Recommend me an RTS game

[Kevlar Eater]

As long as I've been PC gaming, I've played nothing but FPS's, RPG's and MMOG's with the only exception being Anomaly: Warzone Earth, and that's a strategy game, but more of a reverse tower defense thing. I've been interested in RTS games for a bit, and have been reading up about them/watched LP's, and the two that have my attention right now are Dawn of War 2: Retribution and Shogun 2, primarily because the Let's Plays of those two sparked my interest the most. That, and they're the newest major RTS's on the block, so they have my attention by proxy.

What would you recommend? And please, no Europa Universalis, as that is far too hardcore, even for a hardcore gamer such as myself.

 

[LoFr3Eq]

Starcraft 2 man, it really is the best.

 

[Safaia]

Watch Extra Credits latest video. It is an entire list of things you might not have tried or heard of.

 

[Bezz_Ad]

Well, I was gonna say Medieval 2: Total War, or Rome, but you already mentioned Shogun 2.

-Rise of the Nations, it is still my favorite RTS game.

-Company of Heroes.

I haven't tried this one, but I heard it was good: Sins of a Solar Empire.

 

[Outcast107]

Company of Heroes, Dawn of War (first series), Dawn of War 2 (2nd series duh). All three made by Relic.

 

[New Troll]

WarCraft 3/ StarCraft 2 would be my first recommendation. Just choose the one who's setting you prefer. (For me it's fantasy WarCraft, plus it's a lot cheaper.)

Dawn of War 2 would be my recommendation out of the two you listed. Has more "fun-factor" in my opinion. Less elitism, as in less of a learning-curve. Quicker you can get into the game, less likely you'll be to give up on it and more time you can spend enjoying it.

Still my favorite RTS isn't even a true RTS. Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. Not to be confused with the sub-par sequel.

 

[RA92]

What would you recommend?

Homeworld 2. Nearly a decade has passed and still there's nothing quite like it.

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The only 3D RTS game I played where the z-axis actually matter.

 

[Tax_Document]

Rise of Nations
Warcraft 3
Starcraft 2

 

[Chamale]

My two favourite RTS games are Impossible Creatures and World in Conflict, in that order.

Impossible Creatures has a brilliant aspect of creating your own armies. There are thousands of ways to combine creatures to design your own units for your army, and an important part of your skill is the ability to create a creature of the best possible power. You'll probably be able to find this game on Ebay pretty cheaply, since it was poorly advertised and never got the recognition it deserved.

World in Conflict is an interesting real-time game with no resource gathering or teching - a Real-Time Tactics game, if you will. If you like microing your armies in real-time strategy games, this is a good choice. It also looks amazing on an good computer, even though it was released in 2007 it's prettier than most RTS games today.

 

[XxSummonerxX]

I quite like Sins of a Solar Empire.
If you're looking for a little more micromanagement in it, then The Guild or ANNO 1404 are quite good.

 

[legendp]

for multiplayer lan I would say (and this must be the longest title ever) "the lord of the rings the battle for middle earth 2" and it's expansion pack "the lord of the rings the battle for middle earth 2 the rise of the witch king expansion pack" and for single player and multiplayer I would say "Command and Conquer 3 tiberium wars"

 

[Dan9299]

Supreme commander and its expansion Forged alliance hasn't been mention yet but its also one of my favorites as all my other preferred RTS games have already mentioned (Homeworld 2, Dawn of war 1 and 2, Sins of a solar empire, Company of heroes, and Shogun 2)

 

[A Weary Exile]

If you want to get into the Total War games start with Medieval II or Rome, I started with Medieval II and I now own every game in the series.

EDIT: Except the original Medieval, forgot about that one.

 

[scyther250]

WarCraft III is pretty great. Varied units, pretty balanced races, and a pretty engaging campaign mode, too.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

No one has mentioned Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter? Is it because they're too old? Those are true RTS games. No unit respawning, actual hit detection, units carry over exp., and tactics truly are the only way to beat the games. These were the first RTS games I ever played, and they're the reason I don't like any other RTS games. Nothing compares to these two games. NOTHING!

 

[Hader]

Go with either Shogun 2 or Retribution, both are damn good.

 

[LoFr3Eq]

Although I mentioned SC2 first my old school favs are Age of Mythology and Warcraft 3, SC1 is good for a laugh at lans.

 

[Euhan01]

Dawn of War Series is always good (any) Age of Empires II/III are really good but my favorite RTS is proberly Age of Mythology.

 

[Avayu]

For real RTSs, look into the original Dawn of Wars series (but leave out Soulstorm, it's not really worth anyone's time if you aren't super-interested in the Dark Eldar).
For something more oldschool I always advocate Earth 2150. It's a really nifty game of the Clone&Conquer era by a Polish developer, but changes things up a little bit with a unit builder. So, if you want to use a Soviet style super-tank with four big ass canons on it on the moon, look into that, though it may be hard to find because of its age.
And finally, if you are interested in Dawn of War 2 (which really is a good game, with an interesting single player campaign and a solid multiplayer), then also look into World in Conflict. It's not really an RTS game though, but the same applies to DoW2. Gameplaywise (at least in multiplayer) they are surprisingly similar (no base building, no resource gathering), but I'd say that WiC does most of it better. The only problem is, that while it was a very multiplayer focused game, the community slowly died out. I'm sure one can still find a server, but I can't gurantee for your experience there.