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FloppyDong

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Favorite RTS Games

This is a list of what I consider the top ten RTS games of all time. Please note that for the most part I have listed the base game, and that the expansions for each of those games are implied as included (This applies to every game except Rome: Total War and Halo Wars, as they do not have expansions). Also note that some games made the list in place of other games, due to either personal or historical significance. For instance, Ground Control II is not on the list because World in Conflict is its spiritual successor, and I feel it is the superior game. This is also seen in the choices of WarCraft III and Age of Empires II, as while their earlier games were good, I feel that these two are the best in their respective series. However, this is not the case with Red Alert II, as it is not only the best C&C game, it is also the last C&C game that wasn't garbage. Also Dune II should probably be on here for histories sake alone, but that game came out when I was one year old, which should explain why it isn't on the list. Honorable mentions: Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander, Rise of Nations, and as I said earlier Dune II.

List items

  • The best of them all. What is there to say, its the greatest RTS of all time. People make arguments that Total Annihilation was more cutting edge, coming out a year before StarCraft was released. But Total Annihilation didn't get played professionally for over a decade. 100,000 screaming fans didn't watch the Total Annihilation Proleague finals, and it never sold close to the ten million copies StarCraft managed to move over its lifetime. Sure, sales and popularity alone don't always equal quality, but in this case they do. StarCraft, specifically the expansion Brood War, it the best RTS game of all time for one basic reason, gameplay. It's three races each have their own unique play style, making its multiplayer both incredibly varied and asymmetrically balanced. Battle.net, the game's online service, allowed for users to create and host their own maps and gametypes, meaning that there was thousands of unique maps and modes to play on all times. The single player was also top notch for the time, although it has begun to show its age. All these things in one package are sure to lead to a great game, but BW isn't just a great game, it's the best, and a lot of that comes down entirely to the intangible feel of the game. StarCraft just plays right, and its this unidentifiable aspect of the game, the part that makes it fun and challenging and demanding and satisfying to play all at the same time, that makes StarCraft: Brood War an RTS experience and phenomena that is likely to never be repeated.

  • If I wanted to I could tell you right here that Warcraft III and Broodwar are tied on this list, but I feel like that's a cop-out, and I did order them this way for a reason. While part of my heart wants to say WCIII is the best RTS of all time, I find it pretty hard to justify why it would beat BW. WCIII is the newer game, coming almost five years after StarCraft was released. It has full 3D models, superior CGI cutscenes, a better interface, and is more modern and accessible. Its single player campaign is superior, with a much more involved story and more varied mission types and structures. The multiplayer was great, and from its custom maps an entirely new multiplayer genre was spawned in the form of DotA. In fact, I go back to play WCIII far more often than I do BW, although that has more to do with the fact that its easier to play WCIII because it is a newer game. In the end, it all comes back to context, and when looked at in the context of its release, WCIII is amazing and wonderful, but it really isn't in the same league as the King of RTS games that is Starcraft: Brood War.

  • This one is a personal choice. While I think that World in Conflict deserves a spot on any top RTS list, putting it behind only Blizzard's greats must seem insane to many people. My reason for it is simple, I think that WiC has one of the best single player campaigns of any RTS ever. For me it all comes down to the presentation. Massive really nails it with the feeling of this game, presenting a World War III, the Cold War never ended scenario that involves Russia invading both Western Europe and the U.S. (by sneaking into Seattle). The characters are surprisingly well fleshed out, the story presentation is unique and interesting and there are some truly excellent emotional beats all wrapped up with a unique take on RTS gameplay. The team based multiplayer stands out from the crowd with its unique and fun gameplay style that revolves not around base building but on map control, team cooperation and support power usage. Overall, I love everything about this game. While the console port was scrapped, the extra content made it out in the expansion, Soviet Assault, which took a look at the war from the Russian perspective. Sadly, Massive has been dragged into the Ubisoft "use every studio available to make this game" cog, so even if the talent is still working at Massive a sequel to this amazing game doesn't look very likely.

