[warpspin]

I loved Red Alert 2 so much at release. Always was the pinnacle of (single player) RTS for me. The over-the-top characters, the cheesy story, the terrain interactions...

Everything afterwards felt lame and was geared too much towards multiplayer balance, which does not interest me the least.

[ecshafer]

Starcraft becoming uber popular in Korea I think really hurt the RTS genre. I did play RTS games online when I was younger. But I think you're right, Everything went from lets make a fun game with a cool campaign, to lets make an Esport. Company of Heroes 1 to 3, Dawn of War 1 to 2, Age of Empires 1,2,3 vs 4. You can really see this.

[emaro]

I think the campaigns of StarCraft II are amazing (never played Broodwar unfortunately). However I kinda agree that StarCraft's success hurt the RTS genre, because it's just so freaking good. 15 years since release and there are still tournaments played, it's fun to watch and projects like Stormgate have a really hard time, because SC2 is the bar and it's super difficult to reach. In terms of unit legibility, responsiveness, balance, etc. The bad thing is, it's not an approachable game at all, it mainly is interesting in the competitive/eSport scene.

If I watch YT videos a la "New RTS games 2025/2026" there are very interesting projects which give me hope that SC2 is not the end of RTS games.

[npteljes]

Genres also come and go. Arena shooters are also out for a long time, compared to 95-2005. Or point and click adventure games. I think there are a huge amount of players who are genre agnostic, or, not even "gamers", and just jump from one type of fun to the next.

[iamacyborg]

DoW 2 is great, DoW 3 on the other hand…

[fooker]

We still play Company of Heroes 1 as a LAN party game, after almost two decades. It's interesting to see the graphics and gameplay hold up pretty well.

It was sad to see the slow and steady enshittification with 2 and 3. The online community is pretty toxic too.

[teeray]

> The over-the-top characters, the cheesy story

I love that they don't take themselves too seriously in this series. RA3 had some hilarious cutscenes with characters barely holding it together (the Soviet Premier was an underrated Tim Curry role IMO).

[Anon_troll]

It's a shame the campaign of RA3 was boring. They got the theme and cutscenes right, but the campaign missions were rather slow, generic and forgettable.

It's the opposite of C&C3, which had a good campaign but the theme was a step back from the scifi of Tiberian Sun. Especially the GDI/NOD units were way less futuristic, and the alien ones were a bit too similar to each other in style. The cutscenes were also mostly boring compared to earlier games.

If I recall correctly, the expansion pack for C&C3 was much more interesting in these aspects, but the gameplay suffered.

[Xelbair]

"I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism,

barely holds laughter back and takes a break

SPACE!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Sq1Nr58hM

[tomaskafka]

Absolutely! I don't have time to play a RTS campaign, but I watched the RA3 story cutscenes and they are the top of the genre.

[hkt]

"I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... SPAAACE!"

A more innocent time tbh

[jayd16]

There's a lot of things going against the RTS genre.

They're technically challenging to make and creatively hard to balance.

The public doesn't want to pay $60 upfront for a campaign when fun freemium games exist.

The UX does not work well on controller so a huge amount of console players will be out of reach.

Games tend to be quite long and because it's not team play matchmaking matters a lot. This push multiplayer into being highly competitive and not pushes out the casual players.

Seems like Clash Royale likes are the best we've come up with to modernize the genre but of course its very different.

[tshaddox]

It was so fun even just as a sandbox. Like Age of Empires 2, they somehow just got the feel of everything so perfect. Deploying G.I.'s in sandbags and getting them promoted to veteran, so fun! Chaining prism towers, how delightful!

[nkrisc]

RA2 was loads of fun played with a friend over LAN against many computer opponents.

We’d start the game up in one computer, then pop the CD out and start it up in the next one, and so on.

[OptionOfT]

Doesn't RA2 check serials over network?

I do remember having to install IPX to play over LAN.

[jajuuka]

I got really into C&C with Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 was a big change but I fell in love with it for the same reasons you mentioned. It's been the most disappointing part of seeing them open source all the old games. That this amazing game AND Tiberian Sun won't be part of it because they lost the code.

The "we made units this way because it's fun" philosophy is sorely missed. Every game feels like it goes through a tuning phase just for esports. Even if the game isn't out yet.

[patates]

rules.ini and rulesmd.ini are the 2 text files, in my life, I've spent the most time with.

I'd probably lose another week if I had easy access to RA2 modding. Or let's say "experimenting and watching the AI burn" not to disrespect the real modders.