What is your favorite RTS game ever?
- Thread starter Randoman01
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Men of War series. Rarely talked about but filled with mechanical and strategic WWII goodness. I can't touch certain RTSs after feeling the embrace of that game.
And Age of Mythology when I was a kid. Or more specifically, the mods for it. Roleplay, Escape, Cat and Mouse, so many different versus modes, tower defense, it was all so sexy.
And Age of Mythology when I was a kid. Or more specifically, the mods for it. Roleplay, Escape, Cat and Mouse, so many different versus modes, tower defense, it was all so sexy.
STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED.
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. While the base game's campaign was much stronger,narratively speaking,which is BIG points for any RTS,but Forged Alliance works out some balance issues,gives a much more refined UI,and streamlines the engine so it won't melt a Crysis-ready machine when eight thousand units start mobilizing simultaneously. It's warfare on a STRATEGIC scale,not a tactical scale. Warcraft? Starcraft? Dawn of War? All tactical. WAY too small to mean anything in the larger theater of war. Too small to actually encourage tactical thought.
SupCom? You have KILOMETERS of breathing room. An economy that won't gutter out simply by existing. Answers for everything. Even the toughest turtle can be cracked,if you have a Mavor,Paragon,Yolona Oss,or swarm of Soul Rippers. Nukes can be cockblocked until the end of time. Base design is a VERY important thing,as structures can have improved performance when built adjacently. Surround a Mass Fabricator with power plants or mass storage,and see what I mean.
Units have their role,though T1 units are,unfortunately,phased out entirely once you hit T2. But T2 units see use throughout the whole game. Anything can happen,too. Especially with a Cybran opponent,on a map with even ANY amount of water,what with their T2 Destroyers being amphibious. Every faction has its own identity,its own strengths and weaknesses. And the Experimentals are ultimate representations of this. The UEF is all about being tough as nails while rolling you over. The Fatboy has the best shield in the game,and can produce land forces at a nauseating rate. The Atlantis has amazing SAMs and torpedoes,can build,store,and service aircraft,then deploy them at a moments notice with utter impunity,being able to submerge and surface at will. The Novax enables a UEF commander to tear apart hostile forces and unprotected installations unopposed. And their Mavor is the absolute FINAL WORD in artillery.
Seraphim,all about being BETTER THAN YOU. Their experimental bomber,the Ahwassa,drops SuperNukes(TM) that a nuke defense will ignore. Their experimental bot,the Ythotha,has more unique weapons than any other bot in the game,plus it turns into a quasar when it gets wrecked. And their experimental missile launcher,the Yolona Oss,builds an OmegaNuke(TM) for PEANUTS,in a MINUTE,and the missile takes two shots from a nuke defense (five minute build time,three minute missile build time) to stop,and when it hits,it GLASSES the entire region. It can actually completely cleanse a 5*5 map.
Cybrans like to be... Surprising. As mentioned earlier,they have a boat that can crawl on land,bringing a considerable amount of firepower with it. Then there's their experimentals. The Monkeylord,with the single highest grossing DPS weapon in the game,pointed at anything on the surface,and this crawling engine of destruction is invisible to standard radar,and sonar,because it can crawl on the sea floor,armed with torpedoes. The Soul Ripper,a slow,ponderous brick of GUNS,flying in over your base,with so much gun it makes you wonder where the guns end and the ship begins. Oh,and it can laugh off a nuke. The Scathis,semi-mobile artillery that will fire three rounds a second if your energy economy can keep up,and it can go anywhere,as it is also amphibious. The Megalith,a crab-bot that drops eggs that engineers can work on to build high-end units,sports a pair of battleship-grade turrets that poke up on the surface of the water more often than not,depth charges and torpedoes,and enough health to laugh off TWO nukes. And their units in general tend to have stealth or other means to be more than they appear.
The Aeon,performance above all else. The Galactic Colossus,the single most durable unit in the game,capable of ignoring four nukes,with a tractor beam and second best DPS weapon in the game,PLUS an Omni-Radar. The Tempest,a submersible battleship that can built a support fleet and singlehandedly sink most fleets alone. The Paragon,a fusion bomb at the heart of your base that toggles resource output to put you at a profit,at all times. Finally,the CZAR. Know Independence Day? The alien ship from that,minus shields. Big fuck-off beam. Can build,store,service,and deploy aircraft. Depth charges,just in case it's flying over a pesky naval fleet. AA missiles. And then there's the fact that most Aeon units outrange their contemporaries,hit MUCH harder,and can strafe and hover.
Yeah,it's this sort of combo that makes me giddy for an RTS. Faction identity,scale,and a game determined by an actual strategy that can change on the fly,that doesn't need to be formulated like chess.
