Command & Conquer: Renegade

aka: C&C: Renegade, Command & Conquer: Commando
Moby ID: 5881
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Description official descriptions

The First Tiberium War between the GDI and the sinister Brotherhood of Nod is nearing its end. In an attempt to revert the scales of war to their favor, the brotherhood kidnaps top three Tiberium research specialists. The GDI commando Captain Nick "Havoc" Parker is sent on a mission to rescue the scientists. As he battles the forces of the Brotherhood on the way to his objective, the Captain discovers the abductors' true intention, and realizes that the outcome of the entire war depends on the success of his mission.

Command & Conquer: Renegade is a first-person 3D shooter set in the Command & Conquer universe. Game progression is mission-driven; most missions have primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives. A few drivable vehicles are available. Though the gameplay does not deviate from traditional FPS formula, scripted events and some of the mission objectives share common themes and features with the real-time strategy games of the series. The multiplayer emulates RTS gameplay to a larger extent, putting players in control of either GDI or the Brotherhood forces, and requiring them to harvest tiberium in order to upgrade the armies.

Spellings

  • 命令与征服:变节者 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

375 People (348 developers, 27 thanks) · View all

C&C Renegade is based upon the original C&C created by
Executive Producers (Management)
Sr. Producer (Management)
Associate Producers (Management)
Technical Directors (Programming)
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Westwood Online (Programming)
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 75% (based on 44 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 65 ratings with 5 reviews)

A novel campaign set in the C&C universe is fine and dandy, but the real attraction here is the stunning multiplayer.

The Good

  • Art design is appealing and true to the RTS games
  • There's plenty of novelty to be had seeing the C&C universe in first person
  • Good graphics for the time
  • FANTASTIC multiplayer
  • Lengthy campaign
  • Good sound effects


The Bad

  • Single player campaign can get dull at times
  • Pathetic artificial intelligence
  • No Single player Nod campaign
  • Have to use GameSpy arcade to find servers
  • Mediocre story



The Bottom Line
I love Command & Conquer. They are fast paced and a ton of fun to play, they may not be the deepest strategy games on the planet, but they're still fun as hell; especially the bloody awesome Red Alert 2. C&C Renegade takes a different approach though, instead of being tasked as a commander, you are tasked as being a commando; a fan favourite character from the first game. You also aren't playing a strategy game, but rather a first person shooter.

You play as Havoc, a GDI commando who unravels a Nod scheme to create an army of Tiberium mutants, as well as the standard Nod scheme of trying to use Tiberium as a weapon. The plot isn't especially interesting, and is bogged down by a cast of uninteresting and forced characters that the game expects us to know simply by showing us their model and a text scrawl in the installation screen. Havoc isn't a particularly interesting character, he pretty much is just a generic C&C Commando even if he talks more.

There is plenty of novelty to be had in both the single player component and the multiplayer component. Entering the Tiberium universe; circa the events of the first game, so its not quite as dark or dreary as Tiberian Sun; is a very cool thing and it is handled well. You'll storm Nod bases, drive both Nod and GDI vehicles, and use weaponry such as the GDI Ion Cannon. It certainly is a treat to enter a Hand of Nod and see Nod soldiers training and seeing the inner workings of a base.

The campaign is fun, but it isn't without some flaws. Firstly, some maps are gigantic. This isn't a problem for some shooters, but Renegade simply doesn't know how to pace a huge map. There's one map maybe 3 or 4 levels in that is enormous, and en route to a Nod base you have to shut down you'll travel about 30 minutes in a vehicle and 45 minutes on foot before you'll find another enemy to shoot. This makes some maps confusing, dull, and frustrating. To add to these frustrations, bases can sometimes be confusing as well with winding corridors and inconsistent floor plans and key card events.

The AI is also pathetic. At least the zombies in Doom would actually walk and try to avoid your bullets. The soldiers here, once they catch sight of you, just stand there shooting at you while you tear them apart. The only way to get a challenge from the basic soldiers is to crank up the difficulty. To be fair, more advanced characters and vehicles pose a greater threat but regardless, the AI is just bad.

I also would've liked to see two campaigns, both to even out the pacing and to stay truer to the traditional C&C style. Playing as a Nod soldier would've been cool, but we don't get that treat save for in multiplayer but that's still not quite the same thing as having a story driven Nod campaign to play.

The multiplayer is the star here though. I am not joking when I say its easily one of the best and most overlooked multiplayer components in a first person shooter. It plays exactly like a regular C&C game, there's a NOD base and a GDI base, Tiberium is being harvested, and they must build an army and destroy the other base. But, naturally, you are playing as a soldier on the frontline. You can buy weapons, vehicles, and special characters using Tiberium credits; but remember, your team shares the income. In fact, your team is very important. There's still some strategic depth here, to win you must be able to coordinate attacks and move in squads. Both bases have defenses that must be taken down, though several maps do provide secondary passages to the enemy base if you are sneaky enough to find them.

