Looking for a good RTS

I am fond of RTS (real time strategy) games, such as C&C:ZH, WC3, AoE 1-2-3 and their expansions and that sort of games.

What good RTS are good nowadays? I loved all AeO and C&C:ZH and that is my type of game mostly...

I love the realism, but some fiction is fun too sometimes...

Last one I played was C&C3 and Tiberium Wars and none of them really got me...

Is there any game that has a good story in this type of games? I know, they are not that popular...and we have loads of FPS and MMOs and RPGs...RTS is a rather strange game nowadays?

Recommend me one please! Thanks

 

Red Alerts are completely different than the C&C series....

I played and loved Red Alert 1 and Red Alert 2. I am going to pick up Red Alert 3 at some point. Red Alert 4 is coming next year I think.

Story wise, the Red Alerts are definitely very good (cinematic).

 

is base building absolutely required? if not i would say Company of Heroes and Dawn of War series

 

Well, I like base building too.

Oh yeah, I have also played Civ3 and 4 not that into it...

Never heard of Company of Heroes nor Dawn of War sorry...been out of the gaming for long

Which ones are Red Alert again? Which are the factions?

 

1. Dawn of War 1 and expansions (my fave RTS ever: base building, fun micro, warhammer story)
2. Homeworld (best RTS of all time imo: storytelling is great, music is top notch, gameplay is very fun).
2. Total War Games (Empire, Rome, Medieval 2) (HUUUGE battles and massive campaigns)
3. Company of Heroes (Lots of micro mgmt and fun gameplay)
4. Red Alert 3 (Great storytelling ala shmaltzy over the top story and acting, fun gameplay especially co-op campaign with a friend)
5. World in Conflict (Lots of Micro, lots of fun)

 

me likey sins of a solar empire

 

i would vote dawn of war

 

Try company of heros, and starcraft II is out quite soon. Dont bother with any of the C&C's there hasent been a good one since red alert 2 in 2002. C&C 4 is the next and last one out, after that its rumored EA will lay off the dev team.

Dawn of war is also worth a shot, its made by the same guys who made company of heros.

 

I'll second, third, or whatever Dawn of War and second Sins of a Solar Empire. Homeworld is excellent, but newer PCs can have issues.

 

Dawn of War is more your style Serg.

Homeworld, Sins, and CoH is more like Warcraft 3.

 

i have all the Dawn of War series (DoW1 + expansions and DoW2) and company of heroes (+ both stand alone expansions), CoH is simular to dawn of war with the same sort of micromanagement, with the focus on controlling command points and unit management rather than building a huge base, the main difference is CoH is set in WW2 and DoW is futuristic with different races i preferred Company of Heroes tbh, i have a short review of the game in my sig go take a looksy.
Sins of a Solar Empire is amazing but dont expect short games, i played one game on the smallest map and it ended up taking several hours to finish.

 

Company of Heroes is one of the best RTSs ever. Highly recommend it.

 

Starcraft

and when it comes out Starcraft 2

You have WC3 on your list so its a natural fit, maybe you already played it and just didnt list it, but if not it would be a good blast from the past and have you ready to go for the sequel when it comes out.

 

homeworld, starcraft. although they are very old.

 

Too bad you didn't ask this sooner. Steam had the entire Company Of Heroes + DoW 1+2 complete on sale as a $50 package, a ridiculous deal.

 

Replaying Sacrifice once again, that's another game with gameplay you don't see nowadays.

 

Dawn of War 1 is NOTHING like CoH. DoW has a strong focus on base building. CoH has a far more emphasis on tactical maneuvering. CoH reminded me of War3.

DoW 2 reminded me more of CoH.

 

I would recommend checking out some of Paradox Entertainment's games. They're not traditional RTS, as they play out on a province based map, but they're very in depth. People who like less mainstream RTS will appreciate them. Europa Universalis III is the easiest to learn.

More in tune with your original request: Try Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends, the latter is vastly under-rated. And if you like base building a lot, check out Stronghold Crusader (old).

 

Oh yes Stronghold Crusader... that is a great game too!

 

Oldie but a goodie. Starcraft.

 

Could never get into that game. Too much building, not enough fighting.

 

whaaaaaaaa??? You never played starcraft? Man, get it now, with the expansion pack. SC is legendary in it's rts gameplay.

