Best RTS Out There

[Cowabungaa]

Does Dwarf Fortress count as an RTS? If so I'll go for that, simply because of the insane complexity and scale that game offers. Not to mention the fuckton of hilarious moments. Dwarves can be so so silly.

But I guess that Dwarf Fortress exists in a league of it's own, so lets go for pure RTS'. As a kid I spammed Red Alert 2 and Age of Empires 2 to death, so my vote will go to those.

Honourable mentions to Rise of Nations, Rome: Total War, Stronghold, Seven Kingdoms, Knights and Merchants: The Peasant Rebellion and Dawn of War 2.

I used to be quite an avid RTS player. Those are days long gone...*sigh* I just can't play them nowadays. I don't know why, I couldn't even get into StarCraft.

My favorite is Dawn of War 2, I love that it is based around squads and that you use cover, it makes you think more about your tactics.

Sadly Games for Windows Live completely ruined DoW2 for me. I've never seen a matchmaking system that shit. The game itself rocks, but it's just unplayable like that. I keep getting paired against level 30/40/higher people while I'm just a measly level 3. Ever. single. time.

 

[Antiparticle]

StarCraft. The first one that is, I'm not able to try StarCraft II sadly.
Red Alert 2 was really good too.

 

[Cody211282]

My favorite is Dawn of War 2, I love that it is based around squads and that you use cover, it makes you think more about your tactics.

Sadly Games for Windows Live completely ruined DoW2 for me. I've never seen a matchmaking system that shit. The game itself rocks, but it's just unplayable like that. I keep getting paired against level 30/40/higher people while I'm just a measly level 3. Ever. single. time.

I've never played it online, mostly because I don't know anyone who does play it like that, I love the single player but I'm not nearly good enough to play against other people.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Age of Mythology. I never tried the expansion pack.

 

[HotFezz8]

everybody here is wrong. the only possible "best rts EV-arr" is a Total War installment, probably Rome seeing as its the only one where you have the possibllity of actually overtaking the whole world in a realistic time span.

 

[Nouw]

Sure, Dawn Of War is awesome, sure Starcraft 2 is too. But 1 game is the ultimate RTS. I got bored of it but the times I played it, man it was just fucking great!

It is Company Of Heroes. Bow down to its greatness.

Best rated RTS of all time on Metacritic. Fuck Yeah! According to GWR. Damn you Civilization IV. -cough- RTT -cough-

 

[SOLID MATTIC]

Being a big RTS fan its hard to narrow it down to one. Ive had so much fun with so many rts games.
However I will say that the relic games Dawn of War and its sequel and their respective expansions. Company of Heroes and its expansions as well as the now mostly forgotten Homeworld series have been the most fun to me and are my personal favourites.

 

[Doitpow]

Cossacks or Red Alert 2

they're my big guns and I'm sticking to them.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Blitzkrieg 2. No other RTS has beaten it yet. Mind you, I don't play multiplayer RTS at all...

I was just playing it in fact. I'm nearly to Berlin baby!

 

[Volafortis]

So far, it's Warcraft III. The custom maps are just so much fun.

[sub]What? No, not DotA. HLWL, Island Troll Tribes and TDs are what I'm talking about.[/sub]

And if you have a big group of people that know what they're doing,the Night of the Dead maps, many are very challenging.

What's wrong with DotA?

NotD: Aftermath was the best map ever made on WC3, if you got a good team. Undead Assault 2 was good too, but I'm biased there, I helped make it (No, not the triggering or gameplay. I contributed some icons and skins, was an alpha tester, and other stuff.) Also, it was extremely laggy.

 

[Digitaldreamer7]

Starwars Galactic Battle Grounds...

Enough said

This, as much as I LOVE starcraft, Star Wars Galactic Battleground was the best. By far. I loved the walls, the special units, the battleships etc. Only Thing I wish more RTS would do, is, Water combat. Give me air and sea units!

 

[Engarde]

Age of Mythology! Heheh. I have good memories from that game.

 

[I3uster]

I don't mean to suggest that there aren't unit tactics in Starcraft, just that they are completely marginalized when compared to Company of Heroes. I mean, it's simple enough: Zerg are weak to fire attacks, so build Firebats and Hellions to counter them. However, they can only attack ground units, so you will need to complement those with Marines and Goliaths for ground-to-air defense purposes. You can further supplement those with Vikings, which can run air-to-air defense and quickly switch tactics for ground support if they are needed. Bring in a few Medivacs to heal up the troops when casualties come in, a Battlecruiser for additional air support and an SCV or Science Vessel if you need some mechanical repair on the go. And that's just the Terran side of things.

