Does EA games do the series justice?

Gameplay: 14/20
Graphics: 12/15
Sound: 13/15
Balance: 14/25
Longevity: 18/25

Overall: 70% (3 stars/Average)

Important Information:

Required

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista (32-bit; 64-bit versions of Vista are not supported)
CPU: 2.0GHz or high, or AMD equivalent, Vista - 2.2 GHZ
RAM: 512 MB or more, Vista - 1GB RAM or more
Disk Drive: 8x or faster DVD drive for retail SKUs, not required for digitally downloaded version
Hard Drive: 6.0 GB or more of free space
Video: GeForce4, ATI Radeon 8500 or greater (ATI Radeon 9200 and 9250 PCI, NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX cards not supported.). Windows Vista - NVIDIA GeForce 6100 or ATI Radeon 9500 or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Network, Internet Multiplayer: 2 players (no voice support) 56 Kbps Internet connection; 2-8 players (with voice transmission) – Broadband-class connection

Recommended

OS: Windows XP or Windows Vista Home Premium
CPU: 3.2GHz, or AMD equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Disk Drive: 8x or faster DVD drive for retail SKUs, not required for digitally downloaded version
Hard Drive: 7200 RPM IDE w/8.0 GB or more of free space
Video: Nvidia GeForce 7600GT or ATI X1650Pro
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Network, Internet Multiplayer: 768k DSL

Command and Conquer and Westwood Studios

The Command and Conquer series has been around for over a decade, and some would argue was THE RTS that helped define the genre. The now-defunct Westwood Studios designed the original Command and Conquer (C&C) game, with live FMV cut scenes and actors to portray the action between certain missions. The initial outing was so much a success for Westwood that iterations spread from there to C&C: Red Alert, a game that had little to do with the original, but did retain the original game engine and FMV live actors in the scenes between missions (some of which were quite hilarious).

In 1999, Westwood Studios was completely bought out by EA Games. Later, in 2003, the now parent company completely disassembled the company and absorbed the studio into EA Los Angeles. Some of the original founders of Westwood Studios, very disappointed with these developments, left and founded Petroglyph Studios (makers of Star Wars: Empire At War).

Story of Command and Conquer: Tiberium Series

It has been nearly 12 years since the Tiberium Wars was last visited in any video game iteration. So it is quite understandable that some of us have forgotten what has transpired in the storyline.

A terrorist organization, known as Nod, and their leader (Kane) is directly blamed for a bombing of a Trade Center in Vienna. While the world easily accepts the explanation, Kane has greater aspirations to contend with, such as trying to convert the world to a Tiberium based ecosystem.

Tiberium is a highly toxic, green (and a rarer blue) crystal like substance that can absorb the dead bodies of those who march through them. Whether it is radioactive or not was not clearly understood by world scientists (then classified as the Global Defense Initiative, or those who are against the embracement of Tiberium). World scientists eventually began to realize that this substance was a danger, and should not be embraced in a manner that the Nod was trying to advocate. The GDI were those world governments organized in a resistance effort to counter all the Nod propaganda and terrorist activity.

Fast forward to the present C&C3: Tiberium Wars. The Tiberium has nearly overtaken the world, with about 70% of it classified as inhospitable regions because of it. The remaining 30% are considered blue zones, and the GDI is trying their hardest to keep it that way. The Nod, however, continue their push for embracement of the Tiberium, whilst pressing their fight against the GDI. Meanwhile, the alien race that is perhaps responsible for all this Tiberium, known only as the Scrin, arrives to begin their own colonization of the planet.

Gameplay

The gameplay of C&C 3: Tiberium Wars is nothing that is innovative. It is the same old tried and true formula of many past RTS's of finding patches of resources (in this case tiberium) and mining it. You will also have to put up power generators to power your buildings, and the building placement mechanic is unfortunately a little finicky when it comes to that process.

The pace of gameplay in this game will be VERY quick. You will not have time to turtle, and in some instances, you either get your building order in line in 1 minute or it will cost you dearly before you even realized it. Games in C&C 3 can be completed in as little as 10 minutes. Rushing is encouraged just as much, if not more so, as any other RTS worth it's salt. If you are the type of person who enjoys spending time sitting back, and looking over the situation over a large map in a real-time setting, then I would say you are barking up the wrong tree and encourage you to look else where. This game will crush you before you even had thought through your first strategy.

Each side comes equipped with roughly 18-20 units, with 2 or 3 air units, and everything else being land units. The mainstay of your side (GDI, Nod or Scrin) is the Mobile Command Vehicle. This allows you to construct your base, after you figure out where you wish to deploy it. There are technical "levels" if you wish to call it that, but the amount of time that you spend in them is so short, that you fly through them VERY quickly. In fact, you may very well find yourself certain types of units in favor of others. This results in reduced unit mixing during battles, which RTS games should be encouraging as this is about strategy after all, and there are few (if not no) ways to upgrade units themselves. This is a disappointing step backwards in the face of other RTS games that are out there.

Should the game begin to last longer than 30 minutes, another aspect of C&C 3 begins to rear it's ugly head. Almost all maps (20 of them available from the game disc) lend themselves to quick gameplay, with Tiberium distribution only lasting long enough to resolve fast games. Should both sides happen to run out of tiberium as a result of this system, then the game can find itself resolving to a stalemate (or both sides simply quitting). This situation usually happens less often than one would think, as the maps are designed for fast gameplay. Furthermore, game mechanics and unit design simply encourage fast gameplay.

Should you find that you do not wish to play online, then playing against the AI will be a test in frustration. The lesser difficulties are definitely easier to deal with, but the harder difficulties do have advantages that range from resource bonuses to knowing where you are at most any given time. Very little scouting is done by the AI to give the sense that it is trying to find you, as it instead guns straight for you as soon as it builds a significant force to counter what it "perceives" you have. Current AI scripting and power is far beyond this, and should not have to resort to this methodology. Supreme Commander is one such example of AI scripting, where the AI does scout out your base to search for a weak spot, tests those weak spots with multiple attack forces until it breaks through.

Graphics

This game is not very graphically demanding in today's terms, as is evident on the system requirements above. Thankfully, with the downturned requirements there are no sacrifices in graphic quality. It is not on a level of Company of Heroes or Supreme Commander, but it definitely gets the job done on all counts. For instance, units and buildings show the effects of damage being done onto them as the game wears on; explosions look more impressive; and the tiberium spreading looks pleasing.

All of these effects can be noticed and realized for even some of the lower machines. The coding and optimization for this game is really well done, and EA Games should be commended for their efforts to try to get this game to reach as wide of an audience as possible.

Sounds

The units in this game respond with two or three word commands (that can begin to grow old quickly), and units that are dying or fighting have added effects. This adds a little bit more ambience to the atmosphere that has more life than recent RTS releases (i.e. Supreme Commander). The explosions also have the appropriate amount of bass to make you believe that the fighting is intense, and the music lives up to what we have come to expect of an RTS. The music will definitely give you the sense of wanting to fight that next mission, or that next major conflict when you want to, and gear you up and pump you up for everything that is coming. I did not find anything memorable about it, but it really comes down to taste.

Balance

The community has been crying out hard for balance, and unfortunately patch 1.5 has only increased the favor towards the GDI (as opposed to the opposite). Here are the main reasons why:

-The GDI's Mammoth tank can wipe out the Nod's Avatar Warmech and the Scrin's tripod.
-GDI Mammoth Tank easily able to wipe out everything else, without a proper counter.
-Scorpion Tanks seriously underpowered now.
-Rail guns and lasers essentially one shot infantry
-Air transports (regardless of faction) are useless

I could list many other reasons why the community is up in arms, and I have tested a lot of these complaints. They are all valid and I wish EA Games would acknowledge and fix them. However, they have not done so at this time, and until they do so, the balance rating suffers immensely as a result.

Longevity

The campaign stories of all three factions is very detailed and interested. This is a feature that should hold your interest for roughly 10-12 hours, depending on difficulty and the amount of time you wish to spend on working out strategy. Again, I would stress that the maps do not favor you spending too much time on each mission assigned to you, so do not think about it for too long. The movies that are in between are funny and interesting, but would not warrant you playing through the story more than once.

The multiplayer community is where the action is at, like most any RTS, and the action is fast and brutal. If you feel that you are not up to multiplayer action online, then I would suggest that you find a friend who has this game. Otherwise, this game is not going to hold your interest for long. It is something that you could play over a lunch break for a quick destruction fest, if that is your fancy.

Conclusions

Balance issues are a major issue for both competitive and those that play ranked online games. It is also an issue if you happen to play amongst friends that happen to like the GDI out of story considerations, as you will find yourself losing far more often than not if you happen to play Scrin or Nod. The units that you use during those games will likely be the big game enders, such as the Mammoth Tanks and the Avatar Warmech, as there is not much incentive to use much else. The maps that you fight your battles on are not numerous, and at times very poorly designed. As EA Games has only recently released the Map Tools, hopefully one should see a much more diverse group of maps that are far better made than this group that we are able to play with.

My recommendation is if you are interested in Command and Conquer for the sake of nostalgia or just because the series has long held a place for you, then this game will definitely bring back those old times. My recommendation for all other RTS fans that have not played a Command and Conquer game is that until the balance issues are resolved is to give this game a light recommendation, or perhaps look at other offerings.