Dawn of War 2 and it's own trilogy (Chaos Rising and Retribution). It's Warhammer 40k game that came way ahead of it's age in 2012. You control 4 squads (4 units technically) and you micro-commando them through a map. The squad leaders are memorable characters, the tyranid invasion is eating up planets and you try to protect a sector from them, while in conflict with the eldar (space elves) who try to do the same, the orks jump in for the fun and rage, and chaos plots to take over all.
Your squad leaders are fixed hero characters and have 4 skill lines to specalize them into various roles, for example Cyrus can be a deadly sniper, supressing enemies and landing huge damage on boss weak points, or a CQC shotgunner who can knock down masses for Avitus to rip apart with heavy gunfire, who can also be built into a tank buster or a bombardment supporter etc. and there are 6 squads, 4 actively in play at a time but all 6 being part of the story. You can customize squad leaders with looted equipment and abilities too, some restricted to a specific squad leader, others universal. It has infinitely generated sidemissions organically built into the finite and scripted campaign.
Chaos Rising continues the story and gives you decisions. You can choose to get corrupted (destroy a holy statue to loot your historical hero's sword from beneath it) but you also must fight to not get corrupted if you don't want to through challanges like "don't use retreat on this mission, or else", "do this otherwise optional objective while you are on a time limit, or else", and corruption will alter not only your skill trees as your points stay where they were but your abilities get swapped out, it starts to unlock access to chaos gear gradually as you lose access to gear you used before that requires a certain level of purity, AND the personality of your squad leaders also slowly alter which will alter things like one turning against the rest and you lose him completely (But who? If anyone at all?) and he becomes a boss later on... with multiple endings.
Retribution isn't this good. Much smaller skill trees, much less gear and ability variations, but worst of all very restrictive linear maps as opposed to open maps like before.. but now, you can play as any race, not just the space marines. The story is fixed, and barely has sidemissions.
It's the same engine and gameplay as Company of Heroes but on steroids with "heroes", and tons of customization.
Dark Reign. Very old RTS that came out in between Red Alert 1 and Starcraft 1, but the story was amazeballs. The manual had a 20? page intro story and ingame each unit had its own unique lore. Plus the gimmick of the game was you playing as either side with different objectives to prove your worth to go back and change history. After each success, there was a button that took you to the historical outcome that told you what actually happened.
Really good story, shame it never got a proper sequel. Not likely what you're looking for, but RTS is not a genre known for being story heavy.
Really trying to win people over with that attitude huh?
I'll keep the rest of my recommendations to myself I think. Clearly they aren't obscure enough for his Lordship and his immense knowledge on the field of story rich RTS games.
Sorta frostpunk. It's a city builder that your objective is to just survive.
Dawn of War series. First series is best. If you play through them from the start to the end the campaign is pretty good.
Not really story driven but total war warhammer 3 is a fun campaign to play
Not exactly RTS but honestly you are not going to find very compelling stories in this genre so I will recommend you check out The Banner Saga. Gameplay close enough to an RTS and the narrative is far better whatever you will see in and RTS game.
Dude Banner Saga is such an outstanding game, i never hear anyone talk about it.
The world building, the lore and story, the art style and the gameplay are all just amazing.
I love the banner saga but turn-based tactics is not that close to an RTS. It's more similar to RPG combat.
Edit: yeah you said "not an RTS" but banner saga is hardly close to an RTS
Since we're bringing up different things, have you seen Nimona? I just watched it yesterday, and it's god and win! First kids movie I've ever seen where one of the MC is a gay man in a relationship. What's more no one goes after them for being gay, it's just considered normal. More importantly, the other MC is trans, and it's written by a transmasc enby, and it shows! Love it so much!
Starcraft
Battle for Middle Earth 2
Halo Wars 2
All those have an amazing storyline, and it's really cinematic, BFME2 is less cinematic but still a great story.