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. While the base game's campaign was much stronger,narratively speaking,which is BIG points for any RTS,but Forged Alliance works out some balance issues,gives a much more refined UI,and streamlines the engine so it won't melt a Crysis-ready machine when eight thousand units start mobilizing simultaneously. It's warfare on a STRATEGIC scale,not a tactical scale. Warcraft? Starcraft? Dawn of War? All tactical. WAY too small to mean anything in the larger theater of war. Too small to actually encourage tactical thought.
SupCom? You have KILOMETERS of breathing room. An economy that won't gutter out simply by existing. Answers for everything. Even the toughest turtle can be cracked,if you have a Mavor,Paragon,Yolona Oss,or swarm of Soul Rippers. Nukes can be cockblocked until the end of time. Base design is a VERY important thing,as structures can have improved performance when built adjacently. Surround a Mass Fabricator with power plants or mass storage,and see what I mean.
Units have their role,though T1 units are,unfortunately,phased out entirely once you hit T2. But T2 units see use throughout the whole game. Anything can happen,too. Especially with a Cybran opponent,on a map with even ANY amount of water,what with their T2 Destroyers being amphibious. Every faction has its own identity,its own strengths and weaknesses. And the Experimentals are ultimate representations of this. The UEF is all about being tough as nails while rolling you over. The Fatboy has the best shield in the game,and can produce land forces at a nauseating rate. The Atlantis has amazing SAMs and torpedoes,can build,store,and service aircraft,then deploy them at a moments notice with utter impunity,being able to submerge and surface at will. The Novax enables a UEF commander to tear apart hostile forces and unprotected installations unopposed. And their Mavor is the absolute FINAL WORD in artillery.
Seraphim,all about being BETTER THAN YOU. Their experimental bomber,the Ahwassa,drops SuperNukes(TM) that a nuke defense will ignore. Their experimental bot,the Ythotha,has more unique weapons than any other bot in the game,plus it turns into a quasar when it gets wrecked. And their experimental missile launcher,the Yolona Oss,builds an OmegaNuke(TM) for PEANUTS,in a MINUTE,and the missile takes two shots from a nuke defense (five minute build time,three minute missile build time) to stop,and when it hits,it GLASSES the entire region. It can actually completely cleanse a 5*5 map.
Cybrans like to be... Surprising. As mentioned earlier,they have a boat that can crawl on land,bringing a considerable amount of firepower with it. Then there's their experimentals. The Monkeylord,with the single highest grossing DPS weapon in the game,pointed at anything on the surface,and this crawling engine of destruction is invisible to standard radar,and sonar,because it can crawl on the sea floor,armed with torpedoes. The Soul Ripper,a slow,ponderous brick of GUNS,flying in over your base,with so much gun it makes you wonder where the guns end and the ship begins. Oh,and it can laugh off a nuke. The Scathis,semi-mobile artillery that will fire three rounds a second if your energy economy can keep up,and it can go anywhere,as it is also amphibious. The Megalith,a crab-bot that drops eggs that engineers can work on to build high-end units,sports a pair of battleship-grade turrets that poke up on the surface of the water more often than not,depth charges and torpedoes,and enough health to laugh off TWO nukes. And their units in general tend to have stealth or other means to be more than they appear.
The Aeon,performance above all else. The Galactic Colossus,the single most durable unit in the game,capable of ignoring four nukes,with a tractor beam and second best DPS weapon in the game,PLUS an Omni-Radar. The Tempest,a submersible battleship that can built a support fleet and singlehandedly sink most fleets alone. The Paragon,a fusion bomb at the heart of your base that toggles resource output to put you at a profit,at all times. Finally,the CZAR. Know Independence Day? The alien ship from that,minus shields. Big fuck-off beam. Can build,store,service,and deploy aircraft. Depth charges,just in case it's flying over a pesky naval fleet. AA missiles. And then there's the fact that most Aeon units outrange their contemporaries,hit MUCH harder,and can strafe and hover.
Yeah,it's this sort of combo that makes me giddy for an RTS. Faction identity,scale,and a game determined by an actual strategy that can change on the fly,that doesn't need to be formulated like chess.
Dawn of War II: Retribution.
I wasn't a massive fan when it 1st came out as I wasn't into multi player and found the watered down single player campaign to be rather weak, but since getting into multiplayer, and especially since getting the Elite mod and finding the casts of matches on youtube it's become my favourite.
Prior to that it was Dawn of War: Soulstorm, not the most popular of choices, but I didn't think the addition of the SoB & stupid pointy armoured space Drow made the game any worse. Coming back to it now though, if find the gameplay compared to 2 rather boring, it just doesn't feel as involved, and probably also that I played it so much that I remember everything about the map the second I start.
I wasn't a massive fan when it 1st came out as I wasn't into multi player and found the watered down single player campaign to be rather weak, but since getting into multiplayer, and especially since getting the Elite mod and finding the casts of matches on youtube it's become my favourite.
