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[The_Explorer]

This thread is for games that were made only once and never again. If a game is OLD had a series like warlords battlecry 1-2-3 that is fine to include those, each of those 3 were pretty much the same anyway. Does seem like pushing the intent of my own thread with that one, but its still a game series only made once and no one ever replicated the design ever again. But like say asheron's call 1 and 2 are completely different games. So not really a series there just using the same name and can be considered separate. AC2 doesn't qualify however as it was too similar to EQ and pretty much the early founder of WoW games. As some examples.)

I'll go first.

Warlords Battlecry series. Never again has there been a strategy game where its like an MMO or RPG and keep a single "hero" for the entire game. No, there have been games where you keep a hero but then it resets everything on the next chapter/level or whatever or an expansion is released and you gotta start all over. But nothing like how it was in battlecry, where you became an OP god/goddess of destruction. It also had a diablo-like loot system. Was it balanced? nope. Was it the most fun thing in the world still to this day? Hell yeah. Oh yeah, you could keep a super powerful unit if you got lucky for the entire game, because you could get a small roster army to take with you each battle. I suppose total war gets close in that regard, especially warhammer total war specifically. But different genres of games, but does go that route of keeping a godlike OP hero throughout the whole game. Though if you start a new game you can't keep the same OP hero like you can warlords battlecry.

I never found an MMO like asheron's call either. 100% unique custom world with a 100% 1 for 1 diablo copy loot system and fully open sandbox world, while having pvp servers and pve/optional pvp servers (allowing pve/pvp servers is actually extremely rare for a sandbox mmo as well, though has been done since). With GMs that interacted with the world and created huge world wide events...now time to go play private servers again today... xD

Hm, lands of lords is really unique. I doubt there'll ever be a replication of that.

And...think thats all I can think of. Sure there might be games with similarities, but there is still not a game like warlords battlecry or an mmo like asheron's call. And I don't mean the experience of playing it, but how its designed/content/features and all that.

[JimboM12]

Universe at War: Earth Assault

it was an ahead of its time rts, consisting of 4 (im including the much ignored minor human faction) very different factions. nobody's quite made something like it and its so one-of-a-kind you can't even find it anywhere except physical copies that are hideously overpriced. steam used to have it but it got taken off due to license issues blah blah. like for real, gog needs to jump on this cuz it was a classic.

[The_Explorer]

Universe at War: Earth Assault

it was an ahead of its time rts, consisting of 4 (im including the much ignored minor human faction) very different factions. nobody's quite made something like it and its so one-of-a-kind you can't even find it anywhere except physical copies that are hideously overpriced. steam used to have it but it got taken off due to license issues blah blah. like for real, gog needs to jump on this cuz it was a classic.

I never played that, but my friend actually has a physical copy of it in his room. Sucks it got removed. Sounds like what happened to lord of the rings battle for middle earth strategy game, where it became impossible to buy anywhere. Though I see EA remade the game or something or put it back, so it didn't get the same forgotten in time it seems as universe at war

[teoleo]

Covert action

[Aoi]

Outpost 2.

As far as I know, it's the only RTS where you actually kept your stuff between campaign mode maps. Admittedly, most of your buildings were abandoned due to narrative reasons*, so it was mostly a matter of resources and, more interestingly, the tech tree. Due to how it was structured in campaign, you couldn't get too far ahead, but it was enough to end up with a very real advantage if you went into each map fully loaded and as advanced as you could be, as opposed to just ending each map ASAP.

*Plot is kind of awesome in a scifi B-movie way: They were trying to colonize the planet and released (I want to say it was intentionally, but that'd be TOO dumb...) into the wild a microbe that would actively seek out and split all water into gaseous O2. Oops. So most of the game is spent getting enough resources to keep outrunning the wave of death.

Edit: ...I evidently missed an entire slew of RTSes. ._.

[Flying Carcass]

Robot Alchemic Drive for the PS2

It was a giant robot game set on various large city maps. The player controlled a character remotely controlling a giant robot with a remote control. The arms of the giant robot were controlled with the sticks and the legs were controlled with the shoulder buttons. Oh yeah, the robots transformed between humanoid and vehicle mode.