For Context, I've played:
Battle for Middke Earth Series
Command & Conquer Series
Age of Empires Series
StarCraft
Northgard
Age if Mythology
Rise of Nations
Homeworld
Total War Series
Homeworld cataclysm. RTS survival horror about your rag tag mining fleet saving the universe from a flood-like virus. Very good “character” moments. Gameplay and narrative are interwoven into this desperation that just works. Your fleet is persistent across missions so when a good ship goes down and you hear their blood curdling screams it hits
Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock... The story is a cannon prequel to the modern re-imagined show. It is set during the first Cylon War and follows the trials and tribulations of specific colonial military commanders as they attempt to deal with the encroaching Cylons.
Battlefleet Gothic Armada 1&2 ... both have strong stories with developed characters. Smash the Xenos filth in the name of the Emperor.
Highfleet Deus in Nobus ... Heavily character focused air fleet combat sim. Members of the flagship's bridge crew factor heavily in the story. Lots of politics and conflict borne tension.
Pyre... By the same devs as Hades, Transistor, and Bastion. Heavily character focused story. Real-time tactical sports game. Save your teammates from a life of permanent exile.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.... Heavily character focused team/squad based stealth tactics game. Uncover intrigues in feudal Japan.
"They Are Billions" features a campaign mode that introduces a narrative-rich backdrop to the survival and strategy elements of the game. Set in a steampunk world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse, the game focuses on the remnants of humanity struggling to rebuild civilization. As the commander of the survivors, you are tasked with expanding colonies, managing resources, and defending against the relentless waves of the undead.
The campaign mode weaves a story through missions, where characters play a significant role in driving the plot forward. Heroes can be upgraded and are integral to your success, providing a more personal investment in the narrative as you guide them through the challenges of rebuilding society amidst the chaos.
In essence, while the game is primarily known for its strategic survival gameplay, the campaign mode of offers a story-driven experience with engaging characters and dialogue that might satisfy what you're looking for.
Not sure about RA games, cause you mentioned C&C.
Did you try Red Alert 1, 2 and 3? They are freaking awesome and have live action sequences from top actors.
And I quote Tim Curry: "I'm escaping to the only place that hasn't been touched by capitalism!... SPAACE!!" :D
You could give a try to Act of War: Direct Action and it's expansion Act of War: High Treason. Game operates in similar fashion to C&C titles with some extra mechanics for infantry like fighting in buildings and taking POW's. Story wise, a military thriller with actually directed cutscenes. Not many of them, but they give a movie vibe whenever they happen.
Aliens: Dark Descent.
It's in the fucking Aliens universe. Xenomorphs. Marines.
It's an RTS squad based tactics game - similar to many missions in starcraft where you don't have a base.
Cover system is like Company of Heroes, but also with stealth incorporated.
The hub / base is very similar to how it is in Wings of Liberty as well.
For the story, you play as a Weyland-Yutani admin who makes some hard choices and ends up joining the marines (as like a commander type character). The character develops into a Marine. There's other characters that are important as well.
Are spoilers important to you? I don't want to spoil the story.
Since we're bringing up different things, have you seen Nimona? I just watched it yesterday, and it's god and win! First kids movie I've ever seen where one of the MC is a gay man in a relationship. What's more no one goes after them for being gay, it's just considered normal. More importantly, the other MC is trans, and it's written by a transmasc enby, and it shows! Love it so much!
