I collect [Action RTS Hybrid] games.

Cantido

An Action RTS games is one in which if you build melee units, you can melee with them. If you build ranged units, you can shoot along side them.

In those games, you almost always take control of just one avatar, and from there your options vary. Sometimes you are weak and helpless and must surround yourself with your army. Sometimes you are godly, and meant to throw yourself into the fray to turn the tide. Sometimes you are no different from the units you create.

If you don't have an avatar, then you are capable of observing your units and assume control of them directly.

I collect these games, and because I was introduced to them first, before traditional RTS games, they are now my preference. Which sucks because they're so fucking rare. Brutal Legend and Sacrifice are the ones I currently play, and Sega recently released an abomination that will not be mentioned here, but lets take a look at some history.

Herzog Zwei - 1990

Not just the first Action/RTS, but is widely considered to be the first modern RTS! Before your fancy shmancy mouse cursors to command units, you would take control of a single fighter jet that could purchase tanks and units, then pick up and carry them to locations where they would attack enemies. Also, note the fuck-off music. You can also land your plane and transform into a giant robot that can attack on the ground directly.

Battlezone - Home of the Thumper - 1999

Now THIS is where it all started for me. I had a computer gaming magazine that gave this a 5-star review. I had no grasp the article was preaching to me (I never played an RTS before.) All I wanted was that delicious Thumper, which is probably the greatest weapon over. It creates a seismic wave that slaps your enemies in the air.

It came with my first video card accelerator, which I installed when I was a tween. I took my sweet precious time with the tutorial, but it was actually quite simple. I learned how to order other dudes around, but did not know what I was getting into.

The story was awesome too. Y'know the Space Race? It was a cover up. Russia and the U.S. were slugging it out on the moon and the rest of the solar system in competition for a rare ore called Biometal which could be molded into kickass hovertanks from an ancient civilization.

In the beginning, I got a basic recycler that could build turrets. I had to build them and set them up around my base which was steadily getting attacked by commies.

After pushing them all back, you get a message that a much bigger force is coming to sack the base, and it's time to evacuate. Those fuckers were destroying the base, MY BASE, who's defenses I personally set up! Nothing hurts more. Then the U.S. rebuilds on mars, you can build tanks, and shit really goes down.

In that game, you cannot fly. You are just an ordinary pilot, helpless out of your cockpit and can die in one hit. Each tank, resource gather, turret, gun tower, or GIANT ROBOT you build, is something that you can personally hop in the cockpit and use. And that means everyone fighting alongside you is on the same footing as you, making for some spectacular firefights.

If your ride blows up, you automatically eject and must either float your sorry ass to safety. But being on foot sucks! You can either order a unit to drive up to you and give you their ride while they walk (suckers!) or pull out a sniper rifle and snipe an enemy cockpit and steal their ride. Badass.

Battlezone 2 - More variety, less thumper

Battlezone 2 was developed by the now extinct Pandemic, ruining my hopes for a Battlezone 3 eternally. In this, the story takes a turn for the stupid, in which Russia and the US are bros, hanging out at the edge of the solar system and their past comes back to haunt them in an unusual way. Aliens with biometal coursing through their veins attack the alliance and it's time to go alien hunting. But nothing is all as it seems. The aliens were once human, and while they're actually grateful for their new bodies, they still want the balls of the one who made them that way.

This game is different in some dramatic ways. No more Thumper sucks balls. But instead of U.S. vs Russia, it's Humans vs Scions. The Scions had shapeshifting units that can adjust to whether they need speed or power. Also, the weapons have been rebalanced and there were now pools of resources that can be captured and fought over. The single player campaign is also utterly difficult.

Sacrifice - Shiny -2000
Made essentially by just four people, this game thrown in the humor and sillyness of Shiny with RTS games. On of their goals was to take the boring out of RTS games, without crazy tech trees and hoarding of units.

You control a wizard who doubles as your builder. You yourself summon the units who will fight beside you. But this time you are NOT helpless. You have some totally fuck-off magic spells to destroy enemies with nothing but your own awesomeness.

