A squad of elite GDI Mammoth Tanks assaults a Scrin base.

The first violent game I got was Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and I’ve always been a fan of the series. When you talk about top-down RTS (real time strategy games) you can’t do so without bringing the behemoth of a series that is C&C that really does define the genre. It’s fast-paced, generally balanced, and easy to get into and out of. And the series distinguishes itself by continuing to have proper filmed cutscenes with real actors, which is something that I definately appreciate. It really enhances the story of the games which is very reasonable (can be surprising at times). The series has had several story lines going simultaneously (explained very well at the Wikipedia article); some are related to each other and others are entirely independent. The main tiberium plot started in the original C&C, continued in Tiberian Sun and its expansion pack, and I was excited to hear of its continuation in this latest adventure. In the immortal words of the GDI computer, EVA, ‘welcome back, Commander’. That line is quite possibly the best line in any video game I’ve ever played, when timed correctly and said in EVA’s computerised voice.

Story/Plot/Characters

The basic plot is that a crystalline alien substance, toxic to humans, arrived on an asteroid on earth in the 20th Century and has been spreading ever since, by converting normal matter across the planet into more tiberium. It turns out that because it draws valuable minerals out of the ground in doing this, tiberium is an extremely valuable source of energy and cash. It is the main resource of the games. The Global Defence Initiative (GDI), originally something set up by the UN that has become a global superstate, aims to research and understand tiberium to the extent that its infection of the world can be reversed, while the Brotherhood of Nod led by the enigmatic Kane (who appears to die at the end of every game and always resurfaces) believe that tiberium is a wonderous gift that heralds the next stage of man’s evolution, and so aims to spread it. By Tiberian Sun’s expansion pack Firestorm, various forms of tiberian flora and fauna have developed, and by Tiberium Wars whole swaths of the planet have become uninhabitable. Then half way through the campaigns (there is one for each side) in this game an alien race arrives and begins a takeover of the planet. Maybe the theories of GDI scientists about tiberium being a terraforming substance for an alien invasion were right.

While the atmosphere of a world slowly suffocating under the tiberium menace is well portrayed in Tiberium Wars, there are elements missing. Tiberium only comes in simple crystalline forms rather than things such as tiberium veins, and tiberium lifeforms only put in a minor appearance. The Forgotten, a group of mutants that are the results of failed Nod experiments to create tiberian super-soldiers, only have a token involvement as well. To me this harms the games continuity and doesn’t allow it to follow on so well in the slow degradation of the planet.

The characters in Tiberium Wars are as forceful as ever, but I feel it is a shame that few have been carried through from the prequel. Granted, many were killed off per the story (although I suspect this was mainly because getting the actors back for the expansion pack wasn’t easy), but it’s not quite the same without the character representing the player, Commander McNeil, and the overall GDI leader, General Solomon. On the Nod side, while the charismatic Kane is back and is as fanatical about his crazed religion as ever, the classic Commander Slavik isn’t present (I don’t know if he is killed in Firestorm; I never completed the campaign). On the AI side, GDI’s EVA unit doesn’t make as big an appearance. Its cool and collected tactical analysis has been replaced by an energetic intelligence officer, which I don’t think is as effective. The lack of Nod’s famous CABAL computer is adequately explained by events in Firestorm. Overall the characters just haven’t been as memorable as in the prequel.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Tiberium Wars is very much more of the same, but that isn’t a bad thing: classic C&C RTS gameplay is of an excellent pace, is very accessible and has a good depth of strategy. You build up a base and get a steady economy of tiberium mining, you construct your units and you launch an attack. However, I felt in the campaigns of this game there was less variety in the missions: almost all involved this basic procedure of building up a base and large squad and then pushing forward. This is in contrast to the prequel in which there were many missions without a base at all, when you would lead a small squad deep into enemy territory to achieve various objectives. To me this seemed to present a greater challenge because once you have established a foothold, as the RTS genre doesn’t seem to be able to escape from, a tank rush will pretty much guarantee victory. This is particularly apparent when playing GDI because their Mammoth Tank is in my experience very much overpowered. You can find your tiny base being overwhelmed by enemy assaults, but once you have a tech centre and war factory and have enough cash to build a few mammoths and build their railgun upgrade to make their weapons more powerful, you’re pretty much safe because you can just place a mammoth at each point the enemy is attacking you from and little gets through.

There are some welcome improvements however. Units can now, for a price, call in a transport to take them to another location on the battlefield which is very convenient. Bases can be expanded by sending out small vehicles that establish outposts, rather than simply building a line of power plants or constructing an expensive mobile construction vehicle that deploys into a construction yard. Superweapons are at last genuinely super and are something to be afraid of, rather than a minor annoyance when the same building keeps being destroyed.

While GDI remains a side with a strong, continuous and unique character, and the new Scrin faction is effective and follows the hints dropped in the prequel, I am dissapointed by how Nod is portrayed. It has become at least partially a terrorist organisation instead of an elite religion which relied on high technology. While it retains these elements, it also introduces suicide units and cheap, numerous militants and I don’t think this is what Nod should be in terms of its place in the C&C Universe. Carry-throughs such as the classic sound of a charging Obilisk of Light (which still scares me, I was young when I played the prequel) are very welcome however.

Presentation

The graphics in Tiberium Wars are superb: when two armies come crashing together and start firing their high tech weapons, everything looks fantastic. I only really care about graphics when they are either exceptional or are spoiling the game because they are so poor, and both of these situations are rare for me: I don’t mind very much what a game looks like. But in C&C 3 they are very well done.

The music in the game is also very good, with good sound effects for weapons. The way a lot of these have undertones of the previous game helps to enhance the feeling of the tiberium-infested planet.

Conclusion

Not as good as the prequel as a complete package, but a very good sequel and continuation of the series. Well worth buying.