Suggestion for a Real-time strategy game to play with my GF

December 17, 2007 1:57 PM

Suggestion for a Real-time strategy game to play with my GF

Hey guys,

I am trying to find a strategy game to play with my girlfriend, here are the criteria :
- can play multiplayer in cooperative mode
- multiplayer can play against the computer
- real-time
- includes maintaining economy/resources
- spawning units, buildings
- not too much "wary" (like command & conquer)

This week-end we tried Populous III and it was good except the fact that we can't really play cooperative games against the computer.

Games I have in mind are :
- Black and White
- Warcraft III

But I am really seeking some recommendations. I found a post in here recommending CivIV, but it is NOT real time.

Thank you.

V.

posted by V-Turn to computers & internet (19 comments total)

Starcraft
posted by overhauser at 1:59 PM on December 17, 2007

Supreme Commander
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:00 PM on December 17, 2007

Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:01 PM on December 17, 2007

Total Annhilation
posted by bigmusic at 2:09 PM on December 17, 2007

Age of Empires III would fit those requirements.
posted by pompomtom at 2:09 PM on December 17, 2007

Black & White is pretty slow-paced and can be a bit cryptic. Unless you're both relatively comfortable with RTS games, that's probably not what you're looking for.

Go with WarCraft III. It's accessible, isn't war-ish in a modern sense (i.e. the only real units with guns are rather comical) and there are tons of mods (like DotA mentioned above) that can change the gameplay experience pretty dramatically.

Starcraft is very similar, except the sci-fi theme is a bit more war-ish and there aren't as many mods are there are for WC3.

Age of Empire III is also good, aside from that it's a bit war-ish. But it's old-timey combat, so that might be more palatable.
posted by Nelsormensch at 2:14 PM on December 17, 2007

My girlfriend and I enjoy the same kind of thing.

We really dig on Warcraft 3. We've pretty much played it to death, unfortunately. It seems to fit the bill more than any other game we've played to date, and we've played a lot of them.

We've moved on to Supreme Commander, but that's, I mean, a really, *really* hardcore RTS - this is not a "girls aren't good at math" kind of answer, but if she doesn't have extensive RTS experience, especially with queuing commands and using waypoints, then there will be a learning curve, and, by extension, the same can be said for you.

Other games we've tried?

Age of Empires 3 was a lot of fun, as was Dawn of War, and both can be picked up for relatively cheap.

Starcraft is good, but the AI has no difficulty setting, and it just seemed to steamroll my ladyfriend whenever we'd try to play it, as she was new to the RTS domain. In fact, that encapsulates part of the problem I have with most of these scenarios. RTS computer opponents seem to either be exceedingly lame or totally dominating - there's very little middle ground.
posted by kbanas at 2:15 PM on December 17, 2007

Oh, I guess I didn't read. Dawn of War will probably not fit your criteria, as it's pretty heavy on the "War" part.

I mean, Warcraft 3 is pretty much perfect, so I find myself looking at derivatives in that vein (only because I've played Warcraft 3 and the Frozen Throne to death) - for example, there have been a couple of Lord of the Rings RTS games that I've been tempted to try.
posted by kbanas at 2:18 PM on December 17, 2007

Also, I really have to second what Nelsormensch said about Black and White.

Sure, it seems like a neat idea, but I've never been able to finish a game. I (and my opponent) usually lose all patience and interest long before that point. This could just be that I happen to be terrible at Black and White, but honestly, I don't think it is. I think Black and White is just an awesome idea that faltered in execution.
posted by kbanas at 2:34 PM on December 17, 2007

In the short time I got to play it, I found Lord of the Rings - Battle for Middle Earth II quite enjoyable. The developers did a fine job of picking and choosing just the right elements to *ahem* borrow from other games, and the learning curve was quite gentle.

I would have liked more playtime spent on resource management, but the game compensates with a pretty fun "node" system for building walls and defenses. There's lots of factions and hero units to play with, a generous selection of maps, and the graphics are wonderful.

WarCraft III or Starcraft would also be a great. Blizzard's RTS games are where most of today's players first earned their stripes, and make fantastic 'primers' for the entire genre. They also set quite a high bar for later games.

I know you're not looking for something with a bunch of guns, and I can respect that. But I feel that you should at least try a demo of Company of Heroes. That game is utterly airtight, and so fun that you may well decide to make an exception to the 'wary' disqualifier.
posted by EatTheWeak at 2:49 PM on December 17, 2007

Empire Earth (I think there's a "II" out also)
posted by clanger at 2:57 PM on December 17, 2007

Company of heroes is excellent.
posted by iamabot at 3:02 PM on December 17, 2007

Hey, thanks for so many quick replies! I think we'll give Warcraft III a go, but can you actually confirm that she and I will actually be able to team against the computer? I've looked at the website and there actually seem to be tons of different multiplayer games. However I wasn't able to configm that.

Those games are a bargain on ebay, but I just don't want to wait and be disappointed.

Thank you again.

V.
posted by V-Turn at 3:05 PM on December 17, 2007

You can definitely team up in WCIII. It's wonderful fun.
posted by EatTheWeak at 3:10 PM on December 17, 2007

Where is the love for Rise of Nations (or RON: Thrones and Patriots)? I hate giving my money to Microsoft - but dang - there's a product where they got RTS right! Give it a shot - you can usually find it on the cheap and internet play and stand-alone play is a lot of fun.
posted by mctsonic at 3:36 PM on December 17, 2007

Seconding Rise of Nations. You can play cooperatively against the computer, and there are victory conditions that involve building Wonders of the World, not just annihilating your opponents. Coop mode isn't limited to teams, either. You can each be involved in running a single nation.
posted by Dr. Grue at 4:10 PM on December 17, 2007

Commandos
Endless gameplay, memorable characters, good catchphrases. A tad sausage-heavy.
posted by sushiwiththejury at 4:17 PM on December 17, 2007

Don't forget to download maps/scenarios for WC3. :D I've killed many an afternoon with Tower Defense.

Also, if you're going to play DotA (and you need to play DotA, if you're going to play WC3) you'll want to get one of the earlier maps. The newest maps have an AI that knows how to play and unless you also know how to play, you're going to get your face handed to you.
posted by reebear at 5:01 PM on December 17, 2007

Just adding some comment here. Last week-end we played both Warcraft III and Rise of Nations (RoN), and the latter was the one we enjoyed the most. The reason was that it was less wary than Warcraft III.

I was really baffled by the number of multiplayer games options in RoN, this allowed us with some tweaking to balance the games against the computer opponents and play a bunch of different scenarii.

Great fun, really!

Now I'm looking for a RTS game where two people could control the same team together (in RoN or Warcraft III we can team up, but we are still separate nations), does anybody knows if that exist? I'll post a separate question about that (I'll have to wait a few hours because of the "one-week" quota), actually.

V.
posted by V-Turn at 1:33 AM on December 24, 2007