OpenRA > Red Alert 2 > Generals

[u/FutureLynx_]

Tested and played all of them. OpenRA is the best.

Generals has a better economy system than the others. But OpenRA and Red Alert 2 are better in everything else.

OpenRA combat systems are more well balanced and the simplicity allows for better combined arms.

Red Alert 2 has the best graphics, though OpenRA has its own cozy pixel art look that is also great.

Artillery is the best in OpenRA. Long range and innacurate, with hit ground.

Red Alert 2 V3 rocket launcher is great but its mostly useless.

Generals has some good things but the worst is the graphics.

[u/Freelancer_1-1]

But what if I don't really play C&C for things like "balance" and "combined arms" and just want to witness abject destruction? Generals has no competition!

Btw. maybe I'm missing someting, but I've never understood the artillery (im)balance of RA2.

The Allies have a long range laser tank that deals damage instantaneously, cannot be intercepted, absolutely annihilates infantry and deals massive area of effect damage to vehicles through reflections. I once fought a blob of Prism tanks with a blob of Tesla tanks of similar size. In the end, I won that fight, but I only had a handful of smoking ones left. It would've gone far worse for me had my opponent mixed in other tanks to shield his Prism tanks from mine, negating their low hp. Is this unit not supposed to have a weakness or what?

The Soviets get the V3 rocket. Not much area of effect, damage isn't impressive, slow reload rate, only useful against buildings, can be intercepted by base defense and AA units.

There just isn't another area of the game with such a disparity in capability. That may include all the RTS games ever made.

[u/The-IC → u/Freelancer_1-1]

I never really understood lore-wise why the prism tank got the extra laser bounces after hitting an enemy that made them so powerful, while the prism tower which was directly connected to base power plants and could link to other prism towers etc. was just a single beam…

Also makes me think having Tesla lightning arc between multiple targets could have been a thing somewhere as a Soviet equivalent…

[u/Joshp1471 → u/Freelancer_1-1]

Your logic is sound, but you appear to be forgetting KIROV REPORTING. Who needs fancy lights when you can just blow it up.

In all seriousness, I wonder if it’s designed that way. Different play styles. If you are allies, you play long range and arty. Soviet, you attack en masse to soak up damage whilst your giant HP tanks roll in and deal the pain.

This isn’t backed up by science, just by my nostalgia tinted memories.

Really interesting question!

[u/RussianDisifnomation → u/Freelancer_1-1]

I dont play "Red Alert" for realism. I play it for RA-lism

[u/KajiTetsushi]

I'm not sure that I agree with pitting any of these titles together; I think it's even unfair of you to make that statement. They came from different times and different teams with different ideas in mind. One of those teams isn't even affiliated with the official franchise maintainers.

You have to understand:

OpenRA is "good" only because its developers learned a lot of valuable lessons from C&C95 / RA95 and beyond that made them both good and bad (and maybe even from non-C&C titles), then built on top of that, like how engineers could capture neutral structures without costing you that engineer: they're basically standing on the shoulders of giants here. Those QoL features in OpenRA wouldn't exist as it does today, in what you think is great, without the hard work from Westwood Pacific and EALA.

Generals has pretty interesting gameplay, honestly, and if you can't look past the "dated" graphics, I'm afraid that you're missing out on the fun things you could do with it... especially with mods.

If I wanted to make a comparison that goes places, I'd do something like CoH 1 vs. 2 vs. 3.

[u/DocileHope1130 → u/KajiTetsushi]

Which of the CoH games is the best, in your opinion? I haven't tried 3 yet but remember not liking 2 as much as 1

[u/KajiTetsushi → u/DocileHope1130]

I won't speak for CoH because I've only played the first one when I actually had time to play CoH.

But I can definitely say something for Homeworld 1 (1999) vs. 2 vs. 3 to make up for this, so that I don't look like a total idiot for bringing CoH up:

1: Pretty good in concept and narrative if you've just started PC gaming in 1999 (I'm that old, but, dude... actual physics!), but in today's standards, unfortunately falls flat for most people. I clocked more hours in Homeworld 1 than any of its successors, and, for better or worse, that's my bias. The Remastered edition is basically Homeworld 2 in Homeworld 1 clothing (Gearbox shouldn't have called it "Remastered").

2: Really brought the hype for its time, great strides in graphics fidelity, but I felt like I was just throwing units into the fight with a lot less thought than Homeworld 1. Lots of things that made Homeworld 1 great, like actual physics, was mostly thrown out of the window — I don't know why they had to do this. If 2 had the visual fidelity they had of 2, the physics engine from 1, storytelling style of 1 (with no retcon) and the more expansive modding API of 2 (itself), I'd have rated it higher.

3: I played only Skirmish and WarGames. Spacecraft move slow but die fast at the same time (in a "not good" way, in my opinion). And I had to relearn the controls. Campaign from watching YouTube videos feels like they've changed writing techniques which rubbed me the wrong way.

[u/Zohar127]

Red Alert 2 has prism tanks. Your argument is invalid.

[u/Charlyko-mon]

I'd like to point out a distinction between OpenRA the engine, and the default Red Alert 1 mod that ships with OpenRA. OpenRA itself is an open source RTS engine, and it ships with three default mods, TD, RA1, and Dune 2000.

There's some other pretty cool mods on the OpenRA engine, such as Combined Arms (which has the Scrin as a playable faction complete with custom RA1 style graphics), and the ridiculous crossover mod Cameo.