Yes!!! Yes!!! That is the correct choice, although I think it's better than Starcraft. Stock pile resources, build troops, unleash total hell on the enemies.Blindrooster said:
Besides Starcraft 2 what's the best Base-building tactical RTS game?
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Get yourself the Command & Conquer First Decade pack. You. Will Not. Be Disappointed. As for my favorite...gonna have to go with Red Alert 2 hands down. (Disclaimer: have not played newest Tiberian game; I hear it's full of win)
Warcraft 3 would be the answer to your question. It has a wonderful single player campaign, great story and lore if you're into that, great characters and interesting gameplay. To be fair it's fairly similar to SC2, being a Blizz game and all, but that is most obvious in multiplayer, less in single. The combined campagins of Reign of Chaos and Frozen throne will provide you with quite a lot of game time, and even if the gameplay dosen't root you to the chair, the epic story will. Also the insane number of custom maps out there will provide countless more hours of fun. Easily and clearly the best pick.
Next up are some other very good strategy games, but unfortunately they all have some fairly big flaws as well :
Age of Empires: (there are a lot of games in the series, but AoE2 is still the best for me, so that's the one I'm writing about. Feel free to give them all a try, I think you can buy each for a dollar. Including 3)
AoE2 was superb back in the day, I've had more fun with this than with SC1 but today it might lack polish and depth. To be fair this game is heavily coloured by nostalgia and I really don't know how it would hold up today. Neither Age of Mythology or AoE3 have been as fun or entertaining for me. Poor balance, limited replay value...
Warhammer40k Dawn of War (+ all the expansions)
This game does things a bit differently than typical RTSs, but not in a bad way. It manages to introduce squad based tactical shooter elements into the genre without making it difficult or awkward, no easy feat I'd imagine. Fun and visceral, it's worth playing, but I didn't personally like the campaign and the balance seems poor at times. A few squads of upgraded Tau basic units are insanely powerful. Playing the skirmish games with a friend against the AI, or even against other friends though is loads of fun (and the AI is very challenging on the higher settings). Races are different enough from each other to make things interesting and suitable for different play styles, but similar enough so that the mechanics don't get tedious.
Company of Heroes doesn't really fall into your category strictly speaking, since there's little to no base building, resource harvesting, and other such staples of the RTS genre, but it is a VERY engaging game that should provide hours of fun and challenges. It is indeed probably the only RTS-ish game out there that can really make you feel for your troops.
There's fun to be had with the Command and Conquer games (any and all of them. They are similar enough to each other that this really covers all of them. Different setting and different units you will find across the games, but the gameplay itself is the same.)
Very standard base building RTS fare (hell, this series kinda defined the standard) with some interesting units here and there and some minor variations on gameplay (like tech trees, or XP enabled power-ups) and Super-Weapons to wreak havoc on your foes. Kinda poor balance and pacing, some horrible AI (You will chew your mouse off in frustration when you meet the abysmal pathfinding in Generals) and a general same-y-ness to everything make these games fun, but not great.
Universe at War: Earth Assault is a very compelling and interesting mix of modern and old-school RTS gameplay, mostly depending on the faction you play. The Novus have typical RTS gameplay, with resource harvesters, buildings, unit training, etc. The Hierarchy mix it up with what can be called massive mobile bases/weapons platforms that have you choose between a walking death star, a unit production facility, or anything in between. The Masari make use of a dual-style gameplay with a light/dark mode for most units, changing their behaviour drastically. All of this comes in a nice shiny current-gen graphics wrapper, with streamlined controls and interface that make for a quite compelling package. Haven't played it as much as the others and don't know if it has any major flaws, but while the game doesn't shine, it doesn't stink either.
The games aren't in any particular order (except for Warcraft3, it deserves to be the first). The short descriptions don't, by any means, cover the entire games, but it should give you an idea what to expect from them, especially from the perspective of a SC2 player
Have fun.
