Strategy game for someone who's never played strategy games

[Kanova]

Medieval 2 Total War. Easier to play than the later ones and I feel is significantly better. Also, the mods are superior to every other mod for any other game. Turn the entire game into MiddleEarth with The Third Age total conversion mod. Cripes, that is a good game.

 

[Muspelheim]

I don't think games like Total War, Warhammer 40k, or Supreme Commander are appropriate for a person who states he's never played a strategy game before. Those games are pretty much as hardcore as the genre gets.

True in part. They're certainly not the best choices as basic introductions go, but the genre gets much more hardcore than that. Well, depending on personal definitions and tastes.

The best place for a very basic start would probably be one of the Starcraft titles. They're basic without feeling too shallow, and will probably leave a taste for more.

 

[Reed Spacer]

Hey there,

I've barely played strategy games in my life, but was always curious to try something. Usually I just cba to learn all the rules of the game and was more interested in actually playing the game instead of reading through instructions menus.

I'm looking for something low entry level, something that's easy to pick up but hard to master kind of thing.

Any suggestions?

If you have a PS3, get Final Fantasy Tactics from PSN. Costs ten bucks and is REALLY damned good.

You could also get the Genesis Compilation, if you wanna go old school: it has Shining Force 1 and 2, which kick massive ass.

 

[Rozalia1]

Bloody hell nothing but RTSs...I'll try to equalise it a bit more. As a rule you want to stay away from any game that actively "cheats" in really obvious ways like Civilization. Those games are no problem for someone in tune with the game, but they aren't going to be all too fun for a beginner.

Anyway:

Romance of the Three Kings 11
Europa Universalis 4
Crusader Kings 2
Victoria 2
(RTSs like Total War, though I suppose that is more of a hybrid are good too...but everyone is mentioning them so I won't)

Some outside PC:

Any Disgaea
Final Fantasy Tactics
Wild Arms XF
Pokémon Conquest

 

[Reed Spacer]

Hey there,

I've barely played strategy games in my life, but was always curious to try something. Usually I just cba to learn all the rules of the game and was more interested in actually playing the game instead of reading through instructions menus.

I'm looking for something low entry level, something that's easy to pick up but hard to master kind of thing.

Any suggestions?

Oh, I nearly forgot: Front Mission.

Turn based strategy game.

WITH GIANT ROBOTS.

And they're fully modifiable; arms, legs, body, weapons...

 

[Tanis]

Masters of Orion 2 - On Easy, Maybe Some Cheats:
Classic 4X game, with a 'easy to play, difficult to master' type of game.

Civilization 5 - Brave New World:
It's easily the second most 'streamlined' of the Civ series, which makes it a LOT easier on newbies.
-The First most streamlined is Civilization: Revolution.

 

[OpticalJunction]

i echo the last few posts about civ 5,its very user friendly for new strategy players and quite fun

 

[Ratty]

Try Red Alert 1. It's free, since EA released it for free to celebrate Red Alert 3's release in 2008. Though if you want that version it can take a bit of work since you have to download entire CD images, and a special installer for 64x systems. Great game though. Love those cutscenes.

 

[lordloss217]

Oh come on! Did everyone here have a brain fart and forget about halo wars? Even ZP called it a babies first RTS.

 

[TheArcaneThinker]

Oh come on! Did everyone here have a brain fart and forget about halo wars? Even ZP called it a babies first RTS.

Its an X box exclusive , right ? Maybe thats why no one mentioned it , besides rts should be played on PC .

 

[Emcee_N]

Total Annihilation for real-time, Civ V (vanilla) or Advance Wars (the first three) for turn-based.

 

[JmezR]

Bloody hell nothing but RTSs...I'll try to equalise it a bit more. As a rule you want to stay away from any game that actively "cheats" in really obvious ways like Civilization. Those games are no problem for someone in tune with the game, but they aren't going to be all too fun for a beginner.

Anyway:

Romance of the Three Kings 11
Europa Universalis 4
Crusader Kings 2
Victoria 2
(RTSs like Total War, though I suppose that is more of a hybrid are good too...but everyone is mentioning them so I won't)

Some outside PC:

Any Disgaea
Final Fantasy Tactics
Wild Arms XF
Pokémon Conquest

Totally agree with the Paradox games from this list (EU4, CK2, Victoria 2) - the only thing I would suggest is go for the newer ones like Europa 4 and Crusader Kings 2 - they are a lot more streamlined than the older games and, in my opinion anyway, a bit easier to get your head around.

 

[Azure23]

Well considering the OP hasn't played many strategy games in general I'd be a little wary of recommending all these real time strategy titles. If I were you OP I'd look for some classic turn based strategy titles to play. Most rts' require knowledge of a sometimes complicated tech tree and the ability to micro (manage individual units effectively via abilities and movement) and macro (efficient base building and resource/tech acquisition) which can lead to some definite confusion. Basically a lot of RTS games can have a pretty steep learning curve is all I'm saying.