There are plenty of maps to play on and playing with 32 or even 64 players is a joy, and the units you can control are all quite fun and unique and the action is always pulse pounding but it never sacrifices the squad based elements.

The only real flaw I find in multiplayer is the server interface. Before they were forced to close their doors by EA, Westwood Online was the primary method of finding servers and the easiest. WOL is gone now, and even then it was buggy. To be able to play Renegade online now, you must use GameSpy arcade which is a bit of a nuisance with its ads, lag, and poor Windows 7/Vista support. But even then, it is still worth playing simply for the multiplayer. There are servers up and there is a wealth of maps to play, and there is a mod called Renegade X being made on the Unreal 3 engine which is going to replicate the multiplayer experience of Renegade for free and with modern graphics. Very cool, but if you haven't checked this game out, its fairly cheap now and I highly recommend it to C&C fans. It has a decent campaign, but the multiplayer is the real meat and potatoes of this particular package.

Windows · by Kaddy B. (777) · 2010

It's awesome, dude, awesome!

The Good
You're playing GDI, you're playing a commando, you're playing that little top-down units from the original "Command & Conquer", and that's the only unit you control in this game, and nope, this is not "Sole Survivor 2". Nick Parker, code name Nicky... ahem, I mean, Havoc, undisciplined, fast on the trigger, and barely doing anything left-handed. This time, the exact time of 1995 during the first Tiberium conflict, you'll be shown the war you've already passed, only from another perspective... from a commando's eyes. You can easy shift between first-person and third-person perspective, and in both of them, navigation and controls are extremely well done, and easy to master in no time. Now, since that is original war, you'll encounter many enemy and allied units in game, from the Nod minnigunner infantry and rocket soldiers, to GDI grenadiers, minnigunners and civilians. The ranking is making some extra abilities, so Nod and GDI officers can call for backup and reinforcements, which is why you should set your prior targets on officers, and than on grunts. Also, the game goes way into touch of "Tiberian Sun", so there will be experimentations with Tiberium, and even couple of different types of mutants and enhanced Nod soldiers resistant to Tiberium. Also, units such as Hum-vees, Nod light tanks, GDI Mammoth tanks, Nod buggies, Flame tanks and others will be present in the game, but that's not all. You will as well be qualified to control them (though in third-person perspective only), and although this may reseble to "Grand Theft Auto", it is nothing like it, hehe. This game is made so there is no corner for resting, and war is omnipresent all the time, so you see flying orcas help you with some Nod turrets, Nod Apache helicopters shooting atcha, A-10 planes bombing enemy installations, or GDI gunboat firing missiles incorrectly so most of them comes in your direction. GDI support won't be heavy, but you can always expect bunch of Nod troopers behind every corner, constant incoming reinforcements, landing from the transport helicopter, exiting APC, or incoming paratroopers. All the houses also have affect on the game (for example Hand of Nod is helping with enemy infantry reinforcements, or helipads will increase Apaches activity in the area, or power plants giving enough energy for Nod obelisk tower, etc.), and this time you can check them all inside out. Or you can destroy them with Mammoth tank, or Ion Cannon pretty quickly. Hand weapons arsenal is more than enough, from the ground basic silence pistol and machine gun, to spray gun, flamethrower, hand ion cannon, lightning gun, C4 explosive charges and more. The game uses cinematics that look pretty much as ingame, and are done with the same engine, but just the look at some character talking and moving lips won't be able to stop you laughing, hihi, dunno if they did that on purpose, but I like it, hehe, breakes the seriousness of the game from time to time. Also, there are some funny dialogues throughout the game (for example, Syndey demostrates you how your health bar works by shooting you to which you angrily say "Was that really necesary?"), you get the feeling as if they inserted part of their "Malcolm's Revenge" humor in it. The detail level is simply fascinating, and every level is entirely different, using different textures and places, beaches, ships, town, ski cottages, bridges, frozen rivers, dam, and using pretty nice rain, snow and volcanic ashes effects. The game follows the story of the original "C&C" almost entirely, with a little knocking on the "Tiberian Sun" surface. Basically, what you used to see in the masterfully done FMV of "C&C", you will now experience from first-person and see those 3D objects as well as interact with all of 'em. Music is also great, and it approximates the one in original "C&C", and some songs are identical, only reconstructed a bit, to couple of "Command & Conquer" and "Tiberian Sun" songs, and they're even called the same (which you can check on the game soundtrack). It works fast and fine on my ol' ASUS RIVA TNT with some drivers that are even now two years old, but the thing is, if they made it work great with such an old card, this opens range to users with not so upgraded computers, and believe me, this one is a must of all musts.

