Command & Conquer

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.