Now as for some turn based strategy games I'd recommend? Well the games that got me into the genre when I was a kid were the fire emblem games, a class and grid based strategy series for the GBA (at least the ones we got in America, although some later ones were released on the GameCube/wii and 3ds, all excellent btw). They have some gorgeous sprite art and really nice battle animations, but more than that; they're accessible to beginners because they don't hide any of the systems. They present you with absolutely all the info you could need to make educated decisions about where to move units and which enemy units to engage with, they also allow you to see all the relevant battle data before committing to a move, so they don't punish you for experimenting with different units. It's also kind of a tactical RPG as your units gain experience and level up individually, and you have to maintain each one's supply of weapons and healing items. Also they have an anime aesthetic, so if you don't like that then it's a factor.

A few words of warning though: this transparency is balanced by the fact that all of your units are unique characters, and if they fall, they're gone for good (this leads to most fans resetting the level). In addition to this quite a few units that you can acquire will start out as enemies, and will need to be recruited by specific allied units, or otherwise have some conditions met. Of course the game is generally very good about telling you (or hinting at) which person needs to talk to who, or what needs to be done to recruit them.

Still though, I loved these games as a kid and I still really enjoy them today; very solid gameplay, great sprite work, unique characters for all your units, and they're just plain easy to understand. Really hope you try them out (I'd start with the Sacred stones as it's a bit more forgiving than it's predecessor, it's got a world map and optional dungeons where you can develop your units if you need to grind them up a bit).

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Civilization Revolution, assuming you have a PS3 or XB360.

It's the core Civ experience distilled to the point that pretty much anyone can play it. Also, on the lowest difficulty level, the tutorials are quick, unobtrusive, and walk you through the gameplay; also, on that level, it's almost impossible to lose the game, which strokes your ego and says, "See? Strategy games aren't so scary."

Once you master the ropes, the highest difficulties really pose challenge where you REALLY have to know the strategy mechanics and be able to exploit choke-points on the map to come out on top.

Old-school Civ fans tend to hate on CivRev because it's very streamlined and very easy compared to the original series, and, yes, they're right, but that, to me, doesn't inherently make for a bad game; it just makes for a bad game if you're expecting all the details and nuances of a core Civ game.

CivRev is a strategy game that you can play, start-to-finish, in just a few hours. It doesn't include a lot of the more micromanaging details that can make a strategy game daunting to newbie, and it also happens to be one of my favorite games of all time.

EDIT: 1000th post?! Damn! I was going to start one of those "It's my 1000th post so I made a special thread" threads... Oh well...

 

[happyninja42]

Civ 5 would be a good place to start, it does a good job of making things fairly intuitive and at the start of every turn it gives you a list things that need attention so its very new player friendly, on the down side it can become a slow burn sometimes

Yeah, the Civilization series is good, because things are turn based, so you have TONS of time to decide what to do. The difficulty creep is reasonable as you go from fledgling village ruler to global power, and your learning curve moves along with it.

If you are looking for a more fast paced kind of strategy game, namely Real Time Strategy games, I would check out Starcraft and similar titles. The story campaigns are really good at teaching you the mechanics, usually introducing a new unit type that is critical to completing that stage, thus giving you time to fiddle with it's strengths/weaknesses.

I really enjoyed the first Shogun: Total War, as it was a fun mix of the 2. You had turn based global stuff to work with, but you could (if you wanted to) take direct control of your battles in real time. If you didn't want to bother, you could just let the game decide the outcome, but I always enjoyed taking direct control.

The other games in the Total War series seem to be a mixed bag of good/bad from what I hear. I never bought any of the others, not really sure why, just...never really got around to it.

 

[Dr. Thrax]

I'll go ahead and echo Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.
At first it can be overwhelming, you can have an army of hundreds of assault bots at your disposal, but it's really easy to adapt to the controls and overall gameplay.
I generally only play against AI because I'm horrible at playing against other people, but the Easy AI is pretty easy. Techs up slowly, expands slowly, and doesn't even build some of the more advanced stuff, no worries about Experimentals bearing down on you.
You can even set the game mode to Sandbox, which will let you play around without any time or objective constraints, even if it's just you.
This is a good way to get yourself familiarized with the controls, and how each of the four factions handles.
Enabling Cheats will allow you to use the Unit Spawn Menu (Alt+F2) to pretty much spawn anything you want, including ACUs for the other factions you don't command. Cheat yourself an Aeon Paragon and you'll be set to muck about as you want before giving it a go against an Easy AI.
One thing that can be a bit difficult to manage at first is the idea that a "small" squad consists of around 50 units, whereas a "large" squad generally consists of 150+ units. Though these numbers might actually be even larger, potentially 100 for "small" squads and 250+ for "large" squads.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Dawn of War II. It does not require base building, does not require resource management, is very tactical, and great, great fun. One of the best single player RTS games out there, and very accessible.

You have up to four squads of troops with different special abilities who you must use to achieve an objective on any given map. Your units level up and you find gear as you go, through the skill points you can customize the units to fit your play style, and you can choose gear appropriate to the mission or to your skills.

Overall I think a great RTS for people who don't play RTS games but want to. The multiplayer is excellent as well.

 

[Jandau]

Jump into the deep end - Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis 4. Don't halfarse it or pussyfoot around, go all the way!