This post is by guest blogger Steve.
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Categories: Commentary
Tags: pc, rts
1995 was a big year for me. Sure, I graduated high school, got my first job, and started college. But it was also the year we put our 7 year-old Macintosh Plus into storage and got our first PC, a 486 from Packard Bell. It was on that machine that I first played Dune II, a game I’d been hearing my brother rave about for the last year or two. And it was a few months later that I got to play its spiritual sequel, Command & Conquer. I’d never played games like these before. “It’s like SimCity,” I thought, “except I can build tanks and blow up the opposing city!”
Unfortunately, I lost touch with the Command & Conquer series after the first Red Alert game came out. I tried to catch up again with the mostly excellent Command & Conquer: The First Decade retrospective last year, but all I could do at most was sample a bit of each game, focusing much of my time on school. It was clear I had missed out on some excellent games, as well as some hilarious live-action cutscenes.
This past Monday I had hit a slump in World of Warcraft. It was then that I discovered that the Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars demo had been released. I promptly downloaded and installed it, fearing what Electronic Arts would do to the game. They had, after all, released the much-maligned Command & Conquer: Generals, a game which featured neither the Brotherhood of Nod nor an alternate history in which Hitler was eliminated by Einstein; it was a real-time strategy game which merely carried the good Command & Conquer name. I am happy to report that, judging by this demo, Command & Conquer 3 appears to get almost everything right.
Before I go on, I should note that I am not good at RTS games. I am the kind of person who plays the single-player campaigns and avoids multiplayer. I do not possess the “über-micro skillz” to deal with collecting resources, scouting out areas on the map, and attacking my enemy’s base successfully with the weakest units. I should also point out that the last RTS games I’ve truly played were Warcraft III and Age of Empires III. I’ve not experienced Dawn of War, Supreme Commander, or Company of Heroes. I am writing this merely as a longtime fan of the original Command & Conquer.
My computer is not exactly top-of-the-line anymore, but I managed to get the game running pretty well at higher graphical settings. It would probably run faster if I turned down some of those settings, but some of the animations and effects are too neat not to see. It appears that they tried hard to make the game run nicely on lower-end machines.
I was pleased to see the return of the live-action cutscenes. They’ve brought in a few recognizable actors like Michael Ironside and Billy Dee Williams. Not only that, but Joe Kucan has returned as Kane, charismatic leader of the Brotherhood of Nod. It’s also quite a jump going from the original game’s grainy cutscenes to the high-quality video of 2007.
The demo officially lets you play only as the GDI forces. Since I’m a bit rusty, I gave the tutorial a spin. The first units I was given command of were called “Zome Troopers” who appear to be heavily armored foot soldiers armed with rail guns. Once I had learned the basics of the game, I jumped into the GDI introduction mission. I reclaimed a GDI base with some foot soldiers, destoryed a nearby Nod outpost, repaired a bridge, and came across the full-scale Nod base. Unfortunately for my units, what appeared to be a defenseless cluster of buildings turned out to be surrounded by a ton of stealthed units who massacred my attacking force. Use of the GDI’s superweapon, the Ion Cannon, was authorized. I obliterated the Nod base at the touch of a button, bringing my mission to a close.
Command & Conquer 3 appears to do away with much of the futuristic mech units seen in Tiberian Sun. From what I saw in the demo, each side has only one walker-mech unit. Like earlier games in the series, you can create a large amount of infantry in a very short amount of time. Similarly, you can erect base defenses which will wipe out large amounts of infantry in a short amount of time.
One of the more important aspects of any RTS game is the user interface. Command & Conquer 3 returns the bulk of the interface buttons to the right side of the screen. While it can get a little cluttered when building a few structures at once, it is pretty easy to navigate overall. It seems to be an upgrade of the Red Alert 2 interface, with primary buildings, support buildings, infantry, vehicles, and air units each given their own tabbed panels.
It was disappointing that the demo doesn’t allow one to play as the Nod forces. This didn’t stop players from figuring out how to make it happen, however. If you load up a skirmish match, you can choose to play as Nod by selecting the drop-down menu that chooses your side and pressing “n” as you click on the grayed-out Nod selection, you will be able to play as the Brotherhood of Nod. The only disadvantage to doing this is that you do not get audio cues from a computer voice (i.e. “Our base is under attack” and “More tiberium silos needed”). This is probably because they never intended for players to play as Nod in the demo, but did want them to be able to take over their buildings using GDI engineers.
Even though I am terrible at the game, I will very likely purchase Tiberium Wars when it is released at the end of March. I look forward to seeing how the whole GDI vs. Nod vs. new alien race storyline plays out. I might even go back and give Tiberium Sun a proper playthrough.