New to RTS. What to play?

[Smack2k]

Hey all,

Newer to the site and havent posted much until now...

I am going to try and get into some RTS gaming, never played them before...out of these below, which would be the best for me to play to get into it, understand it, and start enjoying it, before playing more:

Dune
Dune II
Command and Conquer (with expansions)
Command and Conquer - Red Alert (with expansions)
Command and Conquer - Red Alert 2 (with expansions)
Age of Empires II
Age of Empires III
Total Annihilation (with expansions)

Also, between Age II and Age III, which would you suggest I play for the better RTS experience?

I could get Starcraft to.

Thanks!

[Jorpho]

Starcraft would probably be the way to go. I see no reason why not to just jump in with that right away. Apparently the single-player campaign is remarkably well-constructed.

If I am not mistaken, the original Dune is not an RTS, and plain-vanilla Dune 2, breaking new territory as it did, has a lot of shortcomings in its interface and AI. There are a lot of mods and remakes and such forth (Dune 2000, for instance), but I've lost track of them.

[Daltone]

Starcraft is a great game and a great place to start.

Some other ones that may be worth considering:

Homeworld
Warcraft II
C&C Generals
Warhammer 40 000: Dawn of War
Company of Heros
Dungeon Keeper 2 (ok, so it's a sort of RTS)
Darwinia
Empire Earth

I'd swerve the AoE series. They're pretty, but the friendly AI is incredibly stupid and will happily allow the massed ranks of the enemy to stroll past them. It makes the game very difficult, particularly since the computer AI is outrageously aggressive.

EDIT:

I should add that Sid Meier's Gettysburg is shockingly overlooked. It's so overlooked, in fact, that I missed it off my first list.

[Smack2k]

I passed up on both Sid Meier Cival War games...I will go grab them if they are still there...

Thanks for the help...will grab Starcraft.

[Edmond Dantes]

Personally, Warcraft II is the only RTS I really like. Get the Battle.net edition if you can (it has minor gameplay improvements) but any edition should be fine.

[Peonpiate]

Age of Empires 2 with the Conquerors expansion is arguably one of the best RTS's made, its imo much better than AoE 3 by several thousand miles. If you get it just make sure to download the unofficial 1080p hack so that it looks nice. Starcraft is another great game, though it doesn't have a high res hack available.


All the other games listed by the OP are good though. But some are definitely "age bound" and are as basic of a RTS as you can get [Dune 2, first CnC especially].

[Wraith Storm]

I always really enjoyed Age of Empires II and Warcraft II.

They are easy to get into and learn the ropes.

By far my favorite RTS is Majesty. I have Majesty Gold which included the expansion. I liked Majesty because it really changed up the RTS formula. Instead of controlling units directly, you place bounties on enemies or give incentives until your units are motivated to take action. Some are more easily persuaded than others. It was a breath of fresh air after all the other RTS games that seemed to follow the same formula.

[Zing]

I'd strongly suggest against StarCraft. It is more dexterity based than strategy.

For real strategy, Command & Conquer and Age of Empires are what you want. Although, the campaigns in the Age of Empires games are a little dull. C&C is amazing in both design and presentation.

For strategy with very little effect from dexterity, I suggest Rise of Empires. It's probably the best RTS I have ever played. "Best" meaning well designed, balanced, deep, and fun.

[Alpha2099]

Some people have already suggested it, but I'll echo their thoughts with Warcraft II. That was the game that got me into the RTS genre.