C&C goes back to its explosive roots.
EA LA stuck to C&C's roots in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, almost to a fault. While there are new features and tweaks to increase the pace of play, the core fundamentals remain strikingly similar to previous games in the C&C Tiberium series. Players looking for something new in their RTS aren't going to find it here, but they will find plenty of fun. The tempo has been given a jump start but this is basically the same RTS we've been playing for years and years, which will undoubtedly please throngs of fans. This time around it's just more polished and presented in its most beautiful package to date.
Seeing the Tiberium universe is a welcome reunion. GDI and Nod are still battling it out but this time they have to contend with a new alien Scrin faction. These guys have a large presence in the game though their personality isn't as strongly developed as the GDI or Nod. Along with the large campaigns for Nod and GDI, you'll get the chance to play a bonus four mission Scrin campaign after completing the other two.
Also back are the famous live-action cutscenes that fans love so much. EA stayed true to the original series with a campy, cheesy, silly sci-fi plot and we're plenty happy about it. There are a surprising number of TV and movie actors playing roles here and while their acting talent isn't exactly put to the test, they're still pretty fun to see in roles like this. Who doesn't want to see Billy Dee Williams and Michael Ironside on screen together? It's like a B-movie bonanza. The Scrin campaign cutscenes had to take a different tack since I don't think anyone wanted to see a guy in a foam rubber suit gurgling like an alien. Thankfully it's awesome and effective in its simplicity fitting perfectly into the overall cutscene structure while maintaining a definitive alien perspective.
The campaign structure progresses well. Locations range across globe on three different types of terrain. Missions themselves usually involve either base defense or destruction of one kind or another. While most missions were fairly predictable, creativity wasn't totally absent, especially in the Nod campaign where missions were designed to highlight their stealth capabilities. There's also a good variety of secondary missions on every map granting plenty of gameplay objectives. The campaign AI rarely forces your hand, allowing players to sit back and relax aside from some ramped up and difficult later missions.
Once done with the campaigns, you'll be able to sink into skirmish and multiplayer. Each of the factions has enough differences in the way they behave to keep gameplay interesting. The Scrin, for instance, are better at harvesting tiberium and aren't affected by its radiation. GDI can't send infantry across tiberium, but have some of the strongest armored units and have mobile repair bases. Nod, on the other hand, employs greater use of cloaking technology making them better at quick strikes. Each faction has a distinct feel through form and function that players will appreciate.
The thing to remember is that teching up goes quick, which means that somebody is going to get a leg up pretty quickly depending on the strategies taken. As a result, those of you looking for a game you can get in and out of relatively quickly should be very happy with C&C 3. The average time for skirmish or multiplayer maps is between 15-30 minutes.
While we've found the game to be fairly well balanced in the case of most units and abilities, there are balance issues that eventually can create problems, most notably the cost vs. reward of Nod's Avatar Warmech, which basically dooms Nod in late game battles. It also seems a little odd that Mammoth Tanks can't be captured by the enemy when Tripods and Warmechs can. The GDI Juggernauts can be captured, but are barely worth the effort when the game has gotten that far. Nod gets EMP upgrades for their buggies and other nice abilities, but compared to the brutal strength of the all-purpose Mammoth Tanks and combined assault of Carriers and Tripods, Nod has nothing we've found that can stand up to a proper direct assault. That Raider Buggy EMP ability should have been the ultimate equalizer, but the EMP range is so small that it can only take out units in a short distance which makes them almost completely ineffective against a cadre of upgraded Mammoth Tanks that can destroy them before they ever get close enough to set off the device. EA has already told us that they've got balancing changes, including some to Nod's Warmech coming down the line in the 1.2 patch, but we can't comment on how much those changes will affect Nod's late game viability.
It's also a little sad that once the largest units on each side come out, earlier types of units are basically made obsolete. Once you have the money for Mammoth Tanks, there's no reason to create any other ground units. Keeping an air force in reserve is good, but Mammoth's basically account for all your needs aside from stealth scan, which doesn't matter when you blow everything up immediately anyway. It's not like this is an aberration in the RTS genre, but with a series like this, it's easy to expect more. I want all of my units to be useful throughout the match. The saving grace is that games are quick enough that issues like this often don't even arise. More than half of the games I've played never saw one of the high end units created because of the brutal push for new resources.