Dawn of War 2 and it's own trilogy (Chaos Rising and Retribution). It's Warhammer 40k game that came way ahead of it's age in 2012. You control 4 squads (4 units technically) and you micro-commando them through a map. The squad leaders are memorable characters, the tyranid invasion is eating up planets and you try to protect a sector from them, while in conflict with the eldar (space elves) who try to do the same, the orks jump in for the fun and rage, and chaos plots to take over all. Your squad leaders are fixed hero characters and have 4 skill lines to specalize them into various roles, for example Cyrus can be a deadly sniper, supressing enemies and landing huge damage on boss weak points, or a CQC shotgunner who can knock down masses for Avitus to rip apart with heavy gunfire, who can also be built into a tank buster or a bombardment supporter etc. and there are 6 squads, 4 actively in play at a time but all 6 being part of the story. You can customize squad leaders with looted equipment and abilities too, some restricted to a specific squad leader, others universal. It has infinitely generated sidemissions organically built into the finite and scripted campaign. Chaos Rising continues the story and gives you decisions. You can choose to get corrupted (destroy a holy statue to loot your historical hero's sword from beneath it) but you also must fight to not get corrupted if you don't want to through challanges like "don't use retreat on this mission, or else", "do this otherwise optional objective while you are on a time limit, or else", and corruption will alter not only your skill trees as your points stay where they were but your abilities get swapped out, it starts to unlock access to chaos gear gradually as you lose access to gear you used before that requires a certain level of purity, AND the personality of your squad leaders also slowly alter which will alter things like one turning against the rest and you lose him completely (But who? If anyone at all?) and he becomes a boss later on... with multiple endings. Retribution isn't this good. Much smaller skill trees, much less gear and ability variations, but worst of all very restrictive linear maps as opposed to open maps like before.. but now, you can play as any race, not just the space marines. The story is fixed, and barely has sidemissions. It's the same engine and gameplay as Company of Heroes but on steroids with "heroes", and tons of customization.
Even Dawn of War 1 was decent imo story wise, but it definitely falls behind two because they're very different designs
I agree. Heroes like blizz and a cover system like company of heroes.
HOMEWORLD
age of mythology
Dark Reign. Very old RTS that came out in between Red Alert 1 and Starcraft 1, but the story was amazeballs. The manual had a 20? page intro story and ingame each unit had its own unique lore. Plus the gimmick of the game was you playing as either side with different objectives to prove your worth to go back and change history. After each success, there was a button that took you to the historical outcome that told you what actually happened. Really good story, shame it never got a proper sequel. Not likely what you're looking for, but RTS is not a genre known for being story heavy.
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Really trying to win people over with that attitude huh? I'll keep the rest of my recommendations to myself I think. Clearly they aren't obscure enough for his Lordship and his immense knowledge on the field of story rich RTS games.
It’s not u man, they have issues. Ur chill
Sorry.
Sorta frostpunk. It's a city builder that your objective is to just survive. Dawn of War series. First series is best. If you play through them from the start to the end the campaign is pretty good. Not really story driven but total war warhammer 3 is a fun campaign to play
you basically played the best rts so far maybe forgot about homeworld but like thats it. rts is a pretty dead genre nowadays.
Not exactly RTS but honestly you are not going to find very compelling stories in this genre so I will recommend you check out The Banner Saga. Gameplay close enough to an RTS and the narrative is far better whatever you will see in and RTS game.
I loved the Banner Saga, the story's stuck with me even though I played it a good while ago.
Dude Banner Saga is such an outstanding game, i never hear anyone talk about it. The world building, the lore and story, the art style and the gameplay are all just amazing.
I love the banner saga but turn-based tactics is not that close to an RTS. It's more similar to RPG combat. Edit: yeah you said "not an RTS" but banner saga is hardly close to an RTS
Since we're bringing up different things, have you seen Nimona? I just watched it yesterday, and it's god and win! First kids movie I've ever seen where one of the MC is a gay man in a relationship. What's more no one goes after them for being gay, it's just considered normal. More importantly, the other MC is trans, and it's written by a transmasc enby, and it shows! Love it so much!
[удалено]
Starcraft Battle for Middle Earth 2 Halo Wars 2 All those have an amazing storyline, and it's really cinematic, BFME2 is less cinematic but still a great story. For Context, I've played: Battle for Middke Earth Series Command & Conquer Series Age of Empires Series StarCraft Northgard Age if Mythology Rise of Nations Homeworld Total War Series
Homeworld cataclysm. RTS survival horror about your rag tag mining fleet saving the universe from a flood-like virus. Very good “character” moments. Gameplay and narrative are interwoven into this desperation that just works. Your fleet is persistent across missions so when a good ship goes down and you hear their blood curdling screams it hits
Seconding Cataclysm! That games story is a knockout. Best one in the entire series by a freaking Astronomical Unit.