Believe me, I understand that there are unit tactics in Starcraft; I've played it enough to get, at the very least, a grasp on what units serve what purposes. But when you compare that to Company of Heroes, where a single squad of riflemen, properly dug in at a strategic location, can hold off an entire German offensive of infantry and armor with minimal support, Starcraft pales in comparison. Company of Heroes takes RTSes to a point where it no longer is a matter of micro/macro-management, it's a matter of strategy and tactics. Which is what RTSes should be about, not the correct balance of units to counter the enemy with acceptable losses. Sure, you have to be able to make the right call at the right time. Know when to toss your grenades, know when you press the advantage, know when to call a tactical retreat. But when you can wreak havoc on the enemy with a single squad moved strategically, you know you've found something special.

I have to disagree here, micro and macro should be the primary focus of RTS game, or else they simply won't be capable of being an E-sport, and that is basically the reason why RTS exist nowadays...

 

[TundraWolf]

I don't mean to suggest that there aren't unit tactics in Starcraft, just that they are completely marginalized when compared to Company of Heroes.

I have to disagree here, micro and macro should be the primary focus of RTS game, or else they simply won't be capable of being an E-sport, and that is basically the reason why RTS exist nowadays...

Unfortunately, then, we'll have to agree to disagree. Honestly, I find the whole Starcraft pro-gaming league a pretty big waste of time. I mean, I don't think that gaming is any less capable of being as competitive as other sports, but I just don't understand the appeal of Starcraft anymore. It's an outdated system, even when compared to other Blizzard games (Warcraft III, for example). I would be much more interested in seeing a tournament of Company of Heroes or Sins of a Solar Empire, or even, to a lesser extent, Rise of Nations, where people could use actual tactics to best their opponents.

RTSes are strategy games, first and foremost. Micro/macro-management is something that came from trying to evolve that and it has a place and serves a purpose, but it should not be the core mechanic of a game. Doing so trivializes what the game is and limits what it can become in the future.

Please do remember, I thoroughly enjoy a good match of Starcraft. I just regard it as a product of a bygone era more than cutting-edge evolution of gaming. It's something worth noting because of everything that it's spawned, but to copy-paste that formula and expect it to work more than a decade later is a bit ambitious on Blizzard's behalf. And by ambitious I of course mean arrogant.

But hey, the numbers speak for themselves, I suppose. So let's just agree to disagree.

 

[TundraWolf]

Starwars Galactic Battle Grounds...

Enough said

This, as much as I LOVE starcraft, Star Wars Galactic Battleground was the best. By far. I loved the walls, the special units, the battleships etc. Only Thing I wish more RTS would do, is, Water combat. Give me air and sea units!

Check out Supreme Commander. You can get some pretty awesome sea and air units in that game, in absolutely ridiculous quantities, and they can make for some devastating battles. I certainly enjoy them.

 

[Bobzer77]

Starwars Galactic Battle Grounds...

Enough said

This, as much as I LOVE starcraft, Star Wars Galactic Battleground was the best. By far. I loved the walls, the special units, the battleships etc. Only Thing I wish more RTS would do, is, Water combat. Give me air and sea units!

Check out Supreme Commander. You can get some pretty awesome sea and air units in that game, in absolutely ridiculous quantities, and they can make for some devastating battles. I certainly enjoy them.

Yeah, too bad they ruined Supreme Commander 2 = (

I was looking forward to that game so much.

 

[pirate64]

A few people have already said it but I fricken love sins of a solar empire. It's very slow paced but thats because of how deep it is with it's development trees. And when I say slow I mean if your playing 1v1 against the AI on medium on the smallest map it can still take 2-3 hours

 

[Samwise137]

Although I've always found enjoyment in StarCraft and WarCraft II (yes, II), I still have to say the Dawn of War series is my favorite. I enjoy each game and expansion for a different reason and I think that's why they still hold my attention.

 

[Warforger]

I would like to know what do you think is the best rts of all time, for me it's either Warcraft 3 & TFT or SCII, but what is it for you?

Ground Control. It was released in 2000 but had all of these features just now RTS developers are inserting into their games (like LoS, no base building etc.). The game made traditional RTS's like Starcraft look bad since it actually included more Strategy and less spamming of units.

How it works is by your given a mission, before the mission your given 1-3 dropships, in these you must load up your units, you can customize your units to be recon or offensive or defensive or balanced, along with their special abilities. As soon as you land your not given anymore reinforcements but thats ok since your APC gives out a crazy regen rate to nearby units, but the APC itself couldn't heal itself and if you lost your APC you lose. In MP you could add in reinforcements (for units you lose you get replacements after an amount of time has passed) play without an APC etc.

It had a sequel and both were genre defining, GC1 came out in 2000 but had graphics a few steps below DoW, then in 2004 when DoW was being released GC2 was released with DoWII Graphics.