Good RTS Games?

[AveryMaurice]

I just got a new computer (Vista 32X) and was wondering if anyone new any good RTS games, since me and my friend want some to play over the Internet. My new computer can run really any newer game (such as Crysis, Halo 2, and those) and I have 640 GB of storage so it can really be anything.

I already own these RTS games :

Axis and Allies
Universe at War - Earth Assault
Starcraft
Command and Conquer : Generals

and probably a few more.

Any ideas?

[Jodwin]

AoK

[ArmouredBlood]

Since you already have starcraft, warcraft 3 might be good for you, but it's a lot slower in action.

Some kind of old ones I have and like are age of mythology, age of empires 3, and empire earth. Age of mythology, with the titans expansion, has a really nice story, and moderately fast game play and god powers. Age of empires 3 also has a good story and the gameplay is also somewhat fast.

I put in empire earth more for the 20+ eras and technology variation plus the 1,200 world unit cap than much else, but the campaigns are done decently and the multiplayer will probably give you hours per game (I once did a game on a meditteranean map to about the industrial age, spent 23 hours on it, and the nations are STILL about the same. This is about the worst grinding halt though, most other large maps get done within 3-5 hours or so).

Also if you can get your hands on heroes of might and magic 3 and 5, they're very good, although they're turn based not real time.

[Doom Marine]

Seconded on Warcraft 3. It is my favorite RTS to date, and comes bundled with The Frozen Throne to boot.

Another one to consider is Empire: Total War. I just started playing and liking it so far. Super good production values, has an excellent single player campaign, great graphics and sound, and the ability to command thousands of units over miles of terrain.

[Ninjalah]

Nth'ed on Warcraft 3. I especially liked the multiplayer, although I would get my ass kicked 90% of the time.

[Devalaous]

Command and Conquer First Decade.

Even better if you can get the version that comes with Tiberium Wars.

[Cupboard]

Stronghold
Stronghold Crusader

They are a pair of nice castle-builder games that you can usually buy together in a pack these days. Skip the 'Extreme' expansion pack though, ugh.

[Planky]

The latest Stronghold game is full of bugs and performance issues, I wouldn't go near it. The original is still fun to play.

One I am really enjoying at the moment is Anno 1404, which is a RTS/City building game. I still have and play the original Anno 1602. Settlers VI is in a similar vein, but I don't enjoy that as much.

Others I still play:

Total Annihilation
Red Alert 2 + Yuris Revenge
Red Alert 3 to some extent

[wildweasel]

I still love Total Annihilation.

[Nomad]

http://springrts.com/

[pavera]

Total Annihilation is a real classic. And if you're looking for more, I thought Supreme Commander was pretty good, even if each faction plays pretty much exactly the same.

Oh, and check out Ground Control 1 and 2. Both great games with a different take on RTS. And if you're in for a little novelty/humor, check out S.W.I.N.E. It's older, but the graphics were incredible for the time and it focuses more on tactics and action rather than base building and resource gathering.

And how could I forget Rise of Nations? If you want to get addicted to a game, check out its awesome campaign mode. You get to choose a starting nation in its infancy, and take over the world with it as you see fit. It plays out almost like a quicker version of the Total War series. Oh, and while we're on the topic.. check out the Total War series. Rome: Total War is extremely addictive, and it's a great modern beer and pretzels game.

I've never been extremely good at it, but I've always loved RTS.

[ArmouredBlood]

I'll vote for medieval total war v rome total war. I like the time period more, and the gridded world map in rome doesn't make it feel like a total war game. Provinces ftw :P

I'll also second stronghold, I really liked the first one, and crusader adds some new elements, but the original game still feels best.

[pavera]

You could argue that, but I find ancient Rome much more interesting than the middle ages.

[Doom Marine]

Empire: Total War is the latest installment of the series... better interface, army control, AI, and so forth, which to me is more important to gameplay than the era the game takes place in. A well-told story is a well-told story regardless of the costumes and stage props used.

[Devalaous]

Oh hey, Rise of Nations, thats that game I bought in one those budget pack series! The packagers were kind enough to forget the game needed a CD Key, and I ended up with two coffee coasters!

[Sharessa]

Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War. Those are the best in the series IMHO. I never played Empire: Total War, but my cousin said it was disappointing. Also, if you love Rome: Total War and beat it a few times, you might want to check out Europa Barbarorum, which is a really awesome and extensive mod for it that simultaneously adds a bunch more territory factions, and units to the game while making it a bit more historically realistic.

I can't stand normal RTS games, TBQH. The real-time micromanaging of resources while having to look out for your opponent rushing you before you get defenses up is annoying and always fucks me over. In the Total War games, you do all resource management on your own time outside of combat, then field your bigass army to clash with your opponent's bigass army, and they all start out in formation on whatever ends of the map. Combat is basically just making sure your units don't run into the wrong enemy units (like cavalry running into spearmen) while trying to take out your enemies units with whatever you have works well against them (like cavalry running down skirmishers).

