0 A.D.
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 24 real-time strategy games by recommenders
A free, open-source real-time strategy game with polished music and formations, often compared to Age of Empires. Common caveats: lag with many units and desync or forking after disconnects.
A free, open-source real-time strategy game with polished music and formations, often compared to Age of Empires. Common caveats: lag with many units and desync or forking after disconnects.
39 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 30
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 30 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Frequent updates and improvements
“Similar game but open source, looks great, frequently updated, runs on Win, Mac, Linux.”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Age of Empires: 25 years of pathfinding problems with C++ [video]” “a27 notably improved performance and feedback so far suggests that r28 did as well.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” “I'd def be trying again since they've come out of alpha with this release”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” - Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix”
- Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix”
Feels like free Age of Empires
“it feels like a love letter to the AoE franchise from creators who really appreciate AoE II & III”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Age of Empires: 25 years of pathfinding problems with C++ [video]” “Similar game but open source, looks great, frequently updated, runs on Win, Mac, Linux.”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Age of Empires: 25 years of pathfinding problems with C++ [video]” “is like a free Age of Empires and is lovely to play!”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Battle for Wesnoth: open-source, turn-based strategy game” High quality for a free game
“This is such a high quality game that it is almost unbelievable that it is free and open source.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” “Was very happy to find such a quality title there.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” “I can't believe it's free!”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Battle for Wesnoth: open-source, turn-based strategy game” - Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Why isn't there a single open-source (project) game?”
Strategic and relaxing to play
“I find it way more relaxing than RA and Starcraft(n) and easier to manage with only 4 basic resources”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “OpenRA” “it forces me to strategize a bit, use at least a tiny bit of my left over brain cells”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “A.D. Open-Source RTS Game Drops Alpha Label After 16 Years” “it was fun getting familiar with siege engines until I worked that out”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lag with many units
“it lagged very bad once a few units were moving around”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” “The huge battle toward the end of the game dropping or making the game unplayable was what killed it for us.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” “I had problems with lag years ago but not lately”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” - Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix”
Desync or forking after disconnects
“if any player loses their connection even for a moment for any reason, the game either halts completely or forks so that they can't rejoin”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix” “It did save in a27 for me - I had the same forking problem but was able to go back to a previous save”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix”
Other real-time strategy games people recommend
The four most recommended other real-time strategy games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond All Reason | 76 | 17 | 82% | 10 | 1 yr6 owners | Approved |
| Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness | 51 | 2 | 96% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Total Annihilation | 48 | 7 | 87% | 7 | — | Approved |
| StarCraft | 36 | 22 | 62% | 10 | — | — |
| 0 A.D.This page | 30 | 9 | 77% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 45 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I find it way more relaxing than RA and Starcraft(n) and easier to manage with only 4 basic resources”
“is like a free Age of Empires and is lovely to play!”
“I can't believe it's free!”
“it forces me to strategize a bit, use at least a tiny bit of my left over brain cells”
“focus on fixing core gameplay issues instead of new visual stuff”
“it was fun getting familiar with siege engines until I worked that out”
“Here's some good lists of tips that helped me.”
“Appimage is much appreciated as the game is pain to compile.”
“There is also some exciting work going on to improve the path finding of formations to make them behave more naturally”
“0ad still doesn't support kerning.”
“a27 notably improved performance and feedback so far suggests that r28 did as well.”
“The game state becoming out-of-sync is often a problem of players using buggy mods.”
“The huge battle toward the end of the game dropping or making the game unplayable was what killed it for us.”
“0AD's web site is rather bad at describing the game”
“This is such a high quality game that it is almost unbelievable that it is free and open source.”
“Shut up and take my money, I'm making a donation”
“it is one of the few things we can do together”
“I love 0ad - it has atmosphere.”
“I'd def be trying again since they've come out of alpha with this release”
“The devs clearly put in a lot of effort.”
“I had problems with lag years ago but not lately”
“Gave it a try, had fun too, and now part of the E2E tests of the mirror”
“I really love the iterative progress with 0 A.D.”
“I used to like some of its music”
“This game started slow for me many years ago but I now absolutely love this game.”
“Was very happy to find such a quality title there.”
“their pathing algorithm is very inefficient”
“0ad will lag on my laptop once thing become big”
“biggest gripe I have with this game is how important it is to play the meta and boom early”
“It did save in a27 for me - I had the same forking problem but was able to go back to a previous save”
“0 A.D. runs on a potato if you look at it threateningly, which makes it a good option to have on a throwaway machine for kids or somesuch.”
“Amazing work. This is an incredible accomplishement.”
“I love 0 A.D., and I’m endlessly grateful to all the developers and volunteers who made it happen.”
“if any player loses their connection even for a moment for any reason, the game either halts completely or forks so that they can't rejoin”
“Nerfing the Han minister unit makes me sad”
“that's awesome to see for an open source game”
“it lagged very bad once a few units were moving around”
“it feels like a love letter to the AoE franchise from creators who really appreciate AoE II & III”
“Similar game but open source, looks great, frequently updated, runs on Win, Mac, Linux.”
“the superb music, the battle formations etc would make you think it was a commercial project”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.