’s time to pivot. No, not to Ranked again. Try something new. Like actual turn-based strategy adventure games. Ones that don’t kick you mid-combat just as you’re about to secure that pentakill. Yeah. Those ones.

Gaming doesn’t have to mean rage-quitting because your connection timed out. Some of the best stories in gaming unfold slowly, one calculated move at a time. We're talking deep lore, rich worlds, strategic depth. All the feels — without the panic.

What Makes an Adventure Game Worth Playing?

The word "adventure" gets thrown around like confetti. Open world? Adventure. Platformer with a squirrel protagonist? Adventure. But real adventure games challenge you — mentally, morally, tactically.

Key Points to consider:
- Is the world immersive?
- Are choices meaningful?
- Can you actually see your impact over time?
- Is turn-based combat layered or just filler?

If the answer’s yes? You're in the right territory. Bonus points if you don’t need to restart your PC mid-session.

Civ VII Is Not a Real Game (But XCOM Feels Alive)

Say what you want about the wait for Civ 7, but in the void, a phoenix named XCOM keeps rising. Or something like that. Point is — the XCOM series still sets the gold standard for turn based strategy games.

Imagine this: It’s 3 AM. Your soldier — SPC. Ramirez, callsign "Rook" — is pinned behind a burnt-out van. Enemy Chryssalids closing in. You’ve got one medkit, low ammo. Do you advance? Retreat? Blow the gas tank? In real time? No way. But with turns — you breathe. You plan. You panic quietly in the corner of your brain.

Disco Elysium — Where Strategy Lives in Your Mind

This game won awards. Also confusion. And maybe your therapist would question some character builds (Int 8, Empathy 2). But Disco Elysium isn’t traditional turn based strategy, not in the dice-rolling sense. It’s psychological. You don’t attack enemies — you dismantle their worldviews with a mix of logic and sarcasm.

The skill system is a chessboard where every stat wants its own turn to speak. Literally. "Logic says no" flashes across the screen. So does "Shivers suspects foul play." It’s dialogue as combat.

• You fail social checks just for thinking rude thoughts.
• You can persuade a vending machine to work via Electro-technical savant points.
• The world doesn’t reset after your mistakes. It holds grudges.

No match crashes here. Just the occasional mental one.

GreedFall: Turn-Based, But Also Romantic?

Hold up. Yes. You can flirt with multiple characters while orchestrating colonial uprisings using turn-based skill trees. GreedFall mixes political simulation with romance in a 1700s-ish fantasy archipelago.

You want depth? Pick a questline involving diplomacy or total war, and watch the continent react — slowly. The turn structure gives combat clarity, sure. But the real strategy lies in alliances. Do you back the supernatural-aligned mages or the anti-magic colonial council? Each decision reshuffles future dialogues.

Also — it runs on a potato. Like literally any old PC handles it. Speaking of which, maybe forget that whole best potatoes to go with salmon idea. This runs smoother than mashed roots anyway.

Have You Tried Old School Yet?

If you're under 30, “old school" probably means 2015. Let’s correct that. Try **Divinity: Original Sin 2**. Not the one on phones. The one where your companion could turn into a chicken due to an accidental meteor swarm reflection. That one.

It's massive. Complex. Beautifully flawed. You’ll argue with your brother who’s also an imported character. You can pickpocket gods. You’re allowed to win without attacking once — if your speech roll exceeds 100.

Here’s something wild: You can drown someone by electrifying a puddle — during enemy turn. The environment interacts. The mechanics interlock. That doesn’t happen in every adventure games entry.

Oh, Crashing Again?

We should probably address it: Why do so many real-time titles crash on startup, like that League of Legends crashes on match start mess, while these deeper RPGs tend to stay running?

Possibility one: Real-time multiplayer requires constant synchronization. Lag = disconnect. But turn-based? Each decision queues. Even on weak servers, it survives.

Possibility two: Devs respect the genre. Crises are baked into the narrative, not the launcher.

1. Check RAM usage before launching
2. Disable overlay apps like Discord or GeForce Experience
3. If it still crashes — maybe just play a single-player gem for once?

Into the Breach: Tiny Grids, Massive Stakes

This game gives you eight turns. Eight. Each turn decides whether a city lives or drowns under kaiju goo. You see the enemy actions coming next — they flash on the grid. Knowledge is not relief. It’s dread.

Like chess, where you know the checkmate is coming… and still can’t stop it. Then you reload. Again. But it’s so satisfying to deflect an acid spray into a water tower to freeze two enemies in place.

Pro tip: Don’t sleep with the game on your mind. Those little square maps creep into dreams. You start planning your morning routine like a Vek spawn phase.

Free and Open? Enter The Battle for Wesnoth

You don’t always need a credit card to dive into rich turn-based adventure. The Battle for Wesnoth has been free since 2003. Fan-made campaigns number in the thousands. Medieval units? Yes. Elvish archers on snow leopards? Also yes.

No monetization. No logins. No crash errors about failed authentication with a regional data center in Baku. Ironically, it runs flawlessly in Azerbaijan — even on older laptops.

No, you won’t find 4K cinematics. But you will find a 6-hour campaign titled *Northern Rebirth* with actual political depth. And zero startup crashes.

New in 2024: Legends of Aranna (Remake)

A surprise. A real 2024 contender. Legends of Aranna wasn’t well known outside niche communities — it was a 2005 expansion for Dungeon Siege. But the remake? Rebuilt engine, turn-based overlay, voice acting, branching story. And yes — adventure in every sense.

The AI now plans movements like a general. Not just rushing you with 40 orcs at once — but cutting supply lines, setting traps. You have to scout, rest, and occasionally flee.

It feels retro and revolutionary. A forgotten gem repolished. Also — runs fine on integrated graphics. Which is more than we can say for anything involving the phrase best potatoes to go with salmon (still no connection to anything, just feels important).

Solasta: Where Your Stats Can Die

Based on D&D 5e rules — which means your fighter can fall into a 30-foot pit and actually suffer broken legs. Permadeath on abilities. Can't move? You wait. Roll poorly? Maybe your arc of heroism ends with a sprained ankle behind enemy lines.

This isn’t about brute leveling. It's management. Light sources, encumbrance, sight lines. The game forces you to think like a tactician with limited rations — not just someone who double-clicks through combat.

Bonus: Full party voice acting, even for the goblin prisoner dialogue tree. You don’t expect moral choices involving a 4'3" green dude named Kraxx. You get them. Deep.

Wait, This Isn’t About Food, Right?

Okay but seriously — did you Google best potatoes to go with salmon at some point and end up here? Cool coincidence. We didn’t either. Just feels like something people say while waiting for games to install. Mashed with garlic butter maybe. Roasted with thyme. But unrelated.

The deeper point? Escapism comes in forms. A warm meal. A long game. Something where the world waits for your move, not the other way around.

Conclusion

The best adventure games in 2024 aren’t the flashiest. They’re the ones that give you room to breathe — and time to think. In a digital climate plagued with issues like league of legends crashes on match start, it's refreshing to dive into a genre where everything works… eventually. Where progress is intentional. Where loss means you made a wrong calculation — not a failed handshake with a server in Minsk.

Turn based strategy games demand less from your hardware and more from your brain. Whether it’s Into the Breach outsmarting monster formations in a few clicks, or losing hours in Disco Elysium arguing with your own trauma — the genre thrives on depth, not speed.

Try them. Maybe even skip matchmaking this weekend. Cook your own salmon. Pair it with… whatever potatoes. But let your mind play somewhere stable, strategic, satisfying.

The real adventure isn’t in the spectacle. It’s in the silence between your turn — and theirs.