 

I heartily second Rise of Nations (and half-heartedly its "sequel" Rise of Legends).

RoN is basically an Age of Empires that doesn't suck . Very fun, and very addicting. Simple in all the right ways. Also recommended is its expansion pack, Thrones and Patriots, if for no other reason than its awesome Cold War campaign (re-enact the Korean and Vietnam wars in an hour and a half each, and then invade the enemy half of Germany? Awesome!).

RoL was a dumbed down RoN with tons of creativity and character, but little to no strategy and a terrible story mode.

Also, if you're into games w/o base-building, the Myth series (1, 2, and 3) is an oldie-but-goodie. Great story, great atmosphere, challenging tactics. Your veteran units with lots of kills carry over from mission to mission, gaining ever so slight increases to attack speed, accuracy, or range, or weapon reliability with each kill. Plus it's just awesome seeing a group of dwarves grenade the hell out of zombies. That is, until one grenade turns out to be a dud, but gets reignited and then blown into the middle of your warrior lines. That always sucks, but you'll be laughing as you reload your game.

Also, if you haven't played it, Dungeon Keeper. A really old one, even older than Starcraft. But nothing to date beats it for playing the evil sadistic dungeon lord role.

 

Ok I have been checking all your suggestions guys, and I thank you all very much.

Ok, so I have a few noob-questions:
Sins of a Solar Empire is like Civilization as in you grow and you have to deal with leaders on the such?

I have been checking Homeworld, that one looks like fun, and there is a Homeworld 2, is that any good?

CoH looks like a very complex game of strategy, right? How is it that you manage the units and create more? Is it that you do it or are they automatic?

Starcraft never grew on me...sorry... I found that Tiburium Wars? (the one with the Ion Cannon) was more fun...Red Alert 3? (the one with the Japanese) was a fail in my book. It looked too colourful for my taste, so I did not even give it a chance...

I dont understand those Europa Universalis games...how are they?

Rise of Nations is fun indeed. I have played it before.

Stronghold 1 and Crusade did not reach to the point of really impressing me. No idea about Stronghold 2, but gameplay was rather slow in general...

Dawn of War 1 and 2 seem like a lot of fun. But again, gameplay is what style? Build a base and send your units to attack?

What is Sacrifice?

I have seen those Rome Total War and Empire Total War. I dont understand them either... Care to enlighten me?

I am sorry, but I am again newbie in this area...I stopped playing some time ago since my laptop wasnt up to the task, but now I can...

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I have also played and like games where I can control vessels and soldiers, dont ask why...but I love it...^^ For example AoE II and III it was too much fun using ships to attack

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!

 

If you think you would like Homeworld, then check out "Nexus the Jupiter Incident". There is a single player and multiplayer demo as well. It can be complex, but satisfying nevertheless. I have to get back an play that one.

 

How is that game? What kind of gameplay htwingnut?

 

Homeworld > Homeworld 2, but the second is still very good, to me at least. Not everyone feels that way.

Small scale units that you control with greater precision, same applies to Dawn of War 2.

That would be Dawn of War 1, Dawn of War 2 is as squad-based tactical combat.

These are very large scale games, where you deal in diplomacy with multiple factions, multiple city management, including structure, garrison and manufacturing in each city, as well as battle on a tactical scale. Sea battles are resolved automatically though. If you are familiar with J-RPGs, the system is somewhat similar, your armies move through the terrain on the strategic map as a single person, and when engaged in battle, the scene moves to the tactical level.

 

Man!!!

Dungeon Keeper!

They need to remake that game. That was way way too much fun.

 

i CoH you do have some base building but that isn't really the focus, there are several types of building you build to unlock different unit classes, the amount of units you are allowed to produce is dependent on capturing and holding the control points on the map.

if you like controlling vessels as well and soldier units then perhaps C&C red alert 3 might be up your alley.

Empire Total War also allows for sea battles and are great fun....i personally couldn't get into the huge amount of out of battle micromanagement so the game didn't appeal to me as much as some.

anyway good luck choosing.

 

I am leaning towards Sins of a Solar System, Dawn of War and Homeworld 2 (which is the oldest), and CoH seems like a nice try.

Of those which one would you recommend and why?

Oh and thanks alot for that review, really liked it.

