The Decline of Strategy Gaming

Snare

Snare

New member
Do you remember the time when you couldn't throw a stone and not hit someone announcing a new Strategy game?
Lately though they are becoming rarer and rarer buy the minute. I just wan to discuss why you think that is?

Also why not name your favourite strategy game of all time and reasons why that is

PS. I mean the straight up games themselves, Starcraft/Warcraft 3 mods not included;)
 
I think the reason why strategy games aren't so popular anymore is because people are just too lazy to learn how they work, and some of them take quite a bit of skill and practice to be any good at. It's probably the same reason old school shooters died out. The level of skill required to play them is just too much for the average gamer.

The fact that they don't really work on consoles is probably also a large factor. Big companies make games for the platforms where they can make the most money, and making a AAA game exclusively for PC is probably not worth it, for most developers.

My personal favourite is SC2, I enjoy both the single- and multiplayer aspects of that game.
 
Nothing will EVER come close to the immersion and absolute fun of Master Of Orion 2. Civilization 1 game close, but MOO2 was one of a kind.

Yes, I like TBS :D

Missionforce: Cyberstorm also comes to mind for insane replayability

Are these some of the kinds of strategy games you're referring to?
 
I have seen this too, but for me it's just that I can't find any decent titles lately. I've even tried some obscure titles - the earth series, universe at war etc etc and haven't found anything else that appeals to me. Here is the biggest problem I've had- the RTS games lately all seem to be trying to reinvent themselves. Before you had to establish a base, fighting off waves of enemies until you had enough forces to storm the enemy keep. rinse and repeat. That was great, but for some reason they thought there should be more to it, so they have introduced all these annoying little improvements.

Let me give you an example- In Red alert 3 they gave you allies during your missions. So the stage starts off where you have to use your subs to take out the guns. Once there you send someone to shore, get an old base online and build up an army that will eventually be able to take the enemies out. No problems there. But now because they have introduced the allies, those guys begin the assault right away, so by the time you've built up your army, there is nothing left of the enemy base to destroy. I kid you not, I literally had to drive in and destroy a barracks and about 5 power stations. You can't just enjoy yourself any more doing it your way, it's like they're trying to bring that frantic call of duty gameplay to RTS, and it's killing the game play.

Or you just start building up your base and then some convoy starts making its way to you and you have to send some tanks over to the other end of the map to free fighter jets to take them out before they reach the base. Grrrr.

There are always skirmishes true, and I tend to default to those nowadays- That's more the kind of game play I like. But besides for blizzard and the c&c games the rest are just boring. There is either too much micro management, or it's just not challenging enough, or you can't storm/overwhelm the keep in the end. I can't quite place my finger on it, but I just don't find them to be as much fun as they used to be,

Favourite RTS of all time has to be KKND. I also enjoyed warcraft 3 and the c&c squirmishes.

- - - Updated - - -

Eugene said:
The fact that they don't really work on consoles is probably also a large factor. Big companies make games for the platforms where they can make the most money, and making a AAA game exclusively for PC is probably not worth it, for most developers.
Click to expand...
good point
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I agree that it's probably the fact that console games have the market share and that RTS games rarely work well on console. The other problem is that to get decent sales in the PC market you basically need to be well-known e.g. Starcraft, CnC. For the most part RTS's are part of the niche market nowadays.

Favourite Strategy Game (TBS) - Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic - played this many times through the night at lans and still could play hours more.
 
Last edited:
I enjoyed the Command & Conquer games, except C&C4, where they put in an always on internet requirement, which sucked at the time, and they took out all the base building stuff that was what C&C was really all about.
 
My favourite RTS : Company of Heroes

My favourite strategy game : Unreal Tournament (UT99)
and i think MetalSoup might agree

It's not just about RTS, old school shooters too required a lot of strategy and tactile playing to becoming great at the game/genre. People have just become too lazy and would rather grind away for days in orer to get "stats" this and stats that. It's all bullshit in my opinion. Along with the whole zombie genres, they have taken away the essence of these type of games. Sure they are entertaining but it's just media and publishers going with the flow or the fad at the time and slowly breaking the real core of complex strategic games. I don't think this thread can be made purely on the RTS genre but instead on games that require strategy as a whole.
 
I miss those days :(

Huge rts fondy. Age of empire 2,cnc franchise except for cnc 4 lol,total annihalation kingdoms,total war,age of mythology(I am suprised it didn't have a sequel :()
 
Big fan of RTS games, but don't limit myself to the "builders & rush" group only. I like mission oriented strat games as well. Example the Commando's or Frozen Synapse, Xcon and so on.

Games I liked most: Act of war (Both), C&C Generals was my fav LAN game and curently playing the entire Men of War series that I picked up for R30 over at Bundle Stars, and can say if it wasn't for the poor voice acting it would have fallen into AAA territory easy.

2 Games I can not wait to get started is Arma Tactics and up and coming Call to arms.

Someone also said I should check out Wargame: Airland Battle It looks cool in the Gameplay vids on youtube so just waiting for a steam sale to pick it up.
 
Nobody has time for a 4 hr game anymore.

Plus the AI is an issue. *None* of the RTS games have an AI that plays on a level playing field as you do (not counting chess). If you don't help the AI with extra resources & no fog of war then they're useless.
 
