Real-time tactics
Real-time tactics (RTT) is a genre of video game where the player is expected to devise and carry out a strategy in real time. This usually involves giving orders to various game units to achieve a particular task, generally combat, but it doesn't have to be. Tactical games that don't happen in real-time are called turn-based strategy games, and games where the player is, in addition to devising conflict tactics, expected to perform complex resource management, are called real-time strategy games. Many game sites don't make a distinction between real-time tactics and real-time strategies, but I think they're significantly different enough to warrant a different category.
Real-time tactics was essentially born out of traditional table-top turn-based strategy games turned into real-time thanks to the advent of the computer. Because this was a pretty natural step, the genre is a very early video game genre, predating real-time strategy by about a decade. Early pioneers that helped set the genre in motion include games like Centurion (1981), Legionnaire (1982) and Stonkers (1983).
Personal
I had seen a handful of real-time tactics games in the late-1980s and early-1990s, but they were mostly historical war games, which I don't find very interesting. However, when a coworker told me about Myth: The Fallen Lords in 1998, I tried the demo and loved it. Years later, I bought a compilation pack which featured it, Myth II: Soulblighter, and it's expansion. I played the game for quite awhile, however, because RTTs are fairly predictable, I became bored with the genre before too long.
Games
This is a list of real-time tactics games that are important to me. For all games in this genre, see the real-time tactics category.
| Title | Released | Developer |
|---|---|---|
| Myth: The Fallen Lords | 1997-11-07 | Bungie Studios |
| Myth II: Soulblighter | 1998-12-28 | Bungie Studios |
Links
- mobygames.com/browse/games/rts - Moby Games - Real-time strategy.
