Strategy

Panzer Corps Review

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The transition from the tabletop to the computer screen hasn’t always been easy. Some war games eschew everything that makes tabletop great. Others stick too close to the formula, forgetting … Read more

Fun Real-time strategy (RTS) Games

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Video games allow players a chance to take basic gaming concepts and expand them out to their natural conclusions. Gamers have been playing at war from the earliest days of the PC, taking the games they loved on the tabletop and finding new ways to interact with those same mechanics. When it comes to war, the obvious solution was to put pieces in motion. Instead of taking turns, players would be able to guide units while they were in motion. Once games started moving into real time, war games would never be the same.

The real time strategy genre has become more popular over the years, especially now that the internet can connect players from across the world. These games are a combination of strategy and learning, in which players must know must their opponents and the systems of the game. These games require the ability to manage an economy and an army all at once, putting any player’s skills to the test. Even those who play only casually will admit that RTS games require a great deal of brainpower.

Looking at the growth of the RTS genre can be an interesting exercise. Certain concepts start off as novel, then become the norm, and are finally found obsolete. As these games grow, so too do the ways that they are played.

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From Total Annihilation to Spring RTS

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The RTS genre of games isn’t quite dead, but at times it seems like it might be.

Sure, you still have games out there like StarCraft 2 that have a thriving competitive scene, but those games are few and far between.

The audience for RTS games has been cannibalized by Grand Strategy and MOBA games, and it can often feel like it’s never going to come back.

Fortunately, all the games that players used to love haven’t gone anywhere.

Total Annihilation was a huge hit when it released and it has a thriving community even today. Sure, it’s not getting airplay on major networks, but people still love it. Figuring out why people still love this aging game might be the key to bringing back the real time strategy as a genre.

So, what made TA so great? It’s one of those rare games that was greater than the sum of its parts. Those parts were, of course, amazing in their own right as well.

It’s also interesting to watch the progress of Total Annihilation and its eventual evolution. The Spring RTS engine is another one of those key elements that might go a long way towards reviving a once-proud genre.

What’s certain, though, is that Total Annihilation had a huge impact on the gaming world. It’s time that it gets the respect that it deserves.

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