Best Real-Time with Pause games on PC
Games play out continuously in real time but let players pause the action to issue commands, adjust plans, or manage systems before continuing.
- Continuous action between pauses
- Commands issued while paused
- Tactical or management decisions
Related: Strategy, Simulation, Grand Strategy, RPG
152 games on PC, with requirements, reviews and prices.
Freedom Force
Comic-book superhero strategy RPG with pauseable squad battles
56% positive
549 reviews
UFO: Afterlight
Sci-fi strategy on Mars with tactical battles against aliens
66% positive
537 reviews
Creeper World 2: Anniversary Edition
Side-view tower defense where digging helps contain a flowing enemy
90% positive
506 reviews
STATIONflow
Station-building simulation about routing crowds through underground rail hubs
86% positive
505 reviews
Close Combat - Gateway to Caen
World War II tactical wargame spanning battles and campaigns near Caen
70% positive
495 reviews
Polaris Sector
Space 4X strategy with custom ships and hands-on battles
72% positive
476 reviews
Star Wolves
Mission-based space strategy RPG about leading a bounty hunter crew
84% positive
466 reviews
Close Combat: The Bloody First
Real-time World War II tactics with a US infantry company
53% positive
459 reviews
Hegemony Rome: The Rise of Caesar
Real-time strategy about Caesar's war for control of Gaul
61% positive
450 reviews
Escape The Mad Empire
Isometric party-based dungeon crawler with pausable combat and repeat runs
89% positive
428 reviews
Rift Riff
Tower defense across monster worlds with a flexible, wave-by-wave approach
95% positive
394 reviews
March of the Eagles
Napoleonic grand strategy about war, logistics, and European dominance
68% positive
388 reviews
Mass Effect 2 (2010) Edition
Third-person sci-fi RPG about recruiting allies against an invasion
78% positive
386 reviews
Skirmish Line
Top-down World War II defense with randomized Japanese assaults
88% positive
365 reviews
The White Laboratory
Physics-based tower defense where you build robots from parts
78% positive
362 reviews
Sumerians
Historical city builder centered on irrigation, trade, and planning
87% positive
331 reviews
Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
Comic-book tactical RPG with time-traveling superheroes fighting the Reich
86% positive
316 reviews
Victoria I Complete
Nineteenth-century grand strategy about governing a nation through industrialization
70% positive
270 reviews
UFO: Aftershock
Sci-fi strategy mixing squad missions and base management on Earth
75% positive
263 reviews
Orbi Universo
Abstract civilization strategy built around interconnected management nodes
71% positive
262 reviews
Supreme Ruler 2020 Gold
Grand strategy sandbox for managing nations amid global economic collapse
78% positive
251 reviews
Crusader Kings Complete
Medieval grand strategy of dynastic politics and crusades
61% positive
246 reviews
Welcome Back, Commander
Squad-based real-time tactics in a plague-stricken city with lasting choices
81% positive
246 reviews
Darklands
Open-world RPG in medieval Germany with alchemy and pausable combat
90% positive
244 reviews