The Bad
I was thinking raging a bit about the game's shortness, but I guess all great games are somewhat short. And to think Westwood was developing this game for so long, and I finished it so soon... sigh, it's not healthy thinking much about it, hehe. This game has so many varieties and goodies, that the fact they made so many differences in it, and were so faithful to level of details is really rising this game up. They didn't just make this game on some already existing engine and try to take a fame from their renowned RTS, no, they needed two years just to create the engine for this game from scratch, and what once was an idea for 3rd-person shooter, they extended onto 1st-person shooter, and left both modes (something like in "Jedi Knight"). But just as I got this longly anticipated game from "C&C" series, they're already announcing new game in the universe called "Command & Conquer: Generals". If they continue with this pace, "C&C" universe may soon enough surpass the quantity of "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" series.

The Bottom Line
It's a flawless perfection you shouldn't miss. I really don't think I should comment much on this topic. There can only be two people who may consider trying this game out, fans of "C&C" series, and fans of FPS genre. Actually, there's also a third type of people, like me, who loves both "C&C" universe and FPS genre. So if you like "C&C" RTS, but not because it's C&C but only because it's good, then this may not be a good decision to try, but if you've wondered how Hand of Nod or Construction Yard look from the inside, and how does it feel to try drivin' some of the units, this may be a step you should make.

Okay, so let's try to summarize...

  • Story: could compete with renowned "Half-Life" plot, only this is more war-oriented, than using too much of interiors.
  • Sound: voice-acting are great, as well as dialogues, and music is in a style of the original C&C and TS.
  • Graphic: huh, I don't think comment is needed on this one. It supports down from 640x480 in 16bit color mode and low level of details up to 1600x1200 in 32bit color mode and high level od fetails (which of course, would drag its arse on my computer). Textures, units, maps, places, general level design is really top notch. Now, I can't say much about the multiplayer, because I'm not fan of multiplayer in general, no matter how good it is, but this one is probably so good that noone who tries it will ever complain. Look, it's a small box, you can miss it, but don't. Just because Westwood rleased this game in less than noticeable gamebox shouldn't distract you from noticing perfection. Diamonds are usually small, are they not? ;)
  • Windows · by MAT (240759) · 2012

    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!"

    Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2004

    [ View all 5 player reviews ]

    Discussion

    Subject By Date
    Trivia source, pls? Plok (204429) Mar 5, 2017

    Trivia

    Development

    The game was originally called Command & Conquer: Commando and had already been in early stages of development by July 1997. In 2014, a tech demo from that time leaked, which shows that the game was originally intended to be released on the Sony PlayStation (as at least one of the platforms) and was build upon the Sports Car GT engine, with a model viewer, a player test, a terrain test, and a playable "Jogging Around Atlanta" test level.

    The game's release was delayed multiple times, to which Westwood Studios themselves joked in a sketch where a man dressed up as Havoc breaks into the studio, terrorizes the developers, takes a photo with Joseph Kucan and threatens to be back should the game be delayed again.

    Protagonist

    Early concept art and the first official trailer show that the protagonist was originally to be Logan Sheppard, son of general Mark Sheppard from the original Command & Conquer. He was later replaced by Nick Seymour Parker, known as "Havoc", while Logan was placed as the tutorial guide.

    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.

    An alternate master server was hosted on GameSpy, and was scheduled to shut down on 30 June 2014, like for other Electronic Arts titles in the wake of GameSpy's total closure.

    References

    In the game cutscenes and some posters inside Nod buildings you can see footage from the original 1995 Command & Conquer. For example, in the cutscene when Havoc is commandeering a hovercraft, there is a screen on the command ship's bridge where you can see him arriving to an island, but in the same graphics as the original game.

    Awards

    • GameSpy
      • 2002 – Wish It Had Been A Hit Award (for its multiplayer mode)

    Information also contributed by Rantanplan and Plok

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    Related Games

    Command & Conquer
    Released 1995 on DOS, 1996 on SEGA Saturn, Windows
    Command & Conquer: The First Decade
    Released 2006 on Windows
    Command & Conquer: Generals
    Released 2003 on Windows, 2004 on Macintosh
    Command & Conquer: Red Alert
    Released 1996 on DOS, Windows, 1997 on PlayStation...
    Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
    Released 1999 on Windows
    Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
    Released 2007 on Windows, Xbox 360, Macintosh
    Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
    Released 2008 on Windows

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    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by MAT.

    Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Rantanplan, Corn Popper, paul cairey, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

    Game added March 8, 2002. Last modified March 17, 2024.