The Shiny touch shines in the story and crazy creatures. The main hero, Eldred, is telling a flashback about how he kinda accidentally destroyed the world. (It's not funny and it's not meant to be.) His lust for magical power lead him to the realm of five warring deities. Persephone (a cruelly demanding hippy of nature,) Stratos (power hungry god of sky), Pyro (destructive god of fire, but he swears up and down he is a god of progress and industry), James (Earthworm Goddamn Jim), and Charnel, (an evil god of Death.)

All five want you to go on mission for them, and in exchange they lend you their faction and magic spells, but as you do missions you will be forced to take sides. The catch? Four out of five of them are hiding how evil they really are.

Natural Selection

I'm pretty sure I learn about Natural Selection here a few years back, when I was asking for more games like Battlezone. The incredibly ambitious Half Life mod lets you choose between humans or Aliens, who control very different.

As Marines, the players choose one commander to sit back in the commander's chair and see everything in a classic RTS view. He tells the other players where to go and what to build. For example, if I'm the commander and I want a gun tower, I will place one somewhere, but that's not enough. I have to tell a Marine player to walk up to it and put it together. They help me capture resource nodes so that I can give them new weapons, ammo, and upgrades.

The aliens do not have a commander, because they are hive minded. How does that work in game? Every alien can see key elements of interest from their perspective. They spend resources on themselves, so that they can shapeshift into bigger and badder monsters. To this day I don't know how to use them.

A number 2 is coming out, but I'm going to have to sit that one out. I haven't had a modern game-worthy computer in ages.

Pikmin - 2002

Miyamoto had a funny idea for a video game while gardening. About little plant people. Called Pikmin.

This game is suprisingly emotional to me. Despite the cuteness, there is a sense of urgency all around you. The fact that you're gonna die in 30 days might have something to do with it. Or maybe it's the sound of your vegetable buddies dying in droves because you fucked up somehow. And lets not forget what happens when you leave them behind when the sun goes down .

Your character is Olimar. He is very helpless, like Battlezone. And extremely simple Action/RTS, your units are hive minded goons who stay glued to your position. You can make their formation stretch out with the right analog stick. Units will do individual things like attack enemies, lift heavy objects, or build bridges when you brush them against it. It's simple, but effective and addicting.

The scale is glorious. You are tiny. VERY tiny. You walk amongst blades of grass and see litter on the ground towering above you.

Pikmin 2 - 2004

They took out the 30 day time limit and gave you a big world to explore. What more could you want? You also control two avatars. Olimar and Louie. The game also has what are basically dungeons. Caves with several floors in which you are cut off from your ability to summon more Pikmin. The game also introduces multiplayer, which is a riot. Lets hope Pikmin 3 is awesome.

Batalltion Wars

More on this in a bit. I would have liked it more if it weren't for wanting every single character to die. In this you have NO avatar. You have a set amount of units like Advance wars, and you can assume control a unit of your choice directly. The game takes just about everything from the portable games and puts it in 3d.

Overlord - 2007
This is Pikmin's Western counterpart. You control one Badass Freakin Overlord, but he could easily die on his own. You surround yourself with Minions who, like Pikmin, swarm you and stretch out with the analog stick.

Guilty Gear 2 Overture - 2007
Who would have thought Japanese hair metal head Daisuke Ishiwatari always wanted Guilty Gear to have big brawling combined with crazy RTS fights? Being the first "true sequel" to Guilty Gear, all the bounty hunting and "You're in my way---no, YOUR in MY WAY" crap from the fighting game stories is put to rest. Also, Sol, a character I hated, suddenly was likable to me.

I played it out of hype for BlazBlue just before leaving on a military trip, and wrote a Game Script for it. blackgenma edited it put it on Dustloop and GameFAQs. It's not my cup of tea, but I was happy to see a game of this style appear because they're so hard to find. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel be made as long as it's even better. Here you see a 4 player free for all.

