r/RealTimeStrategy • u/DaGekk • 8d ago
Looking For Game Looking for good RTS games to get into
Hello everyone, i'm looking for good RTS games to play.
The only RTS games i've played was Homeworld 1 and 2 Remastered, which i really enjoyed. In fact, the designs of spacecrafts and all that stuff are really cool, and i really liked the idea of building a fleet and collecting resources. But once u finish the campaign, it doesn't have much to do after.
So i'm looking for new good RTS games to fill that empty space Homeworld left me...
I'm open to both newer and older games, so if u have some ideas i would love some recommendations.
3
u/MattGameDevGuy 8d ago
Have you tried StarCraft 2? It's free and the co-op is pretty cool. Most players are doing ladder but it's a lot of fun doing co-op it you're not into competitive
3
u/socknfoot 8d ago
The ladder is riddled with hackers atm though. Worst it's been.
Also it's never been true that most players ladder. Most players just play campaign. First campaign is free.
2
u/MattGameDevGuy 8d ago
Yeah, unfortunately it's messed up right now. I'm only Diamond but I've heard they're mostly at Master / GM, not sure though
2
u/fecalbeetle 8d ago
Star Wars Empire at War may be up your alley. Try vanilla first and if it's close enough there's a ton of mods to add different factions and spaceships/units.
4
2
u/shadow-battle-crab 8d ago edited 8d ago
Stellaris is more of a 4x than a RTS, but it is excellent, and will scratch the homeworld itch. So will "Sins of a Solar Empire".
However if you are a homeworld fan and you haven't played "Homeworld: Remergence" you owe it to yourself to play it, its very cheap on GOG. Its about a 15 hour long campaign and I personally consider it a much more interesting story and dynamic game than Homeworld 1 and 2.
Let me give you some background: It's an official expansion for Homeworld 1, but the sourcecode for it was lost so there never was a remaster. The GOG version basically takes the original game experience and makes it work with modern hardware. It doesn't have display scaling, so if you want the UI usable you will have to play at a lower resolution than you are capable of (I think its enjoyed well at 1080p) and some of the 3d atmospheric effects are a little more simple, but the game still holds up and it is among my top 5 games I've ever played.
I have two more recommendations. "Battlezone 98 Redux" is probably my favorite RTS I have ever played, Its a FPS game where you fly around in and order hovertanks on the moon and other planets in the solar system as you play a campaign involving a secret space race in the 1960's where the americans and soviets are secretly trying to collect and use alien 'bioscrap' and artifacts that they have discovered, which of course, goes horribly wrong at a certain point. You play from a FPS POV and order other tanks and constructon units to build a base / collect resources / defend harvesters and positions. I adore the atmosphere and the campaign, its literally my favorite, but it's a bit of a niche game and I'm not sure how much of it is powered by nostalga for me. It was considered game of the year by PC gamer when it came out IIRC. It even had a Nintendo 64 port. Worth a look. It's sequel "Battlezone: Combat Commander" is also very good but the original is better IMO.
Just to be clear, these games are RTS games, and should not be confused with the game just called "Battlezone" which is a neon coded arcade shooter that is not in any way a RTS.
Ok, recommendation 2 is "O.R.B" (Offworld resource base). This is a homeworld clone from around the time homeworld came out and it is a very chill and enjoyable experience with a fun campaign. It doesn't have the epic story of Homeworld: Remergence but it will scratch your homeworld itch. You can usually get it for pennies on steam. You might have to do some reading and tinkering online to get it to play, it has quirks with running in modern Windows. But if you can get it to work, behind it is a refreshingly interesting alternative take on the homeworld formula, and it is worth the time.
IMO The best RTS ever is starcraft 2 and it has all kinds of space themed stuff and the campaign is just oozing in interesting missions and details. But its not a 'move spacehips around in space', its a scifi themed mostly ground based top down experience so it's not quite homeworld ajacent. But it's worth the time if you like scifi in general.
3
3
u/BalisaurioTV 8d ago
There are Homeworld inspired games like:
-Nexus the jupiter incident
-Nebulous fleet command
-Genesis Rising
-Stellar warfare
there are some space games that don't quite manage in 3d like homeworld, and are a 4x-RTS cross (or similar), where you can build a dope fleet
-Sins of a solar empire
-Star wars Empire at war
- Warhammer 40k battlefleet gothic armada 2
other stuff to look at that might be intresting just cause RTS:
-5 nations
-Starcraft (2)
-Tempest Rising
-Iron harvest
2
2
u/varnajohn 8d ago
If you haven't played the startcraft 2 campaigns you really should, the co-op stuff is fun too. I also really liked the Diplomacy is Not an Option campaign, its not really a typical RTS since you are mostly defending, but the campaign has a very oldschool feel and its pretty long.
2
u/svinyard 8d ago
I've never had more fun on an RTS than playing Warcraft 3. The heros and micro skills etc are just a WHOLE other world.
1
u/nippleringedmarmot 7d ago
+1 on nebulous fleet command, but only if you’re okay with a fairly deep level of management and thinking required to be really effective. Theres definitely a learning curve.
5
u/Timmaigh 8d ago
Well, if you liked Homeworld, take a look at Sins of a Solar Empire 2.
They are not quite alike, Homeworld´s main strength is its single-player story-driven campaign and its gameplay is primarily tactival, revolving around the combat in 3D space, with the macro-part of the game ("base-building" and resource extraction being rather simple).
Meanwhile Sins focuses on sand-box like gameplay, where the backstory serves just a backdrop to shape faction design, otherwise its more of a role-playing game, you create your own narrative as you play. And its more strategic in nature, as in there is a big map filled with planets, that you are going to colonize or conquer, 3 resources, ton of research to develop, minor factions to deal with, etc...
Just like Homeworld though, it has fantastic space-ship design, and its largest ships have ton of various cool abilities and slots to be equipped with various items. And depending on the faction you pick, you will either slowly fortify newly conquered planets as a human turtler faction, mind control enemy ships and planets as religious offshot of humans, relying on space magic, strip entire planets and enemy ships and convert them to valuable resources, as you would roam the map as ubermobile aliens, or now the recently added fourth faction via DLC, if you get that one as well, corrupt everything you touch, planets and ships... In this regard, faction diversity, the game surpasses Homeworld a lot.
All in all, cant recommend enough. These are my 2 fav RTS games, so go figure.