Also, combat is pretty amazing looking in those games. While most RTS games have at most a couple hundred units fighting at most, the Total War games are usually 400-800 soldiers for a mid-sized battle, but can be a few thousand for high-end battles, even more if you have a powerful enough processor and turn the scale to max. And it looks pretty real too, witch footmen being tossed back when hit by cavalry charges and artillery barrages, wall defenders tossing ladderfulls of troops off ramparts, units breaking and panicking when being battered by volleys of flaming arrows or elephants, and all kinds of stuff. Medieval II kicks it up a notch with uniquely-equipped soldiers who actually fight duels with each other in the middle of the battlefield. That game kills the shit out of my computer to the point it's basically unplayable. I need to get a better video card so I can get all the way through the game.

Doom Marine said:

Empire: Total War is the latest installment of the series... better interface, army control, AI, and so forth, which to me is more important to gameplay than the era the game takes place in. A well-told story is a well-told story regardless of the costumes and stage props used.

I agree. I'd love Shogun if it was on the same engine as Rome. Shogun and Medieval are kind of clunky IMHO. There is no such thing as fast units since you can only go one region per turn, and stuff like healing units is needlessly complicated. At least Shogun is streamlined enough that you don't get horribly confused. Medieval tried to kick it up several notches by adding a billion features and giving you 5x the unit selection as Shogun, thus making it a bit overwhelming.

[DooMAD]

I don't see the Homeworld series mentioned so far. That one's good if you like you like space games. There's also a mod called Warlords for Homeworld 2 that turns it into a Star Wars game.

And WarCraft II, Age of Empires II with Conquerers expansion, C&C series and Stronghold are all good too.

[printz]

How about Seven Kingdoms (Ancient Adversaries, and 2)?

[Reisal]

How many of these games are highly moddable the way C&C and Warcraft/Starcraft are?

Moddability = extended replay value after normal, unmodded game finished.

[Maes]

If you had asked about single player RTS games, I'd recommend Warlords Battecry III (and II, if you feel like exploring the series' past).

What personally got me into it was its gameplay likeness to Warcraft II (and the fact that I got II as a magazine bundle). As single player RTSs, they are not bad at all: in fact, they have more race and hero variety than just about anything comparable.

However you mentioned multiplayer, and that changes the cards on the deck quite a bit: yeah, the game has multiplayer over internet (with no active lobby though), it used to have a decent multi community, but for various reasons it was never balanced enough for decent multi gameplay. That, and (Jodwin, forgive me on this one), it had a very poorly implemented asynchronous networking that only worked reliably with LAN-like latencies. Anything above that, and online games soon turned into a laggy, inconsistent desynced mess.

If it's just for LAN gaming though, I guess it should be alright.

[pavera]

Age of Empires 1 and 2 both have very nice campaign editors. I haven't played AoE3, but I'm sure it has something like that as well.

[Nomad]

Mr. Chris said:

How many of these games are highly moddable the way C&C and Warcraft/Starcraft are?

Moddability = extended replay value after normal, unmodded game finished.

http://springrts.com/

[AveryMaurice]

Nomad said:

http://springrts.com/

This looks awesome, bookmarked that page.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Since everybody here really likes Warcraft 3 I guess thats the next one I'll try.

Can anyone name any others too?

[Planky]

Its been a while since I last touched Spring - has it improved much? When I tried it, it had next to no UI, limited units and a few show stopping bugs.

[Breadrobber]

It's old, but a really good RTS is Empire Earth. I don't know where you can find it, Target might still sell it, but it was a really fun and original game, albeit slow paced. It also had a really great campaign.

[Nomad]

Planky said:

Its been a while since I last touched Spring - has it improved much? When I tried it, it had next to no UI, limited units and a few show stopping bugs.

Actually, I don't really like RTSs at all, but Spring is more of just an engine dedicated to RTSs than an actual game now (yes, it originally started as a hardware accelerated TA port).

Take a look on their Games page, though, and theres at least a dozen different RTS games made with it. The Star Wars one looks pretty cool at least. A couple friends of mine swear by Balanced Annihilation.

[zap610]

http://www.s2games.com/savage/

[deathbringer]

Total Anniahlation

C&C

C&C Red Alert

The purest is the best. Though Empire Earth was OK it kind of annoyed me that everybody was "the same", except you could make "German soldiers" when you played the German campaign.

They should have made different nations that you could choose who would then progress through time, though it would have to be super-unrealistic to be balanced. For instance the "America" side would be Indians with bows up to the 1700's, then colonist guerrulas (and of course if you made an "America" side you couldnt simulate the Indian wars). Also did Rome really "Become" Italy? "Germany" hasn't actually existed for very long (and spent a significant part of that cut in two) and stuff like that

[Belial]

M.A.X. 2

[Patrick]

Stalin vs. Martians. 'Nuff said. You can get it on Steam