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Zero-K
With 100+ truly unique units, Zero-K is an RTS of freedom and creativity, tempered by a decade of refinement. Sculpt land into a castle and throw invaders off it with a Jugglenaut. Explore a massive campaign, solo or co-op. Hop online for epic 32 player battles or fast paced 1v1, on 100s of maps.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “deep mechanics unit variety” (61 of 103 reviews) and “completely free high content” (16); the most common complaint is “annoying units outdated feel” (5). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-10-22 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
61 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I love it so far. It's got those classic Total Annihilation style mechs with the large-scale map zooming of Supreme Commander. All of this in a beautiful to look at cell-shaded style. Since it's free, I'll also have an…”
“Immensely playable huge real-time strategy game. Modern day Total Annihilation, easily comparable to FAF Supreme Commander, Forged Alliance. AND... It's free!”
“This game has every mechanic a person could ever wish for in an RTS game. It's expansive, balanced and very well made with a large community of active players and contributors. The community is very welcoming as well.…”
16 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I love it so far. It's got those classic Total Annihilation style mechs with the large-scale map zooming of Supreme Commander. All of this in a beautiful to look at cell-shaded style. Since it's free, I'll also have an…”
“Immensely playable huge real-time strategy game. Modern day Total Annihilation, easily comparable to FAF Supreme Commander, Forged Alliance. AND... It's free!”
“Kind of silly I havent reviewed it, considering how many hours I have. Its good. Even if you aren't familiar with Total Annihilation, or RTS games in general, it's worth trying. It is free after all. Also, credit to…”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“amazing community, every match actually feels different, insanely balanced, can be either sweaty or casual depending on how you want to play. flat progression leads to emphasis on tactics and outplaying your opponent as…”
“My personal biased opinion about this game -{ Graphics }- ☑ Good 6/10 It looks pretty good, although it could be made more beautiful and more stylish like PA:Titans. -{ Gameplay }- ☑ DIVINE GAMEPLAY OwO 10/10…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Is fun, i can combine economies with my friends and screw them over by building too many planes.”
“Most entertaining and versitile RTS game I've seen! So much content, great and interesting mechanics, very enjoyable overall. At first first glace and play it is quite overwheling and complicated, but once you start to…”
“My personal biased opinion about this game -{ Graphics }- ☑ Good 6/10 It looks pretty good, although it could be made more beautiful and more stylish like PA:Titans. -{ Gameplay }- ☑ DIVINE GAMEPLAY OwO 10/10…”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“It's impressive that it's still being updated and receiving balance changes after all these years, but even if it wasn't this would still be a steal. There's a lengthy, non linear campaign where missions have varied &…”
“the spirit of total annihilation, supreme commander, and with updated ui and play. this is a great game and it is still being developed!”
“I've only just started playing, but this is fantastic. Forged Alliance, but free? And supported? Gotta love it.”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I wanted to play for the campaign, since I enjoyed Supreme Commander and all it's variants. EVERY unit in this game is designed to be as annoying as possible, so if you are someone who enjoys hunkering down and watching…”
“It's just a worse version of Beyond All Reason, which is also free and open source even If this game looks interesting I recommend you get that instead”
“This one's pretty bad. Long before the "Roguelike Renaissance" which led to the front page of Steam being filled with low-effort garbage made by any troglodyte capable of installing Unity on their own, we had whole…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Very nice open source RTS. Doesn't have the best graphics but makes up for it with the massive amount of cool features the game pulls off. It's honestly criminal that it doesn't have more players on it.”
“I wanna love the game, I can tell the passion and drive put into it but it feels and looks like it was made 20+ years ago. I'd rather play Supreme commander tbh.”
“This game is underrated and a hidden gem and hopefully Zero-k gets a update, update core, graphics,etc.”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 93.7% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“RTS with the best quality of life features I've ever seen. Seriously, I am literally unable to play any other strategy game, because I am spoiled from Zero-K. Extremely good UX, good keybinds, units are really smart. Only thing that is still lacking a little bit is graphics, of…”
— a player, Steam review · 104 hrs played“So: start game Panic Don't know what to do make buldinig happy don't know how to build panic run commander at enemies commander dies rage quit overall great game”
— a player, Steam review · 42 hrs played“Great balance, thoughtful design. Community is full of normal people who have jobs and families and aren't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Its UI is so good that I can't play other RTS games anymore.”
— a player, Steam review · 431 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Cold Take #48 - Early Commanders
The classic concept of the commander is that it is your avatar on the battlefield. You - the commander - teleport your giant mech suit into enemy territory to build an army from scratch and lead it to
Zero-K v1.14.10.2 - Nimbus Wiggle and Magpie Part 2
The new Magpie was always going to take multiple tries to get right, so here is our first foray out into the rest of the design space. These changes aim to focus on the importance of choosing where an
Zero-K v1.14.10.0 - Juice
After a week of observation it is time to juice up some of the explosion distortions. Other distortions have been slightly rebalanced and the update also includes fixes that did not make it in last we
Zero-K v1.14.9.0 - New Magpie, Dante and Distortions
This update started as a set of small Shieldbot buff but spiralled out of control when I decided to both overhaul a major graphics system and add an almost entirely new unit. The new Magpie replaces t
Cold Take #47 - Scale and Escalation
Strategy games are seemingly synonymous with scale. The focus on scale is a bit less for real-time strategy, at least if the fact that my RTS games are not marketed as "epic" is any guide. But even "s
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From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Indie, Simulation, Strategy, Free To Play |
| Player tags | Strategy · Free to Play · RTS · Indie · Simulation · Multiplayer · Real-Time · Singleplayer · Co-op · Online Co-Op · Robots · Sci-fi (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · Cross-Platform Multiplayer · Steam Cloud |
| Languages | English * * |
| Official site | https://zero-k.info |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7, 8, or 10 Processor: 2.0 GHz dual core CPU with SSE (Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent) Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 512 MB graphics card with OpenGL 3 support (GeForce 8800 or equivalent); integrated cards may not work Storage: 6 GB available space