Kick-Ass RTS Games?

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I've recently fallen head-over-heals in love with Age of Mythology. Wicked fun. I've always been a big fan of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds too. My gaming tastes appear to be shifting away from RPG's and more into RTS and FPS (first-person shooter) type games.

I'm curious what other games out there are some of the better ones. I'm not as big a fan of futury RTS games like Command & Conquer (though in all fairness, I've never played it, it just doesn't appeal to me), but I'm willing to try anything.

Any recommendations? I probably should note that I have Warcraft III and think it's utterly sh*tty and stupid. That may or may not aid your recommendations in knowing kinda what I do/dont like. Thanks guys.

 

A friend of mine recently bought the "Lord of the Rings" RTS game, and from the what I've seen (which is admittedly not a lot) it looked pretty spectacular. On the other hand, the engine looked A LOT like WarCraft III's, so if you have any issues with how WCIII looks and feels, definitely take a pass on this one too.

 

I've heard Spellforce to be a very good RTS/RPG game with stunning graphics and proper rpg elements (only RPG in warcraft was the heroes, in Spellforce the army and their equipment are also included). Might sound like a clone of Warcraft III but from the reviews it sounds more like what Warcraft III _should_ have been.

If you want some fun grab Homeworld: Cataclysm for some good strategy with a very well thought out plot and storyline thats very enjoyable to follow.

 

Cool - I thought I was the only one who ever played Star Wars: Galatic Battlegrounds! That game rocks!

 

@ Abomy

I've actually been tempted by Homeworld, but I was under the impression it was an online pay-as-you-go kind of game (which I wouldn't be caught dead playing). Is that true?

@ HB

One of the funnest and most addicting games I've ever owned. It's a must-have for Star Wars fans. With any luck, but little likelyhood, they'll remake it with the Age of Mythology engine (like the did with the first one and SW:GB for the Age of Empires engine) around the time that Episode III comes out. That would be killer diller.

@ Anybody

Any word on the Desciples II games/expansions? They look cool, but I've found out the hard way that rarely means the game is any good...

 

I second what has been said about Spellforce.

Though I'm not sure it belong to the RTS category, I still recommend Sacrifice. Funny plot twists, characters and British accents abound.

Good old Total Annihilation still rocks.

C&C Red Alert II + Yuri's revenge. Best C&C game yet imo.

 

Disciples2 is really turnbased but still excellent and I'll definently recommend it, but for realtime strategy there is only one recommendation from me really and that's Medieval Total War (which also has a little turnbased elements in it).

 

I suggest that you should try "Medieval: Total War", which is a combination of RTS and turn based strategy (resource management, spying, assasinations and decision making are turn based while the battles are in real time). The game is a masterpiece.

Also, Blitzkrieg is good WW2 RTS without resource management and of course the Close Combat series, which is the ultimate war game IMO, even if it is quite old (the last of them was released 4 years ago).

 

Heck no. It's a single player game. There is a multiplayer element but its peer-to-peer much like Starcraft. If you haven't played Homeworld and you like RTS then you're missing one heck of alot of fun. Nothing is better than commanding an entire fleet of starships.

Disciples II is fun... for about the first 3 missions. Then you realise its going to be the same damn thing over and over again - leveling up 5 select units a map in slow battles so you can kill enemy hero. The units aren't really that customiseable. The artwork I'll admit is brilliant, but again it repeats itself far too often.

I'll second that. But I'd suggest waiting for Rome: Total War so you can play your favourite Emperor/General in your quest to make the world Rome. Bring on the introduction scene from Gladiator (I know it isn't historically accurate but it sure looked cool).

Sacrifice is also a damn good game. The graphics are really top notch animation wise and the latin spellcasting is brilliant. Pyro - god of Fire, Destruction and Progress is the same voice actor as Sarevok FYI

Stronghold is a game you can really enjoy if you're into both economic and millitary goals. Fallout: Tactics can be played in real time and God knows how many hours I've spent watching my troops carry out my brilliant battle plans, laying waste to raider, super-mutant and robot scum.

