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What are the best single player RTS games (good campaign, story)?

zoodoo

zoodoo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,580
Montreal
I haven't played a RTS game on pc since the 90's so I've been out of the loop. Even back then I barely played them and never finished any. I played a bit of C&C, StarCraft and Age of Empires. Of those 3, I remember StarCraft holding my attention the most with its sci-fi story. So what are the RTS games with great campaign mode?

Edit: the last RTS game I've played was Halo Wars on 360 and loved it
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
47,552
Age of Empires II and Starcraft to me, played hundreds of hours without touching MP.
 
Baseline

Baseline

Member
Jun 1, 2019
177
Portland, OR
Homeworld Remastered, Homeworld Deserts of Kharak. And even though the story of Starcraft 2 is meh, the campaign is a lot of fun for all 3 parts
 
cowbanana

cowbanana

Member
Feb 2, 2018
14,992
a Socialist Utopia
The original StarCraft has a fantastic campaign. The sequel is a great game, but the story goes full fan fic in the worst way, just terrible.

The Red Alert games are great, especially Red Alert 2. The old Command and Conquer games were all pretty good.
 
DaciaJC

DaciaJC

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,685
I quite enjoyed the Age of Empires III campaigns. The vanilla campaign covers three generations of a fictional family in American history. Some fun scenarios and nice story to hold it all together.
 
jtb

jtb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,066
cowbanana said:
The original StarCraft has a fantastic campaign. The sequel is a great game, but the story goes full fan fic in the worst way, just terrible.

The Red Alert games are great, especially Red Alert 2. The old Command and Conquer games were all pretty good.
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So, so bad. Especially as a follow-up to the pulpy goodness that was Brood War
 
FarSight XR-20

FarSight XR-20

Member
Jan 4, 2018
8,988
Napoleon Total War (Europe campaign). Only the battles are in real time though but the replay value of the single player is high.

and Halo Wars 2 + Awakening the Nightmare expansion.

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Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
Starcraft 2 has the best campaigns I have played in RTS. Storywise, they are the worst. If you can ignore them, you will enjoy them.

Most Command & Conquer games also have an interesting single-player campaign. Red Alert 2 and Generals are my favorites.

I also enjoy Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Dark Crusade campaign. You choose where to attack and enemies can attack your territories. Buildings you built are still there when they attack.
 
Maturin

Maturin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,248
Europe
I loved World In Conflict back in the day. Don't know if it's held up. Liked the humour in the story. And the nukes.
 
Xwing

Xwing

This guy are sick of the unshakeable slayer
Member
Nov 11, 2017
10,819
FarSight XR-20 said:
Napoleon Total War (Europe campaign). Only the battles are in real time though but the replay value of the single player is high.

and Halo Wars 2 + Awakening the Nightmare expansion.

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Halo Wars 2 is a ton of fun. A little more complex than the first game, but a better overall story experience imo.
 
Doomguy Fieri

Doomguy Fieri

Member
Nov 3, 2017
5,540
It's StarCraft 2 and it's not even close. There is no other game in the genre that delivers the scope, mission variety, and production values like SC2. Story has some weird beats (like Saturday morning cartoon plots) but the voice acting and characters are a lot of fun.
 
cowbanana

cowbanana

Member
Feb 2, 2018
14,992
a Socialist Utopia
Universe at War: Earth Assault was pretty interesting. I remember having some issues with the game (not technical), but I can't remember what (lol). I do remember that the campaign was interesting with some fairly unique factions. I just vaguely remember some wastad potential in some areas.
 
Tagyhag

Tagyhag

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,791
Lots of good recommendations already. Nice shoutout to Sacrifice too!

I would highly recommend the AOE 2 DE campaigns, stories aren't great but content and gameplay-wise there is a ton there.

UnluckyKate said:
Starcraft 2 is still king of a dead genre.

It has 3 amazing campaings + a bonus one
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Just cause Starcraft is dead doesn't mean the genre is. :P
 
Omnipotent

Omnipotent

User requested ban
Banned
Feb 28, 2021
1,428
Ryuelli said:
I'm pretty sure the campaign is fine, it's the multiplayer side that is garbage. WC3: Reforged is one of the few Blizzard games I haven't played though, so take that with a grain of salt.
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The campaign is fine, what people don't/didn't like about it is the fact that the final release of the game changed a lot from what was shown at reveal, significantly less ambitious. Apparently that was due to budget cuts, feedback from fans and internal fights within the studio on which direction they should go. Ultimately what should have been a much more ambitious release with new visuals in addition to remade cutscenes both in game and CG and lore and design changes to make the game more in line with modern WoW (This in particular was what many people didn't like) was just the same game with new visuals in an artstyle not everyone is a fan of. I think there may have also been some balance differences between the expansion and the vanilla game that weren't there in the original.
 
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