Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

aka: C&C 2, C&C:TS, Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun, Command & Conquer: Soleil de Tiberium, Command & Conquer: Teil 3 - Operation: Tiberian Sun
Moby ID: 589
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Description official descriptions

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is a real-time strategy game and the direct sequel to the original Command & Conquer, set in the year 2030.

The Earth is now heavily contaminated with the alien crystalline substance known as Tiberium and is becoming less habitable with time, while new life forms have formed in areas of serious contamination. While the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) still has a technologically advanced arsenal, it is also tasked with Tiberium research and abatement. The Brotherhood of Nod suddenly re-emerges from hiding, and its leader Kane, believed to have been dead since the assault on Sarajevo in the First Tiberium War, unveils himself to General Solomon on GDI's orbital station Philadelphia. As Nod's sneak attacks start scourging the world like decades prior, GDI prepares for self-defense. Meanwhile, survivors of Tiberium mutation who call themselves The Forgotten live separated from society, but are about to become relevant for both GDI and Nod efforts.

Tiberian Sun debuted an isometric engine which combines the use of 2D sprites with 3D voxels (short for volume elements). There are even larger differences between the two playable sides in terms of gameplay styles and visual design - GDI prefers brute force while Nod specializes in hit-and-run tactics and the element of surprise. Some of the technologically advanced units include hovercrafts, subterranean flame tanks (aptly named "Devil's Tongues"), mechanized walkers, etc. Each side now also has multiple support powers at their disposal, and some of the special technologies have direct counters - stealth units can be discovered by mobile sensor arrays, while subterranean units can be directed further from sensitive areas with concrete pavement. The campaigns, similar to those in preceding titles, have side missions which can aid in resolving main missions (e.g. destroying a nearby outpost will reduce the size of the enemy army in the main mission).

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Credits (Windows version)

220 People (191 developers, 29 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 30 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 128 ratings with 9 reviews)

I LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!

The Good
The story is great, especially the BIG 'toys'(mammoth mk. 2 and cyborg commando kick BIG butt) You can also get awesome programs that you can modify TS with, lovely! As with most other games, you can also get software that you can modify the game with such as SE2K and final sun. Also the multi play "skirmish" feature allows you to practice for the solo missions, on any level (1-10) with is handy because you can find out what all the units can do before starting on the solo missions.

The Bad
The map maker for the multi play skirmishes could be a lot better, so be thankful you can get stuff like final sun.

The Bottom Line
Well worth the money if you like blowing things up and kicking people in battle as well as a must have for C&C fans.

Windows · by paul cairey (319) · 2002

A decent, if uninspired RTS game.

The Good
The graphics are much better than previous games. The cut scene movies are some of the best you'll see. It's a decent real-time strategy game.

The Bad
It feels like almost the same game with new graphics. Gameplay is a little slow, especially compared to other games on the market.

The Bottom Line
If you're enjoyed the original, you'll like this 1. Just don't expect too many new tricks from this old horse.

Windows · by jeremy strope (160) · 2000

The low point for the C&C series

The Good
The colored lighting is nice.

Its still RTS at least (although barely).

errrr.....

The Bad
It takes a bit to run without chugging. Even with a good computer, the gameplay itself is slow. The tiberian trucks dump slow, it takes about two minutes for most types of units to get from one side to another of a regular sized map, units fire slow, units get hurt slow (it can take over six shots for one infantry to kill another infantry), even the PLANES fly slow. Its almost slow enough to call it a turn based strategy game. Its just slow, and that ultimately makes it very boring.

The damage bar over units doesn't seem to work logically. It starts at full, but after one hit from anything it drops one box. Then down through to the last box it takes a varying amount to drop from one health box to the next. When a unit or structure has one health box left it usually takes two to three times the damage to get rid of that last bit of health and finally destroy it. As an example in one game I had a tic-tank attacking a laser, and it went fine till the last little bit, and then it just wouldn't die. The laser ended up killing my tic-tank, with that one last infuriating red health box still left.

There's no unit balance. You wouldn't want to make most of the units, because quite frankly, they suck. All the games are pretty predictable, because GDI and NOD can each only do a couple things and still hope to win.

Westwood pretty much patched the life out of it. Right out of the box I thought it was a decent game, and seemed to have more ways to play, but Westwood just kept rebalancing and retweaking, and basically neutered most of the units. It's also annoying to have to find a new killer strategy just when you've found one that is your favorite. Normally finding new strategies is fun, but not when its forced upon you.

The AI, like all Westwood games, is horrible. The computer opponents offer no resistance, and pathfinding is terrible. Sometimes units don't seem to notice they are getting shot.

There's no out of the box map maker, just a rather lame and pathetic random map generator. Map makers made by third parties helped a bit.

The single player game is frustrating and needlessly challenging. And not challenging in the enjoyable way, but challenging as in puzzles and obstacles tossed in just for the sake of having them. I got about halfway through the NOD ones and just was so fed up with reloading and the banal action that I couldn't go any farther.

Finally, its pretty dull to look at. Its all browns, like some wannabe quake level. Would a little color have been so hard to do?