Next up are some other very good strategy games, but unfortunately they all have some fairly big flaws as well :
Age of Empires: (there are a lot of games in the series, but AoE2 is still the best for me, so that's the one I'm writing about. Feel free to give them all a try, I think you can buy each for a dollar. Including 3)
AoE2 was superb back in the day, I've had more fun with this than with SC1 but today it might lack polish and depth. To be fair this game is heavily coloured by nostalgia and I really don't know how it would hold up today. Neither Age of Mythology or AoE3 have been as fun or entertaining for me. Poor balance, limited replay value...
Warhammer40k Dawn of War (+ all the expansions)
This game does things a bit differently than typical RTSs, but not in a bad way. It manages to introduce squad based tactical shooter elements into the genre without making it difficult or awkward, no easy feat I'd imagine. Fun and visceral, it's worth playing, but I didn't personally like the campaign and the balance seems poor at times. A few squads of upgraded Tau basic units are insanely powerful. Playing the skirmish games with a friend against the AI, or even against other friends though is loads of fun (and the AI is very challenging on the higher settings). Races are different enough from each other to make things interesting and suitable for different play styles, but similar enough so that the mechanics don't get tedious.
Company of Heroes doesn't really fall into your category strictly speaking, since there's little to no base building, resource harvesting, and other such staples of the RTS genre, but it is a VERY engaging game that should provide hours of fun and challenges. It is indeed probably the only RTS-ish game out there that can really make you feel for your troops.
There's fun to be had with the Command and Conquer games (any and all of them. They are similar enough to each other that this really covers all of them. Different setting and different units you will find across the games, but the gameplay itself is the same.)
Very standard base building RTS fare (hell, this series kinda defined the standard) with some interesting units here and there and some minor variations on gameplay (like tech trees, or XP enabled power-ups) and Super-Weapons to wreak havoc on your foes. Kinda poor balance and pacing, some horrible AI (You will chew your mouse off in frustration when you meet the abysmal pathfinding in Generals) and a general same-y-ness to everything make these games fun, but not great.
Universe at War: Earth Assault is a very compelling and interesting mix of modern and old-school RTS gameplay, mostly depending on the faction you play. The Novus have typical RTS gameplay, with resource harvesters, buildings, unit training, etc. The Hierarchy mix it up with what can be called massive mobile bases/weapons platforms that have you choose between a walking death star, a unit production facility, or anything in between. The Masari make use of a dual-style gameplay with a light/dark mode for most units, changing their behaviour drastically. All of this comes in a nice shiny current-gen graphics wrapper, with streamlined controls and interface that make for a quite compelling package. Haven't played it as much as the others and don't know if it has any major flaws, but while the game doesn't shine, it doesn't stink either.
The games aren't in any particular order (except for Warcraft3, it deserves to be the first). The short descriptions don't, by any means, cover the entire games, but it should give you an idea what to expect from them, especially from the perspective of a SC2 player
Have fun.
Dude, I literally installed that game two days ago, and decided to finally finish that game, because my younger 8 year old self never had the patience to finish itMedimorpho said:
Oh, and Battle for Middle-Earth 1/2 relies on base-building in a similar way to Starcraft so there's that.
My votes are:
Age of Empires II
Command and Conquer 3:Tiberium Wars
Red Alert 3
Rise of Nations
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Age of Empires II
Command and Conquer 3:Tiberium Wars
Red Alert 3
Rise of Nations
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Company of Heroes, easily. Not since WarCraft II has any RTS game stayed in the regular rotation for us as long as it has and still does. Tactics really do make or break you in that game. There is base building, but it's more about the units, defensive lines(especially if you prefer a non rush game), and territory control.
The most recent Age of Empires game is fun, especially with a friend.
Star Wars: Galactic Battleground is good even if it's a little old.
I never played Dawn of War 2, but the first one was a good time if you find a good AI mod. The stock AI is lame.
The most recent Age of Empires game is fun, especially with a friend.
Star Wars: Galactic Battleground is good even if it's a little old.
I never played Dawn of War 2, but the first one was a good time if you find a good AI mod. The stock AI is lame.