Prior to that it was Dawn of War: Soulstorm, not the most popular of choices, but I didn't think the addition of the SoB & stupid pointy armoured space Drow made the game any worse. Coming back to it now though, if find the gameplay compared to 2 rather boring, it just doesn't feel as involved, and probably also that I played it so much that I remember everything about the map the second I start.
These three-
C&C Generals (I liked that it wasn't taking itself too seriously, otherwise the GLA would of been revamp!)
C&C Red Alert (It was the first RTS I played)
Supreme Commander (I love it being a homage to Total Annihilation in a way)
C&C Generals (I liked that it wasn't taking itself too seriously, otherwise the GLA would of been revamp!)
C&C Red Alert (It was the first RTS I played)
Supreme Commander (I love it being a homage to Total Annihilation in a way)
No love for Total Annihilation?
For shame, Escapists, for shame...
Ok, some of the units that appeared in the add-on packs were broken as hell (hover-craft units, I'm looking at you) but it was still an awesome multiplayer experience.
For shame, Escapists, for shame...
Ok, some of the units that appeared in the add-on packs were broken as hell (hover-craft units, I'm looking at you) but it was still an awesome multiplayer experience.
I will always have a place in my heart for the Dawn of war series. I've always loved the melee combat involved in it and I really enjoy the 40K universe so playing it always makes me fanboy, the blood ravens are what appear in my mind when I think of space marines. They are the default space marines for me, not the ultrasmurfs.
I also really enjoy Command and conquer 3. I never played the earlier games but I always enjoy Tiberium wars and it's expansion Kane's wrath. I especially enjoy the global conquest feature in Kane's wrath.
This list could never be complete without mentioning supreme commander. Sometimes I don't want to play on a small tactical scale, sometimes I want to mass produces thousands of units and toss them in the general direction of the enemy complete with giant robots, mobile factories and nukes.
Reading this topic makes me want to go play supreme commander again.
I also really enjoy Command and conquer 3. I never played the earlier games but I always enjoy Tiberium wars and it's expansion Kane's wrath. I especially enjoy the global conquest feature in Kane's wrath.
This list could never be complete without mentioning supreme commander. Sometimes I don't want to play on a small tactical scale, sometimes I want to mass produces thousands of units and toss them in the general direction of the enemy complete with giant robots, mobile factories and nukes.
Reading this topic makes me want to go play supreme commander again.
Since most of the obvious suspects have been mentioned, I'll add Xcom:Apocalypse, Dark Reign, Dune 2, and Dungeon Keeper. Is Black and White considered and RTS?
I never got to play total annihalation my dad had it but wasnt allowed to play the best i played was starcraft brood war battle net was to fun but my most enjoyed has to be lotr battle for middle earth 2
Warzone 2100 with all the upgrade patches. Doubt i could get it working nowadays but back in the day me and my friends loved it and played it to death! It was just such a large and impressive technology tree with lots of customization options...something you still don't get in the modern games (not that there are many new decent RTS)
Dungeon Keeper. Without a doubt. I've played that game waaaaaaay too much. Love building me a dungeon!
Honourable mentions: Dawn of War - spent a lot of time with that one. Multiplayer was always fun.
Command And Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Still play this both single and multiplayer.
Sacrifice - For a pretty cool plot, weird setting, awesome gameplay despite an annoying camera.
Honourable mentions: Dawn of War - spent a lot of time with that one. Multiplayer was always fun.
Command And Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Still play this both single and multiplayer.
Sacrifice - For a pretty cool plot, weird setting, awesome gameplay despite an annoying camera.
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
That was my first RTS and possibly the first game I ever played, so I may be seeing it through the Goggles of Nostalgia +1.
That was my first RTS and possibly the first game I ever played, so I may be seeing it through the Goggles of Nostalgia +1.
it's between red alert 2, age of empires 2, warcraft 3 and SC2. All for completely different reasons so hard to compare. If you view it as best designed strategy the honor would have to go to Starcraft 2.
Noting that I never played Starcraft 1 and the like so I'm just reporting based on what I know.
Noting that I never played Starcraft 1 and the like so I'm just reporting based on what I know.
While obviously far from being the best, my favorite is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. One of my favorite things is how the music would change depending on whether you were having a little skirmish or a full-on invasion. And it would even recognize when you were charging with the Rohirrim and play their theme. Plus, summoning a squad of angry hobbits on top of a grounded Nazgul was one of the funniest and most satisfying moments.
Starcraft Brood War. Always will be. It's also my favorite game period because it held up for so long. I got so badass at that map editor that I got seriously disappointed when Mac removed the capability of supporting classic software. I liked it as a 12 year old and I finally beat it when I was 22.
And I'm warming up to Starcraft 2, which has its ups and downs.
And I'm warming up to Starcraft 2, which has its ups and downs.
