Command & Conquer

The Good
Everything about this game screams quality. With the multimedia revolution in full swing, Westwood went crazy on the production values and produced an expensive, lavish, and polished game miles ahead of anything else available at the time. It was the first real-time strategy game to ship on multiple CDs, and that should tell you something.

I won't use the phrase "multimedia showcase" in case I scare anyone away, but it can't be denied that lots of emphasis has been put into the game's presentation. When you install the game and boot up you get treated to an awesome FMV intro that sets the scene for the conflicts that follow, and this ostentatious, no-budget-in-sight design is found throughout the game. Fortunately, this isn't all Command and Conquer has going for it, underneath all the flash is solid gameplay and some of the best design yet put on a disk. C&C is an awesome game and one of the genre's great classics.

The plot is a sci-fi treat, consisting of a futuristic war between two factions over a rare element called Tiberium which is kind of like the Spice in the Dune series of books. The NOD are a neo-fascist army of terrorists who want to control the world's Tiberium supply, and opposing them is the Global Defense Initiative (kind of like the UN of the future). The story doesn't play a huge role in gameplay (your mission objectives usually boil down to "those pesky GDI have set up camp on our territory! GO! KILL!") But is nevertheless a well-written and entertaining piece of work, containing gimmicks such as time travel and split realities and enough pseudoscience to add a small modicum of credibility to C&C's unlikely future world. The writers behind the game deserve credit for doing this without sending it into cheese land.

The basic gameplay are rather similar to Westwood's first RTS outing Dune II, in that it's centered around harvesting minerals and building troops, but C&C is much more intense and fast. There's so much action going on here you could seriously get carpal tunnel syndrome playing this game. But even more importantly, a clean interface and smart design make the game much more centered around strategy, and ironically this was the thing most missing from strategy games in the early nineties.

The game strikes a perfect balance between base-building and fighting. You have to collect Tiberium (the game's primary resource) using special harvesters and then return it to refineries for processing. You also need energy stations to power your buildings, and since you have a fixed supply of it you can't just harvest all the Tiberium you can find, whack down thirty factories and start cranking out tanks like mad. This is a great idea and evens the playing field between skilled and unskilled players, because even if you are harvesting more Tiberium than your opponant you'll still be hamstrung (to a limited extent) by his energy needs.

C&C introduced the idea of an interlocked tech tree, where all functions in the game are dependant on something else. If you don't have a refinery you can't process any Tiberium, and if your storage facilities are destroyed you lose all the Tiberium you collected. This opens the strategic window and gives you a lot of options you didn't have in previous games. You don't need to destroy the enemy's army to win, a controlled series of strikes against storage facilities will cripple his ability to fight.

Like Dune II, the two factions have numerous units at their disposal that perform similar functions but are different enough to make playing as a different side seem like a whole new experience. The GDI have powerful tanks and vehicles, while the NOD have stronger airborn weapons and footsoldiers. Late-game battles become absolutely crazy, with both sides fighting over scraps of Tiberium, launching surprise attacks everywhere, calling in airstrikes etc.

Westwood even listened to their fans and fixed the myriad of problems that plagued the Dune II. You can move more than one soldier at a time (an amazingly simple feature that no-one else had thought to implement before) and unlike Dune II you can place buildings anywhere you want instead of only on pre-build concrete slabs (why the hell did they even include such a retarded feature?). Has the enemy got tanks in place that are stopping you from launching a ground offensive? Maybe you can sneak past using transport helicopters. The plethora of options available makes it very replayable next to myopic strategy games like Warcraft and Dune II.

As you'd expect, the graphics are superb. They actually created 3D models of the buildings and units and then converted them to 2D sprites, giving the game a lifelike, perfectly proportioned feel. And one of the defining features of subsequent Command & Conquer games would remain the use of live action full-motion video cutscenes that play between missions and serve to both further a typically epic storyline as well as provide the player with their objectives for the next level through mission briefings. And the music is pure genius, consisting of industrial metal tracks and bombastic rock songs. As a composer of video game music, Frank Klepacki is up there in the Bobby Prince and Yosunori Mitsuda class.

The game also has a strong selling point in its multiplayer, mostly thanks to its support of IPX emulators like Kali. C&C was the first game to allow more than two players, and team games of C&C are adrenaline in its purest form.

The Bad
C&C is a great game and quite close to perfection. What does tick me off is how Westwood ended up prostituting their license, resulting in billions of pointless sequels, add-ons and media tie-ins that all but killed the franchise. Kind of like what happened to Tomb Raider, but with fewer boobs.

At least the new C&C game is good, by all accounts. I'll have to check it out.