 

I've heard good things about Soldiers of Anarchy - post apocalyptic squad based RTS or some such.

 

Spellforce is a really good game, it's going to steal most of my easter holiday I would imagine

I really like WCIII though, especially the bonus part of the expansion where it's entirely rpg

Age of Mythology should have been the best of the Age of series (I seem to remember the graphics being better, and the idea behind the game appeals to me more than the others), but it's probably the worst, so you might like to check out AoE/AoK, though I guess they aren't that different to AoM

What don't you liek about WCIII? That would probably help with recommendations more than knowing you don't like it

 

i have huge respect on people who don't like warcraft 3 (like me).

From the latest pc gamer, we have a few rts games out throughout this year.
1 - warhammer 40000: dawn of war
2 - ground control 2
3 - rome total war
4 - LotR: the battle for middle earth
5 - freedom force vs the third reich

3 - There are two total war games prior to rome, medival and shogun. Its a flip between real time and turn base. Every round you get to develop your land. When you fight, you fight in real time. Feel like playing real time Risk on pc.

5 - You can easily find a bargin pack of 4 games with Freedom Force for USD 13 online. After 1/2 a year of so when Freedom Force was released, i bought this game from amazon.com with C&C: renegade, need for speed something, and Earth and Beyong. C&C Renegade is not a bad FPS at all. Freedom Force is the biggest surprise, most underrated game. FF gets many good reviews, for some odd reasons, they just don't sell. Good RTS and good FPS for USD 13, tell me, what can be better??

4 - AS you see, EA is still not through with their LotR license. Wonder how will they torture LotR's fans this time....

Besides the future,

Homeworld 2
homeworld 1 was a success, a phenomenon, a legend. Homeworld 1 can easily sell much more if they have license from star wars. That was an excellent game with ground breaking vision. When people were still sinking in 2d starcraft, Homeworld 1 introduced 3d RTS in space. Enemies come from anyway, you don't get terrain in space. You have to constantly move you units with tons of micromanagement. Homeworld 2 however, not that eye popping, jaw dropping. i don't know why, i just cannot get the same kick from Homeworld 1 while playing Homeworld 2.

Commando 3
Commando 1 & expansion and 2 were solid. Much like a puzzle solving RTS. No unit training nor building construction. You get what you have and work your way through. Especially, Commando 2, you get to run around a well polished paris tower. When i reached paris at the final level, i told myself, "this is a game should look like when the people who worked on it really put their hearts into it." Commando 3, on the other hand, bad. Ridiculously enough, they took away the co-op feature of previous game and added more bugs into it. Where are the poeple who put their hears in making commando 2??

 

I have Galactic battlegrounds too, as well as the addon "the Clone wars campaign". Great fun, but it's a shameless ripoff from Age of Empires.

As mentioned before in this thread, Medieval Total War is very entertaining IF you like massive battles. Later this year, there will be a Rome Total War, which seems to be even better than Medieval.

Also, good RTS's are Cossacks-the European wars and it's addons. From the same company comes American Conquest, which is obvious once you start playing, it like VERY hard. But a good game nonetheless.

Perhaps you like WW2 RTS ? In that case you should check out Sudden Strike 1 and 2, and Blitzkrieg. Both titles are very good games, and have large online communities.

 

Try CM 03/04, it is so addictive.

 

What about Starcraft?

 

Warcraft 2. The RTS of all times, together with Dune 2.

Whosoever wishes to play WC2 online should PM me immediately at any cost

 

I'll second Pac man's choice on Cossacks, a great game which does actually need some tacticsand organisattion to do well (and a very suitable music score).

 

I have to though a vot to medievel Total War.
A very well done game.The first time I got to lay a seige to a castle was fantastic!!

 

I'm still an avid player of Age of Kings: The conquerors. The fact that it has been out for over 4 years and I still play it goes to show how good it is (or how bad my taste is; one or the other).

 

Yeah, that's also a nice game. I remember running out of gold and battling on a certain bridge with swarms of pikemen and skirmishers