Perfect game for an RTS newbie?

[onewheeled]

So with the upcoming release of Starcraft 2, and such unbelievably good things being said about the genre, I've become interested in Real-Time Strategy games. The only thing is, I've never actually played a real one.

The only one I tried was Command & Conquer 3 for the Xbox 360, which I couldn't stand. The controls just weren't fast enough, and it just didn't end up being fun in the least.

Anyway. I want to ask y'all on The Escapist, what RTS game would you recommend to a complete newbie to the series?

EDIT: I mean on PC. Definitely not on consoles, I found out firsthand that they just don't work.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

i started on age of empires for pc but thats beause RTS in my opinion are only good on pc....

also your post was at 6:19 my clock says 6:14 so HELLO FROM THE PAST

 

[Silent observer]

I agree with i race snails that the PC is by far the best platform to play them on.

One of the most balanced rts games of all time is still the original starcraft - although pretty much everything about it has become dated, the mechanics and strategy part of the game still feels very up to date.
Also, the command and conquer series is excellent - particularly the Red Alert games.
And whilst you're at it, give the original or second age of empires a try

 

[Christopher Dudgeon]

start off with the C&C series but play them on the PC then the original Starcraft and Warcrafts
that should get you started off.

But do me one favour don't buy SC2 yet wait till Blizzard release the other 2 expansions for it.

 

[LongAndShort]

I'm gonna recommend you try RTS on the PC rather than the 360. The only RTS I've enjoyed on the 360 was Red Alert 3.

On the PC you got Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40000 Dawn of War, the Age of Empires (and Mythology) games (2 being my favourite). If you're concerned about being new you could give the Total War games a try, gives you the RTS battles with turn-based pace. And of course there's the original Starcraft.

 

[Pingieking]

start off with the C&C series but play them on the PC then the original Starcraft and Warcrafts
that should get you started off.

But do me one favour don't buy SC2 yet wait till Blizzard release the other 2 expansions for it.

This. If you're feeling up for a much larger challenge after that, go try out Europa Universalis 3. If you're still feeling for more strategy, hit up Hearts of Iron 3.

 

[Omikron009]

Warhammer 40k Dawn of War. There's almost no tedious micromanagement, there are only two resources, the game focuses on intense combat over base building and resource management, and it pretty much forces you to go on the offensive. I'm a total RTS noob and my primary strategy is to turtle in RTS games, but in Dawn of War you can't, because of the way the resource system works. If you slowly tech up and hide in your base all game your enemy will have captured all of the resource points on the map and amassed a huge army. It's a great way to learn how to play RTS games.

 

[blankedboy]

i started on age of empires for pc but thats beause RTS in my opinion are only good on pc....

also your post was at 6:19 my clock says 6:14 so HELLO FROM THE PAST

And your post says 8:22. Confuse much?

Ontopic, of course, Starcraft. Sins of a Solar Empire is similar, but there's less stuff to do, it's a bit more complicated and it plays out alot slower.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Dawn of War is also a reasonable choice, but it's worth buying all expansions and starting with the Dark Crusade expansion.

 

[onewheeled]

start off with the C&C series but play them on the PC then the original Starcraft and Warcrafts
that should get you started off.

But do me one favour don't buy SC2 yet wait till Blizzard release the other 2 expansions for it.

I've been thinking about the original C&C games. And I was excited when the first one became freeware, but my computer can't install it because I use Vista. And I heard the Collection of original C&C games is a piece of buggy crap, what other means are there?

 

[Tekkawarrior]

you should play C&C Red Alert and Zero hour, very good to get started, stay away from Starcraft.

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

I started with Civilisation Revolution, and I'd never played an RTS before.
It definitely piqued my interested, I recommend giving that a shot.

 

[acosn]

There's a good reason there's never been a successful RTS franchise on any non-PC platform that didn't either reduce it to a turn-based experience (Think the Advanced Wars series on the game boy advanced + DS) or generally did a worse job than the PC version it was ported from.

I'd start with age of empires 3, or Dawn of War.

They're both pretty basic, highly streamlined RTS's, and they're old (and cheap!) enough to run on basically anything.

If you want a good PC based turn based strategy game pick up Civilization. There are other games on the market like Hearts of Iron and Europa but they're hopelessly complicated.

Most other ones (both TBS and RTS) have a learning curve involved and usually involves watching videos online and trawling forums to get sufficiently good to not get utterly stomped online. If you wanted to get into them though, SC2's right around the corner, as is Company of Heroes Online.

 

[Christopher Dudgeon]

start off with the C&C series but play them on the PC then the original Starcraft and Warcrafts
that should get you started off.

But do me one favour don't buy SC2 yet wait till Blizzard release the other 2 expansions for it.

I've been thinking about the original C&C games. And I was excited when the first one became freeware, but my computer can't install it because I use Vista. And I heard the Collection of original C&C games is a piece of buggy crap, what other means are there?

Get yourself virtualbox and aquire yourself a copy of XP and install it on to that easier than dual booting and allows you to run the older games

 

[onewheeled]

stay away from Starcraft.

Why? I've heard from many of my friends that Starcraft is amazing, and not that hard to get into.

 

[sanguis3k]

really if you want to start on RTS games one of the better starting points i think i could point you to would be Dawn of War since it reduces much of the complexity of balancing resources building etc to two resources and base structures which really fall into Defense, Troop and Misc buildings and you can play through pretty much the whole game without needing to know how most of it works. having said that it has a very good tutorial when you first play that teaches you the basics of playing it and how everything works in about 15 minutes.

once you have played that i would say Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 since it is a bit more complex and brings in more strategy than DoW and requires you to build your base a bit better and protect it while attacking.

then after that you could really try any of them since that would of taught you the basics of playing most RTS games out there.

 

[snow]

Your best bet is to play the original starcraft, it will put you in good shape for starcraft 2, and it should be relatively cheap by now considering the original came out in 1998.

Though for an easy RTS I would have to say go with Warcraft 3. It's a very easy game to play and to get into.

They give you a hero unit which if used properly can be somewhat god-like in single player campaigns, and you can use the tab button to scroll through selected units to use individual powers of each unit if any.

 

[veloper]

so you want to get ready for SC2 on PC, but you're coming from console?

Play SC1 first. Simple.

 

[Om Nom Nom]

Get yourself Supreme Commander (the original). The tutorial levels start off very gently, and assume you haven't played an RTS before. You can skip parts too, if I remember right.

Then move on to Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. The campaign starts fairly easy, but gets into the game much faster. The units will be familiar from the first game and most tactics you developed will still work. Of course, you'll be given awesome new units to play with along the way, and will have an entirely new story line arc to enjoy.