Not only is StarCraft a multilayer real-time strategy king, but it remains the benchmark for a single player campaign. Who can forget characters like Raynor, Kerrigan and Tassadar? How about the haunting opening sequence of Brood War, when the foreign Battlecruiser leaves the marines below to die at the hands of the Zerg swarm? And there is only one game that has a more chilling ending than Kerrigan, the Zerg Queen, coming out on top in the end.
Civilization IV
Developer: Firaxis
Publisher: 2K Games
Year Released: 2005
Synopsis: One of the Civilization games was absolutely going to be in the top 5 in this list, it was just a matter of which one we chose to occupy the spot. For years, it was largely understood that Civilization II was the best in the series offering up complex strategy in a palatable and even graceful format. Some out there would probably still argue that it's the best of the bunch, but we decided the latest went above and beyond that great title with more improvements than can be counted. From the revamped damage system to the diplomatic improvements and inclusion of religion, Civilization IV provides the most addictive 4X experience on the market. Even worse for those of us incapable of quitting to desktop is the inclusion of a very workable multilayer solution. Turn-based strategy has never been easy this way, but Firaxis managed to make it easy, make saves work, and make it easily as much fun as the single player if not more so. Civilization IV is a brilliant game, as are all in the series.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Virgin Interactive
Year Released: 1996
Synopsis: Oh man, this was a hard call as well. We all loved the Command & Conquer series in its entirety but you have to admit that this one was, by far, the best of the lot. Time travel, Commies, Stalin and crazy RTS antics? Forget about it. Red Alert was a near perfect RTS title, combing fantastic graphics, an interface that had been refined over years of player testing and tweaking, incredible unit and building design (including the Tesla Coil, V2 Rocket Launcher, submarines, engineers, and, of course, Tanya) and long, difficult levels. Better still, because the camera was zoomed out a good deal further than previous iterations, players could really see a lot more of what was going on, an advance made possible by Red Alert's ability to show scads of units on screen at the same time. Still, no matter how great the single player game was, the real reason that this title ended up on our list was because of its blindingly good multilayer mode. This is the game that made kids start building their own home networks.
Other games influenced by Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Every RTS that's come out in the last four years has ripped off the C&C series at some point or another. Still, a few of the more obvious titles include: the Total Annihilation series, the Dark Reign series, Earth 2150, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 (shudder), Dune 2000, Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, and Machines.