It's also worth noting some of the extra features EA is providing along with the game. They'll be updating www.commandandconquer.com with all of the stats from online games. You will be able to schedule matches and download replays of great matches as well. It's also notable that you'll be able to check out live matches using the Battlecast system. Some of these will undoubtedly have commentators that can use the easy telestration options to point out specific events during their live commentary. We're pretty damn curious how widely this feature set gets used. The "RTS as a Sport" mantra is appealing one some level, but even video game junkies in our office aren't really sure they'd ever want to watch other people play aside from the chance to learn new tactics.
We've had very few problems with any part of the game. In fact, our only real issue has come with a Vista machine dumping that player out of the game after multiplayer matches. C&C 3 is compatible with Vista and basically works, but we're not exactly surprised to find issues. We're basically assuming at this point there'll be issues for most Vista games close to release. On XP we've encountered no problems with crashing or performance. In fact, it's impressive that the game runs as well as it does when there are so many effects and units moving around the detailed terrain. That said, we have had small amounts of slowdown on a machine with a P4 3.2GHz, 2GB RAM, and GeForce 7800 in intense moments with many units on screen with all details as high as they go. Our Core2 Duo 2.6GHz, 2GB RAM, GeForce 8800 card system has had no such issue.
The performance is notable for while the move forward in gameplay isn't huge, the move forward in technology is pretty impressive. Command & Conquer 3 is an amazingly rich visual experience. Each of the different zones of conflict have distinct details to create the illusion of a world slowly being torn asunder by Tiberium. The battles that happen within those zones are even more thrilling. Lasers and lightning crack across the battlefield and warp the air around them, flame tanks spew hot death with similar warping effects, and buildings collapse in amazing explosions. All in all, these are some of the most impressive special effects we've seen in any RTS game.
As with visuals, sound work is done quite well. All of the unit acknowledgements are good and the sounds of battle are very sci-fi and powerful. C&C 3 really got the full presentation package work over here that really does help create a great cohesive entertainment experience from all perspectives.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Electronic Arts revives their classic franchise with a revamped look and old-school gameplay that still manages to keep us clicking.
Up from the dormant comes Westwood/Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer license. This is a franchise that's been comatose, if not outright dead, for about 10 years (Red Alert and Generals are separate universes). But thanks to the team at Electronic Arts Los Angeles, known most recently as the guys that brought us the superlative Battle for Middle Earth II, it's alive and kicking again.
Don't judge Command & Conquer 3 by its single-player campaigns with their live action cinematics, in which the cast meanders through bad lighting and worse dialogue. This script seems to have been written by someone who doesn't know the first thing about the actual game. In fact, there are intel files you can unlock that demonstrate someone thought up a rich mythology and backstory for Command & Conquer 3. Why couldn't EA hire him or her to write the cinematics? The best thing you can say for these cutscenes is that they're in high definition (which takes up more than half of the game's six gigabyte install), so you can see the chintzy sets and cheap costumes in splendid detail!
Then there are the campaign missions themselves. Defend the base, destroy the base, escort the trucks, use the commando. Defend the base, destroy the base, escort the trucks, use the commando. And so on. This is tedious trick-based RTSing at its worst, where the challenge comes from gimping the game by locking out certain units or features, or by using scripting that does an end run around the rules.
It sounds pretty bleak so far, but then there's the more substantial issue of the actual, you know, game. If you're okay with playing skirmishes and multiplayer games, Command & Conquer 3 has a lot to offer. This is a slightly sloppy, mostly grand, over-the-top, popcorn RTS that's surprisingly satisfying and easily the best Command & Conquer yet. It's a perfectly suitable follow-up to Generals, and it feels very similar. Instead of the US, you get GDI. Instead of the GLA, you get Nod. And instead of China, you get the aliens. Or maybe China is Nod. At any rate, Generals obviously informs a lot of the best bits of Command & Conquer 3.
