Perhaps a slow decline into niche-status is just what the RTS genre needs. No pressure to include a fistful of cutscene sugar in order to make the gameplay medicine go down, no expectations of lavish artwork and massive unit lists. We can just play more RTS games that aren’t at odds with themselves and their intentions, and we can maybe calibrate our own expectations a bit better around the present state of the genre, and not hazy memories of a golden age.
On the other hand, I’d hope that a retreat to the highlands of creative obscurity would allow RTS games to clamber out of the shadow of StarCraft, a place where Meridian: Squad 22 [Facebook page] seems resolutely determined to stand.