Welcome to our gallery of the 10 best turn-based singleplayer games! It's impossible to be truly objective, but this light-hearted opinion piece celebrates our favorite games you play turn by turn. Explore the list and share your own favorite turn-based singleplayer games in the comments!
Of course, Pokémon is not missing from the list, but it remains in last place. The battle system is simple but effective. In our opinion, Heartgold/Soulsilver has found the perfect balance of difficulty, as the newer parts are often too easy and the older ones seem a bit unbalanced between the types of Pokémon. | © Nintendo
This is a game for the hardcore strategist who considers every move carefully. Not only do you move your squad around the world map in turns (in this case: days), but you also enter a turn-based battle where you have to keep an eye on everything. Positioning, your crew and their skills and even the state of your weapons, because if you're not careful, it's goodbye to your soldier forever. | © Haemimont Games
The first part already scored with its reworking of the Paper Mario combat system, in which we can improve our attacks through small actions such as quick time events or the rapid pressing of a button. But the second part improved the system even more by adding positioning, expanding the system with another small but effective level. | © Ubisoft
The new edition is perfect for newcomers and veterans. We control our armies of ships, tanks, jets or soldiers using the typical rock, paper, scissors principle. But it is precisely the mastery of this principle that makes it so addictive and perfect for a quick break on the Switch. | © Nintendo
It may be a brutal ride, but that's what XCOM is all about. Each death of our soldier is permanent, so we have to pay attention not only to our gameplay, but also to their positioning and, of course, the enemy's abilities. It can be annoying when your shot misses 70% of the time, but that's part of the thrill. | © 2K Games
Instead of active time battles like the previous installments, the 10th part focuses on completely turn-based battles. Not only can you take your time, but we can also exchange our characters in battle, as is rarely the case in such round-based battles, and the bosses stand out in particular, who always come up with new ideas to exploit the gameplay system in a creative way. | © Square Enix
This deck-building, rogue-like poker game is probably the insider tip of the year and is pure dopamine for optimization junkies. Each round you have to reach a certain number of points with the cards in your hand and multipliers. But not only the points you need getting higher and higher, so does your money, which you can use to buy new jokers with different effects. This gameplay loop has shown us what compulsive gambling really means. | © Playstack
While some of the games on this list have only a turn-based combat system, in this game you do everything in turns. Build your nation, conquer or defend territories, or even invent new technologies. Of course, the different areas are linked in good old Civ fashion, so you can think long and hard about how to expand your empire. | © 2K Games
The combat system might be really complex, but that’s because there are so many possibilities – which is a nice problem to have. It starts with different dice for your attributes and ends with the positioning and not to forget all the items in your backpack that you can consume or throw on your enemies. All that plus the massive variety of spells makes it the ultimate D&D experience. | © Larian Studios
One of the most successful JRPGs of recent years has a turn-based combat system, who would have thought? We use various elemental-based spells to try and find the enemy's weakness. So if we hit an enemy who is weak to fire with a fire spell, we get another turn. In addition, the combat system is so well integrated and styled that after a few battles, it feels fluid and doesn't feel like round based combat at all. | © Atlus
Take your time, go over your next move in your head, and then mess it up. Even if it doesn't always work out, turn-based games or combat systems are always a good change from sweaty CS2 or FIFA sessions and offer more variety than many people think.
