Someone tell me about a good RTS to play.

[jakskinned]

Me and a mate have been searching for a decent RTS to play in the vain of age of empires 2. we far apart so its got to be something that lets you do one on one online match ups. as for style we want something with a lot of city bilding/researching/resource management and the like, rome total war is a bit to war'y. I dont mind turn based so much but my mate isn't a fan so civ is out.

any suggestions would be awesome, we are on mac but most games are going bi-platform these days.

this is the first time i have posted here at the escapist but i have been visiting since yahtzee had 1 page of vids, if any forms will have the answer you guys will.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Here a list of traditional RTS games that are still at least marginally relevant.

1. Starcraft II

That is all.

Used to be one of the pillar genres of gaming, but RTS is dead as doornails these days. MOBAs are the new king of that market.

 

[xSerix]

Age of Empires 3 still has a fairly decent scene, can get a couple of matches a day. It has a small competitive scene going as well.

 

[Bombiz]

Here a list of traditional RTS games that are still at least marginally relevant.

1. Starcraft II

That is all.

Used to be one of the pillar genres of gaming, but RTS is dead as doornails these days. MOBAs are the new king of that market.

Command and conquer series is still good. Though I'm not sure if it's what the OP is looking for since it's not much on the research side(at least until Generals and tiburum 3).

Theirs also Warcraft 3, Dawn of war series (until 2), and starwars battle grounds(age of empires 2 but in the star wars universe).

Though I can't name the modern day equivalent that isn't Supreme Commander or Planetary Analiation.

 

[Mikeybb]

Rise of Nations.

It recently got a HD remastering and plays very similarly to age of empires.

There is a turn based metagame that takes place on a campaign map and happens between attacks and defenses, in which you can deploy armies, play strategy cards and choose which territories to attack.

This leads into the traditional RTS engagement, which plays out like an age of empires game, with a starting epoch of technology and one you can progress into.

As the metagame continues, this starting epoch increases until, at the end, you are starting in the industrial age and developing into the modern during the RTS engagements.

There are towns to build, settlers to send to form new outposts, farms, mines and other such traditional elements of any 'Age of' game, but the progressing metagame campaign map gives it an interesting twist.

I played the original and the expansion quite fanatically for a while.
This new edition has both releases combined into one and really hit me in my nostalgia playing it again.

I'd recommend giving it a look.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Here a list of traditional RTS games that are still at least marginally relevant.

1. Starcraft II

That is all.

Used to be one of the pillar genres of gaming, but RTS is dead as doornails these days. MOBAs are the new king of that market.

Command and conquer series is still good. Though I'm not sure if it's what the OP is looking for since it's not much on the research side(at least until Generals and tiburum 3).

Theirs also Warcraft 3, Dawn of war series (until 2), and starwars battle grounds(age of empires 2 but in the star wars universe).

Though I can't name the modern day equivalent that isn't Supreme Commander or Planetary Analiation.

The C&C series is still good to me after all these years, liked them all so far (yes even 4 but not overly as much as I love 3) but sadly all of them besides 4 have had their online cut off, unless he wants to go through the marginal steps to go online with C&C online website, I know I'm not because it's not really that simple for me as I'm very accustomed to downloading software and simply clicking join or using the actual games online system itself which has always been simple.

OT: I too would suggest the C&C series, specifically the Decade collection along with C&C Kane's Wrath and Red Alert 3, I dunno if you'd like 4 but it;s story more or less sucked, I liked the visuals and gameplay in that game but not the story.

Age of Empires II HD is pretty decent and I believe the online for that on Steam is up and there's also AOE III to consider.

Supreme Commander 1, Forged Alliance and 2 are also good RTS's I've played with them focusing on massive battles with huge mechs and nukes galore, good stories too.

Also try for Starcraft II and it's expansion, had me some great fun with the campaigns along with multiplayer and even the arcade portion since you can play all sorts of user generated content that it's almost it's own segment of games.

As a last suggestion I recently tried Planetary Annihilation after not having played it for months due to slow updates but now Uber have released the offline mode patch and also fixed pathing issues, I tried the gameplay online since I apparently don't have enough RAM to run offline but the game was pretty stable enough for me to enjoy it but with only one crash suffered, still it's well worth checking out since it's the only RTS out there with actual spherical planets for maps with space travel, the ability to send planets into each other and so on.

 

[clippen05]

People still play Age of Empires 3. Many say its not as good as 2 or the original, but I personally like it the most out of all of them. I also like Company of Heroes 2; its not a 10/10 game, but it is the only relevant, modern RTS game I can think of these days.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

starwars battle grounds(age of empires 2 but in the star wars universe).

lol holy fuck son, never heard of this before and am squee'ing over it, but went to check the prices online...hell no. getting a copy of this (even used) is costing an arm and a leg, let alone *new* copies. Once again proving torrents are about the only way to get some great gems these days....

