All-time best RTS

[Grieve]

The good old days of playing RTSs at work with a bunch of other people here came up in another thread, and got me thinking about what the best one was.

These are most of the ones we used to play. Which is the best? I've gotta go with AoEII, if only because we wasted more time on that game (and Worms 2) than any of the others (it was the EQ of the RTS genre). Plus you got to add your own custom sounds as taunts (Braveheart was always a big favourite - Would you be willing...), which was half the fun.

Damn, just thinking about it makes me want to go download a copy of the little sucker, fire up the Turks, and start cranking out bombard towers...

(oh, and by the way, Slamz, Dustie and Veraphim...I'm the best!!)

[Slamz]

I say BFME2 hands down. The only reason I quit playing that game was because their online matchmaking and ranking system kept breaking and EA and Gamespy would waste 2 weeks pointing fingers at each other.

That game just did a lot of stuff right.

The rock-paper-scissors element is there, but it's not too bad. Like rock beats scissors but 2 scissors can give a rock a hard time and 3 scissors might actually beat a rock. By contrast, DOW2 had a strong r-p-s element, such that no number of flamethrower tactical squads could beat a carnifex and you could easily find yourself completely screwed just because you didn't have the exact counter-unit you needed for a particular thing the enemy just built.

BMFE2 also had what I think is the best resource collection method ever, which rewards map control rather than simply particular parts of the map. Basically the more of the map you could hang onto, the more resources you could bring in.

Plus it had good balance between 6 unique teams and a lot of heroes to choose from.

Top notch RTS, really.


Second place I'd say Age of Mythology. Basically AOE but cooler units to play with. Hmm, or maybe Dark Reign. That game did some interesting, innovative stuff, especially for its time. I'd like to say TA, but while TA did a lot of cool stuff, they never, ever got balance right between CORE and ARM.

[Diggles]

Age of Mythology was easily the best. It was also probably one of the most short lived and overlooked ones.

3 very different races, all with a different way to generate 'favor' to spend on myth units
counters for all units, a hellva lot less unit spamming than the rest of the AoE games
random generated maps
best mix of defense and offense I've found in an RTS besides maybe starcraft

[Jodah]

I put my vote for WC3 simply because of the amount of time I spent playing it. I am currently playing through the campaigns again for the 8000th time.

From a purely technical standpoint I am with Slamz with his points about BFME2.

[Jakensama]

Gotta go with Starcraft, although Red Alert brings back some fond memories.

[Grieve]

I think BFMEII is technically the best, but AoEII was just such a perfect game for it's time I have to go with it - it's the sentimental favourite. A bit like I know the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy were technically better films, but I'll always love the original Star Wars trilogy the most.

Also, BFMEII, Age of Mythology and WCIII had too much emphasis on hero units. When Gandalf can single-handedly wipe out an entire army, that's a bit crazy. AoE2 was more of a real strategy game. Plus you could chop trees...love chopping trees. And it was educational (kind of).

Shout out for Dune II also, which made all the others possible, and totally rocked as well.

[Jakensama]

Wormsign detected.

[1000xZero]

Total War Series?

[Moristans]

MOO

[Grieve]

Total War Series?

Eh, never really got into that. Maybe I should give it another try sometime.

[Vanraw]

Starcraft for me.

Shout out for Dune II also, which made all the others possible, and totally rocked as well.

Yea Yea. I recall playing it on console way befor it ever hit PC.

[Jakensama]

What Console was it on?

[Hoofhurr]

Myth - Bungie Corp

People are still playing this game online as far as I know but it doesn't quite fit the RTS stereotype since there is no resource mining and you have a finite number of troops to play the map with.

[Diggles]

I think BFMEII is technically the best, but AoEII was just such a perfect game for it's time I have to go with it - it's the sentimental favourite. A bit like I know the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy were technically better films, but I'll always love the original Star Wars trilogy the most.

Also, BFMEII, Age of Mythology and WCIII had too much emphasis on hero units. When Gandalf can single-handedly wipe out an entire army, that's a bit crazy. AoE2 was more of a real strategy game. Plus you could chop trees...love chopping trees. And it was educational (kind of).

Shout out for Dune II also, which made all the others possible, and totally rocked as well.

AoM really didnt have hero units per say. The Greek Heros didnt do anything special against regular troops, they were your counter vs myth units.

[Slamz]

Myth - Bungie Corp

Ohh, Myth was fun. Kind of disappointed that they didn't do any of the Warhammer RTS games that way. I mean, that IS how you play table top games. "Here's your army, go fight." No fiddling with resources or tech trees or building new units.

Plus it was fun to blow the enemy into chunks.


Starcraft 2 (and WC3) get some extra points just for battle.net, though. That was the smartest thing Blizzard ever did. Years later, EA still hasn't figured it out. Online gameplay is only as good as the matchmaking and ranking system used to set it up, and Blizzard's has been top notch ever since they game out with battle.net.

[Diggles]

Myth - Bungie Corp

Ohh, Myth was fun. Kind of disappointed that they didn't do any of the Warhammer RTS games that way. I mean, that IS how you play table top games. "Here's your army, go fight." No fiddling with resources or tech trees or building new units.

Plus it was fun to blow the enemy into chunks.


Starcraft 2 (and WC3) get some extra points just for battle.net, though. That was the smartest thing Blizzard ever did. Years later, EA still hasn't figured it out. Online gameplay is only as good as the matchmaking and ranking system used to set it up, and Blizzard's has been top notch ever since they game out with battle.net.

Starcraft 2 has not been released~

Its sad that Bnet 10 years old and new games still cant make something better than it.

[Thudz]

I voted TA. Never had more fun than playing that with Slamz and Veraphim.

[Slamz]

Oh yeah, I meant SC1.

Blizzard is a real head scratcher. They've basically built a gaming empire with 3 games and very little innovation.

They're like the McDonalds of the game industry. I know there are other places where I can get better, more interesting food, but I still find myself at McDonalds once in a while because it's at least consistent, available immediately and they don't do anything remarkably wrong.

[Vanraw]

What Console was it on?

It was on Sega. Early 90's.

When it was republished on PC in like 2000, I ran out and bought it, and was completely disappointing to find that it was the EXACT SAME GAME"

Still fun...

[Vllad]

The Total War series up until the new one was the best one for myself.

[Kakarat]

My cousins and myself have always played C&C vs. each other, and I have always like the evolution style of AoE.

[Diggles]

My cousins and myself have always played C&C vs. each other, and I have always like the evolution style of AoE.

last one was pretty gay though.

I enjoyed the resource gather and random maps, but the calvary spam was kinda stupid.

AoM was RTS uptopia, heck I may even reinstall it.

[Kakarat]

My cousins and myself have always played C&C vs. each other, and I have always like the evolution style of AoE.

last one was pretty gay though.

I enjoyed the resource gather and random maps, but the calvary spam was kinda stupid.

AoM was RTS uptopia, heck I may even reinstall it.

Yea, I bought AoE III and I couldn't get into it. I did enjoy AoM, couldn't you use Gods as special attacks?

[Trotts]

Myth - Bungie Corp

People are still playing this game online as far as I know but it doesn't quite fit the RTS stereotype since there is no resource mining and you have a finite number of troops to play the map with.

I agree with yah Hoof, loved this game and played it forever.

[Hoofhurr]

It was a masterpiece and a beacon of light for a kid growing up in a Mac family. How could you not immediately fall in love with the game the first time you took a heroic dwarf and single-handedly decimated hundreds of thrall in a big bloody pile of bones and armor?

Bungie will always be heroic to me for making MAC ports for their games.