EDIT: Nexus seems like a lot of fun too. Is it the same type of game as Sins and Homeworld?

 

DoW probably has the most replay value. Although the same style got old IMO. I've been playing RTS constantly since the days of Dune, so I was looking for something with less base building. Something like Warcraft 3.

 

Sins of a solar Empire is a fantastic game if you have time up your sleave, personally and yes im a fanboy i cant say enough about CoH, its very hard to fault the game, i brought DoW after CoH and couldn't get into it, but im really enjoying DoW2 at the moment.....

my recommendation is CoH........

good luck with your choice

 

Yeah, CoH > DoW 1 and 2.

I haven't played DoW 2 since they've patched it. All I remember about the Multiplayer was they were full of the Arachnid heroes. It was lame.

 

If you remember Total Annihilation from around 1998, then you will probably like Spring TA. It's a modernized, open source, and FREE version of Total Annihilation. Commander, cloaking robots, big bertha...

http://springrts.com/wiki/Games

You can download it for free and there are many mods, Balanced Annihilation is the mod that is played the most. I think it's the best RTS game today.

 

Sacrifice = RTS+FPS hybrid released in 2000. Developer Shiny Entertainment and publisher Interplay. I have yet to see any game with a similar gameplay model to that game when it was released 9 years ago.

The best part is that the game still looks really good by today's Crysis saturated market standards.

 

Sacrifice is great, but too bad I can't get the multiplayer portion of it to work under vista.

Total Annihilation is AMAZING and even now I still play it with the tons and tons of custom content; maps, units, sounds everything you can imagine. Its successor, Supreme Commander (more recent) is also great but I still prefer TA itself.

If you like Star Wars, theres Empire at War, that's good as well.

A question, the Total War series doesn't count as an RTS right?

 

SupCom has nice eye candy, but the gamplay of TA and Spring TA is a lot better. The units are also easier to manage than they are in SupCom. In Spring TA you can even download LUA scripts that will help with some of the micromanagement once you have lots of units.

The biggest problem with Spring TA is that most people don't know about it. Those who do know about it play all the time and are very good so it's tough to get into an online game as a beginner and not get obliterated. Play against the AI first...

 

Had a quick glimpse through the thread, if you love story based RTS get Homeworld Cataylsm, it was made after Homeworld but before Homeworld 2, the storyline is nothing bar excellent and requires a lot of planning, sometimes having to replay a level several times to figure it out.

Another suggestion would be supreme commander and forged alliance, base building on a massive scale.

Free suggestion would be warzone 2100, one of the oldest RTS games out their and so often overlooked but nothing short of excellent, massive storyline spanning several zones/levels with no end of customization and units. http://wz2100.net/

 

Im not sure if this game fits into your games but check Mount&Blades out. Its RPG/Strategy. You control the guy(combat, etc) but you can also control your troops in mid battles. Conquer castles, become lord vassals, recruit villagers and turn them into an amazing soldier... It's just an amazing game in my opinion. +there's a huge category of mods

 

There isn't a whole lot of depth to the planet-building aspect, so in that respect it's very different from Civilization. Much more emphasis on straight-up warfare than diplomacy (diplomacy as it stands amounts to the AI factions giving you "jobs" like destroying another faction's orbital structures or giving them resources - but watch out for the Diplomacy mini-expansion due out soon!).

Very complicated and unapproachable. I tried to get into them, but it was hard for me. There are lots of fanatics, though. Think real-time Risk with base-building options.

DoW1: Same style as Starcraft, but with more focus on fighting and territory control than base-building.

Very difficult, is what it is. At least, I thought it was. Maybe I wasn't playing it right. It's very unique, but a lot less RTS and a lot more... almost RPG. You might love it, or you might hate it.

They can be very rewarding games. More than any other strategy game that I've played, they really managed to capture the realism and tactics of a battle fought in the Medieval/Roman ages. The army battles are very challenging and they make you think, and the AI can be pretty good at tricking you and controlling the battlefield if you're not careful. However, a large part of your time in that game is spent in an almost Civilization-like top-down view of Europe, moving troops, hiring mercenaries, building your cities and castles, managing an economy (war ain't cheap!), etc. Even here it manages to "feel" real - down to the perks and flaws of your generals and family members. Highly recommended that you try it, even if you don't like Civilization-type turn-based games.

