Command & Conquer: Generals - Deluxe Edition

The Good
As with many other genres, the RTS one has various "highlight" games which are usually considered to be essential for the genre. In particular, StarCraft is usually regarded to be the best RTS game ever made. Even though StarCraft IS a great game, it's definitely not the best ever made, or at least not anymore ever since the release of C&C Generals and its expansion. This game is part of the long running C&C franchise which, on paper, has always been superior to StarCraft and Blizzard's other RTS games, but most C&C games released before Generals weren't really playtested, and most of them were simply rushed to the market before being finished. A real shame, but the games are still good nonetheless.

With Generals however, what we have is finally a complete RTS game that gathers some elements from Blizzard's classic while keeping the gameplay style of the original games, and improving on it even further. First off, this is one of the fastest RTS games I've played, rivaling Warcraft 2 in terms of speed. Every unit in the game is well thought out and serves a specific purpose and, unlike StarCraft, where rushing is the key, this game is much more tactical.

The game's story is unconnected to the two other franchises of the series, the Tiberium franchise and the Red Alert franchise. In this alternate timeline there is a war between the USA, China and a fictional terrorist organization from the middle east known as Global Liberation Army (similar to the Brotherhood of Nod from the Tiberium series except without all the religion). Each of the three factions has different units and strategies and the story progresses as USA and China eventually ally with eachothers to stop the GLA.

Like every other C&C title, this game follows a "rock-paper-scissor" type of gameplay: each type of unit is strong against certain types of units and weak against other types of units. For example, a Chinese Gattling Tank is very strong against infantry and infantry, is decent against light vehicles but is poor against tanks and buildings. A rocket soldier is very effective against tanks, moderately effective against structures and aircraft and aircraft but is weak to infantry and certain toxin/flame tanks. And the list goes on, as every unit in the game follows the same logic. This basically means that unlike StarCraft or Warcraft 2 you can't win by spamming one type of unit because the enemy can come up with various ways to stop your rushes. The only way to win is to mix different units in different situation and always have a tactical advantage. There's various upgrades for units (something new to the series) but there are no weapon/armor upgrades like in StarCraft, instead the upgrades are only to give already existing units new abilities. For example there's an upgrade that gives the GLA's main tank, the Scorpion Tank, a strong rocket mounted near the cannon which is effective but has a slow reload, giving the GLA's tank an advantage for hit-n-run tactics. Another upgrade allows Chinook Helicopters to improve their resource collection ability. Another thing new to the series is General's Points. The game values how much destruction you cause in the battlefield and rewards you for it by allowing you to purchase certain types of special weapons and upgrades using the points you earned during battle. You can only select a limited number of these General's Points upgrades, though, so basically you won't be able to purchase every ability in the same match. Some of these abilities include paratroopers, carpet bombings, instant repairs, or unlocking new units. Similarly to the older titles there are of course Super Weapons, extremely large and expensive buildings which are able to launch a devastating attack after a certain period of time (like a nuclear missile or a particle cannon).

Other than the various innovations over previous C&C titles, the game also has various differences however. First of all, the game drops the iconic Construction Yard present in every other C&C game, instead replacing it with Command Centers which act similarly to StarCraft's ones, and workers which can build structures. However unlike StarCraft workers can only build structures (and clear mines) and they do not collect resources, as that task is left to resource gatherers. There's also a difference with this however. Unlike the Tiberium games where the resource is, well, Tiberium, and the Red Alert game where the resources are ore and gems, this game uses "supplies" as the main resources, some special crates containing money and other supplies which are found in the map. Most of these are found at a central Supply Node which acts like Warcraft 2's gold mine (breaking the tradition of large resources fields from previous C&C game). It still works well, however. Another big difference is the lack of the iconic Engineer unit. However do not fear, you can still capture enemy buildings using your basic infantry unit. There is an upgrade at the barracks which allows units to capture almost any building, neutral or enemy, on the map. To do this, the infantry units approach the building without entering it and start to capture it, and it takes several seconds to do so, so if the unit that is attempting to capture it is killed, the operation will be a failure. The more infantry units you send to capture a building the faster that building will be captured. It might sound awkward at first but it's actually a quite effective method. Other than all of this, the gameplay is still very similar to the older C&C titles, so it is great for both veterans of the series and newcomers alike.

The Bad
The story may not be as strong as the previous C&C titles but that doesn't take away any of the fun. It's still pretty nice anyway, if a bit paranoid.

The only real issue I can think of is the lack of naval warfare. The game still plays really well without it but since Red Alert had it, why not Generals?

The Bottom Line
Even today, Generals still remains a blast to play and is my favourite RTS game of all time. With some of the most imaginative units and tactics from a RTS game and its fast gameplay, it is sure to appeal to those who like old school RTS games. So if you like StarCraft or other C&C games, you will without a doubt enjoy Generals.