Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for Windows

It took a long time for C&C3 to finally come out. After wasting a lot of time on canceled projects, including plans for a C&C MMORPG called Continuum, Westwood (EA Games) has finally managed to get C&C3 out the doors. Unfortunately though some parts of this game show tremendous age (most noticeably the cut scenes and graphics) most fans probably could not care less. C&C 3 has finally arrived.

First, a Brief History.

C&C3 in some regards is a game whose roots defines itself. The original C&C came out in 1995 when real-time strategy games were still a new genre. At this time the two major companies involved in RTS for Blizzard and Westwood. Although this is debatable, I'd say the better game at that time was C&C. Unlike Warcraft II, which featured two races that were virtually the mirror of each other, the diversity of units in C&C as well as the use of superweapons like the ion cannon and nuclear warhead were novel. These game elements led to unique strategies that were based on either holing oneself up to gain access to these weapons through defense, or performing hit and run attacks on the opponent to deny them resources to develop the weapons.

As time went on though, due to massive delays in its games, the C&C franchise slowly began to fade underneath Blizzard's successful release of Starcraft and then Warcraft III. Westwood did manage to get out the door Red Alert and Command and Conquer: Generals, but these games for the most part lacked the depth the original game had and received only lackluster reviews.

This is why, for most fans, C&C3 is a much awaited release. Does the game live up to expectations or does it fall into the same shadow of C&C Generals? I'll start off with the graphics:

What's With the Old Graphics Engine?

Compared to C&C: Generals, C&C3 seems to use the same engine from previous installments. In that sense, this game is kind of like Starcraft still, while the models and the use of lasers and explosions are plenty and the lack of unit cap allows for some serious massing, the true lack of upgrade in graphics leaves C&C3 a bit dated for the modern computer game. However, the benefit of this is that the load times are extremely short. For me, saving, loading and starting missions often took anywhere from 5-10 seconds, which is nice as it minimizes the frustration upon failure.

In C&C tradition, in between missions players are treated to the classic assortment of cut scenes with characters from each side providing orders on what the next mission goals involve. Here, again Westwood is starting to show its age. The video compression that Westwood uses is completely outdated and the videos are filled with compression artifacts. Overall, it seems they're CG department has not improved much at all since C&C2.

Gameplay

Although the graphics are not impressive, I am willing to forgive this fact because for the most part, RTS games do not require good graphics to be fun. That said, C&C is a very enjoyable game. Like the former games, after receiving your orders from a CG/live actor cutscene, you get a choice of missions in a certain war theater and then you're off.

The missions comprise of a limited variety. The main combinations are the follows: send out infiltration teams to destroy key transports or buildings, mass up forces in order to capture key enemy buildings, or hold out a certain position until reinforcements arrive.

Unlike Blizzard games that involve a lot of micro management of units, command and conquer has always been more about maneuvering large clusters of forces to the enemy base and letting them duke it out. To further emphasize this type of gameplay, C&C3 has almost obscenely fast build times for all its units and buildings. One thing most gamers will notice is that the right build menu has tabs from which you can manage your base entirely. This reduces the need to click buildings to queue production. This allows the gamer to focus more on getting their forces setup on certain fronts and then having them attack together.

The problem that Westwood ignores unfortunately is that they've made certain units far too powerful. Massed mammoth tanks or avatars easily finish games so long as you have 7-10 of them. Most other units are either too weak or too slow to be used, and even if you mass a collection of predators and send them in, you can find them wiped out in mere seconds. The game is trying to encourage more careful hit and run tactics, but for the most part it does not work when you've got superunits like mammoth tanks and avatars.

Patches have corrected some of these issues, but in general the gameplay style is meant to be like this. Honestly, I would have preferred it if they have slowed down the pace of the game a bit (there does not seem to be a game speed bar you can adjust in the options) and if they had given all the units more hit points to encourage some micromanagement. This would have made other units more appealing, but for the most part my strategy was the same for most of the missions I played. I massed unit, sent them slowly over to the enemy base and then destroyed their base systematically.

