Summary
- Starcraft 2 offers insane depth but has a great campaign welcoming new players to the RTS genre.
- Age of Empires 2 remains popular for its mechanical depth while being beginner-friendly.
- Plants vs. Zombies showcases how RTS games can be fun and straightforward for newcomers.
Understandably, RTS games have a reputation for being difficult for beginners to pick up. After all, the nature of the real-time element means that players are usually thrown into the deep end where familiar players thrive, but newbies have a really rough time.
8 Real-Time Strategy Games With The Steepest Learning Curves, Ranked
Players will have to put in the work and the hours to fully master these RTS games with incredibly steep learning curves.
Luckily, not all RTS games are like that. In fact, in modernity, even the more complex RTS games have refined their formula to be simple even for beginners, with depth waiting for more experienced players if they want it. This list is ranked not just by the quality of the game, but by how it blends its simplicity to make a great experience for a beginner.
8 Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Wield The Force With A Bird's Eye View
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
- Released
- January 1, 2001
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Ensemble Studios, Lucasfilm Games
- Publisher(s)
- Ensemble Studios
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
- Platform(s)
- Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS
One of the best ways to get into the RTS genre is to do away with complicated unit names and just work with what's familiar. In the early 2000s, there were a lot of Age of Empires clones, and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds was one of the best, using familiar units to take the edge off the RTS experience for newcomers.
With a hefty roster of lore-accurate campaigns, playing from every side of the galactic conflict, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds strikes a balance between engaging RTS gameplay and keeping things simple enough for newcomers to the genre who want to get a dose of Star Wars goodness.
7 Age of Empires 2
The Gateway To RTS Addiction
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
- Released
- November 14, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Publisher(s)
- Xbox Game Studios
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Age of Empires 2 has a claim to be the most legendary RTS game ever made, introducing legions of new fans to the genre, and remaining popular to this day, over 20 years since it was first released. That's largely because the game has a lot of mechanical depth beneath the surface, but crucially, its simple gameplay loop is very beginner-friendly.
That means the game manages to negotiate the very tricky territory between easy entry, but a massive skill ceiling to expand to. This game is a stone-cold classic for good reason, and it's not going to leave the rotation of experienced RTS gamers anytime soon.
6 Warcraft 3
Azeroth Introduced
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
- Released
- July 3, 2002
WHERE TO PLAY
Though it might sound impossible for some, these days there are generations of gamers who know the world of Azeroth not through the original Warcraft games, but through World of Warcraft alone. That's a shame because not only do the original Warcraft games have some great fantasy stories to tell, but they're also excellent entry points into the RTS genre.
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Warcraft 3 is pretty handily the best jumping-in point, and it's not really close. The game has a masterful difficulty curve, keeping things simple at the start and ramping up over an epic campaign that tells one of fantasy gaming's best stories ever.
5 Age of Mythology
Mythological Madness
Age of Mythology
- Released
- October 30, 2002
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Ensemble Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Microsoft Game Studios
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy, Tactical
- Platform(s)
- PC
Trying to dethrone the indomitable reputation of Age of Empires 2 has proven to be a near fruitless task since release, but Age of Mythology took a smart approach and decided to not even compete in the same area, leaning hard into the supernatural and the mythological to stand out from the crowd.
What results may not be the deepest RTS ever made, but it's a brilliant entryway into the genre for new players. With a series of fantastically powerful mythological units, Age of Mythology lets beginners revel in the power fantasy elements, while retaining enough depth to challenge experienced players too.
4 Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
DEFCON 1
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
- Released
- October 28, 2008
WHERE TO PLAY
The Command & Conquer franchise has always been, well, absolutely insane. That's all part of the charm, and no game in the franchise introduced more to the series than the criminally underrated Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, the franchise's big push into the mainstream gaming world by tackling the console world.
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Telling the story of a time-travelling Soviet Union and alternate history hijinks, the game was clearly designed from the ground up to welcome in new players to the RTS world. For beginners, it's an easy and fun place to begin, while still catering to the veteran fans of the franchise, too.
3 Starcraft 2
The RTS GOAT
StarCraft 2
- Released
- July 27, 2010
WHERE TO PLAY
Let's not pretend that Starcraft 2 doesn't have some truly insane difficulty and depth to it. It absolutely does, and that's what the game is mostly known for these days, but that's not entirely a fair representation of the game and its great campaign that was made to introduce a whole new crop of players not just to the Starcraft world, but the RTS genre as a whole.
Drawing upon the narrative focus of the Warcraft games, Starcraft 2's campaign doubles up as an effective tutorial to the more complex mechanics of the RTS genre while also delivering a killer storyline. It's simple enough for almost any gamer to pick up and play, fun enough that it doesn't require esports-level play to have a bit of fun, and a gateway drug into the world of brilliant custom campaigns.
2 Halo Wars
Spartans Roll Out
Halo Wars
- Released
- March 3, 2009
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ensemble Studios, Robot Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy, Tactical
First-person shooters are known for their intense, immediate, and visceral action, putting the players right amid the action, which makes turning the FPS Halo series into an RTS game through Halo War s a strange choice. However, Ensemble Studios absolutely nailed it, and Halo Wars remains both a crucial part of Halo lore and a beloved rogue entry into the franchise.
Players are tasked with commanding a team of kick-ass units through a campaign tailor-made for fans of the franchise. Unlike the main games, players get a bird's eye view of how the wars in Halo's world function, and its simple but fun gameplay loop was tailor-made to introduce a whole new section of the gaming world to the fun of the RTS genre.
1 Plants vs. Zombies
The Black Sheep Returns
Plants vs. Zombies
- Released
- May 5, 2009
WHERE TO PLAY
Nothing can compete with Plants vs Zombies regarding fun but straightforward gameplay. Ever since its release in 2009, the game has become legendary in the RTS genre, not due to its inherent depth, but by showing the genre is open to anyone if they're invited to enjoy it.
While the franchise has ballooned into many other genres, the simple lane-based tower defence mixed with real-time strategy gameplay of the original Plants vs Zombies still holds up to this day, being one of the best games in the franchise. It introduced some core mechanics like currency generation and effective unit formations to gamers who may not have even heard of what an RTS was before they picked up the game. It's simple, fun, addictive, and a worthy entrant for the top of this list.
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