Beyond All Reason: the free RTS that simulates every projectile

A free RTS where every projectile is simulated

Beyond All Reason (BAR) is a free real-time strategy game built in the spirit of Total Annihilation, and its pitch is scale. The developers say every unit, projectile and explosion is simulated in real time: projectile ballistics are computed individually, explosions follow physics, and nuclear strikes physically deform the terrain. Players can command a handful of units or armies of thousands, in battles that run up to 8v8 on the same map.

The game is free to download, with a trailer, guides, a command reference and screenshots published on its site. Its authors call it an "epic scale RTS experience" and lean openly on the Total Annihilation lineage; the homepage quotes Chris Taylor, the designer of that game, saying he "cannot believe" what the team has built.

Terrain, unit classes and economy

BAR's designers argue that terrain decides strategy. Radar cannot penetrate mountains, so high ground changes what you can see; nuclear warfare alters the map itself; and the studio claims no two maps play the same. The game offers more than ten unit classes, including all-terrain Experimental units, and every unit has a defined role — which is what makes mixing them interesting.

Matches hinge on economy as much as on tactics. The site describes the core loop as balancing exponentially growing resource income against the production of war machines, letting players choose between a few precise early strikes and building a thousand bombers. The map library spans sea, island, jungle, tropical, forest and hill biomes; recent additions include Supreme Isthmus, a classic 16-player layout, and SailAway, an island map for 8v8 north-versus-south games.

Seven years of development and a publisher deal

On 16 June the project announced a turning point: after almost seven years of development, Beyond All Reason is "going professional" and teaming up with the strategy publisher Hooded Horse to bring the game to a full Steam release. Until then BAR had been distributed free by a community project, with progress visible through frequent updates and developer logs.

The community is the other half of the story. The site collects player reactions — one review calls it "the best RTS I've played since StarCraft 2" — and links to Discord, Reddit, YouTube and guides covering OpenSkill ratings, lobby balance and how to start and manage your economy.