Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds

Ten years ago, Jeff Wayne's excellent/dreadful (delete as appropriate) album based on MG Wells' seminal sci-fi novel would probably have been turned into a point-and-click adventure or an interactive movie. Of course, then came Command & Conquer; which spawned hundreds of imitators.

This is one of the most original and overlooked games in its genre, if not the best. In terms of presentation and setting, it blows all the C&C wannabes of this world away. The gameplay is non-linear and doesn't involve any of the usual base building and resource mining of RTS, opting instead for a main map of Britain from which to launch your overall strategy, unit research and management. The battles aren't particularly inspiring, but the British countryside and city background provide a refreshing change and the Martian units are way cool.