You get the RoN expansion too, as well as Twitch support, and comprehensive modern multiplayer (Steam based). You'll have some upgraded visuals in some ways, but realize they haven't made the whole thing a modern textured title or anything.
Rise of Nations Extended Edition is another from the heritage of the recent "remake/upgrade" paradigm that the Age of Empires series has gone through recently (with AoE2 HD and its expansions, Age of Mythology Extended Edition etc.). DoW2 Retribution itself has an absolute fuckton of DLC, but it is often affordable especially on sale. Note that there are 2 other DoW games (the original DoW2 and the Chaos expansion) which each have campaigns that can be picked up for cheap. This is one thing that annoys me about the "old school / StarCraft" paradigm of huge armies of peons that require tons of micromanagement I really wish more games would embrace less micro-heavy play the way that DoW2 Retribution does so. are activatable and somewhat up to you, but your soldiers will generally crouch smartly if you click where there "green or yellow" cover indicators are, will fire if a hostile appears during travel, and generally make decisions you expect of trained soldiers unless you tell them to do otherwise. Sure, you give directions and things like using special abilities, tactical placement, cover etc. and most importantly, these squads (which are actually named after the main soldier in each unit, but there are others that are visual identifiers of how much health the guy has left ) actually FEEL like commanding soldiers, not a cloud of idiots who have to be told what to shoot. Some feel that the lack of heavy base building impairs it and while I could go the other way, I really like the idea that you have only a handful of controllable squads, each of which are upgraded RPG style with equipment,XP etc. Note that if you like CnC and aren't adverse to spending a tiny amount, Red Alert 3 and its expansion are on Steam, typically for really cheap.ĭawn of War 2: Retribution is a favorite of mine. There is a good single player campaign here as well (both the Generals and Zero Hour offer campaigns).
Many feel that Supreme Commander Forged Alliance is one of the best RTS ever, and the Forged Alliance Forever mod only extends that.Ĭ&C Generals Zero Hour is an older title as well, but a great one if you like the traditional C&C gameplay. You can also play both single player campaigns as well, of course. It balances, adds lots of new things including an entirely new faction, graphical updates, and has a modern comprehensive multiplayer (including a metagame based on different factions etc) which is nice, after the official MP servers were shut down awhile ago. Mazing gives that extra level of planning that makes for a really interesting game.It should be noted that Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance has a thriving updated mod that requires the original FA client (I think) - Forged Alliance Forever!.
It's a more intelligible twist to standard TDs where you basically just place towers and upgrade them. I still find today that it's easily the best mazing map. Player Experience levels: unlocks skins for your worker and other things.Player Status/Current Wave/Lives and more. IE: Top 5 or 10 Towers that did the most damage, got the most kills, etc. Advanced Stat Tracking: A feature that wasn't possible in WC3, multiple tabs that inform all players of various things.a damage test! Just like in the WC3 version - at the end of the map spawns a boss with massive amounts of HP and damage reduction that basically is just there to test how much damage your nerd baller maze does. Race Mode: First to complete all 50 waves wins.Standard Mode: You play through the 50 waves with bosses at certain intervals.Emphasis on Mazing: You're allowed to put down 5 gems per turn, afterwards you can only keep one while the other 4 become rocks which essentially become walls for your maze.Malachite damage type changed to opal (was previously emerald). Dark Emerald and Jade can now stun bosses. The Gold and Egyptian Gold armor debuffs no longer stack with themselves or each other. Mystic Black Opal damage aura increased to 50% (up from 40%). Mystic Black Opal damage increased to 250 (up from 50). Black Opal damage increased to 150 (up from 25). The seventh maze point is no longer usable for mazing. Blood Stone now has a new special effect You can now see how much money a Lucky Jade has gotten you Absurd difficulty is added (if you dare) Rerunner is replaced with a new version Classic and Race are gone, new game modes Damage and Time are added (most damage, shortest time) Now scores are colored based on when they were achieved After dozens of attempts at fixing them, zones are now gone from the game