StarCraft II is still great.

StarCraft II was first released in 2010 and it’s still amazing:

• Free-to-play (since 2017)
• It’s an old game so it works on a wide variety of hardware and software.
• Great tutorial play that trains new players from scratch (even those without any real-time-strategy experience).
• It includes a multiplayer co-op mode!

I have some old work and personal computers sitting around and was able to install Battle.net and StarCraft II on 4 different machines (some Windows, some macOS) for a little family LAN party — it was awesome.

Watching our 8 and 10 year olds shout cooperative instructions as we battled against the computer was special — a nod to the before-times: playing video games with friends in childhood basements.

A few caveats:

• You’ll want a mouse for this game (you can’t play this game with a trackpad). I picked up a few super-cheap Logitech mice for the kids.
• The CAPTCHA when signing up for a new Battle.net account is unbelievably terrible (I had to add up an unbelievably number of pictures of dice to make 4 accounts).

Do you have a favorite real-time-strategy game that might fit this same bill? I want to hear it!