Little King's Story

Brutal Legend - 2009

I didn't want this game at first. All the videos, and laughing and Jack Black, and open world, and an ace soundtrack. Blah blah blah. I didn't believe a word of it. I expected it would be a charming but short single player experience, like Psychonauts. And if you only count single player...that would be right...

I don't remember when it happened, but then I came back from the military trip and saw multiplayer videos. And I'm like "huh, that looks like Battlezone." And then I saw some more, and I'm like "Uhh, that looks a LOT like Battlezone!"

When I got my hands on that, I tore through the campaign and never looked back. All I wanted was to get my hands on that delicious multiplayer, and it was awesome beyond my wildest expectations.

This one was more of a cross between Sacrifice and Battlezone. You are one powerful avatar, but you are not godly. You can die quickly and have to respawn, but you have magic like in Sacrifice. It's like Battlezone because of Double Team attacks, in which you assume control of units and give them new abilities. Directly inspired from Herzog Zwei, and worked on by someone from Sacrifice, your avatar can fly all around the battlefield and order dudes around, only to land on the ground and dish out some pain yourself.

Furthermore, most of the games I mentioned in the past were not online, save for Natural Selection. Guilty Gear 2 had a following but I couldn't find them. BL was the first time I was experiencing a genre I sought for ten years, with other people.

So if anyone here has interest in these or if I'm missing one that you feel fits the mold of the rarest of rare genres this the place to discuss them.

Toy Soldiers - 2009
Toy Soldiers takes it in a different direction. This is an Action/Tower Defense game. You place WW1 units all over the battlefield, composed of toy soldiers, and you are not an avatar of any kind. You can assume control of any unit you want.

Big Classy

Kingdom under fire was the shit. Before they ruined it with the awful, awful current gen crap.

Jealous Deva

Is there any possible way to configure Sacrifice to a more traditional fps style of controls (ie a and d strafe and a mouse look toggle?) Keyboard turning just drives me nuts.

Also are either of the Battlezone's availble on any digital download services?

Cantido

Jealous Deva wrote: »

Is there any possible way to configure Sacrifice to a more traditional fps style of controls (ie a and d strafe and a mouse look toggle?) Keyboard turning just drives me nuts.

Also are either of the Battlezone's availble on any digital download services?

No. I bought them cheap on Amazon. I can't get the original working, because it's a GPU problem. Battlezone 2 and Sacrifice work, but it burns me BZ1 doesn't work.

Kingdom Under Fire?

KUF

Darmak

Kingdom Under Fire was a pretty fucking awesome game with an awesome soundtrack. It always reminded me of Berserk for some reason.

Also, Mount and Blade is a game I only recently got into but it sounds like it would be right up your alley, if you were interested in a more realistic medieval setting. As you can tell from my sig, I've been enjoying it quite a bit (I've only owned it less than a week).

Endaro

I saw the thread title and thought you were probably the one who made it. I was not disappointed.

Kris_xK

Battlezone was fantastic. I loved that game so very, very much.

Delta Assault

I hear this Cantido fella likes Brutal Legend.

Cantido

I forgot one.

Battlestations Midway

Kris_xK

That XBLA game Toy Soldiers is sorta similar as well.

Zxerol

Any thread that gives love to Sacrifice gets a thumbs up from me. :^:

Sterica

I think Populous: The Beginning has elements of this. But I never played it myself.

Spoit

I used to have a win 2000 partition just to play battlezone

Orogogus

Microsoft published an action RTS at around the same time as Battlezone. I never played it, but Mobygames says it was called Urban Assault. From Wikipedia:

Gameplay

The player is in command of a futuristic host station with plasma energy technology, allowing the player to create units and buildings, as long as the blueprints and sufficient energy are available. In the single-player campaign, the objective of each mission is to capture each key sector on the map, allowing use of the beam gate to transport the host station to the next field of battle. However, destroying enemy host stations imparts a bonus to the player's maximum energy reserves. Combined with the fact that many key sectors are located deep in enemy territory or even right below an enemy faction's host station, the unstated goal of each game is to eliminate all enemy host stations. In multiplayer, beam gates are not present on the map and the only objective is to destroy opponents.