The C&C and Warcraft comparison

I've frequently seen on gamer forums the comparison made often that C&C should take after Warcraft more or that Blizzard should have worked on the game. I honestly felt I had to respond to this because I don't think it makes remotely any sense. The two games are meant to be different in gameplay styles, and while arguably, C&C has been in much decline, I think it would have done the series a greater disfavor if it had tried in any way to emulate the changes Blizzard has made with Warcraft III. C&C is meant to be a fast, macro-strategy based experience and I think it should be left that way. If all strategy games took after Blizzard, we'd just have a bunch of clones.

There are two areas though I think C&C should have improved, that do come from a Warcraft comparison. One is again, the lack of good CG and video compression (they probably kept their team from the mid 90s from what it seems) and the non-intuitive shortcut keys in C&C3 that make little sense. The game has you hitting Ctrl + S to perform some moves for units which is just plain awkward (I ended up clicking most of my commands). However, beyond that, C&C3 is fine on its own merits.

Multiplayer Experience – (or lack of)...

The nature of the game unfortunately while it lends to some interesting single player scenarios does for poor multiplayer at the moment. While it might be corrected in future patches, the super fast build speed and the focus on tank rushes as well as unbalanced units on both Nod and GDI sides makes this not a fun game to play multiplayer with. Games range anywhere from a mere 10-15 minutes and decisive victory is often apparent too early on.

Unit Responses and Sountrack

Although I can't say I was listening that much, the unit responses are classic and the bits of soundtrack that I did notice were good. There are some semblances of the classic "rock" theme that make its way into some parts, and nothing beats the female voice that announces "nuclear missile launched". Great stuff.

Storyline

For C&C fans, the storyline tends to be a pretty important aspect. C&C3 follows off C&C2: Tiberian Sun after the death of Kane. After a long time dormant period, Kane has returned yet again to threaten GDI forces with a new weapon, a liquid Tiberian missile. But when GDI finally seems to gain a foothold in stopping Nod once and for all, a new alien race called the Scrin decides to invade Earth for its tiberian and GDI is left scrambling to defend itself. Nod as expected, takes advantage of this situation and begins to try to utilize the alien race in order to achieve its goals. While this storyline is not entirely novel the choice of quality actors which includes Sawyer from the TV series Lost make for some very entertaining cut scenes, which also can be skipped for those that couldn't care less. Personally, I enjoyed them a lot despite the lackluster video quality and lack of good CG.

Units / Factions:

C&C3 does not introduce a lot of new elements to the game, and this game plays very much like the older ones in the series. The ion cannon and nuclear missile are still the superweapons, and perhaps noticeably are the now presence of more special air-drops you can make on the map to bulk up your forces.

Classic units like stealth tanks, the obelisk, APC, grenadiers are all back and all in all little has changed.

The real difference comes with the alien faction, the Scrin, which have somewhat strange units and builds to give the game some diversity. However, it's not very well balanced. The Scrin have superior air attacks all in all, and the lack of good anti-air units in this game make them ridiculously powerful (unless you of course mass anti-air structures). While they are initially fun to play, the unit designs seem a bit uninspired and look like a rip off of Starship Troopers.

Conclusion

For the first couple of hours, C&C3 definitely brought back a huge nostalgic experience for me, and I definitely felt the excitement of playing the original. The first couple of missions were really hard and the mission objectives were reminiscent of some of the older games. However, as time went on, the problems in the strategy began to become apparent as mixing units up seemed to pale to massing avatars or mammoth tanks and giant forces could be obliterated in mere minutes. To me, the fast-paced action, is a bit too fast paced for its own good, and some of the missions I found I could beat on average from 10-15 minutes, making the single player campaign kind of whiz by.

With about 5 acts and one prologue for each campaign, and each act having anywhere from 2-4 missions, this game does offer significant gameplay value for most RTS fans. If you play each mission to complete all the side objectives and try it on hard mode, you'll find the experience to be rather difficult. However, for a multiplayer experience C&C3 is still lacking, and most of the missions are either too easy or too hard.

Fans of this game will be for the most part pleased to know their next game installment is finally out and that the experience has for the most part stayed unchanged. It would have been nice to see more innovation, even more storyline, and some new memorable characters to really enhance the game, but still one can't deny this will provide a solid week's worth of entertainment. My verdict? Worth it, but with some reservations.