[Recommend ON] RTS games for the uninitiated

Darth Nathan

So, RTS games. Some people like em, some don't, some cant get past the first level in most of them. I fall into the latter category. With the recent glut of RTSs (Empire:TW, DoWII, Red Alert 3 going back a little bit), my interest is piqued.

So, I need a starter one. I have literally never played an RTS before trying a few demos the other day. Empire:TW seems a tad too slow even for me, and Dawn of War looks kinda interesting, no demo available, but is it worth playing for someone who has no clue of the Warhammer mythos?

Help me out guys.

Velmeran

DOW2 woudl be fun for you if you could find other new players to learn with, jumping straight into the multiplayer ranked matches would probably have you controller throwing in minutes.

The single player is awesome though, and with four levels of difficulty to choose from I'm sure you could find a good level for you, and if you have a friend with it, you can even play co-op which makes the single player that much more awesome.

More traditional RTS's you could try out would be Red Alert 3 or Supreme Commander, both of which has base building/defense/killing as the goals.

Spoit

My suggestion is one with a non-traditional resource system, so that you can focus on the tactical side of just controlling the units first. In particular, World in Conflict, especially since the multiplayer is built around being quick matches where drop-in/drop-out doesn't matter, and you only have to control a handful of units at a time.

Plus, it has pretty explosions

Duki

Age of Empires 2.

Accept no substitutes.

Grislo

If you're into older games, something like Myth 2 or Warhammer: Dark Omen is awesome, and doesn't involve any resource management, it's all about the units.

Another really good, slightly different RTS would be Sacrifice, which features some very minor resource management in the form of harvesting souls.

Torso Boy

I hear Starcraft is okay, too.

Jutranjo

Warcraft 3 is pretty awesome as well. A bit old though, if you don't mind waiting 6-10 months Starcraft 2 might be out by then.

Kylogue

Hey, you said you had a hard time passing the first level of RTSs... What do you find difficult in most RTSs?

Any RTS can be a starter RTS depending on the level of difficulty you play it. You just need to find one that has a gameplay that appeals to you... You might even find that you're good at an RTS most people deem complicated.

That said:
C&C: Red Alert - A classic.
Age of Empires series - The first one and the Rise of Rome expansion were my favourites in the series
Battle Realms - A lot of micromanagement on this, but it might be your thing. I really enjoyed this game.
Total Wars series - The battles are in real time and resource management is turn based, which might be easier for you.
Stronghold - An RTS which has sections that emphasises more city building while others focus more on battle.


I also endorse previous recommendations.

Retzinsky

There's a strong, active community of Dawn of War 2 players on this forum (as you might have guessed from the thread) and for me it's probably the best RTS I've ever played. It's not perfect but I just have so much fun playing it. You don't need to know anything about Warhammer to play it, the races and how they play are pretty self explanatory. Be under no illusion though, it's a significant departure from what most people think of as a "traditional" RTS. It has no base building, few numbers of units, a cover mechanic and a non-traditional resource gathering system. The singleplayer also incorporates significant RPG elements.

I also enjoyed World in Conflict, which is in many ways very similar. No bases, emphasis on short, intense, action packed games managing just a few hand-picked units. It's quite old now though and the community has stagnated a little. The singleplayer is solid but you will likely find yourself getting punished and shouted at during online play unless you're prepared to read up and learn fast. Also, as far as I am aware, there are not really any active WiC players here.

Red Alert 3 is the last game released that truly has most of the things people consider the fundamentals of an RTS. I played the beta and while I found it a solid game it just didn't impress me that much. That's just my opinion though and it has a strong community and an expansion pack nearing release.

Those three games are more (or nearly entirely) micromanagement based, focusing on fine control of just a few squads/units. If you prefer something on a bigger scale have a look at Supreme Commander (+Forged Alliance expansion.) Games can last hours and feature battles between hundreds if not thousands of units and base building/resource management is significantly more important than fine unit control. As a technical achievement I think it's pretty spectacular but as a game I often found it slow and frustrating and wasted too much time on chore-like maximum-returns base construction than on actual fighting. Still, it represents the "other end of the scale" from games like WiC and DoW 2 very nicely.

Aridhol

Duki wrote: »

Age of Empires 2.

Accept no substitutes.

chasehatesbears

Darwinia/Multiwinia.

Casual, bare-bones RTS fun.

Cantido

Buy an old copy of Battlezone II. It's the best Action RTS ever.

Shit, I think it was the first action RTS.

