looking for a good strategy game

[discreet]

im lookin to get into a pretty good real time strategy game, preferably with good online support. i used to play starcraft back in the day, and i've been itching to get back into this type of game. i started playing age of mythology the other day and loved it. much better than warcraft 3. i know i'm a little behind the times with these types of games. any suggestions?

 

[Thrash123]

Dunno about online, but my favorites are Age of Empires (sucks you in for hours at a time), C&C (overall great fun), and Close Combat (tough, but really enjoyable).

 

[shadow_dragon]

Battle for middle earth 2 maybe? Or teh first one even, the style fo gameplay is quite different.

The first one is more about speed because base locations are fixed and build locations are in limited supply, thus strategic game points. You have to know what your doing really or you get destroyed but it's one of the few online RTS games i've enjoyed in my time.

The second one is slightly different because building is free again, you can build where ever you like and as much as you can afford. There are some capturable buildings kicking around that provide advantages and buffs. There's six races to choose from each with their own style of gameplay.
Units come in ranks rather than individuals and each type of unit has it's own strengths and weaknesses but generally speaking there is no finer feeling than watching your cavalry trample through and making short work of several ranks of enemy infantry.

Also you get hero's from the movies and the books of lord of teh rings as well as the ability to make Custom hero's to whom you can change the stats and abilities of + some mild editing of the uniform colour if desired.

I'm not a huge fan of RTS games but BFME drew me into tehm again, i have to admit BFME2 didn't do it for me. i rather liked the fixed forts and fixed building spots. I find resource management and such a bit of a chore and just want to build armies and think of skirmish tactics rather than sieging but still. BFME2 is a much larger scale game and whatever floats your boat.

Oh also i hear Dawn Of War is pretty good, i tried it a bit and it has a similar building and troop style as BFME has, looked good plus i believe there is an expansion pack for it. Oh and you can customise the appearance of your troops and vehicles a bit which is pretty nifty.

That's about the limits of my strategy game knowledge.

 

[AizenSA]

I dont know about online play for this game but you might want to try StarWars Empire at war the demo was very very nice and it got an 8.7 from gamespot

 

[Thrash123]

Oh, if you feel like compiling it, the Mechcommander 2 source and necessary files were released for free by Microsoft. Surprising? You bet. It is a 1gb download - I haven't had a chance to compile it yet, though (Glad I grabbed as much free software as I could while I was in college - I've got the entire VS.Net package and more .

 

[Hunter]

Battle for middle earth 2 maybe? Or teh first one even, the style fo gameplay is quite different.

they are nice games. I played the first one a while ago and could have swore i lost a good few hours of life over it.

I still play the odd game of AoM though you might want to try B&W2 though i'm not sure it classes as a RTS

 

[Crowze]

If you want something a bit different, take a look at Homeworld 2. A strategy game in space, uh... gives a whole new dimension to it (sorry, couldn't resist).

 

[Enfyrneaux]

I had a lot of fun with Ground Control (available for full free download for quite some time now) and its sequel - both are fun games if you're into more combat and less economy.

Oh, if you feel like compiling it, the Mechcommander 2 source and necessary files were released for free by Microsoft. Surprising? You bet. It is a 1gb download - I haven't had a chance to compile it yet, though (Glad I grabbed as much free software as I could while I was in college - I've got the entire VS.Net package and more .

Given that they released the source of Allegiance (shameless plug, I know) two years ago, I'm not too surprised. While Alleg is a very unique and awesome game, it doesn't provide the classic RTS experience of the other titles in this thread (commanding humans online is very, very stressful and requires Sierra Hotel skills).

Hopefully, someone will build and post a free-for-download build of MC2 for those of us who only have stuff like VS6 and the DirectX 5 SDK

 

[FoxDF]

Total Annihilation, Ground Control and C&C are still the best RTS's for me, go try them

 

[Airmoran]

Everyone's search for a good RTS ends with Total Annihilation. But in case you wanted a game that's still... "modern", I echo the Dawn of War. You get units, you blow stuff up. If any of that or seems shallow to you, that's because you're missing the point.

Since you like AoM, there's a slew of Age of Empire-influenced "clones" out there, including Empire Earth (and its sequel) and Rise of Nations. They're all very similar to each other, but each series has its own nifty (albeit ultimately gimmicky) differences and improvements. Either way, they're worth checking out.

If you want REAL strategy in your RTS, definately, without reservation, check out the Total War series. You won't regret it.

Finally, there's Myth 2, and there's the RTS/action hybrid Sacrifice.

 

[B]

Ground Control 2 is good

 

[SiN-BiN]

Anything from the C & C series, the earlier the better.

 

[SirYawnalot]

It's a great time to be interested in strategy, there's so much choice out there, and *loads* more in development.
My personal ranking of the best strategy games I've played...

-Rome: Total War (basically combines Civilization's empire management with AoEesque RTS combat, though **vastly** better and more tactical than the latter)

-Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (aged a *lot* now, and hideously ugly, but afaik it's one of a kind in being a story-driven turn-based-strategy. Basically Civ plus a few interesting elements such as the ability to design your own units, build sea colonies, very unique factions, a craft-your-own-government feature and of course advanced sci-fi)

-Civilization series (generally thought of as the pinnacle of turn-based strategy; build a civilisation from a bunch of settlers right up to a globe-spanning empire. 2 is the best in my opinion, especially as it runs in a window, 3 isn't much good, 4 is great but has something lacking)

-Dawn of War (ace sci-fi RTS set in the Warhammer 40k universe, very fast paced and frenetic. Kind of the UT of strategy games. ;P)

-Age of Empires series/Age of Mythology (used to be the benchmark for RTSs to be measured against, but the series has become very outdated and eclipsed by the Total War series. Still, if you prefer day-length battles instead of week-long conquests or hour-long blastathons then it's worth checking these out. The first two are the best in my opinion)

I've never really been attracted by C&C, but you should probably give those a try too...
As for online, I've never tried playing a strategy game over the net before, but apparently Dawn of War is great online, and Civ 4 was designed with it in mind, though from what I hear it can be rather buggy.

 

[hal]

Total Annihilation.

For future reference, keep your eye on Chris Taylor's "spiritual successor" to TA: Supreme Commander.

That's all you need to know.

 

[Olga]

Try Warlords Battlecry III, RTS + RPG. In fact the first game in the series is the first RTS/RPG hybrid, ever.

 

[Maxx]

I had the most fun with Dark Reign, but unfortunately it`s pretty old (1996) and doesn`t work on my new PC any more
IMO one of the best RTS ever, I still miss some options that game featured in actual games

 

[GotBeer?]

Only one vote so far for Homeworld 2? Count this as a second. I only had a chance to play a little, but what I did see rocked.

 

[Selerox]

I lost weeks to Medieval: TW

I'd agree with WH40K: Dawn of War :tup:

Also, give Medieval: Total War a try. It's got a huge historical scope and is very fun to play. The graphics aren't so great, but in terms of scale it's much bigger. I really like playing as the Islamic/Orthodox factions, because you don't have the Pope getting involved all the time. Turkish Janissary Heavy Infantry are virtually unbeatable, but they're expensive as hell and you don't get them until right at the end of the tech tree.

 

[W0RF]

Settlers of Catan

 

[Deathmaker]

And another vote for DoW. :tup:
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