As for the character the player controlled, the idea was to find a safe perch with a good vantage of the fight while still being away from the fighting (lest ye' be squished). One could also ride on top of the robot if one so desired (but would be knocked off easily). Buildings were destructible.

[marples]

Outpost 2.

As far as I know, it's the only RTS where you actually kept your stuff between campaign mode maps. Admittedly, most of your buildings were abandoned due to narrative reasons*, so it was mostly a matter of resources and, more interestingly, the tech tree. Due to how it was structured in campaign, you couldn't get too far ahead, but it was enough to end up with a very real advantage if you went into each map fully loaded and as advanced as you could be, as opposed to just ending each map ASAP.

*Plot is kind of awesome in a scifi B-movie way: They were trying to colonize the planet and released (I want to say it was intentionally, but that'd be TOO dumb...) into the wild a microbe that would actively seek out and split all water into gaseous O2. Oops. So most of the game is spent getting enough resources to keep outrunning the wave of death.

Warzone 2100 https://wz2100.net/ uses the same mechanic with persistent units, as well as bases that you gradually develop over several missions before eventually abandoning them.

[Nirur Torir]

I've always wanted more games like Alien Legacy.
It was a game about colonizing a star system. The planets and astroids all had orbits, which complicated your shuttle-based logistics and had planets fall into and out of colonization and trade range. You could build several colonies on each world, which is strangely rare. You kept the colony ship, and could (slowly) fly it to different planets to have a convenient resource stockpile to grow them faster.

Outpost 2 was a good game. I liked that it told some of the story and background lore through a novella that unlocked new chapters as you beat each campaign mission.

[Frumple]

Chaos Seed was pretty bloody unique and I don't think I've seen anything quite like it since. Dungeon keeper + secret of mana combat + feng shui, all of it coming out in SNES times. Wild as hell bit of game design.

[Robsoie]

Covert action

This. One of Microprose timeless masterpiece, i replay it every few months since decades.
Incredible how something that good was never replicated since its release.

[EuchreJack]

Darklands.  If I'm wrong, please please tell me.

[Sime]

I think that both of David Eastman's political sims need either remake or replication, namely Floor 13 and Conflict Middle East political simulator.

[Jopax]

Outpost 2.

As far as I know, it's the only RTS where you actually kept your stuff between campaign mode maps. Admittedly, most of your buildings were abandoned due to narrative reasons*, so it was mostly a matter of resources and, more interestingly, the tech tree. Due to how it was structured in campaign, you couldn't get too far ahead, but it was enough to end up with a very real advantage if you went into each map fully loaded and as advanced as you could be, as opposed to just ending each map ASAP.

*Plot is kind of awesome in a scifi B-movie way: They were trying to colonize the planet and released (I want to say it was intentionally, but that'd be TOO dumb...) into the wild a microbe that would actively seek out and split all water into gaseous O2. Oops. So most of the game is spent getting enough resources to keep outrunning the wave of death.

Warzone 2100 https://wz2100.net/ uses the same mechanic with persistent units, as well as bases that you gradually develop over several missions before eventually abandoning them.

Also the Earth 2150 series, and it's many expansions did this, not sure about that sequel set on Mars tho, that one's kinda fuzzy. And both Homeworlds had you with a persistent fleet that followed you around, think it also scaled the difficulty depending on how well you were doing in terms of tech/fleet size, so staying around to farm the map wasn't always the best idea.


My hat in the ring was Achron, a truly mind-bending RTS that featured time-travel, of the proper variety where you had a minimap of the current games time (a timeline if you will) and you could freely jump to any previous point (but I think it cost some sort of resource to give commands and send units) with changes in the past propagating to the future with some sort of wave mechanic IIRC, where you could build a unit, send it back it time and destroy the factory that built it, and either of them could survive depending on how the wave hit.
It was hella crazy and complex to keep track of, on top of being an RTS, so no wonder it never really took off.

[Frumple]

Not quite the same thing, but apparently there's like this 5D chess game or something floating around nowadays that involves time travelling pieces, iirc. If you're looking for a similar sort of chicanery, that might scratch the itch.

[King Zultan]

Destroy All Humans! as far as I'm aware the only things that are similar to it are the sequels.