Resources
Like most strategy games, the game is centered around resources. The sole resource in Urban Assault is energy, which is required to build units and buildings used to conquer other factions. Energy is gained through controlling power stations. Each power station emits energy relative to the number of white boxes attached to it on the map screen; each box represents more power output. Power stations are also limited in power output by the number of adjacent sectors controlled by the player, referred to in-game as efficiency, forcing the player to increase control of the map in order to create more powerful armies. Powerful units and buildings require significant amounts of energy to build.

Plot
The plot of Urban Assault is set in the future, where ozone depletion, termed The Big Mistake, results in destruction of the ocean's phytoplankton, causing the Earth's food chain to collapse. Scarce food supplies results in a resource war, and plasma formation technology — the ability to form solid constructions using only energy — allows military commanders to create entire armies to subjugate their foes. The technology was leaked to enemy factions, destroying fragile political alliances and launching the planet into a third world war. Citizens are forced into domed communities, which shield them from dangerous levels of UV radiation (to an extent) and filters the toxic air. However, most of the adult population had already consumed contaminated food, and most died within five years - regardless of location, domed or not.

A group of alien invaders, the Mykonians, view humans as being unworthy of such a resource-rich planet, and implant their Parasite Machine into the crust of the planet to draw energy directly from the Earth's core. The Parasite Machine is causing the Earth's core to cool, weakening its magnetic field. This will eventually cause solar radiation levels to rise and obliterate all of the planet's biomass, making it suitable for Mykonian colonization. In the campaign, Mykonian forces are usually present in northern Europe, where the cool temperatures allow for more efficient data transfer.

A second group of alien invaders, the plant-like Sulgogars, have invaded northern Africa, where the warm climate creates a suitable spawning ground. Only seen in mid- to late-game missions in northern Africa, the Sulgogars are the most challenging faction to defeat.

Three human factions exist as well; these include the Ghorkovs, Taerkastens, and the Black Sect.

The website is apparently still up, too, which I wasn't expecting.



====

Someone should throw Allegiance up, or copy it from the space sims thread.

====

I think I got a copy of Uprising with my first 3D(-ish) video card, a Matrox Mystique, but the intro cinematic rings no bells whatsoever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Swo2Cg2vQ

RoyceSraphim

Total annihilation: spring had a take over feature. Been a while since I played bur I found it useful to blow holes in the terrain so my artillary could reach the enemy.

I have yet to play warband but does it let you put your troops in formation? I don't remember that in vanilla mount and blade but remember eagle and radiant cross having it in there. Dream setup would be pulling an age of empires box formation.

cj iwakura

Big Isy wrote: »

Kingdom under fire was the shit. Before they ruined it with the awful, awful current gen crap.

It's worth noting that the Kingdom Under Fire 2 game in development looks to bringing the series back to its roots, and it will be awesome.

-Loki-

Rorus Raz wrote: »

I think Populous: The Beginning has elements of this. But I never played it myself.

Populous is a straight RTS with a commander unit.

TychoCelchuuu

Allegiance and Natural Selection are really the kings here, I'd say, but that's not to denigrate some of the other options. It's the depth, the production values, and the sheer audacity of Allegiance and NS that I love, though.

Chrono Helix

I loved Sacrifice so much. I remember making a table that showed which gods taught you which spells and creatures, and when, and planned out a character build. Unfortunately I hadn't taken into account gods getting killed when learning stuff.

Grim Reaper spell was so awesome, as was Bovine Intervention.

Zerokku

Endaro wrote: »

I saw the thread title and thought you were probably the one who made it. I was not disappointed.

DisruptorX2

Oh hey, you want obscure games in this obscure genre?



Enjoy.

I'd say something about it, but I haven't played it in like....over a decade. IIRC, its kind of like Dungeon Keeper, except its older. But you can control your general personally. There's some reason why you can't always control him, though, probably his health total or something. Its kind of an "oh shit" option, you send in your personal avatar to fuck up the enemy. Of course, not having played this since like '97, I could be entirely wrong in my recollection of how the avatar works. If I"m wrong, then hey. There are worse things you can do than play Dungeon Keeper.