The Bottom Line
C&C was released neck and neck with Blizzard's RTS game, Warcraft II, and soon debates were heating up the net about which game was superior. C&C had far better graphics, technology and more refined gameplay, while Warcraft II had charm, simplicity, and sheer playability. Ultimately it's a matter of personal opinion, and while I prefer Warcraft II C&C is still a brilliant game and a classic in every sense.

The Good
Command & Conquer is a game I still have very fond memories of. Playing it on the good old PSX (which was a good port, by the way), I remember I really had to get used to this kind of game. As a kid, I used to play platform or FPS games. You know, games wherein you control a single character with a simple objective, jump or shoot your way to the next level. Now I suddenly was in control of an entire army. I also had little to no clue of what the game's goal was or what I was doing. But eventually, I felt in love with the game. Later on, I sold my PSX version and got the original PC version through the First Decade compilation. And even to this day, I still love to play some good old Command & Conquer. And to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this series, it's an appropriate time to take a look at the game that started it all.

Command & Conquer takes place in a modern day setting and it plays on a fear that has been plaguing the Western world since the mid 90s. What if an ultra-violent extremist group suddenly decides to come out of the shadows in order to take over the entire world? In Command & Conquer, that fear becomes a reality when the Brotherhood of NOD, a mysterious extremist cult that allegedly has existed for centuries, starts an all out war against all nations of the globe. The cult is led by a charismatic man known as Kane and the group uses violence, manipulation and terrorism to strike fear into the hearts of everyone who don't share their ideals. As a result, the Western countries assemble themselves into the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) in an attempt to quell the Brotherhood's crusade for conquest. In addition, an alien mineral called tiberium started to appear all over the world. While being a very unstable and ecologically dangerous element, both sides want it for themselves. GDI sees tiberium as a perfect replacement to cope with vastly decreasing natural resources while NOD sees it as the coming of a new age in human evolution. Plenty of reasons for both sides to start an all out war for control of the world!

Command & Conquer was one of the very first Real Time Strategy games. In an RTS, you have to build units, structures, attack, defend and gather resources all at the same time. Unlike in a Turn Based Strategy game, you don't have much time to think everything over as your opponent will not stop attacking you until you're crushed. So playing a game like this certainly requires some skilled multitasking, flexibility and constant focus. You do not want to assault your enemy with GDI mammoth tanks only to find out that your undefended base gets burned to the ground by NOD flame tanks! It is that kind of fun tension that made me fall in love with RTS games.

Base and unit building goes as follows, you select a building or unit from the menu and the icon representing it gets darkened out. It starts to light up more and more as it gets build. Once it is finished, you unit will appear on screen or, in case of a structure, you can deploy it anywhere as long as it is located next to one of your already existing buildings. Building structures is important, as they allow you to produce units and advance through your side's tech tree, allowing you to build more advanced buildings and units. But of course, that requires quite a lot of cash. Cash that you can obtain by harvesting tiberium spread across the battlefield. Another important aspect about your base that you need to look out for, is power. It is vital that you build sufficient power plants as certain structures eat a lot of electricity. If you're low on power, you get a blackout, shutting down your radar, slowing down your production and turning off certain base defenses.

In C&C, you get to play as either GDI or the Brotherhood of NOD. Both sides have their separate storylines (which ultimately leads to your side defeating the other one) as well as their own style of play. GDI relies on traditional military tactics such as tanks, attack helicopters and even a satellite-based laser beam. Their main disadvantage, however, is that their units are slow and expensive to build. The Brotherhood of NOD's units are generally weaker but are faster and cheaper to produce. They also have quite some original stuff such as laser shooting obelisks and camouflage stealth tanks. NOD's forces are excellent for guerrilla tactics and for swarming the enemy with sheer numbers. Particularly their flame throwing tanks are a true joy to use on enemy infantry or on their base. In summary, both sides are pretty well balanced. Every unit has its own purpose. Some are powerful against infantry, others fare better against vehicles or structures. If you want to win a grueling battle, you will have to efficiently combine your unit's strengths and weaknesses and keep your eyes to what the enemy is throwing at you.

The missions in C&C include objectives that range from collecting a certain item to simply destroying every single enemy unit and structure on the map. Every game map starts off by being completely covered in darkness called the fog of war. When you explore the battleground, the fog of war disappears until the entire map is revealed. Unlike in later RTS games, you don't need to keep units patrolling the map if you want to notice enemies moving through the area. So you can just take a fast unit and explore the map quickly.

