Simulating Tyranny
Simulating Tyranny
Is the RTS on its way out?
Following the disappointment of Command & Conquer 4, Greg Giddens takes a look at the RTS genre and what it means to him.
This month saw the release of the conclusion to the Command and Conquer: Tiberian saga, and my initial thoughts were ones of sorrow: “this is the end of an era.” It also sparked the worry that this could well be the end of the RTS genre, a genre which has seemed, to me at least, to be in decline over the last few years.
The Total War series has been releasing a steady stream of iterations, Supreme Commander 2 has just been released, and later this year Starcraft 2 is set to hit the shelves, so the genre certainly isn’t disappearing – but for a moment there I felt like it was.
It’s strange; perhaps it’s more about the impact of the genre which gives the false impression of its decline. Little has been done to mix up the formula lately. End War did a great job with the addition of a remarkably ambitious yet fully functioning voice control system, a method oddly not used since, but its ‘rock, paper, scissors’ tactics held back any significant growth in the genres evolution. The basic structure of RTS titles remains the same as it always has been. Nothing is evolving to get people excited about the genre any more. Perhaps Starcraft 2 will change that – the first one is widely regarded as an all-time classic – but if, God forbid, it fails to impress, with Command & Conquer already dropping the ball the damage of two RTS titans falling could leave the genre with no modern inspirational figures.
I for one would hate to see the genre begin to fade. I’m still upset about the near-extinction of the god simulators; I truly believe Populous 2: Two Tribes to be one the finest games in history. Perhaps I’m jumping the gun a little. Right now the RTS genre is still going strong, and even a vestige of the god simulator remains – Darwinia is evidence of that. But with each passing month the genre’s strength attenuates; the time between releases of the RTS leaders is too great, and developers are failing to expand on their games’potential.
Indifference
With no growth comes no excitement, and this is apparent in my interest in the genre as well. Despite my love of the series, I wasn’t aware of the release date for Command & Conquer 4 until being assigned the review. I hadn’t actively researched any information about any upcoming RTS titles for what seems like an eternity, and if I’m not overly bothered about upcoming strategy releases when I’m a self-confessed strategy nut, then it’s clear the current crop of titles isn’t fulfilling my wants and needs.
A spark is required to ignite the RTS once again. Command & Conquer’s disappointing conclusion has doused any remaining flames in many RTS enthusiasts, so it’s up to the likes of Starcraft 2 and other titles on the horizon to relieve us from our despair. Developers need to get creative and ambitious with the genre, and we all know they have it in them; Halo Wars is proof of that, with its console-friendly controls and cross genre theme.
With studios like Ensemble disappearing, there is plenty of room for other developers with strong titles to fill the void. I want to see new IPs and new developers giving it a try; to see them shake things up and strengthen the genre once again.
It turns out you all need the RTS genre to survive, as well, since it’s directly tied to the survival of civilisation as you know it. The reason being, I have an urge to conquer, and if this urge isn’t met by games then I’ll have little choice but to take it out on the real world. Imagine it: my armies sweeping across nations, removing all autonomy and replacing it with my will. It would be a better world; I would raise it to a new level, and I would become a god…
I’ve been playing a lot of Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising lately, but the online community for that is hardly burgeoning. But it’s definitely worth a look and I’m always around for games if you’re interested.
I agree, though: the RTS genre is in a bit of a weird spot. I blame Blizzard. I have no doubt whatsoever that StarCraft II will be fantastic and sell a jillion million copies, it’s just that other developers seem to feel like they can’t compete and then they end up making Command & Conquer 4 without enough time and money.
One of the other big problems, as far as I’m concerned, is in their remarkably high difficulty levels. If you’re a new player trying to play a bit of SupComm or DoWII online you’re just going to get repeatedly obliterated. I don’t have any suggestions for how to fix that, but what the genre needs is its own Street Fighter IV. Which, coincidentially, is what I think StarCraft II will be.
C&C 4 may be a bad game, but I’m not sure it gives us cause to fear for the health of the genre. From my experience with the beta so far, RUSE seems like a refreshing change of pace. Demigod is very different from traditional RTSs, and might be worth a look if the genre fills you with ennui. Sins of Solar Empire keeps evolving, and the Diplomacy expansion opens up some really interesting lines of play. Majesty 2 takes direct control away from the player, which means it plays very differently from its cousins.
I think any of these might provide respite from RTS fatigue, and seem like evidence that the genre is in more robust health than you make it sound. I’m surprised to hear that you think the genre is lacking in creativity in ambition. I see lots of interesting evolutionary paths being pursued right now. What do you feel is missing?
I grew up on RTS games, playing Dune 2 on the Amiga and then moving into Total Annihilation and the C&C Red Alert on the PC. I’ve tried most of the big “classic” franchises from Age of empires to Warcraft, from Supreme Commander to the Lord of The Rings RTS. I noticed that as time went on, the “core” RTS games became rather, uhm, dull and didn’t feel like they had progressed much since the early years. The basic game was still the same – pick a side, go out harvesting resources, build a base, charge up the tech tree and eventually try and waste the other opponent.
One franchise which I have enjoyed is the Warhammer 40k Dawn Of War – it made the game a bit more strategic. Resources became points that you had to capture and hold – loss of a point hurt you hard and you had to recover it else you’d be pretty much done. But ultimately it was still about teching up before everyone else or creating a huge but weak army to zerg rush your opponent and crush them under numbers. Like others, DoW suffered badly from the early rush. You could effectively cripple someone with a well-timed early strike.
The only real diversification in the RTS genre these days is the blending of it with the 4X genre, making games like Total War and Sins of a Solar Empire which have a layer of depth higher than the basic RTS, or the shift into games like Dawn of War 2 wherein you have small squads of very specialised units that you have use well to win – they’ve almost become RTS/RPG hybrids.
Like you, I don’t know what RTS games are on the horizon. I wasn’t aware of Supreme Commander 2 until a week before release and even then I didn’t buy it. Same with Command and Conquer 4 – I’m not interested enough to buy it, maybe in 9 months in the Xmas Steam sale I will.
I guess my problem with the “classic” RTS is that the genre feels as it’s gone stale due to lack of imagination. There’s only so many times you can build a base and fight against opponents who have very few actual differences to you. But then again one could argue that too much imagination would change what we think of as being a “classic” RTS. You could be right, maybe the classic RTS has been left behind.
Martin – I really enjoyed DOW 2, and intend to pick up the expansion any time now. I will certainly give you a game when I get it.
You’re absolutely right about the difficulty issue with many RTS titles. Recent titles from Paradox in particular have been incredibly difficult and suffer for it by alienating many potential players.
Rob – Sins of a solar empire is certainly one of the most impressive space RTS titles I’ve played since Imperium Galactica 2 but I’m a hard one to please, I must admit, so what’s missing for me are things like treaties, huge scale, the ability to save multiplayer games, and although some achieve these things, seldom few bring them all together. What I want is an RTS where I can play one ‘battle’ over the course of a month, with constantly shifting treaties and alliances, ever increasing technology and research, a seemingly limitless experience. It’s a lot to ask I know but it’s an achievable game build. So really I want to see are new RTS leaders take centre stage and bring the classic RTS setup with it but with more innovations and depth.
Oli – Your right, the core experience of base building and resource gathering did become stale with so many developers simply copy pasting the experience from one game to another. However, I personally love the base building and the growing tension before the first large-scale skirmish; it’s why I keep going back to Age of Empire 2. So whilst I’d like to see more imaginative features in RTS titles I want to see some of the classic feature remain in some form.