But the team has also taken many of the lessons they learned in Battle for Middle Earth II. Most of these lessons are interface related, but many of them are matters of pacing, scale, simplicity, and depth. In this regard, Command & Conquer 3 is an unequivocal success, modest in its aims and wildly successful in achieving them. The secret is that there isn't any secret, or special twist, or unique hook, or innovation. It's formulaic and unambitious, content to revisit the formula Westwood introduced back when they were competing with Blizzard as the only RTS game-makers in town. Blizzard did charm, Westwood did mindless action. This is a perfectly retro tribute to those days, but with modern graphics, a juiced-up hyperpace, and the sort of interface an RTS needs so you can wrangle it into some semblance of strategy.
This is probably the first Westwood style RTS that has almost everything you could want. It has hotkeys, easy unit selection options, ample visual cues, solid tactical AI, useful unit stances, formations, big obvious buttons, and helpful tool tips. You can even set an adjustable speed slider for multiplayer games and skirmishes. Cranked way down, Command & Conquer 3 is absolutely languid.
The hyperactivity comes from how easily things blow up. This is mostly about the destruction and only a little about the building. Doing well involves learning the streamlined counters - a place for every unit and every unit in its place - and using tactics to your advantage. This is not a game about mastering an interface, or an economic system, or deciphering poorly documented rules, or cat and mouse maneuvering (unless you're playing Nod). This is a game about making a collection of toys, and banging them into the other guy's toys, and seeing who prevails. Twenty minutes later, you're a little breathless and ready to do it all over again.
There's really only one side here. This isn't a Starcraft model with three distinct races. Instead, it's a basic template with three variations in look, flavor, and incidentals. This is not asymmetrical warfare. Everyone gets everything, with only minor differences. So whether you're GDI (the good guys), Nod (the bad guys), or the aliens (the alien guys), you're playing by pretty much the same rules, using the same tools. They have slightly different approaches: GDI is brute force, Nod is stealth tricks, and the aliens are, well, a mish-mash of stuff that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The special powers you get from your buildings aren't as dramatic as the Ring powers in Battle for Middle Earth, but they end up doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to making the sides play differently.
Of course, the sides are aesthetically distinct. GDI and Nod units both look great in that traditional way you'd expect. But the aliens are disappointing for how they're a clearinghouse for standard-issue alien concepts, all lifted shamelessly from Starcraft, Starship Troopers, War of the Worlds, and a hundred other sources. They seem to be a product of scrapbooking instead of an actual design process. This is a grandly cartoon-ish spectacle of things blowing each other up in magnificent burst of color and sound, played on maps drawn with gratuitous palettes. And it runs well, too, since this appears to be the latest iteration of the Battle for Middle Earth engine. There's no need for a new computer.
Command & Conquer 3 might be a disappointment for players who want reinvented wheels underneath their real-time strategy games. It's RTS comfort food: safe, familiar, and probably not even that memorable (it's kind of funny to see Electronic Arts pushing it as a candidate for videogaming-as-a-sport with a feature that encourages spectators). Nod's stealth, the GDI's heavy tanks, and alien bugs all come together and blow up as a sort of mac-and-cheese RTS that tastes awesome in that safe, you've-been-here-before-a-hundred-times way. But for those of us who love the genre and where it's going, it nice to know that we can still have a grand time in the same old places it's already been.
Nod and GDI square off once again in a tried-and-true RTS formula.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old adage seems particularly appropriate for the new Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, the latest in the futuristic RTS series pitting the Global Defense Initiative against the Brotherhood of Nod. The game takes the series back to its roots with fast-paced gameplay, full-motion video sequences with familiar actors, and enough explosions to keep armchair generals on the edge of their seats. While the graphics and sound have been updated for the times, don't expect many changes in the way the game is played and how it feels. This is Command & Conquer, and the developers didn't mess too much with a winning formula.
GDI and Nod each have fairly long campaigns, with numerous missions to advance the story. GDI is trying to protect the pristine blue zones from Tiberium encroachment, while keeping the forces of a chrome-domed megalomaniac at bay. The missions on both sides take you to various parts of the world, where you must either conquer the opposition by knocking out key points, escort strategic units, or stay alive long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Late in each campaign, the extraterrestrial Scrin arrive to make life more complicated for each faction. If you persevere through both campaigns, you'll get the bonus of playing a few missions as the Scrin.