Malechai

Starcraft can be found on the cheap to this day is one of the most balanced RTS games ever made when you throw in the Broodwar expansion. Online will probly be rape city though seeing as how the game has about a decade on it.

The dawn of war serries is not as well balanced but there is alot of varaity and to this day Winter Assault eldar is one of my favorite rts experiences. DOW2 takes things in a new direction abandoning building basses entirely and the single player campaign is more RPG than RTS.

Rise of Nations is preaty fun but the diffrences between the nations is preaty miniscule. Still the territory attrition mechanic was preaty intresting, especialy if your playing as the russians. The gameplay leans abit towards stratagy games like civilization or populace too.

Homeworld is a fully 3d space based RTS with orders given along x y and z axis's. Story is amazing and for it's day was visualy stunning. Once again though not alot of varaty between the races in online. Stratagies centering more upon how you tech up.

Sins of a Solar Empire realy I shouldn't even mention this in this thread. Remember it when you get a taste for RTS games and see if you want to give it a shot.

Lanrutcon

DoW 2 is not a good choice. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, but it's a hybrid game in singleplayer and mp is not for the faint of heart. The game is very micro-intensive and has no base building. So it's...unique and not at all what you'd see in 90% of other rts games.

MrDelish

Cantido wrote: »

Buy an old copy of Battlezone II. It's the best Action RTS ever.

I would recommend the first one over II if you're going for SP campaigns (which you would with either one, since I can't imagine there being an active MP community for either one)

Cantido

MrDelish wrote: »

Cantido wrote: »

Buy an old copy of Battlezone II. It's the best Action RTS ever.

I would recommend the first one over II if you're going for SP campaigns (which you would with either one, since I can't imagine there being an active MP community for either one)

I have both, and I can't get the original working on Vista.

Kami

I'm so glad this thread was made, as I'm searching for an RTS to sink my teeth into.

The only difference between me and the OP, though, is that I own dozens of RTS games, yet can't find one that can hit the magic spot. I'm either absolutely horrible at the game (Company of Heroes, C&C series, Blizzard titles), completely overwhelmed yet fascinated (Homeworld, Sins of a Solar Empire, Total War series), or just downright frustrated (Dawn of War series) because of my lack of knowledge.

I've yet to play World in Conflict, Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation, or other somewhat niche RTS titles, though.

Such an awesome genre, yet I'm such a bad player! That's life, I suppose.

MrDelish

Cantido wrote: »

MrDelish wrote: »

Cantido wrote: »

Buy an old copy of Battlezone II. It's the best Action RTS ever.

I would recommend the first one over II if you're going for SP campaigns (which you would with either one, since I can't imagine there being an active MP community for either one)

I have both, and I can't get the original working on Vista.

FFFFFFF

I might try to get it working on my vista rig, just to play Red Odyssey again

Stormwatcher

Battlezone probably uses the MW2 engine.

I don't think it works on anything later than Win98.

LewieP

Multiwinia, Starcraft or Red Alert 2 would be my picks.

Lanrutcon

Kami wrote: »

I'm so glad this thread was made, as I'm searching for an RTS to sink my teeth into.

The only difference between me and the OP, though, is that I own dozens of RTS games, yet can't find one that can hit the magic spot. I'm either absolutely horrible at the game (Company of Heroes, C&C series, Blizzard titles), completely overwhelmed yet fascinated (Homeworld, Sins of a Solar Empire, Total War series), or just downright frustrated (Dawn of War series) because of my lack of knowledge.

I've yet to play World in Conflict, Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation, or other somewhat niche RTS titles, though.

Such an awesome genre, yet I'm such a bad player! That's life, I suppose.

SupCom is great. Large LARGE scale building and battling. WiC didn't appeal to me...especially now that I've played DoW 2.

Triko

Malechai wrote: »

Starcraft can be found on the cheap to this day is one of the most balanced RTS games ever made when you throw in the Broodwar expansion. Online will probly be rape city though seeing as how the game has about a decade on it.

Starcraft Battlechest is perhaps the best $20 you could ever spend.

chasehatesbears

Oh shit, I forgot Battle for Middle-Earth 2.

I played this game with a bunch of friends who were not into RTS and they picked it up pretty quickly. The singe-player campaign is pretty good fun.

subedii

Triko wrote: »

Malechai wrote: »

Starcraft can be found on the cheap to this day is one of the most balanced RTS games ever made when you throw in the Broodwar expansion. Online will probly be rape city though seeing as how the game has about a decade on it.

Starcraft Battlechest is perhaps the best $20 you could ever spend.

Best thing is that you can now register your CD-Keys with Blizzard so that you can re-download whenever you want.