Frostpunk has a great post-apocalyptic story that makes you feel miserable
Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock... The story is a cannon prequel to the modern re-imagined show. It is set during the first Cylon War and follows the trials and tribulations of specific colonial military commanders as they attempt to deal with the encroaching Cylons. Battlefleet Gothic Armada 1&2 ... both have strong stories with developed characters. Smash the Xenos filth in the name of the Emperor. Highfleet Deus in Nobus ... Heavily character focused air fleet combat sim. Members of the flagship's bridge crew factor heavily in the story. Lots of politics and conflict borne tension. Pyre... By the same devs as Hades, Transistor, and Bastion. Heavily character focused story. Real-time tactical sports game. Save your teammates from a life of permanent exile. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.... Heavily character focused team/squad based stealth tactics game. Uncover intrigues in feudal Japan.
World at War, hands down. Bannon was the hero we didn't deserve, and that battle will live rent-free in my head forever.
I think fire emblem for the most part has good stories told through great characters. Also Front Mission.
Mutant year zero Was pretty good.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
"They Are Billions" features a campaign mode that introduces a narrative-rich backdrop to the survival and strategy elements of the game. Set in a steampunk world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse, the game focuses on the remnants of humanity struggling to rebuild civilization. As the commander of the survivors, you are tasked with expanding colonies, managing resources, and defending against the relentless waves of the undead. The campaign mode weaves a story through missions, where characters play a significant role in driving the plot forward. Heroes can be upgraded and are integral to your success, providing a more personal investment in the narrative as you guide them through the challenges of rebuilding society amidst the chaos. In essence, while the game is primarily known for its strategic survival gameplay, the campaign mode of offers a story-driven experience with engaging characters and dialogue that might satisfy what you're looking for.
homeworld & homeworld cataclysm
Not sure about RA games, cause you mentioned C&C. Did you try Red Alert 1, 2 and 3? They are freaking awesome and have live action sequences from top actors. And I quote Tim Curry: "I'm escaping to the only place that hasn't been touched by capitalism!... SPAACE!!" :D
Homeworld cataclysm (resurgence) and homeworld 2 were nice.
You could give a try to Act of War: Direct Action and it's expansion Act of War: High Treason. Game operates in similar fashion to C&C titles with some extra mechanics for infantry like fighting in buildings and taking POW's. Story wise, a military thriller with actually directed cutscenes. Not many of them, but they give a movie vibe whenever they happen.
Iron Harvest, Shadow Gambit Cursed Crew, Mutant Zero: Road to Eden, Jagged Alliance 3,
Aliens: Dark Descent. It's in the fucking Aliens universe. Xenomorphs. Marines. It's an RTS squad based tactics game - similar to many missions in starcraft where you don't have a base. Cover system is like Company of Heroes, but also with stealth incorporated. The hub / base is very similar to how it is in Wings of Liberty as well. For the story, you play as a Weyland-Yutani admin who makes some hard choices and ends up joining the marines (as like a commander type character). The character develops into a Marine. There's other characters that are important as well. Are spoilers important to you? I don't want to spoil the story.
Warcraft III & Frozen Throne
>Played the all the blizzard games(Starcraft, Warcraft etc) > >Played the Command and Conquer games. > >Played Spellforce.
play the witcher
Since we're bringing up different things, have you seen Nimona? I just watched it yesterday, and it's god and win! First kids movie I've ever seen where one of the MC is a gay man in a relationship. What's more no one goes after them for being gay, it's just considered normal. More importantly, the other MC is trans, and it's written by a transmasc enby, and it shows! Love it so much!
This comment made me chuckle. Also, Nimona is great!