The Bottom Line
A slow, boring, uninspired game. Inconsistencies, poor AI, and a sluggish pace bring it down. Don't bother

Windows · by Dr. Elementary (273) · 2004

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
now available as free download Rola (8486) Feb 15, 2010
tiberian sun patch v2.04 and high-res patch grr joel Feb 16, 2008

Trivia

Audio

Dwight Okahara, Senior Sound Designer:

We had a blast with this game. We hooked up with the FBI to record explosives from their bomb detonation training course to bring realistic sound effects to the game

Development

The design team started work on Tiberian Sun in 1995, just a few weeks after Command & Conquer shipped. The final design document was finished in late 1997. In July of 1998, in the 110 degree heat of the Nevada desert, a crew of more than 40 came together to film the story of Tiberian Sun. The game was completed in July of 1999.

German version

The German version replaces all the soldiers with cyborgs. Some violent scenes were cut from the cutscenes.

Online servers

The game's online servers were migrated from the official Westwood Online infrastructure to the community-run XWIS (XCC WOL IRC Server), under approval and sponsorship from EA's German office on 20 October 2005. The Westwood Online domains have acted as a redirect to XWIS services since then, requiring no additional steps from the user to access the servers short of registering an account.

References to the game

In 1999, German electronica-house-metal band Think About Mutation released the single Two Tribes, which featured a video with some Tiberian Sun footage and the band members wearing the helmet seen on the game cover. The cover of the single is a stylized Tiberian Sun cover, depicting a woman instead of a male soldier.

Sales

  • As of 2005, Tiberian Sun was the fastest selling game on the EA Games label (1.5 million copies within a month).
  • Between 1999 and 2000, the game won a single Gold- and three Platinum-Awards from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 units (Gold) and more then three times 200,000 units (Platinum) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As the Gold-Award is not counted into the Platinum-Award, all four awards total in between 700,000 and 1,700,000 units sold.

Soundtrack

All tracks were composed and performed by Frank Klepacki (Westwood Studios) and Jarrid Mendelson (Digital Media House).

* - track was initially GDI-only, but was later enabled for Nod as well
** - track was initially Nod-only, but was later enabled for GDI as well

  1. Valves (03:27) (Klepacki)
  2. Dusk Hour* (04:11) (Klepacki & Mendelson)
  3. Flurry (04:11) (Klepacki & Mendelson)
  4. Mutants* (04:11) (Klepacki & Mendelson)
  5. Approach (04:42) (Klepacki)
  6. Gloom (03:37) (Mendelson)
  7. Infrared (04:26) (Klepacki)
  8. Mad Rap (04:29) (Klepacki)
  9. Red Sky (02:22) (Klepacki)
  10. Ion Storm / Storm Coming (04:14) (Klepacki)
  11. Time Bomb (02:04) (Klepacki)
  12. What Lurks (05:14) (Klepacki)
  13. Defense** (04:03) (Mendelson)
  14. Heroism (04:06) (Mendelson)
  15. Lone Troop* (04:39) (Mendelson)
  16. Pharotek** (04:38) (Mendelson)
  17. Scout (04:14) (Mendelson)

Installer/main menu track: Options Menu (03:27) (Klepacki)
Map selection screen track: Map Theme (01:06) (Klepacki)
Post-game track: Score (01:49) (Klepacki)

Additionally, a looping ambiental track is played separately from this list in campaign missions where ion storms are occurring:

  • Ion Storm Ambient (00:34)

The soundtrack disc of the game is included in the Platinum Edition and the Firepower bundle. It was also separately available for purchase. As of 2005 it has been available digitally on Apple iTunes, followed by other streaming services as they arrived. Note that the list is reordered and some tracks were cut out, and some tracks were slightly renamed.

  1. Timebomb (Klepacki)
  2. Pharotek (Mendelson)
  3. Lone Trooper (Mendelson)
  4. Scouting (Mendelson)
  5. Infrared (Klepacki)
  6. Flurry (Klepacki & Mendelson)
  7. Mutants (Klepacki & Mendelson)
  8. Gloom (Mendelson)
  9. Heroism (Mendelson)
  10. Approach (Klepacki)
  11. Dusk Hour (Klepacki & Mendelson)
  12. The Defense (Mendelson)
  13. Mad Rap (Klepacki)
  14. Valves (Klepacki)
  15. What Lurks (Klepacki)
  16. Score (Klepacki)

Frank Klepacki:

I didn't want to stray too far from the original C&C soundtrack, but it had to be more futuristic and ambient. From there I tried to capture the mood the designers wanted for each mission. I even brought in another composer for some of the in game scores, Jarrid Mendelson, who I knew would compliment my style for this genre of music. Also, you'll notice I put more development into GDI & NOD's signature themes for the movie sequences.

Awards

  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #29 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2000 - Most Hyped Game in 1999
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2005 - #3 Biggest Disappointment
    • Issue 02/2006 - #3 Hype Disappointment
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/2000 – Biggest Disappointment in 1999
  • Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland
    • 1999/2000 - Gold Award
    • 1999/2000 - Three Platinum Awards

Information also contributed by FloodSpectre, Grant McLellan, Karthik KANE, paul cairey, PCGamer77, Plok and Xoleras.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, MAT, Derrick 'Knight' Steele, Cochonou, Xantheous, Adam Baratz, Jeanne, paul cairey, Cantillon, Thomas Helsing, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

Game added December 17, 1999. Last modified March 16, 2024.