Drake

GOG.com has this little gem that flew under the radar.

Great story (written by Grant Morrison iirc) and voice acting, the graphics hold up well and the gameplay is nicely done. If you are a fan of this subgenre then you really should check it out. It's so worth the $5.99.

You command a superduper carrier with nanotech foundries that can whip up different vehicles for you to armor up and slap on weapons of your choice. You can take over any of your forces at any time and the interface is just fantastic. In the story the New World Order has taken over, but they are nice guys. The evil capitalists, religions and generals create an artificial island chain and start attacking the rest of the world, so they can continue to sell crap, bamboozle and blow people up. Are you a bad enough superduper nanotech carrier commander to stop them?

RoyceSraphim

Drake wrote: »

JOY!

Hell yes! Honestly, the writing in this is on par with the stuff in Metal Gear Solid. Not so overly emotional, but actually kind of honest and blunt.

When was the last time you killed a man?
I was on a beach, yourself?
Police Action, in London

Simple, to the point, no melodrama. Looking at some of the reviews on gog, it looks like it scratches your its quite well.

But one of the later missions involving a laser and a pilot, control that yourself. The entire time I played this, I was aching for a Wiimote and some cable to hook this up to my tv,

cooljammer00

What's the Sega one that's shit?

Also, how could this NOT be a Cantido thread? Now to light the XoB signal...

Spoit

Drake wrote: »

GOG.com has this little gem that flew under the radar.

Great story (written by Grant Morrison iirc) and voice acting, the graphics hold up well and the gameplay is nicely done. If you are a fan of this subgenre then you really should check it out. It's so worth the $5.99.

You command a superduper carrier with nanotech foundries that can whip up different vehicles for you to armor up and slap on weapons of your choice. You can take over any of your forces at any time and the interface is just fantastic. In the story the New World Order has taken over, but they are nice guys. The evil capitalists, religions and generals create an artificial island chain and start attacking the rest of the world, so they can continue to sell crap, bamboozle and blow people up. Are you a bad enough superduper nanotech carrier commander to stop them?

Oh yeah, I bought that during the interplay sale. I should try it at some point

Vray

edit: nevermind

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Isn't this basically what command & conquer: renegade was? I never did get to play it, but it looked cool.

Rotam

Battalion Wars 2 was awesome, a very underrated Wii title. I'm not going to say it was perfect (gesture control for some units) but it ticked a lot of my boxes.

I should really track down the first game.

Kelor

DisruptorX2 wrote: »

Oh hey, you want obscure games in this obscure genre?



Enjoy.

I'd say something about it, but I haven't played it in like....over a decade. IIRC, its kind of like Dungeon Keeper, except its older. But you can control your general personally. There's some reason why you can't always control him, though, probably his health total or something. Its kind of an "oh shit" option, you send in your personal avatar to fuck up the enemy. Of course, not having played this since like '97, I could be entirely wrong in my recollection of how the avatar works. If I"m wrong, then hey. There are worse things you can do than play Dungeon Keeper.

Oh man I thought I was the only one who ever played this.

Well I played the demo but I remember getting to torture enemy monsters and then you could fuse them into monsters that worked for you.

Also I spent hours creating traps. That was a lot of fun too.

Cantido

cooljammer00 wrote: »

What's the Sega one that's shit?

Also, how could this NOT be a Cantido thread? Now to light the XoB signal...

It's called Stormrise

Stormrise

When the developer went bankrupt, SEGA thought it would be a fun idea to release the alpha for 20 dollars. It's an abomination.

Xagarath

Topic lacks Little King's Story.

Dr Snofeld

You appear to be missing the Dungeon Keeper games with their possession spells.

Also the PS1 version of Warzone 2100 let you control units if I remember correctly.

Cantido

Xagarath wrote: »

Topic lacks Little King's Story.

I added it. I had to after watching the video.

Little King's Story

Xagarath

Given your fondness for Pikmin, I'd recommend playing the game.

