What is the best single player RTS game and why?

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Victoria, due to the excellent depth and setting.

 

[Mister Arkham]

its very much inferior sequel

Homeworld 2 being worse than its predecessor is, as far as I know, a commonly held opinion here. I can't either agree or disagree with it, because I only ever played the second game, so I'd like to hear a little insight on the subject -- why is HW1 better than HW2? Is it the story, the gameplay, the balance, all or none of them?

Actually, I prefer the base gameplay in two a little bit more and think that Relic set up a little bit more balance within the player's forces, requiring you to utilize the full range of your units. I also like it better for for it's multiplayer. However, I found the level design somewhat uninspired in Two, with quite a few of the missions being retreads of those in the first game with the number of enemy units amped up. There are also usually only two variants of mission in two, those being the one where you have to blow through a seemingly endless supply of enemy ships or the one where you have to spend an hour pounding on a single, fixed target while keeping raiders off your back...

Also, in terms of story, Homeworld 2 lacks a lot of the subtlety and driving strength that made Homeworld so remarkable for me. It loses a lot of the sense of scale and history that the first one had, and what is there feels muddled and cobbled together. Don't get me wrong though, I still really enjoy the game and I also prefer the art direction that they took in Two, but having played the first one and with it having the impact on me that it did... well, it just doesn't much stack up.

 

[Mister Arkham]

I'm also gonna put out a nod for Sacrifice. Really interesting concept and execution paired with a really wicked art design... It certainly isn't a traditional RTS though.

Tool's probably from Korea. Who other than a korean would defend the piece of shit that is Starcraft?

I'll defend it as well, if only on the grounds that I think that it has some serious merits, despite the flaws. It's well balanced for one (at least pre-Brood War)

are you mother fucking retarded you fucking piece of shit starcraft is ridiculous imbalanced pre brood war fuck you piece of shit asshole

Hey there sunshine, how about you run off and play until you can put together a complete sentence, yeah?

 

[Gragt]

Sacrifice.

Brilliant game, recommend to any RTS fan who hasn't played it yet.

I was honestly surprised no one mentioned it yet. I thought it was because it is a mix of RTS and action.

 

[The Vanished One]

@ DraQ - Thanks, now I understand.

edit: and thanks to Mister Arkham as well, hadn't read the post, I must have been tired.

 

[coldcrow]

Gotta break a lance for Sacrifice too. At first the ingenious and unique design will challenge you, but that you will soon find out that the AI actually sucks horribly .

Yet where Sacrifice really rules is MP. If anyone here is interested: We are a small community of like 20-30 more or less active members and have created a private server since Gamespy's support was zero. They even broke the ranking and player info through some of their server updates.

Visit this site: www.sacrifice.kicks-ass.net and get the manual update. If you want to play online at our server just start Sacrifice with the Proxy.
Also we have IRC enabled in the game lobby at: sac.kicks-ass.net:6664.

There are still some issues with the host (might be not up), use the GS_Proxy in that case.

 

[ever]

Company of Heroes

Sid Mier's Railroads!

By like a million.

Also original C&C and Warcraft are epic

 

[Jaime Lannister]

1. Starcraft/Brood War
2. Rise of Nations (skirmish games, not the risk thing)
3. Tiberian Sun/Red Alert 2 (same engine, great campaigns)
4. Warcraft III (and the Frozen Throne Orc Campaign is Diablo 2.5)
5. Paradox games (if they count)

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

for me, starcraft + brood war for combined power of cutscenes, mission variety and progression, and interesting races to play.

i like age of empires 2 and its expansion for its epic historical based campaigns (a lot of them and they are *long*) plus an extremely robust skirmish mode and random map generator.

dawn of war was incredibly cool at the time for the graphic detail, sound design, and animations. i substituted the lame orchestra track with rage against the machine (nothing like killing in the name of set against a space marine mech guy picking up an orc and crushing his spine) for maximum awesomeness.

company of heroes was awesome, again, for its graphical detail, advancement of DoW's concepts (cover system, lines of fire). i thoroughly enjoyed the campaign despite its lack of challenge. not so hot about it or DoW's add ons.

i also have a soft spot for tiberian sun, as it was the first RTS i ever played. great atmosphere/art direction, fun units, alien landscape... excellent. Original red alert is awesome as well (soviet mission where you poison a town's water supply), as is its lulzy sequel, RA2. And Yuri's revenge is probably one of the best expansions ever made.

 

[Turok]

Dune, because after get released, everyone just copycat it.