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)
Lead Programmers
Programmers
Westwood Online (Programming)
Install Programming
Additional Programming
[ 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)

"Havoc to the rescue !"-"Yeah, but the ladies first!"

The Good
The main character is awesome.

The engine cut scenes are simply brilliant and add to the fun of the game.

The gameplay features a good variety of missions and settings.

The vehicles are a nice bonus.

The whole ambiance is pretty faithful to C&C.

The Bad
The graphics are a bit dated.

The enemies are repetitive.

The Bottom Line
"Not another FPS, please !" Yes, but this one comes with a very cool main character, named "Havoc", and You can blow up the Fist of NOD from the inside :D

The best thing first: the game has the most entertaining cut scenes I have ever seen in any game.

Havoc is such a cliche that the ironic approach Westwood took simply hits the nail on the head. Perfect.

The gameplay isn't worse than Unreal2 or any other "simple" shooter, and while it can become repetitive, the whole "Commando"-style presentation with primary objective/secondary objective is refreshing. Add to that the vehicles You can use, and You got a pretty good FPS, not quite the quality of No One Lives Forever, but better than some newer games like Unreal 2.

The graphics are a bit outdated, but the look of the C&C universe is well captured, and the new ideas and implementations of the well known items like Tiberium freighters, mutants, buggies, copters and tanks is well done. For the current budget price, You can't go wrong.

Windows · by Emmanuel Henne (23) · 2003

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

Buy the budget version next year

The Good
The game is a must have for C&C fans. For the first time, you’ll be able to take part in all those epic battles you directed before as the chief commander of the GDI. In addition, the game boasts very good graphics and sound.

The Bad
Lots of hardware problems, miserable tech support, awful multiplayer and a very short single player. The A.I. leaves lots to be desired as well.

The Bottom Line
C&C: Renegade was a valiant effort, which fell short of expectations. It brings nothing new to the world of First Person Shooters except of a familiar setting, translated from a real-time strategy. In fact, the game has been translated so well, that it follows the trend that has been evident from the first game in the series: each subsequent game has a shorter gameplay and less replay value. Command & Conquer: Renegade will last you only 8-10 hours in the single player mode.

Let’s not spoil it to you and start with the good things first:
Graphics: People in this game have been motion-captured. That means that they move like real people, and not like puppets. It always amazed me how realistically the people moved, depending where you hit them. The settings are very well crafted as well; whether it is a snow-covered alpine backcountry or a French village.
Sounds: The music is superb, and helps to keep you in a state of expectation. Some people are not too happy about the sounds, but I found them refreshing; ripped straight from the original C&C game.

On the other hand, there’s lots to be desired in this game:
Setting: The game reeks of male chauvinism. Not even Duke Nukem (who was chauvinistic in a funny way) managed to aggravate me as much as this game. I’m a male, but I still got upset by how much this game presented women as sources of pleasure for the main character, who was well aware of this. I got to hate my character so much that often suicide seemed like a good option. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out how to finish the game with my character dead.
Technical issues: Where do I start? Maybe with the fact that the game supports only a very limited roster of 3D cards. Voodoo owners are hit particularly hard, with only the newest cards working (and that only after installing an unauthorized patch). Or I may mention the fact that the combination of the main, 900MB file and SafeDisc 2.x protection of the CDs creates a situation in which very often the game crashed during install if the CD has the slightest flaw. I would also point out the fact that virtually hundreds of people reported 10-15FPS refresh rate, way below the optimal 60FPS. In fact, there were so many reports of technical problems that Electronic Arts shut down the official tech support forum for this game and is heavily censoring any posts mentioning technical issues on other official boards.
Single player: The game is easily beatable in 8 hours on easy and medium mode, and in 10-12 hours in the hard mode. While there are a few spots where you may get stuck, your time to finish will not be much longer than that. The only difference between the first two modes and the last one will be that in the hard difficulty level you’ll spend much more time as a sniper.
Multiplayer: Electronic Arts decided to do a competition here. They created a ladder system, where each player gets points for everything he or she does while playing multiplayer. The best player would then get a video card. This has caused enormous amounts of cheating. Due to the fact that games are hosted by players, more often than not the server owner will end up with the most points, kicking people who don’t play by his rules. In addition, the multiplayer tends to be a little too intense and a little too short, with most games being finished in 20-30 minutes.
A.I.: The A.I. is a sore spot in this game. Enemies are so heavily scripted that replaying the game is like replaying Super Mario Land – you’ll know when to jump and when to run. In addition, in a few missions, you will have to keep your teammates alive. Unfortunately, they have an uncanny ability to get themselves killed very fast, so you’ll spend lots of time reloading missions.

Overall, I am sorry I spent $30 on this game. I may have given it a try when it appeared as a budget game for half that price or as a part of a compilation, but as it stands now, this game is not worth it. You’ll do much better spending the money on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault or saving it for Unreal 2.

Windows · by NetDanzr (210) · 2002

[ 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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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.