Best RTS Out There

[silver wolf009]

My vote will always go to Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth 2. Its just my opion but im sticking to it.

 

[awsome117]

While may not be the best, I loved Empire at War and I also enjoyed Red Alert 3. I know not considered great games, I still love them.

 

[C0RV4L0U5]

I love Starcraft and Warcraft and all of those more common RTSs but my favorite has never changed from Total Annihilation. I don't think it will ever change, at least not unless it gets a sequel to it.

ahhh how i loved that when i was younger, espicially all hte extra units you could get, you do realise surpreme commander is pretty much the same game but newer. its almost as TA 2

 

[bfgmetalhead]

the command and conqure series (westwood only) so red alert 1+2 ppersonaly for me

 

[Jacob.pederson]

Company of Heroes.

Huge Company or Heroes fan also, that said, if you think there are no unit tactics in Starcraft, then you haven't played it COH certainly has an emphasis on unit tactics/territory that is extremely fun, but this doesn't make Starcraft's equal micro/macro focuses any less fun.

Another of my all-time favorite RTS games is Homeworld 2. No one has come close to its 3d space navy combat, except perhaps Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire.

Those are the three games on my list for best RTS.

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.

My two cents, anyways.

I need to check out Homeworld 2, though. I love Sins, but I've never gotten a chance to give Homeworld a try. It gets high praise, so I'm sure it will be a fun go.

Thanks for the great response!

I just feel like RTSes can be take both approaches successfully, or even completely alternate focuses such as Sins almost being a 4x game or Homeworld's focus on 3-dimensional tactics, or heck even Impossible Creatures focus on putting the heads of goats onto birds . For example, although Starcraft is missing the types of moments like sniping units you having neatly suppressed with a machine gun team, or flaming down a flanked anti-tank emplacement . . . COH is missing the moments like the tension of setting up an early expand and just barely surviving to a 2-gate rush or the thrill of squeezing those six speedlings past a wall-off and streaming into the mineral line.

What I'm suffering from is an embarrassment of RTS riches right now. Especially with COH online coming up.

 

[technoted]

Best is easily Starcraft: Brood War, it did so much for the genre it's basically what the tank was to WW1. My favourite is Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal.

 

[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.

Yeah, too bad they ruined Supreme Commander 2 = (

I was looking forward to that game so much.

I don't think they ruined Supreme Commander 2. It's certainly not as intense and economically-focused as the original, but it's still a solid game. A lot of fun can be had with it, especially if you are just looking for massive swarms of enemies attacking each other and gigantic guns firing at each other.

And, really, that's why I enjoy Supreme Commander; the massive scale of the game. Supreme Commander 2 has that too.

 

[TundraWolf]

Company of Heroes.

Huge Company or Heroes fan also, that said, if you think there are no unit tactics in Starcraft, then you haven't played it COH certainly has an emphasis on unit tactics/territory that is extremely fun, but this doesn't make Starcraft's equal micro/macro focuses any less fun.

Another of my all-time favorite RTS games is Homeworld 2. No one has come close to its 3d space navy combat, except perhaps Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire.

Those are the three games on my list for best RTS.

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.

My two cents, anyways.

I need to check out Homeworld 2, though. I love Sins, but I've never gotten a chance to give Homeworld a try. It gets high praise, so I'm sure it will be a fun go.

Thanks for the great response!

I just feel like RTSes can be take both approaches successfully, or even completely alternate focuses such as Sins almost being a 4x game or Homeworld's focus on 3-dimensional tactics, or heck even Impossible Creatures focus on putting the heads of goats onto birds . For example, although Starcraft is missing the types of moments like sniping units you having neatly suppressed with a machine gun team, or flaming down a flanked anti-tank emplacement . . . COH is missing the moments like the tension of setting up an early expand and just barely surviving to a 2-gate rush or the thrill of squeezing those six speedlings past a wall-off and streaming into the mineral line.

What I'm suffering from is an embarrassment of RTS riches right now. Especially with COH online coming up.

Thanks yourself! I was mostly expecting people to get really angry at me when I said that Starcraft wasn't up to snuff, but a well-voiced argument awaited instead, and that always wins my respect. So props for that.

I completely agree, though: there are different RTSes for different styles and different people. I enjoy SofSE on a completely different level that I enjoy Starcraft or Company of Heroes, but all are good in their own right. (And sweet reference with Impossible Creatures: I loved that game.) I just prefer Company of Heroes over them all because I enjoy that sort of RTS best, and no one has really managed to do it as successfully. But they're all great.

Are there any other RTSes coming out soon that you're stoked for? I'm enjoying the ones I have but can't think of any new ones I'm looking forward to.

 

[Adecristo]

Homeworld 2, WH40k: Dawn of War and Warcraft 2.
Also, honourable mention for Submarine Titans and Age of Empires 2.

 

[IrirshTerrorist]

Command&Conquer: Red Alert2.