(note, I'm not advocating torrents, just saying it's a reason why publishers end up losing out on money.)

 

[direkiller]

I don't know how much you know so il just give a run down of the big ones.


Starcraft 2 is very micro/marco intesive and all about the online play, so it's probbly not what you are lookign for.

supreme commander is heavy on base building and mass units

1743,1843,2043 series is all about base building and economy(with a resource list the size of a restaurant menu) and less about killing things- 2043 is the newest one

Empire Earth is almost the same as AOE but spans from stone age to space battles, it's almost as old as AOE

Relic RTS's (Dwan of war 1-2, Company of heroes 1-2) are more about skirmishes then base building but there a fun take on the series and worth a try

Stronghold has an HD version now*digital steam copy), it's a castle building RTS so it's more about sieges and such, so it's heavy on the base building

AOE also has an HD verson on stem as well so that is probably worth a look-see

I have never played age of mythology but it looks nice.

 

[Hawki]

As far as resource and base building go, I can recommend the StarCraft games, Warcraft II (Orcs and Humans really hasn't held up, and as great as III is, it's more focused on heroes and units than the economic aspects), the Command and Conquer games bar Tiberian Twilight and arguably Generals (which has a streamlined resource management system, but otherwise retains a strong base building component.

RTS games to not get per your desired characteristics are Dawn of War (very much squad and tactics focused with few economic features), Company of Heroes (same), Halo Wars (base management, but no base building and very little economic interest), and Battle for Middle-earth (base management again, but there's a bit more of an economic angle).

 

[Bombiz]

starwars battle grounds(age of empires 2 but in the star wars universe).

lol holy fuck son, never heard of this before and am squee'ing over it, but went to check the prices online...hell no. getting a copy of this (even used) is costing an arm and a leg, let alone *new* copies. Once again proving torrents are about the only way to get some great gems these days....

(note, I'm not advocating torrents, just saying it's a reason why publishers end up losing out on money.)

their's always that magical thing called Tor*****.

 

[Pseudonym]

These aren't exactly new games I'm going to recommend but I haven't played a lot of RTS recently. Haven't even heard of many good new RTS games that have come out recently except for Starcraft II which I haven't played at all. Anyway, some games I can recommend:

Age of Mythology is pretty damn awesome. It's pretty much Age of Empires (I've played AoE 1 and 3, not 2 though) only with mythical beasts to add to your army and the occasional meteor-strike to crush your opponent. And rather than just building a wonder you can also build a titan, which is a massive unit that will destroy your enemies. You can pick up the remake on steam which, if I'm not mistaken, has multiplayer support. (the old version isn't really inferior and is cheaper but requires some fiddling around with third party software to get the multiplayer to work if I recall correctly) I know that's not much of an explanation but if you've already played AoE you shouldn't really encounter anything surprising.

If you want more city building and resource management you might be interested in stronghold crusader. It has production chains which are somewhat more complex than AoE and it allows you to build some pretty neat looking castles. (Part 1 is cheaper and as far as I've seen better than part 2) That game has some mechanics that are a little exploitable though so you might want to agree with your friend not to build ox carts in front of eachothers gatehouses.

As for some slightly more combat focussed games: Battle for middle earth might be interesting to you. It has some basebuilding (part 1 and 2 are rather differ in that department, you might want to look into that before you decide which one you want) but only one resource (gold). You can make certain units cheaper by building different economic buildings. It is overall more combat focussed than AoE though.

I also don't know how you feel about even older games but you might want to look into total annihilation.

 

[Spudgun Man]

Stronghold or Stronghold Crusader are pretty hefty contenders, and maybe mount and blade for a bit of a mix up.

 

[Kathinka]

Crusader Kings 2, while not a classical RTS, is fantastic. Never has it been so fun to accidentally marry your illegitimate daughter and then hire assassins to murder the offspring to get rid of the "three thumb problem" in the dynasty bloodline.

Alternatively, Company of Heroes is great, both parts. "Fire zee Panzerschreck Hans! Letz un-pimp zeir ride, jaa!"

World In Conflict is a tiny bit dated, but still fantastic and pretty unequaled.

If you like the setting, but would like something a bit more complex, try Wargame:Red Dragon. But be warned, this goes a bit in the direction of simulation already. Commie bastards and Capitalist dogs of all Nations duke it out on huge maps and you have to consider things like kilometer long weapon ranges, different weapon systems on your vehicles, supply chains and such shenanigans. My favorite RTS that one.

 

[seris]

try to get your hands on Total annihilation if you can, its an old game but its still extremely fun to play, except for the part where the online community is non existant at this point