What does it take to be considered a true Command and Conquer
zealot? Is there a list of specific criteria that must be met? Of
course there is! The un-official C&C commanders guide lists the
following requirements for the title designation "Hardcore C&C
Addict":
1. The candidate in question must have dedicated a minimum
of 5 years towards the mastery of Dune 2, Command & Conquer,
and Command & Conquer: Red Alert and the mission packs
implied therein (Let the records show that training in Dune 2000
and Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor will not count for any
credit).
2. The candidate must be fluent in all forms of treachery
including but not limited to sandbagging and harvester
ambushing.
3. The candidate must have both the Westwood and C&C
logo's branded on their ass (one per cheek).
Well I can safely say that I qualify as a Hardcore C&C Addict (about
the ass-branding - I was drunk and she was cute) so I was more
than a little bit excited to get my hands on Westwoods lastest entry
in the C&C universe - Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun.
To say that C&C:TS has been a while in the making would have to
be the understatement of the century. Owners of the original C&C
will recall that tantalizing sneak peek/trailer that was included on
the game CD. While Red Alert came out two years later, many
fans were less than enthused about the direction Westwood had
chosen to take the series. To make matters worse, Cavedog and
Blizzard took advantage of Westwood's delays by releasing their
own extremely solid RTS games. Followers of "the one true RTS"
were left in a bewildered state - not sure who to turn to.
Well Westwood has finally answered the call. Command &
Conquer: Tiberian Sun is a return to C&C's roots. Forget the
delays, forget the competitors, Kane is back in town and boy is he
pissed! Set in the year 2030, the so-called "wonder mineral"
tiberium has spread across the world at an alarming pace. GDI
troops are forced to take refuge in the arctic region while NOD
followers head underground (literally) in order to avoid the nasty
side-effects of tiberium exposure. In addition to the two familiar
sides, Westwood decided to spice things up by adding a wildcard
to the mix: A group of mutated humans who call themselves "The
Forgotten". So who will come out on top - the moles, the freaks,
or the snowmen? I guess that's up to you...
A well known game developer once said "expect an evolution, not
a revolution" and that certainly seems to be the case with Tiberian
Sun. If you have played any RTS game in the last six years you
will be instantly at home with the screen layout and unit control
that Westwood pioneered with Dune 2. In keeping with the times,
players can now choose from a number of different resolutions up
to 800x600 (higher if you poke around in the sun.ini file). The
maps have that same old C&C look and feel to them except now
they are "3D" which leads me to my first complaint: I find it very
difficult to gauge the range of the units in this pseudo-3D
environment. It has something to do with the voxel engine
Westwood chose to go with which doesn't seem to be
complimentary to showing changes in elevation. One feature
which could have fixed this problem would be a "range button"
you could press which would then show a light green circle
around your unit so you would know exactly how far their line of
sight extended. This minor issue aside, the maps are large and
varied and there is even a random map generator included (one of
my favourite features from Age of Empires) which is a great
counter when you are facing map memorizing plonkers in
multiplayer.
Consistancy is the prevailing theme in Tiberian Sun. Graphics are
more or less the same thing we have become used to with the C&C
series. Units are sharp and colourful (maybe even too colourful...
some of the infantry look like they just popped out of a Saturday
morning cartoon) and as always with C&C games, you will have no
problem distinguishing between the different types of units. I
found the buildings to be particularly well drawn and you can
certainly tell some time and effort was put into the artwork. I
really liked the city landscapes and it would have been nice to see
more urban combat. Imagine battling through narrow streets,
ducking behind buildings for cover, snipers on the rooftops...
something to keep in mind for the sequel. Some other special
effects like the ion storm and meteor showers add to the overall
game package and if you pay close attention you will notice it
actually gets darker at night. Cutscenes have been given a
significant upgrade. As usual you are treated to short movies
between levels that keep the story moving along. You should
recognize a few familiar hollywood faces in the mix although
luckily for old C&C fans the script is still campy as hell and
everyone talks like they have a pickle up their ass. Ahhh home
sweet home...
I was somewhat disappointed to see wchat as the only available
way to play TCP/IP (other than kali). Am I the only one that hates
this crappy piece of software? Oh well, it's just a game launching
util anyhow. The multiplayer options are standard fare. As usual
with C&C games you can control the tech level, number of starting
units and cash. As I mentioned before, there is a random map
generator included with variables you can set to tailor the map to
your needs. I playtested over kali and I found the games to be
smooth and lag free. Westwood has done a great job with unit
balance in order to ensure there won't be a war of attrition - there
are just too many long range threats now. On the downside there
is no option to save during multi-play so you'll have to bail out on
the game if real life should come calling. Fans will be happy to
hear that all the familiar chess-like C&C unit matchups are present
in Tiberian Sun. You will have to carefully choose which units to
build and keep a close eye on them during combat because
certain units have a very clear advantage over others. As far as
I'm concerned, this is the main difference between the C&C series
and other RTS games like Total Annihilation where you choose
between "mech with little gun, mech with medium gun, mech with
big gun" and the unit to unit matchups are much more vague. In
addition to this, both GDI and NOD have kept true to their
strategical roots with GDI preferring brute force over NODs hit and
run tactics.