Disagree and Tanya will hunt you down and shoot you up with her dual pistols.

 

[Mr.logic]

supreme commander was good but I cannot really say which one I like the most because I haven't played many. SC2 looks really good though.

 

[Fayathon]

*snip*

I've never heard of that series, I'm going to give them a look though, a new TA would be amazing to find.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I love my DOW, Sins of a Solar Empire, Red Alert 3 and Starcraft 2. It's so hard to choose!

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Personal favorites? Dawn of War (not the second!) specifically Dark Crusade. Also Warcraft III.

But the most influenced of all time? Probably Starcraft or Warcraft. Those games really set the standard for the future RTS'.

 

[NinjaB0b]

Homeworld 2 is still one of my favorites. torpedo frigate rush ftw

 

[Benarikun]

I feel slightly unfortunate to have missed out on Starcraft so far in my life, and the sequel looks rather epic. Though having not played either, I can't really comment on those.

I've been a relatively die hard Command and Conquer fan for a few years. The old Westwood Studios games hold dear places in my heart, the original Red Alert introducing me to the genre, but I came to love some of the EA incarnations too. Generals was a brilliant RTS IMO, nicely balancing three separate and unique factions combined with fun missions and a great supporting mod community. Along with that Tiberium Wars probably rates in my top 5 games of all time. Still, with CNC 4... Yes it was new and different and interesting, but... it failed to pull it off well, the game had taken on the RA3 appearance (Don't get me wrong, in RA3 it worked, but that's because the series is batshit insane by this point) and the storyline was shallow even for your standard command and conquer.

Other than that, I had fun with the original Dawn of War games up till Dark Crusade. DoW 2 was a bit of a let down, but Chaos Rising fixed some of it up quite nicely.

And then Halo Wars... console RTS... bit weird. Soundtrack was good though.

So yeah... random stuff over, best RTS IMO is Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Total Annihilation has had the most enduring appeal for me.

Total Annihilation. Man that game was awesome.

Hell yeah. If you add in the Core Contingency and Battle Tactics expansions you have a timeless classic.

 

[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.

I don't think they ruined Supreme Commander 2. It's certainly not as intense and economically-focused as the original, but it's still a solid game. A lot of fun can be had with it, especially if you are just looking for massive swarms of enemies attacking each other and gigantic guns firing at each other.

And, really, that's why I enjoy Supreme Commander; the massive scale of the game. Supreme Commander 2 has that too.

Maybe it's not as bad as I thought seeing as I only played the demo but to me it seemed like they took all the depth out of it. Are there still 100km^2 maps? Why can my aircraft fly forever without running out of fuel? Why can't I order units I don't have the resources to build?

I like some of the changes like the fact that your tech 1 units are still useful in the late game but it just seems like they've made it more into a command and conquer or empire earth clone than a supreme commander sequel.

I'm not saying that makes it a bad game it's just that to me it looks like it lost most of what supreme commander was about.

 

[Jazzyluv2]

Company of Heroes.

There is no question or hesitation when I say the following: Company of Heroes is the best RTS game on the market to date. It has so much strategy it makes other games look like economy simulators. It focuses almost entirely on the fun part of playing RTS games: the tactical strategy. There are very few games that do this quite as well as Company of Heroes does, the only other that comes close being Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. And, look at that, it's made by the same developer.

Relic has the right idea. Squad-based unit management, tactical strategy with cover and destructible environments, and so forth are what RTS games should be trying to emulate and use as a basis for success. By contrast, Starcraft II, while fun, is the same game that was released in 1997, only with better graphics. And, I'm sorry, but that just doesn't cut it anymore. It's strategic to a point, but after a bit, Starcraft just becomes an exercise in who can build the most units the fastest. And, really, that isn't what RTSes should be about. You should have to be tactical and strategic in the placement and use of your assets, not just churn out as many as possible and throw them into the grinder.

So yeah. Company of Heroes all the way.

naive concept of starcraft.

yes, pumping out units is an essential skill. But when everybody has that skill(you know, because you probably don't) that makes positioning very important, and strategy.

Another thing is that starcraft has only 1 random factor in the game, and that is miss a 50 percent miss chance shooting up cliffs.

I know when you see a starcraft match, all you see is units slaming against each other.

but think about this.

Zealots have to be in front to be able to absorb tank fire, and get in tank lines, vultures have to be in front of the tanks to prevent this, Storms have to be placed properly in order to make the push worth it. Blah blah blah.

And actually, that isn't strategy, that is tactics.

Actually, what you are talking about in COH is tactics.

strategy is like( play safe and defensive while expanding when i can)

Tactics are the individual moments of positioning.

Starcraft has more strategy than you care to give credit for. It's just that your too poor of a player at this point to fathom it.

 

[Googenstien]

Company of Men and Heroes - only RTS games that I like that has come out in the past few years.

Oh yeah and Sins of a Solar Empire