DoW is probably my favorite:
- takes away most of the resource management
- removes micro managing units (take that Koreans)
- base building is doesn't fuck with your units
EDIT: actually it's Sins of a Solar Empire, don't know how I forgot that
- takes away most of the resource management
- removes micro managing units (take that Koreans
)- base building is doesn't fuck with your units
EDIT: actually it's Sins of a Solar Empire, don't know how I forgot that
Company of Heroes is boss.
It has to be the best RTS I have ever played. It requires a lot of strategies, micromanaging and quick thinking. It's less of the turtle style gameplay so it forces players to always switch their attention during heated battles.
Oh, and the German units speak in a hilarious accent.
It has to be the best RTS I have ever played. It requires a lot of strategies, micromanaging and quick thinking. It's less of the turtle style gameplay so it forces players to always switch their attention during heated battles.
Oh, and the German units speak in a hilarious accent.
SupCom 1- huge scope and scale with a truly strategic sense of gameplay.
Company of Heroes -real innovation in the rts genre with its focus on squads and points to capture rather than resource mining.
Age of Empires series -classics based on ever popular gameplay elements.
Dawn of War 1 - laid the groundwork for company of heroes and had great visuals with some awesome sync kills. Counting the expansions it probably had the most unique races to play out of any rts (yes the age of empires series have more but they borrow units etc from each other).
Empire Earth- Age of Empires in larger scale, with the whole of human history to play with.
Warcraft 3- more innovations to the genre with the addition of rpg elements and some really good cinematic work, especially given the time it was released. Crafted a whole mythos that we've seen expand with the world of warcraft.
Red Alert 2 Command and Conquer - cheesy as all hell but greatly enjoyable.
Like some of the others have said Starcraft 2 is pretty far down on my list. I just don't see the appeal in it when other games have attempted so much innovation and driven the genre forward. Starcraft 2 is a step back in time with some nice graphics. For true tactical game play try CoH, DoW2 or SupCom.
Company of Heroes -real innovation in the rts genre with its focus on squads and points to capture rather than resource mining.
Age of Empires series -classics based on ever popular gameplay elements.
Dawn of War 1 - laid the groundwork for company of heroes and had great visuals with some awesome sync kills. Counting the expansions it probably had the most unique races to play out of any rts (yes the age of empires series have more but they borrow units etc from each other).
Empire Earth- Age of Empires in larger scale, with the whole of human history to play with.
Warcraft 3- more innovations to the genre with the addition of rpg elements and some really good cinematic work, especially given the time it was released. Crafted a whole mythos that we've seen expand with the world of warcraft.
Red Alert 2 Command and Conquer - cheesy as all hell but greatly enjoyable.
Like some of the others have said Starcraft 2 is pretty far down on my list. I just don't see the appeal in it when other games have attempted so much innovation and driven the genre forward. Starcraft 2 is a step back in time with some nice graphics. For true tactical game play try CoH, DoW2 or SupCom.
All of the Command and Conquer games pre Red Alert 3.
Red Alert 3 was alright, but not great. C&C4 was horrible, and not a C&C game at all. The rest of them are great games though.
Also, Dawn of War and Company of Heroes. The Homeworld series too, if it counts. Not sure if it would though, since you gather resources and produce units and stuff, but you do so from bigger mobile units instead of stationary structures.
Red Alert 3 was alright, but not great. C&C4 was horrible, and not a C&C game at all. The rest of them are great games though.
Also, Dawn of War and Company of Heroes. The Homeworld series too, if it counts. Not sure if it would though, since you gather resources and produce units and stuff, but you do so from bigger mobile units instead of stationary structures.
There was a Star Wars RTS? I never knew that. I seriously cannot believe they haven't made more... they'd sell like crazy I'm sure with today's graphics.xXAsherahXx said:
Youtubing it now... it's funny seeing Tie Fighters all of about about 20 metres off the ground shooting R2 units. I wonder if I could still find this somewhere... it looks pretty cool.
LOTRO Battle for Middle Earth 2
Command and Conquer 3
Star Wars Empires At War
All three are excellent games.
Command and Conquer 3
Star Wars Empires At War
All three are excellent games.