Summary
G.I. Joe will dare!
The Good
Renegade was the latest prostitution of the C&C brand before their *ahum* "next-gen" move towards 3D rts in Generals, but instead of being yet another ho-hum, tired exploit of their once interesting franchise this is actually a brand new spin-off!... yeah, whatever.
Anyhow, Renegade answers that question that kept you up all those lonely nights: How does the C&C universe look from the first person perspective of one of those tiny soldiers? What's that? You never asked yourself that? Well, neither did I, but the good marketing execs at EA and Westwood weren't going to let that one pass us by, hence they unleashed into the world C&C: Renegade.
Taking place in the Tiberium wars continuity, you take the role of Nick Parker, aka "Havoc", who happens to be the best commando in the GDI armada, your regular one-man-army who can level entire enemy bases all by himself, now out to take down Nod's base of operations to save a group of scientists.
If it's starting to sound like your typically by-the-number fps premise don't worry, rest assured that Renegade IS your typical, by-the-numbers fps shooter, but fortunately it acknowledges this and goes along with it. Rather than trying to cover itself up with phony excuses Renegade goes the Duke3D route and goes for the cheese with gusto. "Havoc" is your stereotypical loose-cannon hero, with little respect for authority (except towards his typical buddy/superior) and with a propensity to spill out er..., "witty" one-liners a-la Schwarzenegger (my favourite being the one he says after asked if the appearance of an old flame in the war might condition his loyalty: "I don't have a conflict of interests [leans forward] I have interest in conflict!" har-har.... ah, yep. Don't worry Havoc, we love you anyway). The plot is pretty much the same as in those grade-Z Delta Force movies, dealing with the bad, bad cult of Nod kidnapping a key GDI scientist (along with his feisty supermodel/scientist daughter) whom you must rescue. This assignment takes you through a merry chase along the world searching for the eggheads, and along the way you'll meet other cartoony characters like the "asian femme-fatale antagonist", not to mention the "psycho latin-american terrorist", among other equally interesting dorks (I barely remember Kane's name, let alone the ones from the rest of these G.I. Joe rejects).
Do I need to continue? The only way the whole thing could have been cheesier would have been if Cobra Commander and Serpentor had cameos in it, but considering the game takes place in the laughably cartoony C&C universe, where the enemy is an "Evil Cult (tm)" that strikes wearing goofy space-suits, go around in red buggies and tanks, and speak with "evil" accents among other assorted foolishness, the whole thing fits the game like a glove. I mean, it just wouldn't have worked if they had gone for serious characters, interesting storylines and credible settings. This is C&C!! What we need here is cheese! And Renegade tunes in perfectly to that.
Moving on towards the gameplay, one asks oneself what new ideas does Renegade bring to the table. The answers are both nothing and a lot. For now, let's just say a lot, as the game incorporates (as tirelessly advertised) the classic C&C game mechanics. Now, the ads. for the game sold it as a virtual war theater with you being RIGHT THERE in the heat of multiple C&C campaigns. The truth is somewhat different. There's no dynamic war going on around you as advertised, but a lot of scripted events and conditions works towards creating a somewhat satisfying simulation of one. Basically, enemy units and installations work under scripted versions of the C&C game mechanics, meaning if you take out the power plant, you scale down unit production. Take out the officers and you'll stop enemy spawning (by cutting their ability to call for reinforcements), etc. etc.
No, this is not a dynamic environment that reacts to your actions following the same logic as the C&C rts universe, they are just scripted events that simulate the effects of it, but when you add to that cruising helicopters, artillery fire and similar smoke and mirrors, the result is a pretty credible warfare climate pretty much unique in the genre (well... uh... sort of, anyway).
To complement the package the game comes loaded with the standard C&C flashy interfaces and glitz (courtesy of EA's always top-notch production values). The same funky techno soundtrack, streamlined interfaces, carefully produced multiplayer options and funky installation routines and menus that we have all come to cherish from the many Westwood/EA products. The cutscenes, while graphically unimpressive, are very well designed. Using smooth noise camera controllers to produce that hand-held shaky feel and with the added motion captured animation the results are pretty entertaining to see, and mask the poor graphical quality behind it.
The Bad
As I mentioned Renegade adds nothing to the fps genre, it's your average Half-Life clone with cliche'd weapons and tired gameplay that revolves around shooting everybody down, getting keycards, maybe escorting some bozo and then shoot everybody down again. The much vaunted vehicle use is a joke, with only lousy-controlled tanks and humvees that slug around the battlefield and which are barely more effective than a well-placed rocket. And while shooting everybody down might sound like fun (heck, I can dig it) it becomes extremely boring when the faulty AI means the enemies are more of a threat to themselves than to you (ha-ha! Stupid rocket soldiers!) and the officer-controlled spawning backfires into the game design and turns the whole thing into a first-person MegaMan clone (the last mission is a piece of CRAP!). And besides being easy as pie, the game is about as long as a C&C mission pack.
The weapons are the same tired arsenal you've been seeing since the dawn of time, except you don't have a shotgun (WTF??) and you have C4 charges and ion cannon beacons that can call upon a rather impressive death from above, but that's it.
While the sound department is excellently developed, graphic-wise the game is pretty unimpressive, with pretty much nothing in the way of special effects, and blurry textures that make character close-ups a pain to behold. As for the cutscenes (pre-rendered but using the game's models and textures) while they may be interesting enough, the use of the same low polygon models from the game results in several unintentionally funny moments, such as when morpher tries to make the 3 vertex or so that each character has in their mouths form words and ends up making their lips fly all over the place and make the characters look like retarded rednecks when they talk.
Finally, while the whole cheesy cartoony thing has it's charm, the premise can get on your nerves from time to time. Havoc tries to play it cool, but he doesn't have a tenth of the charisma Duke had (probably because he doesn't say anything during the game itself, anything funny that is), the other characters have about as much depth as a cardboard cutout, and there are plot-holes so big you could drive a mammoth tank through them (yeah! I'm going to release you from prison because, like... yeah, I need a diversion! That's it!).
Oh, and raise your hands all of you that would have rather played as Tanya in the RA universe.
The Bottom Line
The closest thing there is to a full fledged G.I.Joe game, complete with retarded plot, cartoony characters, and braindead challenges. C&C fans will delight in the fact that it IS C&C from a first person perspective. From the sounds to the look to the stupid units (flame tanks?) to the game mechanics Renegade faithfully simulates the look & feel of the C&C series. However, that' about everything the game has going for it, and as for the C&C game logic, only in one mission the game plays as advertised, letting you loose in a full-fledged Nod base that you must bring down.
For the most part Renegade brings nothing new to the table and disappoints those that were looking for a fully dynamic environment that emulated the rts games. It's not that it's a bad game, it just comes short at pretty much everything when compared to the competition. If you are willing to put up with those shortcomings (be it because you are that forgiving or because you are a C&C freak that has wet dreams about Kane) you will rewarded with a couple of hours of G.I. Joe in your pc, but that's it. If you are so desperate for that kind of cheese you might get more value from just renting the G.I. Joe movie or Delta Force...Now you know, "and knowing is half the battle!"
