Greatest RTS game/series of all time?

[Solace]

For me I'd say that the greatest RTS out of the box would be Total Annihilation (1997) with both of it's expansion packs. The game has literally hundreds of units that are unique to each faction, there are dozens of multiplayer maps, the campaigns are enjoyable, and it has a stellar soundtrack. Unfortunately Total Annihilation lacks in customization. There are lots of user made maps, mods, and custom units, but there is no built-in map editor like in most other RTS games, and there are no custom games like in StarCraft or other RTS games, there is only melee in Total Annihilation (destroy your enemies base and kill his/her commander). Another shortcoming of Total Annihilation is that when you head online, unlike StarCraft: Brood War, it can be relatively hard to find people to play with. You can however find a few people on PhoeniX WorX, WarZone, and GameSpy Arcade however.However, for a game that has been perfected, I'd say the original StarCraft (1998), with Brood War. StarCraft has a great storyline, unique units for each faction, a built in map editor, an average soundtrack, and the greatest online service of all time, the original (not 2.0) Battle.net. One thing that separates StarCraft: Brood War from the hundreds of other RTS games out there is not only Battle.net, but the ability to play custom games on Battle.net. The original map editor was pretty weak, but the community created several custom map editors (I recommend X-tra Editor in special mode for units and triggers, and StarForge for terrain) to create maps with. Custom maps range from defense maps to RPGs to bounds to movie maps to zombie survival maps, and everything in between. StarCraft also has millions of players from all around the world and is still the most popular RTS game of all time, despite being over 10 years old.

[sscadmin]

Hmmm this is a tough one. It is a toss up between Company of Heroes which is a great game and soon to be MMO and C&C (which I liked Generals the best). But one honorable mention should be Conquest: Frontier Wars, spent many hours playing this one.But might have to go with CoH on this just because you need to think more and have more strategy to be effective to win. Plus there is some nice mods for it... and the sound effects are great! And the soon to be finished MMO is in beta and they say it will be free... http://www.companyofheroes.com/

[Braindead]

wow this was actually a very hard choice for me.I did have to choose Homeworld over Total Annihilation, but the latter is a very closer runner-up.Never did an RTS rock my world so much as Homeworld did. The possibilities of an attack from all angles is just... well, just spectacular. Camera control was highly intuitive and the story of the original Homeworld was also quite good. The vidoes between the missions really added a ton of atmosphere. I think I've done the storyline mission more often then I can count, and I can count beyond 21 using my hands, feet and erm... Also, multiplayer is tons of fun against some friends that are also good at the game. Coordinated attacks from multiple angles by multiple players to gang up on another was never so much fun. Also, taking out his stealth detectors and then capturing his capital ships with your cloaked haulers is also fun beyond description, especially if said opponent rages about it across the room (long live LAN parties)Just thinking about it makes me wanna go dig for the disk yet again. As I said TA was the close runner up, storyline was meh, but the combat is just great. To bad none of my friends was really into it, so I never really fought other people in TA, which adds to it not being #1. It did set allot of standards for games that followed I think.Solace, you also make a great point about Starcraft. I mean, 12 years later and there are still tournaments being played for real money. There's not many games that can claim that position, only ones I can think of are Quake and Counterstrike...But still, Homeworld FTW because of the thinking outside the box and making use of REAL 3d.

[Pinback]

Never played that many RTS games over the years, last one I really enjoyed was Company of Heroes. Seem to recall getting stuck about half way through the Battle For Middle Earth game, found the sudden strike games to be too hard, Warzone 2100 on the PS1 was good. But I’ am going for the golden oldie Dune 11 just had the most fun with it.

[sscadmin]

Hey Pinback there is a free remake of Warzone 2100 that has been in development for a while and is actually very good and is much improved over the original.http://wz2100.net/

[Geraldine]

Whats this? No Ground Control, no "Earth" series! Oh well, I will go for C&C because I have played them for ages, C&C3 being my favorite. Homeworld very good too, really need a sequel now.

[Pinback]

Darkone wrote:
Hey Pinback there is a free remake of Warzone 2100 that has been in development for a while and is actually very good and is much improved over the original.http://wz2100.net/
Excellent find D1 will download that later on.

[Guest]

cnc (ts, ra2) for me, used to play LAN with friends years ago. i like them because of the mods and scifi theme.

[sscadmin]

Another few RTS games that come to mind when thinking about this is C&C Generals, I really liked this game play and the units. And I really enjoyed Conquest: Frontier Wars, good ole Chris Roberts and team game.

[Rith]

I really liked Ra2: Yuri's Revenge.Apart from it being the first RTS I can remember playing, I consider it to have the greatest story and soundtrack of any game I've ever played. I still have the Phat attack song from its sound track in my head, near 8 years later.