Gameplay aside, one other thing that was quite original about the Command & Conquer series is the use of live-action cutscenes. Unlike virtually every other game at the time, the game uses real actors to tell its story rather than just relying on text messages or CGI. I personally think that the actors do a pretty decent job in bringing their characters to life. Particularly Joseph Kucan, the actor playing the NOD leader Kane, is awesome. He's calm and calculating but at the same time has an intense and commanding presence. You just have to look at him and you can't help but believe that this guy truly believes himself to be Jesus Christ reincarnated and that he tolerates no objection nor failure from anyone.

Both the GDI and NOD campaigns have some very memorable scenes. Who can forget that scene in the NOD campaign wherein Seth, your commanding officer up till that moment, gets shot in the head by Kane himself while he was secretly plotting with you about attacking the Pentagon without Kane's permission? Or the final GDI briefing? Wherein your superior, who acted all cool and stoic during the entire campaign, began to show genuine emotion and anger over the horrors of the Brotherhood.

Music and sound effects are great. The game's soundtrack is made by Frank Klepacki and mixes synthesizer with heavy metal and war orchestra. I personally really enjoyed the game's soundtrack, it got me pumped up for some military ass kicking! As for sound effects, the weapons in particular sound powerful and beefy. Your units say generic military stuff like "yes sir," and "moving up." Nothing special, although their dying screams are quite convincing. I would probably also scream like Rob Halford if I was getting shot to pieces! But one unit that steals the show in the game is the Commando. He is basically the Arnold Schwarzenegger among the game's units. He always has a cool line ready for any situation. Shoot enemies and he says stuff like "keep 'em coming" and "that was left handed." Have him blow up a building and he will say "I've got a present for ya" before the targeted building flashes and explodes. Let him stand still for a minute and he will say "come on" while smoking a cigar (with a smoke cloud even bigger than the unit himself).

The Bad
Being of the very first RTS games, it doesn't have some features that have become standard in the RTS genre. For example, it is not possible to create a queue of units to build. So let's say you want to build three tanks, you have to wait until the unit is built before you can give the order to produce another one. It is also impossible to create way points for your freshly created units or to select all units of a certain type. One fun thing, however, is that you do not have a command limit. So you can build as many units as you can as long as you have money to buy.

The game's balance is great, but not perfect. For example, you can quite easily overrun the CPU's base using an army of NOD flame tanks or GDI grenade throwers. The game's AI also has the tendency of constantly sending the same group of units to the same direction of your base. Even if the CPU's units end up been burned to a crisp by a NOD Obelisk of Light. I wished that the CPU was more flexible in its attacks.

There are some missions (specially in the NOD campaign) where you only have a few units to control. And since the game's fog of war only disappears when you are very close to its border, it makes such missions pretty annoying as you can't see enemy units until they attack you. I do not really mind missions in which you need to deploy your forces wisely, but I wish that in those particular missions, the fog of war would disappear more quickly. Well, nothing that quick saves can't fix.

The Bottom Line
Even twenty years after the game's release, the original Command & Conquer remains very fun to play. It isn't the best RTS ever nor the best C&C game in the series, but it is still well worth checking out. The game itself is freeware and be sure to check the web for the unofficial patch created by Nyerguds that makes the game fully playable on modern systems in widescreen resolution. And be sure to check out the other games in the series (which I also plan to review in the near future). Now it's time to choose your side. Will you join GDI and fight to maintain our Western way of life? Or will you join the Brotherhood of NOD in order to help Kane create a new world order based on Unity, Peace and eternal Brotherhood?

The Good
I love the Warcraft/Starcraft games. This game is different in so many ways that make this game strategically different and a lot of fun. It took me a while to figure this game out because I was stuck in a Warcraft mentality. I had to think different to win. Tiberium, the only resource in the game, is, ironically, poisonous to infantry who are not in APCs, which is interesting. Gameplay is terrific. The music is another home run by Westwood Studios, a studio that seems to care about sound as much as the game itself. "I'm a mechanical man." I laugh when I think about that.

I like the nod buggies and bikes. They're fast. Not to mention the flame tanks. Why do the bad guys have all the coolest toys?

It's satisfying to plunder an enemy base with a few engineers, then sweep the remaining forces with a herd of tanks and such. Oh, yeah!

The cutscenes were fun. Westwood has a propensity for cutscenes. They're kind of a fun little reward at the end of each level. And the little lo-res units are so cute! The infantry guys do push-ups when you aren't using them. Brilliant!

The Bad
The old Tan vs. Red. Everything is either tan or red. GDI is tan. NOD is red. This is a minor gripe, a nit to be picked. Besides, it's important to know who the bad guys are. And there are times when the game lagged or seemed super-hard, but that's probably operator error and not a game flaw.

The Bottom Line
If you have an older Windows 9x computer, it's worth playing. It worked on XP but without sound. You need sound.