I would recommend Mad Max on Steam. It is a great open world game with much freedom of movement. Obviously, you will do more driving than walking, but the driving feels very satisfying.
The combat is mostly in Batman-style group brawls, where you have to dodge/block when a prompt appears over an enemy’s head.
My preferred flavour of Total Annihilation is Beyond All Reason
What about Real Time Strategy?
I would recommend Beyond All Reason, which is an open source remake of the classic RTS “Total Annihilation”. It is good and it is free.
I would recommend Yuppie Psycho. It is about 80% creepy and 20% horrow. That is not exactly what you wanted, but I think it is a good game regardless. https://store.steampowered.com/app/597760/Yuppie_Psycho_Executive_Edition/
What specifically has gotten worse in the last years?