Directional sound for your large armies is very cool as well. The reflections in the water are of particular note, with the designers clearly seizing the opportunity to show off what they can do. I hadn’t expected such a well versed appearance from a remastered title, but the surprise was a very welcome one indeed. 15 years have made a great deal of difference in this respect, with many of the textures and models in the game looking very close to photorealistic. What strikes you first when you load up Cossacks 3’s tutorial are the visuals. Perhaps that is one of the many aspects which make it feel special. A number of campaigns help to give a story to the setting, but even outside of this the game does not seem to stray outside of its boundaries. The 17 th and 18 th Century setting offers something slightly different to many competitors, and the game maintains this theme with prowess throughout, no matter which of its 12 civilisations you play with. It is very much of the ilk of some of the games I listed as my favourites before, challenging you to collect natural resources and build, research and battle your way to victory through domination.

That being said, when a new release like GSC Game World’s Cossacks 3 appears on the market describing itself as “a rare combination of war, economy, army developing, building and upgrading that couldn’t be found in any game for the last 15 years”, it very much has my attention.Ĭossacks 3 is an updated remake of the year 2000 release in the Cossacks series.

Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World and Rise of Nations were always the pinnacle of the genre for me, with the HD remakes of some of these games being the most notable RTS releases for a while when they appeared on the Steam Store. It feels as though the genre hit its peak some time ago now, with more recent games trying too hard and falling too short. I love a good real-time strategy game, but more recently they seem to have been few and far between.

Cossacks 3 build order