Some specifics units and buildings that stand out in my mind:
Mammoth Mark 2 - way too small guys, this thing looks more miniature than menacing! Firestorm Defense - yeah it takes a while to set up but it's
still damn cool Titans - hmmm, something about these things just screams
"wussy" Subterranean APC - nasty backdoor ambushes that would
make Kane proud Advanced Attack Bikes and Hover Tanks - I love the way
those rockets fire now Amphibious APC - woohoo it floats! Modular Gun Towers - what a fantastic idea, I love these
things... Ghost Stalker - use the force Luke!
Music and sound effects are vintage C&C. In fact if you threw in
the C&C 1 game disc when I wasn't looking, I would never notice
the difference. Strictly utilitarian stuff here. I guess all you can ask
for is non-annoying sound effects in an RTS game and in that
respect this game delivers.
One of the main goals for Tiberian Sun was to beef up the AI. I
definitely noticed a difference in the unit pathfinding ability.
Actually pathfinding has been improved to the point where the
units are TOO smart and the direction they run into the black void
reveals details about the unseen territory that you would never
really know in real life. For example, if there is an unpassable
cliff a half screen ahead that you havent uncovered yet, your men
will somehow already "know" this without seeing it and run down
around it. On the subject of pathfinding, one of my favourite
features of Tiberian Sun is how when you hilight one of your units,
a bright green line appears to show exactly where the little fella is
headed; a handy tool when you are ordering around hordes of
infantry. Computer controlled units have been blessed with the
gift of cowardice and if they are badly outnumbered they will run
away to get reinforcements. Unit control is perhaps the most
sophisticated system we have seen yet on any RTS game. Now
you can visually place or delete waypoint markers and order your
units to follow them at any time and even cycle repeatedly in
guard mode - how brilliant. There are a few places where
Tiberian Sun does fall short in control: Compared to the superior
unit selection of Starcraft and building queue management of
Total Annihilation, C&C:TS doesn't even come close. It's little
features like these that separate the men from the boys and more
time should have been spent on these areas.
On the topic of development time, you can't help but notice some
of the things that didn't make it into the game. The hunter seeker
droid was originally billed as a parasitic sort of device that would
lock onto an enemy unit just like the queen's parasite in Starcraft.
The idea was, once you saw whatever you needed to see and the
unit had outlived its usefulness, you could self destruct the droid
and take the enemy unit with you. Well somehow in the mad four
year rush to make Tiberian Sun, the hunter seeker droid turned
into a lame crap shoot weapon that you destroy random targets
with. This can throw an awful monkeywrench into a multiplayer
gave when this UNDEFENDABLE droid comes floating into your
well designed base and blows up your construction yard in one
shot. Bad call Westwood.
Well it's been a long time coming, so was it worth it? Tough call...
Tiberian Sun is a very solid well rounded product with most of the
features we expected. On the other hand I think deep down we
were all hoping for a pant-shitting WOW type experience and that
just didn't happen. So here's what it comes down to: If you are a
die hard C&C or general RTS fan, don't miss this game - it's just too
good. However if you are getting tired of the whole RTS thing and
are looking for a fresh spark to rekindle the strategist in you then
keep looking cause baby this ain't it.
Anyone know a good place to get an ass-brand removed?
The good: great C&C chess-like unit to unit matchups,
good pathfinding, the most advanced waypoint system yet.
The bad: cartoony infantry, parts of the game appear to be
cut out at the last minute, pseudo-3D elevation changes and unit
ranges are very hard to eyeball.
Four years is a long time. A very long time. Especially in the
computing world, where four years saw a huge development of
the Internet, a move from 486 DX4s to Pentium IIIs, a humongous
growth of 3D acceleration (with it approaching the fourth
generation now) and many, many, many other things. What
happens when you plan a game, then develop it throughout all
that time? Incidentally, I do realise Red Alert came out in ’97,
which technically makes it two years since the last C&C - but then
again, you must admit RA was essentially an add-on pack for the
original (rather, the original Gold version, with the 640x480
resolution), due to its lack of “new” things to make it differ
significantly from the original. So what does Tiberium Sun bring
us? Let’s look at it in more detail, shall we.
First of all, the engine was improved. That being a good thing, it
wasn’t done properly - the max resolution is still a mere 800x600,
at which your graphics quality doesn’t necessarily increase - it just
makes everything much smaller. Since that didn’t require too
much work on the part of their graphics crew, I believe Westwood
should’ve included higher-res options, for those with powerful PCs
that can handle it. Moreover, units still seem to have about four
frames of animation each, which results in somewhat jerky motion.