The in-game cutscenes and FMV sequences are well done, and sufficiently campy to remind fans of the series why they were missed. Joe Kucan reprises his role as Kane, the prophet of Nod, and his energy for the role invigorates the scenes that he stars in. Having the likes of Michael Ironside and Billy Dee Williams and other recognizable TV personalities doesn't hurt, either, but none seem to relish their roles as much as Kucan. The only disappointment came on a few of the Nod FMV scenes where the voices didn't lipsync properly because of some slowdowns in the video. A reboot of the PC cleared it up briefly, but it crept back in later on.
The graphics engine has been sufficiently upgraded to reflect the latest technology. The game oozes ambiance as Tiberium spreads across unprotected areas of the world. As battles rage, buildings and units deform from damage and explosions offer an extremely satisfying boom bloom. It's not quite as cutting-edge as, say, Company of Heroes, but the upside is that the game is more friendly to lower-end PC's -- we ran at a widescreen resolution of 1920x1080 with nary a stutter in framerate.
The sounds and voice acting are also well done. Units respond with their usual two- or three-word order acknowledgements, while dying units scream or holler "mayday," each adding just enough to enhance the atmosphere. And the music still offers the same pulse-pounding bass that made players want to keeping listening even when they weren't playing the previous games.
When the campaigns are but a memory, C&C3 thrives on the replayability of the skirmish and multiplayer modes. In Skirmish, you can play against a variety of AI opponents, from easy to medium to several categories of hard. There are 20 multiplayer maps to choose from, allowing from two to eight players. Players can also toggle such things as power-up crates and the amount of cash to start with.
It is when you get into the unscripted aspects of the game that the fast, frenetic gameplay comes through. As with most RTS games, it becomes an arms race as to who can build the right structures, collect the most Tiberium, and graduate to the right combination of megaunits and structures to totally overwhelm an opponent. The megaunit for the GDI is the old reliable Mammoth tank, capable of being upgraded with railguns. It already has a ton of armor and has anti-infantry and anti-air capabilities. The Nod Avatar Warmech is a new unit that has a nasty beam weapon and can also be upgraded, but only through cannibalizing parts from the wreckage of its own units. It can gain sensor arrays, a cloak, a flamethrower or another beam weapon. Finally, the Scrin have a tripod that has a nasty beam weapon as well, as well as shielding. But in the end, a group of Mammoths still tends to rule the day and lay waste to just about anything in its path.
The nuke and ion cannon have also made it back, but with more destructive power than ever before. In the original game, a nuke or ion cannon blast would take out only a few structures and perhaps a construction yard, if lucky. Now, hardly anything survives within the blast radius, and the ion cannon detonation is particularly graphic and satisfying. The Scrin have a rift generator that opens what looks like a black hole and twists your buildings and units into oblivion. Again, he who builds first (and can defend it) will get the upper hand.
Where Command & Conquer has always shined brightest is in the multiplayer arena. The game sports a ladder system for individuals and clans, and players can go at it in ranked ladder matches and unranked games using the quick match function or through custom matches. A patch for the multiplayer component is already out, but there have been complaints of timed-out connections and being booted from the multiplayer screen. EA has acknowledged some of these issues and said it is working on a fix. We were not able to get the Quick Match function to work on our PC after patching, but we did get some enjoyable custom games in. The maps are all fairly strategic and balanced, allowing the players to be gauged on their abilities and not necessarily the luck of a good random starting point.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new multiplayer setup is the Battlecast functionality, where games can have an announcer and players can watch any battle currently being played on a 10-minute delay (to avoid spotting for friends currently playing). All of the games we were able to watch did not have an announcer, so it will be interesting to see how that feature pans out as the game's player base grows. Games can also be watched via replay once the match is over. (The game also supports voice-over IP.)
All told, C&C3 has little in the way of innovation, but that won't stop hardcore RTS fans, and C&C fans in particular, from enjoying the heck out of it. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved