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Author: scharfschutze

Type: PC Game

Released: 1995

Designer: Westwood Studios

Publisher: Westwood Studios

Genre: Real-time strategy

There are countless real-time strategy games on the market, and most of them are mediocre efforts. There are, however, a few greats that hold the genre almost on their own: WarCraft II, Age of Empires, and, of course, Command & Conquer. Though it was first published in 1995 for the then-new Windows 95, the grim pre-apocalyptic world of Command & Conquer remains a fond favourite of RTS gamers.

The world of Command & Conquer takes place in the just-after-present day. A strange new element, called Tiberium, has popped up all over the globe. This strange, glowing green crystalline substance seems to "leech" elements from the soil to further its own growth, and is certainly not of this world. As if a new element with possibly lethal side effects wasn't enough, a new, globally based terrorist army called the Brotherhood of Nod has emerged from the shadows. They claim that the emergence of Tiberium signifies a new age for the world, and that Nod's leader, Kane, is the only man who can lead the world into this "Tiberian Future". All this is bad news for the UN's latest pet project, the Global Defence Initiative (GDI for short), a global policing body designed to give the UN some much-needed "oomph". These two factions are the two sides the player can choose to work for in the rapidly out-of-control, ever-escalating mess that is World War Three.

The breakdown of the opposing sides is pretty simple. GDI, as a government-funded army, has access to a lot of high-tech gizmos and heavy equipment that Nod has extreme trouble matching. Their standard armoured vehicle, the M60-esque Medium Tank, has more firepower, more armour, and almost as much speed as the Nod standard, the Light Tank. Their heavy infantry, Grenadiers, hurl high-explosive grenades at targets with a longer range than standard Riflemen (don't know how that works out, but in-game it works fine), giving a small group of well-handled Grenadiers half a chance of standing up to a tank without getting blown up or, more often, run over. And in Command & Conquer, tanks can indeed simply run over any infantry dumb enough to stay in the way. GDI also has access to the only air units in the game: the AI-controlled, player-targeted A-10s, and the futuristic helicopter-like Orca attack craft. Orcas are particularly mean against tanks and stray harvesters, firing a salvo of five rounds from dual rocket launchers before returning to base to re-arm. The GDI player gets to use the ultimate tank in the game, the twin-gun, twin rocket Mammoth Tank, which is powerful enough to engage entire groups of Light Tanks on its own. And to top it off, GDI can use a space-based laser satellite weapon, the Ion Cannon.

Nod, by comparison, is a guerrilla force that has only recently become involved in open war with GDI. Most of their weaponry is lighter, faster, and slightly less powerful than GDI equivalents, although one of the enduring qualities of Command & Conquer is the fact that there are no direct equivalents in terms of units. The basic Nod tank, for example, is the Light Tank, a vehicle that resembles the American M2 Bradley. It is lighter, faster, and cheaper than the GDI Medium Tank, allowing the Nod player to outmanoeuvre and outnumber GDI armoured forces. Their artillery unit, Artillery, is longer-ranged but slower firing than the GDI MLRS, without the MLRS' ability to engage aerial targets. By comparison with GDI's HMMWV and APC (both mounting a machine-gun), Nod has a better range of light, fast units, including the Nod Buggy (a dune buggy carrying a .50-calibre machine-gun) and the Recon Bike (a motor bike fitted with armour and twin anti-tank rocket launchers). For assaulting well-built GDI bases, the Brotherhood can use Flamethrower infantry or the devastating twin-tube Flame Tank, and can sneak past most base defences with the invisible Stealth Tank. In the air, Nod sporadically deploys Attack Helicopters carrying a powerful Gatling gun and enough ammo to decimate entire infantry groups before having to return to base. Since the Brotherhood believes that all who stand before them must fall, they have no compunction against deploying the base-demolishing Nuclear Warhead whenever faced with particularly stout resistance. Bad news for GDI…

The base system in Command & Conquer is fairly unique. Instead of having a separate builder unit, you begin the game with a Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV). Once you have found a suitable base site, you deploy the MCV, which becomes the central structure in your base, the Construction Yard. This in turn allows you to build buildings that further your war machine. The basic structures that both sides have access to: Power Plants (and Advanced Power Plants later on), Tiberium Refineries (provided with a free harvester when constructed), and Tiberium Silos that store harvested Tiberium. This last structure is extremely important: if you don't have enough Silos/Refineries to store the Tiberium you've harvested, it goes to waste without depositing the Credits in your account. As well, both sides can construct three types of defensive barriers: Sandbags, which are good enough to stop infantry but are simply run over by treaded vehicles; Chain-Link Fences, which again can be run over by tanks, but provide more protection as they stop incoming shellfire; and Concrete Walls, which are tall, tough, and extremely annoying. From there, the base trees differ, with GDI building War Factories to produce armour while Nod flies in armour from the Airfield. Base defence also varies, with GDI building Gatling-armed Towers and missile-armed Advanced Towers; Nod deploys Gun Turrets, SAM Sites, and the powerful, long-ranged Obelisk of Light, a laser tower that reminds me of the Death Star's superlaser.

The maps over which you fight your battles may not be the most visually striking maps by today's standards, but for their time they were amazing, and they are still more than enjoyable to play on. There are literally hundreds of elements that make the maps feel more "real", from civilian villages that can be moved through or blown down to bridges across rivers that may or may not be destroyed. One of my fondest memories of Command & Conquer is the fact that you could literally see where the battles had taken place: shellfire or flamethrowers leave craters and burn marks on the landscape, while flamethrowers can light trees on fire; after a time, these fires are extinguished, leaving a burnt-out skeleton of a tree.

One of the most appealing aspects of Command & Conquer is the in-game videos. Though somewhat primitive by today's standards, for their time they were superb. To me, they rank as some of the best put-together of their type. The acting is all more than adequate, with GDI's stalwarts General Shepard, Colonel Morelli, and Commander Carter countered by Nod's scheming second-in-command Seth and his boss, the enigmatic Kane. Joe Kucan, Westwood's cinematic director, provided the face, voice, and personality for the first video game bad guy I truly loved and despised. His portrayal of the charismatic but sadistic Nod leader may not hold up in a "real" movie environment, but for the game it is completely perfect, and his method of speaking sure gets your attention. The fact that he's usually brandishing a semi-automatic pistol helps too… Trust me, by the end of the game you'll never feel truly safe without putting a rifle to his head.

Another great factor in enjoying Command & Conquer is the "mod-ability". There are literally thousands of user-designed maps floating around out there. The copy of Command & Conquer I purchased and use as the base for this review also came with a Westwood-designed map pack, The Covert Operations. These maps are all interesting and fun to play. The advantage of them all is that you have access to every unit/structure in the game from the get-go, as opposed to the graduated system of buildings prevalent in the campaigns. Unlike later "expansions" for Westwood games, Covert Ops did not add any new units to the mix, but the new maps are certainly worth playing.