The terrain, however, does look good, since voxel technology is
used. Voxels also help in producing explosions, terrain
deformations and weather effects, such as ion storms and meteor
showers.
One thing that somewhat impressed me was the AI. While it
doesn’t do a good job of properly swarming you, it does act its part
out quite well - for example, if you have a base surrounded by
turrets with a single gap somewhere for whatever reason, the PC
will try to attack that side as much as possible. What I found
unrealistic, though, is that it knew exactly where that side was,
and attacked accordingly (then again, maybe that was
realistic - after all, it does know what my base is like). Pathfinding
was nearly flawless, as well - in fact, I don’t recall the last time I
sent a hundred units somewhere and actually found them where I
wanted, with few or no strays stuck in rocks somewhere. Mad
props to Westwood for that, for sure, they deserve it. On the other
hand, strange things happened to me during missions: for
example, in GDI mission 4 where your objective is to rescue a
mutant tribe leader (yes, after the ever-so-popular commando
missions in C&C they’re back - and there are way more of them),
the leader sort of disappeared after I escorted him. I put him into
an attack buggy, delivered him (or what I thought was him) to the
transport, and absolutely nothing happened. In theory, I would
assume that he couldn’t have died, since the mission would have
ended otherwise; yet, neither was he the right person to put in the
transport, since the mission would have ended at that point, as
well (or at least given me indication that one of the main
objectives was completed). Similar things happened on other
missions, like the one where you have to protect the alien crash
site - I finished everyone off, timer ended, and absolutely nothing
happened.
The audio score in the game isn’t anything to rave about, in my
opinion. The music is nothing like the original - in fact, I didn’t like
it at all, since somehow, it didn’t feel like music at all - just like a
beat of some sort. The unit sounds are just what you would expect
them to be - screams, acknowledgements, squishing sounds, et
cetera. Been there, heard that.
The gameplay is nothing extravagant, just what you’d expect from
a C&C game. A few new units, though mostly reused old ones with
a new look (strangely enough, in the German version, they seem
to have used the proper units - like Heavy Tank instead of Titan,
judging by the screenshots that I’ve seen, and Rocket Infantry
instead of Discthrower). Whatever the case may be, the only
people they might fool are those for whom TS will be the first C&C
experience. Anyone who played RA or the original will
immediately draw parallels between the heavy tank and the Titan,
the Hum-vee and the Wolverine, and, best of all, the Rocket
Infantry and the Discthrowers. I’ve yet to figure out what kind of
logic lies behind that; what exactly is a disc thrower? Is that an
advanced case of a defective CD burner? Or is that a Walmart, EB,
or any other big store clerk that had enough of bargain-bin titles?
Anyway, those “Discthrowers” are nothing but rocket infantry. And,
what’s up with raising prices? If I’m not mistaken, infantry used to
cost $120 to train in C&C, but it’s up to $150 - inflation? But even if
the inflation were 3% per year, which is quite a lot, it still shouldn’t
have risen to such a high value in a measly four years. Anyway,
enough of that.
it still shouldn’t have risen to such a high value in a measly four
years. Anyway, enough of that.
Multiplayer is one area where TS shines. But it doesn’t shine
because of any specific inventions - rather, it’s because it’s the sort
of game you play multiplayer, similar to Quake, much more than
you play single-player. In our tests, we’ve experienced no lag
(using a cable modem/DSL, and playing against adversaries on
Westwood Online, whose connection speed was unknown), and in
general, it was fast-paced, fun and enjoyable.
So what makes me sound so skeptical about TS? Mainly the fact
that, considering all the hype, the waiting time, the development
time and so forth, this should’ve been a much better game than it
turned out to be. This doesn’t mean there won’t be a huge
following of fans - but, as an example, look at Starcraft. It was in
development for 3-some years, and what was the result? One of
the best RTSs I’ve played in a very long time. As well, I realise a
number of people didn’t like it, and I respect that - but you mustn’t
forget, that this is but one person’s opinion. Starcraft’s races felt so
different, looked so different, played so differently that one had to
try really hard to duplicate it. Note the FMV sequences - they were
far and few in between, but rendered with impeccable accuracy
and were entertaining to watch. In TS, however, every mission is
preceded and followed by an FMV; some pre-rendered, and some
with live actors. As many people mentioned, however, the acting
is incredibly cheesy, and only Kane plays his role well - but he’s
the evil overlord, so he’s expected to. Other than that, the acting is
bad. Really bad. It’s not as bad as in Crusader: No Remorse and No
Regret, though, but those were such incredible games in all other
respects that comparisons just can’t be drawn.
In all respects, TS is not a bad game. I’ve seen much worse
games, but I’ve seen much better games, as well. This is a
reiteration of a classic, and, similar as to how photocopies always
come out inferior to the original, so does TS as compared to C&C.
Was it worth the wait, you might ask? Not in my view, it wasn’t.