If they just updated the graphics, improved unit AI a smidgen, and made just a couple more levels, I would drop $100 immediately to buy it! As it is, the old version can probably be had for pretty cheap - but it would totally be worth the $50 price tag of a new release game.

 

If you want a game more like Civilization, then I suggest Galactic Civilization.

 

It's somewhat micromanagement of ships, but it's very intense. There are some bugs, but it's still a solid game.

Another one that's decent is Hegemonia (sometimes spelled Haegemonia). It's space based RTS but a little more action oriented.

http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/hegemonia/

You can get it from gog.com for $9.99US.

Both of these are off the beaten path so to speak. They are not mainstream, but do appeal to tactical gamers more than RTS gamers.

 

Starcraft.

Although its old, there are still heaps of people playing it. Battle.net has around 40,000 SC players at any one time. Which is around the same as Modern Warfare 2 on Steam

 

The graphics are amazing on Hegemonia for its time, the story isn't so bad either...I still have the CD lying around somewhere.

 

For the past couple years, almost all I've played are RTS with the exception of Fallout 3 and Oblivion (still haven't completed the main quest in the latter; keep getting sidetracked). I seem to split my time between:

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (expansion) - If you have a fast enough processor (mine is starting to show its age; C2D @ 2.16 GHz) and a decent GPU, I highly recommend this game for its epic scale land battles and a few mods that further expand on the units available in the expansion

Sins of a Solar Empire - Already recommended before, I'd like to reinforce this choice as it is currently the ONLY real-time space strategy game I've come to enjoy playing again and again, especially with a massive 1 GB mod which I can't remember the name of ATM (you can just look through the forums on the developer's website for all the mods released and/or in development). Vanilla, it's already a great game but just like Oblivion and FO3 the mods truly bring it to a whole other level.

Star Wars Empire at War: Forces of Corruption (expansion) - With the ACM mod greatly expanding the available units and planets to liberate/conquer/corrupt, I still play this 3.5 year old game, even though the mod for Sins also adds a Star Wars faction with amazing models, this just has the appropriate feel of being in the SW galaxy.

I'd recommend you download the demo for all three and try them out whenever you get the chance, just know that the games have evolved to a level far surpassing anything that you can view in a demo.

Hope this helps.

 

Gasp! C&C3 Tiberium Wars was the best one in my opinion. Logged countless hours playing it. Got me through long road trips too.

 

Was about to make that suggestion. I think I loved cataclysm the most of the three games! Of course I still have the 3 The first can be exploited a little too much in that you can capture hundreds of frigates and dozens of destroyers making it too easy by the end lol while the last game is great but not original enough for me. Cataclysm is awesome; try capturing capital ships before you can even build frigates yourself it makes it very fun

Also loved dungeon keeper, especially the second one. I really wish a third was made I think if any game series deserves a third installment it has to be this series!

A final obscure suggestion would be EA's Emperor Battle for Dune, it is quite a blast and I think is often overlooked, graphics for its time were pretty good too. Good storyline, cinematics and gameplay. You cannot win if you only play defensively!

 

You blaspheme, sir. Any game in which slapping Horny doesn't him off and incite him to go on a rampage, killing friend and foe alike before dismantling your dungeon, isn't a game of Dungeon Keeper at all.

Plus the AI was significantly worse. Bile demons would get angry after a fight because they got hungry but moved too slow to get to a hatchery in time.

There's a lot that DK did well that DK2 dropped the ball on.

 

Ha ha you have a point the AI was better but I didn't like the idea that the walls were practically unbreakable in DK1. As for the bile demons there is something called micro management my friend pick em up and drop them in the hatchery or stuff some chickens down their necks

 

The closest thing to WC3 (assuming you already got the expansion from Reign of Chaos to The Frozen Throne) would be Starcraft, but you have ruled that out.

The closest thing to the AoE series is Age of Mythology, which is basically Age of Empires redone with cool units and factions. Since you considered Starcraft I guess you can consider this as well.


One which hasn't been mentioned yet is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth (1 and 2) which were both good sellers and highly rated.

Also a game series which I lost track of a while ago when I stopped playing RTS would be The Settlers, but that is basically all about base building (coming from Settlers 2 and 3)