If you’re anything like me, you’ll find that taking a look back at RTS games really does bring back a lot pleasant memories. It’s also sadly completely knocked many of these games off of their rose-tinted pedestal, but the ride has been nevertheless enjoyable. Whilst there are loads of RTS games that deserve a mention here, it’d be nigh on impossible to cover them all, and as such I’m going to be picking out the ones that really made an impact on the genre.  For around 10 years I was what you might call an ‘RTS nut’, playing almost every single RTS game released over that period, and it was excellent. While there were many brilliant games released over this period, as with any genre there were more than a few dodo’s as well.

With this in mind, Gamingverdict is proud to present (in a rough chronological order) the 10 games which put RTS gaming on the map.

Dune 2 

It’s assuredly up for heavy debate, but as such I have to choose one game which defined the starting point of the modern RTS. It’s a tricky one, but I feel that the honour is going to rest on the shoulders of Westwood’s 1992 classic, Dune 2. While it had nothing to do with the first Dune game and very little to do with the actual story in the award winning Dune novels, it did fit firmly in to the universe created by Frank Herbert.

Dune 2, in all its sandy glory.

With Dune 2 Westwood lay down the foundations of RTS fundamentals: Gather resources, build units, attack enemies; all at as fast and frantic a pace as you can muster. They also pioneered the use of a toolbar at the side, although higher functions such as rally points and unit queuing were but a twinkle in the eye at this point in time, with multiplayer options still being entirely non-existent.  Despite the simplicity however, Westwood set the bar high in many departments: Three well balanced foes, independent world events (Sandworms), an engrossing storyline and highly impressive graphics.  Time however has not been kind to Dune 2. The graphics have aged poorly, and the lack of commands that we’ve now become used to in modern RTS games sadly hampers any enjoyment that was once available in this title.  If you’ve never played it before, it might be worth giving it a try if you’re interested in the origins of RTS games, but if you have played it before I’d recommend you leave that memory safely locked in the past where it belongs... 

Dune 2000: Shiny, but a relic nontheless.

Westwood’s abysmal Dune 2000 later attempted to remake Dune 2 map for map and unit for unit, but the spark was no longer there. Using the now well and truly surpassed Red Alert game engine to remake a game that time had not been kind to was a decision which in retrospect didn’t pay off.  If the game’s release had been juxtaposed with that of Red Alert it might have been received as a fantastic game, but at this stage it just felt like a step back in time that did the opposite of what it was intended to do - honour the original RTS game.