  • I'm not really sure what to say about CoH. It looks pretty, the explosions are nice and its gameplay is unique. Cover mechanics, environmental destruction, terrain deformation; these are all things that CoH added to the genre that no one else had done before. Hell, in 2006 most games weren't doing anything like that, no matter what their genre. CoH, as they say, "Changed the game", delivering a unique strategy experience that was new and refreshing. The multiplayer was exciting and competitive all the way from 1v1 to 4v4, and with the expansion there were four separate armies that, while not quite approaching the StarCraft level of individuality, had their own unique gameplay styles that gave the game a lot of variety. While they have a long list of great RTS projects, CoH alone puts Relic in the conversation for best RTS developer, second only to the juggernaut that is Blizzard Entertainment. This game is great, and I truly can't see it sitting outside the top five of any "Greatest RTS of All Time" lists.

  • I picked AoEII because even though the first AoE is the more ground-breaking game, AoEII is the superior one, and it represents Ensemble at the top of their game. Age of Mythology is a fun semi-sequel to this one, and for all their faults Halo Wars and AoEIII were fun, but this is the best game Ensemble ever made, which is why it's on the list. It's hard for me to look at this one and judge it today. In the face of competitive games like SC and WCIII, this one was much more about dicking around than competition. AoE looks great, and playing big 8 player games is what defined its multiplayer. I never took this game too seriously, and in return it never demanded that I do so. Tight, or refined aren't terms I would use when describing the game's playstyle, as its pace is something different than many of the games on this list. Still, playing 6 or 8 man AoE LAN games with friends is the defining multiplayer experience of my college years, and those fond memories are enough to make me forget any of the problems I see in this game when looked at in a modern context.

  • Let's be honest, no matter how good WoL was, it wasn't going to top Brood War. SCII is the more refined, nicer looking sequel to a game without equal, so its pretty amazing Blizzard even got close with this one. In time, the gameplay might even exceed that of BW, but for all of its polish and streamlining, SCII will always be compared to its older brother, and while it certainly doesn't embarrass the family name, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who preferred SCII after playing both games. Have I played hundreds of hours and will I continue to do so? Yes, but the telling thing is that if Blizzard remade Brood War in the SCII engine everyone would be playing that instead.

  • I'm going to be honest here, I don't really like the Total War games that much. I've tried Rome, Medieval II, and Empire, and while I see the appeal and like the concept, they are similar to DotA style games for me, something that I can appreciate without really liking to play. So why is it on the list you ask? It's simple really, my best friend made me put it on here. There was a long list of RTS games that I like, but don't love, fighting for the last two spots on this list, and for a while it looked like it might end at eight games. However, the Total War games are my best friends favorite series of all time, and he informed me that any list without one of them on it would be incomplete and, quite frankly, embarrassing. So, long story short, he says this one is the best, and that's why it's on the list.

    I would have put Star Wars: Empire at War in this slot. EaW is kind of like a light version of Galactic Civilizations mixed with a Ground Control style ground combat and space combat akin to naval battles in Empire: Total War. While I can acknowledge the flaws in that game (there are a lot), my love of the galaxy map and the space battles outweighs the broken ground based combat. LucasArts needs to give that game a sequel, because it had the foundation for something truly amazing. So there you go, I guess there are two number nine games on this list, however, we can just consider Star Wars an honorable mention.

  • I acknowledge the fact that it's weird for an RTS snob to put this game on a top ten RTS list. But even though I look down on many games for their "feel", such as any Command and Conquer game after Red Alert II for example (They're all crap, and I'll fight you about them) there is something about Halo Wars that I just really like. Buried somewhere in the visual style and surprisingly usable controls is a game that I enjoyed every minute of, and while I can't exactly explain it, something about the game is just "right" to me. If had been a game designed entirely for PC, you would probably see it higher on the list. However, if personal preference isn't enough to justify its position on the list, then the fact that it is the best-playing console RTS should be enough to earn it a spot. This game is an RTS that you play with a controller, and it works very well. In my opinion that makes it worthy of the list.
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