Command, Conquer, and Friend.

September 12, 2011 12:10 AM

Looking for recommendations for modern (but not futuristic/space opera-y) social/multiplayer war games.

Lately I have been having fond memories of playing Command and Conquer (the first one, which according to Wikipedia was also called Tiberian Dawn) on Playstation. At the same time, I'm watching my girlfriend play Gardens of Time on Facebook. While the components and theme don't interest me, the mechanics do. So now I'm wondering if I can combine the two.

So I Googled quite a bit for multiplayer war games but the results were hazy or missed the mark. I'm looking for a game set in semi-contemporary times (I'd say World War I to present), but instead I found a lot of fantasy/medieval stuff, or space-based stuff. I'm more interested in somethng with a shade of realism than those things.

So do you have any recommendations for me? It doesn't have to be on Facebook, but that'd be a plus. Thanks in advance, hive mind!

posted by mreleganza to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

I don't know anything about Gardens of Time, but maybe Empires and Allies?
posted by juv3nal at 2:27 AM on September 12, 2011

I think what you're looking for is Real Time Simulation or RTS as a keyword (That's what Command and Conquer is, don't know what Gardens of Time is). There have been an awful lot of them.
posted by RustyBrooks at 6:02 AM on September 12, 2011

I'd recommend Empire: Total War. It's set a bit before the time period you mentioned (18/19th century), but it's top-notch on the realism axis.
posted by yarmond at 6:08 AM on September 12, 2011

Clarifying question:

Are you interested in being the commanding general, directing lots of units from on high, or are you interested in a squad level or first-person level combat in a modern setting?

If the former, then yes you're looking at the RTS genre as RustyBrooks says. If the latter, maybe you'd be interested in something like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

One interesting hybrid is Company of Heroes which is broadly an RTS but has a focus on squad-level combat, where you may only be focusing on a few units in some situations.
posted by Wretch729 at 8:24 AM on September 12, 2011

Company of Heroes
World in Conflict

Both of them have demos on Steam.
posted by dgeiser13 at 8:25 AM on September 12, 2011

Could you perhaps clarify what Gardens of Time has to do with this question? It's apparently a "hidden object" game, where you look at a (near) static image and click on objects to score points. I am not at all sure, how you would combine that with an RTS (real-time strategy) game like C&C. I mean, there's Revenge of the Titans which definitely combines the RTS genre with the "click on stuff" genre, but that genre as exemplified by this studio's other entry City of Wonder, not so much Gardens of Time. RotT is, however, more space-agey, in a faux-50s, rocketships and rayguns kind of way.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:05 AM on September 12, 2011

This time last year saw the release of "R.U.S.E.," a WWII RTS with some dramatic visuals, but the twist on the gameplay was that you could deceive your enemy's view of your units by earning and playing ruses that either reveal enemy movement, hide your own, or feed the enemy false info. This is in addition to the fog of war, I presume. It was a bit of budget release, I think, so I'm not sure how much of a player community there is, but the game is one of the first to take information warfare seriously.

You should also take a look at Introversion's game "Defcon" ("Everybody Dies."), a playable version of Global Thermonuclear War from the movie "War Games." Form alliances to share DEW Radar coverage and defenses. Players share control of the clock so they can set up their assets (radars, silos, fleets, defenses) and then the clock descends from Defcon 5 to 1, with new RoE opening up with each new change. The goal is to finish the game with the highest population of civilian survivors.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:04 AM on September 12, 2011

I have been addicted to World of Tanks lately http://www.worldoftanks.com and it's way better than its name implies. It's sort-of a first person shooter with a heavy strategic/non-twitch element and vehicle/crew progressions and in-game economy packaged together in a compelling free to pay game. You can play all relevant aspects of the game without paying indefinitely, just 'unlocking' higher tier tanks will be slower than pay people, but in the end if you are heads-up you can have a fair round in game that is fun all the time without spending a penny. That being said I happily spent some money in game for fun.

If you check it out mefi mail me and maybe we can hook up in game and I can help you through the initial learning aches.
posted by BurnMage at 3:42 PM on September 12, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks guys; keep 'em coming.

Wretch279: Definitely the former; I don't have a problem with a FPS element, but I don't consider myself very good at it and don't like it as much playing General/God/Whatever

Adamschneider: Sorry to be confusing. I actually do not like the little find-the-object minigame in GoT, in fact that's one of the main reasons I've played it. What I like is, "Accomplish Task, or at least part of a task, get rewarded for it, and that reward gives you the capital to build new things. That's what it has in common with C&C: Collect Tiberium, protect your harvester, build new weapons.
posted by mreleganza at 4:27 PM on September 12, 2011