From Evan Ling, the author: "In my early days, I’d always imagine playing the original Starcraft from a marine’s perspective. What if I could bring to bear my skills in first person shooters on a real time strategy battlefield and make all the difference in a war? I don’t want to feel like some standard grunt with a C14 gauss rifle, I want to be a stimmed up Jim Raynor spraying, praying, killing, and winning the game. The daunting undertaking of this objective is one that many a reputable developer has tried, and failed. DICE did it with Battlefield 2 but decided to remove the commander role and give power back to the soldiers in their latest iterations, whereas Valve tried to do it in Team Fortress 2 but struggled with the power dynamic between soldiers and commanders that they decided to remove the commander role entirely. It’s this power dynamic that many developers have struggled to find a balance of to make both the shooters and the strategists happy in their own realms. It’s also the same power dynamic where Nuclear Dawn seriously struggles to mix the FPS/RTS genres together."
RTS; it's a beloved genre...but it's in dire need of originality or it risks being consigned to a small pool of fans.
In my opinion, they have evolved and become more complicated. Way back in the day with command and conquer games, they were easier to pick up and play. I’ll actually go further back to a $70 Super Nintendo game called “Metal Marines”. Not sure if I’m off the mark, but these cellphone, real time strategy games become overwhelming quickly to me. There’s too much going on at once and it turns me off. Not sure if there are any on consoles to be honest. If there is a RTS that is on PS4, I’m open to the recommendation
Metal marines... what a game, and Herzog Zwei too.
Ensemble Studios and Westwood closing spelt absolute disaster for RTS games, with exception of blizzard, no one made any real good ones. Microsoft and EA ruined two top franchises before closing the studio. such a shame
Over complicated. Dawn of War 1 was almost the perfect rts, its all been downhill since.
This week’s Humble Bundle focuses on the works of Iceberg Interactive.
Interwave Studio’s FPS/RTS hybrid Nuclear Dawn (Linux/Mac/Windows), has received a new update on the Steam platform this weekend.
Nuclear Dawn is the first game to offer a full FPS and RTS experience, within a single gameplay model, without crippling or diluting either side of the game.
OMG about time. will have to HAPPILY BOOT this back up this weekend. such an excellent game. full blown RTS and FPS MP experience.
the video sucks as it only briefly shows the RTS part. Trust this is a full blown FPS using the Source Engine so xpect Half Life 2 / Counter Strike mechanics and a very competitive FPS experience plus the RTS part to bring in an even HIGHER level of strategic gameplay as the map changes a lot depending on tactics.
