It is often difficult to reconcile these ideas. For others, however, this is mind-numbingly boring and fast-paced battles against human opponents, where speed and precision are as important as tactical understanding, are their RTS essence.

Firstly, should micromanagement or macromanagement be emphasized? Secondly, how mechanically deep can the game be?įor some players, the RTS genre is at its best when you can spend an hour calmly building an army in an AI skirmish and then have it wipe out the enemy with a single attack move. The big split manifests itself primarily in two questions. It’s also more fragmented than the anti-Roman resistance groups in The Life of Brian – and that’s saying something. The RTS genre may be a small niche in the overall gaming ecosystem today, but there aren’t many communities that are more passionate. You can play Half-Life in its original incarnation on Steam, or you can try Black Mesa, an acclaimed fan-made update/remaster that is truly a labor of love.Which are the best real-time strategy games of all time? Ask that in the right circle and you’ll trigger an explosive debate that can go on for days. Its graphics are quite dated by now, but the gameplay remains superb - particularly the tense encounters with enemy grunts who will take cover and even try to flank you. Half-Life's creative creature designs, superb enemy A.I., palpably atmospheric setting, and masterful pacing all combined to make it an instant classic, quite possibly the best FPS of all time. Overseeing the proceedings is a mysterious G-Man who bears a striking similarity to The X-Files's Cigarette Smoking Man, and whose presence adds a frisson of government paranoia to the experience.

Before long, you're grappling with an invasion of hostile extraterrestrials - as well as soldiers whose job is to clean up the mess by eradicating anything that moves, friend or foe. You play Gordon Freeman, a mild-mannered nuclear physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility who gets caught up in a teleportation experiment gone horribly awry. Instead of just dropping the player into monster-filled levels, Half-Life slowly introduced its situations with in-engine cutscenes, expository dialogue, and deliberate-yet-relentless pacing. Half-Life brought a new level of storytelling panache to the still-young FPS genre.

Old pc rts games