Shadowfire

Dyscord wrote: »

Isn't this basically what command & conquer: renegade was? I never did get to play it, but it looked cool.

The single player was awful, but yea, the multiplayer was pretty much "you are a grunt/engineer/flamethrower dude, go buy a tank and fuck up their shit!" There was limited base building, but it was also there.

The problem was that the entire team shared a pool of points. The terrible players would always waste the bulk of the points on a mammoth tank, and then proceed to get it blown to shit. Or a good player would buy a vehicle, and an asshole teammate woulds steal it. Edit: and no one ever defended the god damn harvester, so the team would eventually stop getting points.

"Play with friends only," like many games....

TiamatZ

An Action/RTS game was released by Microsoft in 1998 called Urban Assault.

Spoiler for Size

This game was essentially an 3D RTS similarly to Battlezone, in that you could 'jump' into your units and pilot them yourself. With a ton of different units at your back and call, you could pretty much play it in any style you preferred...

Want to play Oldskool Battlezone style? Just jump into any ground-based tank or artillery.

Want to play it Comanche style? Just jump into any helicopter of your choice (there's also jets, aerial bombers and anti-air fliers for you to choose from)...

The fact that the game only used one type of resource (Energy) made things easier to micromanage, but this didn't mean the game wasn't any easier, as some missions were difficult as hell to complete.

Also, since the game is now considered Freeware/Abandonware, Microsoft has released it for free to the public.

Some fans even made an unofficial XP pack for the game, titled 'Metropolis Dawn' which allowed you to play as two other human factions in the game.

The site can be found here: Link

Cantido

TiamatZ wrote: »

An Action/RTS game was released by Microsoft in 1998 called Urban Assault.

Spoiler for Size

This game was essentially an 3D RTS similarly to Battlezone, in that you could 'jump' into your units and pilot them yourself. With a ton of different units at your back and call, you could pretty much play it in any style you preferred...

Want to play Oldskool Battlezone style? Just jump into any ground-based tank or artillery.

Want to play it Comanche style? Just jump into any helicopter of your choice (there's also jets, aerial bombers and anti-air fliers for you to choose from)...

The fact that the game only used one type of resource (Energy) made things easier to micromanage, but this didn't mean the game wasn't any easier, as some missions were difficult as hell to complete.

Also, since the game is now considered Freeware/Abandonware, Microsoft has released it for free to the public.

Some fans even made an unofficial XP pack for the game, titled 'Metropolis Dawn' which allowed you to play as two other human factions in the game.

The site can be found here: Link

I remember the ads for this.

On one page, a player is describing his FPS skills and how he dies because he tried to go at it alone.

On the next page, a player is describing his RTS skills and how he dies because he didn't get his hands dirty.

UA Last Stage

Rent

Dude what the hell man where's Valkyria Chronicles on your list

Okay maybe it's not exactly "Real Time"...but it sorta is

Cantido

Rent wrote: »

Dude what the hell man where's Valkyria Chronicles on your list

Okay maybe it's not exactly "Real Time"...but it sorta is

I actually wanted Valkyria Chronicles to be Real Time, but then the Ps3 would explode from the awesome. Furthermore, lots and lots of characters would die. It would have to be generic soldiers or something because nobody wants to see Vyse get squashed by a tank and never used again.

Or maybe it could throw the whole "dying" thing to the wind and if you gather enough resources, Vyse and the others respawn. But VC is a big step in the right direction for turn based strategy games. It burns me that the sequel is for PSP.

Apogee

Ohg od, Stormrise was such shit. I feel cheated. It was only $7.50 and I feel like they owe me.

The bestest action RTS ever that I played was a Quake 2 mod, QWar2. I helped develop it for a while - it was a blast sending the single player cyborg enemies to kill eachother on the battlefield.

Even more fun once I edited the weapons to have some more 'oomph'.

Teyar

Tch, tch, tch. All this and Battle Engine Aquilla was forgotten?

... Though, to be fair, I didnt even think of it untill I watched some of those trailers.