Pyon said:
Ive been wanting to get into RTS games but theyre rather intimidating. All the top titles seem to be too "hardcore." Can you guys recommend a good game with a relatively gentle learning curve?
May I ask what you find most difficult about them? If it's managing a lot of units then I'd recommend something different than if you're having trouble with micro-managing your units (using their skills effectively). Or if they're too fast paced there are slower ones out there. Maybe you're having issues with base building? Again, dunno.
Anyways I'll put forward some recommendations.
Old Titles (cheap or free)
No doubt
Warcraft 2 might be a good starting point, put it's really showing it's age. You can also download the original
Command and Conquer for free (they released it as freeware) but it looks even worse than WC2. If graphics matter to you these games might be too old for you.
Starcraft is an okay choice. The single player campaign will lull you into the basic game mechanics, but online play is just full of competitive (read: obsessive) Koreans who can whip your ass before you can say "Kimch'i". Starcraft can get quite complicated, but the beginning of the game will hopefully train you for that.
Newer Titles (last 10 years)
Command and Conquer: Generals has pretty simple gameplay. The campaign also had a very nice difficulty curve.
Dawn of War was a pretty good game. Things certainly GOT complicated, but stuff starts off quite smoothly. It's expansions also make for a very complete warhammer 40k game if you're into it.
Command and Conquer: 3 is a pretty (graphically) game and again had a very nice, even easy, campaign. I remember a few parts got frustrating, but the formula of the C&C franchise has really not changed much since the first game. If you're having issues dealing with large numbers of units though, this game is not ideal. C&C games are also quite fast paced, so be warned!
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 everything applying to C&C 3 above applies to this game. However, this game is a lot more campy and light hearted. For instance japan has giant mechs and a commander unit who is a psychokinetic school girl (think Akira). Russia literally has bears, and the allies have agents which sound a ton like Sean Connery (and look like James Bond). If you wanted to play a new C&C game I'd recommend this one, but that's a matter of taste.
Current (recently released titles)
The only simplified RTS out recently I can think of is
Dawn of War 2. If you're having issues managing troops and base building this one is probably right up your alley. The game is squad based so you control one squad like a single unit, and there are not very many squads to manage usually. The game also has NO base building. The game DOES get complicated in a tactical sense though. Cover matters a great deal and there are "weapons platform" units which have a limited firing arc and setup/teardown time. The single player for this game also does very little to prepare you for multiplayer, but I find it enjoyable.