Tom Clancy's EndWar

While it’s easy to imagine this large-scale destructive weaponry often decides the fate of EndWar’s skirmishes, crucially it’s the small things that count too. Take, for instance, the game’s cover mechanic - a somewhat pioneering endeavor in this particular genre. From looming hills to brick walls, if you’re tucked behind them the enemy can’t see you - and that basically means only one thing: AMBUSH!

When up close and personal with your troops, blink and you could almost mistake EndWar for a bona fide Clancy shooter; this is easily the prettiest RTS we’ve ever seen. To play properly, you’ll probably need to shift to a more omnipotent camera angle, but it’s worth zooming down into the action every so often just to take in the atmosphere.