Hi!

I'm Stefan and I need help to track down a PC game I played in my teens, late 90s or maybe early 00's.

It plays out in space. My guess Mars since everything was red/ brown looking. The player starts alone behind a hilll, equiped with a laser rifle with a sniper scope/ mode. The threat: Aliens! I remember sniping alien operators in their vehicles and stealing them to use against the aliens, I have a very clear picture of me stealing a huge Walker vehicle equipped with massive cannons! I remember scavenger ships that I could use to fly around and collect materials. By progressing the game I could build a base and train my own troops/ war machines to fight the aliens. There was also some kind of alien artifacts of some kind and I think those where the main objective somehow.

I don't remember more than that. Does anyone know the game I played and enjoyed so much?
Thanks/
Stefan

More details would be useful (was it first person, top down etc?).

Intrigued as to the answer as I'm a sucker for Mars based stuff.

Well a lot of this, aside from the alien stuff, sounds like Red Faction Guerilla to me.

Was it Dark Colony?

Re-reading the OP, it's probably not an RTS if it involves sniping. Hmm. Second thought might be Starsiege? It may very well not be set on Mars, so this is grasping at straws.

Battlezone 1998? Command & Conquer: Renegade? Giants: Citizen Kabuto?

There is a campaign segment of Starsiege set on mars but no resource collection there, pure mech sim, CNC Renegade is no, there is resource gathering but its set on earth. Battlezone 1998 is most likely

My best guess is Battlezone 1998 OP
There is a remaster of it on gog: https://www.gog.com/en/game/battlezone_98_redux and its expansion Red Odyssey: https://www.gog.com/en/game/battlezone_98_redux_the_red_odyssey both games have many missions set on mars and other planets in the solar system same with Battlezone Combat Commander:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/battlezone_combat_commander

Sounds very much like "Battlezone ('98)".
More precisely: the third mission of the main campaign ("Stars and Stripes"), and the first mission playing on Mars.
On Mars you find Walkers, and there is a "relic" (aka: "alien artifact") to be found (= mission goal).
Scavengers are used in the game to collect raw materials (scrap) to build your bases, etc.

So - I'm pretty positive it's "Battlezone ('98)".

https://youtu.be/3VpF9uDJ1uI

You could have walkers on the US or Soviet side so that was probably it. In the 2nd half of the game, the USA and Soviets teamed up against the aliens. Your rifle had a sniper option that you aimed for the driver of a tank, and if you killed the driver, you could take the tank and use it against the bad guys.

You also had to build out a base usually and you had to deploy scavengers to pick up scrap.

Description totally matches.

https://www.gog.com/game/battlezone_98_redux

Wow, thanks a million. It is Battllezone 98! Im amazed that you could figure it out based on my poor description, but was all i rememberd. It was 20 years ago!

And now you can mark your thread as resolved =)

We all loved that same game, so we instantly knew almost immediately what you were talking about. It is ingrained in our memories.

Have fun!