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

Windows version

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

by Dr. Elementary (273) on August 1, 2004

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