Tsar said:
I miss those days :(

Huge rts fondy. Age of empire 2,cnc franchise except for cnc 4 lol,total annihalation kingdoms,total war,age of mythology(I am suprised it didn't have a sequel :()
Click to expand...
I still play this game at lans, loads of fun :)
 
This has been something I myself have been thinking about for quite some time. The RTS genre may have been my favorite gaming genre of all time. I have loved most RTS games over the years. I can remember the first time I saw Age of Empires. I wanted to play that game so badly, but my PC of the time didn't have a CD drive. Age of Empires 2, Warcraft 2 and 3, Sacrifice, Homeworld, Dune 2, Warhammer 40k, Company of Heroes; these games I all loved and played to bits.

These days gaming has become way to much "fast food" like that real investments. I can't even say that it's because I don't have time, not while I have several tens of hours invested in games like Mass Effect and Skyrim and Minecraft. The world has moved on and the gaming industry is more focused on pumping high action "fast food" games; games you can pop in and quickly bash a couple of hours and get your fix.

It's a shame that RTS games has fallen on the wayside in this move. But RTS's gameplay, complexity, and time investment needed just didn't translate all that well in our new fast paced world.
 
I've also pondered this many a time, and tried to hunt down some strategy games that relive the golden age of RTS!

I'm playing Total War Rome II at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. Recommend having a look at it.

Impossible Creatures was one original and fun game! Not my favourite RTS, but definitely a memorable one. Age of Empires of course, Dawn of war, Company of heroes, Homeworld, Rise of nations, Empire Earth, Alpha Centuri, C&C. Evil Genius (more of a management) was also fun and original! I grew up playing RTS and miss them dearly :)
 
It's an unfortunate side-effect of our times. The big money just doesn't lie in RTS and TBS games, so the big studios can't really be arsed to make them. Look at how many people are excited for BF4 and then look at how many people were excited for one of the more popular strategy series, Rome 2 Total War. The number simply cannot compare.

It's really sad, I absolutely love strategy games. I prefer TBS though, and luckily we've recently seen a pretty big increase in the amount of TBS games being released, albeit mostly from niche and indie developers.
 
Helix said:
I've also pondered this many a time, and tried to hunt down some strategy games that relive the golden age of RTS!

I'm playing Total War Rome II at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. Recommend having a look at it.

Impossible Creatures was one original and fun game! Not my favourite RTS, but definitely a memorable one. Age of Empires of course, Dawn of war, Company of heroes, Homeworld, Rise of nations, Empire Earth, Alpha Centuri, C&C. Evil Genius (more of a management) was also fun and original! I grew up playing RTS and miss them dearly :)
Click to expand...

Impossible creatures is probably my third favorite RTS of all time man that game was fun :D

First is probably Company of heroes and second the first Dawn of war.

Also its insanely hard to develop RTS games as its a lot of more programming than normal games. With the AI being a bitch to program already the AI is way more important than in other games. This is one of the reasons why you don't really see a lot of indie developed RTS games.
 
RTS still my preference.

At the moment I am playing Civ 4 and really enjoying it. Age of Empires 2 was probably the most epic of my early days of gaming. Along with Civilization III & IV, Warcraft and now Starcraft, these have been my joy.

It is a pity that nothing new outside of existing franchises are being made. Who knows. Maybe there will be a return to strategy.
 
I really enjoyed company of heroes. I played StarCraft 2 for a little while but kind of bored of building bases over and over again. I personally don't enjoy that aspect of RTS any more, don't find it dynamic enough. I play Civ 5, but its not a RTS so not sure its relevant.

I didn't find Starcraft so much better than 1. Graphics and interface have improved, but found the basic gameplay was pretty much the same.
 
Gir said:
I really enjoyed company of heroes. I played StarCraft 2 for a little while but kind of bored of building bases over and over again. I personally don't enjoy that aspect of RTS any more, don't find it dynamic enough. I play Civ 5, but its not a RTS so not sure its relevant.

I didn't find Starcraft so much better than 1. Graphics and interface have improved, but found the basic gameplay was pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

Then you should really try out the Men of war series. All but Assault squad is based on missions with limited units and play very closely to Company of Heroes.

What I like about MoW is that you can take direct control of any unit be it infantry, tank or even motorbike, all buildings are destructible. Each unit has its on inventory and can use anything on the battlefield, from a tractor to a sniper rifle and you can even repair and hi-jack enemy tanks if thats your thing or you can simply just drag and click if thats your thing.

I think of it as the grown-ups Company of Heroes, Esp when you go online.

Edit: Assault squad is Flag Capture and advance with time based resource and support for unlimited new units. Still fun but not as slow paced as the others in the series. At least here the game is forgiving when you lose units. (Pity you missed the R30 for all bundle)
 
Last edited:
AlphaJohn said:
Then you should really try out the Men of war series. All but Assault squad is based on missions with limited units and play very closely to Company of Heroes.

What I like about MoW is that you can take direct control of any unit be it infantry, tank or even motorbike, all buildings are destructible. Each unit has its on inventory and can use anything on the battlefield, from a tractor to a sniper rifle and you can even repair and hi-jack enemy tanks if thats your thing or you can simply just drag and click if thats your thing.

I think of it as the grown-ups Company of Heroes, Esp when you go online.

Edit: Assault squad is Flag Capture and advance with time based resource and support for unlimited new units. Still fun but not as slow paced as the others in the series. At least here the game is forgiving when you lose units. (Pity you missed the R30 for all bundle)
Click to expand...

Men of war is really awesome. Digged men at war veitnam.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top