Every genre has its great classics, and in the case of RTSs one of them is Command & Conquer. Tiberium, GDI, Nod and its unforgettable leader, the devilish Kane. They are the key persons from the Tiberium branch of the C&C series. Although I never played the episodes before the 3rd, released three years ago, I read a lot of reviews and watched the videos, which helped getting to know the series. Of course, it didn't – it couldn't – make me a hardcore fan, but even I can tell that the 4th – final – episode is a cold-blooded smack in the face of the world built 15 years ago.
Kane is (still) alive!
Don't worry if you get to know the first two or three parts posteriorly like me, it will turn out that everyone's favorite Kane is indestructible, furthermore, he is ageless (and that surely means he is more than a mascot for the series :D). He was stabbed to death, buried under a rocket base, shot, so he got such things that can send to heaven anyone. But who cares, he can bear everything, so turn pages. In the expansion of part 3rd, Kane's Wrath, he got Tacitus by the help of the player (as I understood it: It's an alien pendrive with lots of data, and it was gotten by GDI in the 2nd part from a crashed alien spaceship). In the 4th part it's 2065, most of Earth is covered by the Tiberium, when after half a hundred years of brawling Kane suddenly comes to GDI headquarters with the Tacitus and an irrefutable offer. This is a minus point in every sense. Good old Kane throws his principles away and lay in bed with his enemies!? Strange... But we can jump another 15 years. He managed to stop the spreading of the Tiberium in a flash by Tiberium Control Nodes (TCN) which constituted a network and nicely sucked every bit of the crystals from the surface and from under it. Kane cooperates with the GDI leaders, and of course, one of them is distrustful, and there are Nod Separatists who hate everyone. Everything what we had known became topsy-turvy.
All of this mix is topped with an entirely uninteresting story. The only Scrin tower (anyway, the aliens are still not coming back yet) left undamaged in the end of the 3rd part is powered by the TCNs, and there is a portal in the tower which can be activated only by 5 people in the world, because they have mini iPhone augmented into their eyes. Of course, one of them is you. During the live-action cut scenes you are handled as if you are on the spot, and everyone talks to you, which doesn't helped immersion for me – although this was the aim of the perspective, reputedly. When your wife (it seems the developers didn't count on female players) starts crying about “comebacktomeIdontwannaloseyouImissyousobsob”, well, that was especially annoying. You are just watching it mute. Ok, it would have been harder to get the player into the game as a real person, but at least some minimal interaction should fit in when your head is the camera. And if it's a no go, then they should keep the briefing screens of the former parts. And the end... Without detailing anything here is a little spoiler: The final cut scene, the big end is similar to the last episode of Lost. “Is this goes here too? Is that all?” I burst forth. As I mentioned, I'm not a great CnC fan, but I can imagine what those players might feel who were waiting for 15 years to get some light on the situation with the Tiberium and on who is Kane in real.
Unthoughtful Advance
Besides the slap-dash story there is another minus point for the gameplay changes. Instead of the well-known collecting of Tiberium and building of bases you get mobile bases called Crawlers. Ok, TCNs sucked Tiberium up, but if there was a well functioning gameplay, why they changed it just in the (reputedly) last part of the series? There are three types of Crawlers: Offense, Defense and Support Class. Offensive Crawler is a walker specialized in manufacturing heavier units. Defensive Crawler is rolling on the ground, producing infantry and defending structures. Support Class Crawler is flying, and fitting to this it gives birth to flying things, and gives buffers/debuffers. There is no need of any power source, but the unit cap is 50, so you cannot create great armies, even when you set the difficulty level higher. There is a similar limit on the abilities of the Defense and Support Crawlers. Every unit has one or two effective counterpairs, but of course you can damage a tank with a carrier made against infantry, but it needs more shots. Because of the point caps it's not allowed to have some from every units, so it's practical to recon what weapons the enemy has.
Playing Alba Neagra with the DRM
When Assassin's Creed 2 was released onto PC, we swore at Ubisoft's new defense system requiring constant web access for a stand alone game. However, EA found a perky way to copy the blessed/cursed DRM: Although there is no serious defense on the game itself, but you need constant web access to play it. Ups! We are not supporting Ubi's DRM but we have something similar to that. What the heck? After installing CnC4 you have to connect it to your EA account. Saved games remain on your computer and all, but your level will be stored by your account. During the missions you get experience points, and after 2-4000 Xps you get a level which makes new units and abilities available. So the situation is: In a freshly started campaign you have only weak units on the first level. You can beat the machine with them in single mode, but it can cause a lot of problems even on easier battlefields, because sometimes you need to be ready in time or you get much stronger enemy units. This isn't much better in multiplayer mode, because the system can match a beginner with a level 20 opponent, then you fight heroically in vain, because after some time they will produce their more brutal units, and then you can watch your infantry squashed under some mammoth tanks. For that matter, multi is ambivalent enough. There are lots of battlefields where you can fight a maximum of 5vs5 matches, but there is only one game mode: Domination. This is known from other games, and here you have to seize 5 TCNs, then keep at least three of them to get more points than your opponents. It's worth to collect the packs of Tiberium crytal which appear on certain supply points. By collecting these you get development points which can be used to boost the abilities of your units, or to produce higher level units.
Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight is good and bad in the same time. I try to explain this paradox: As a C&C game it is squarely a disappointment, because the series deserved a much better end, considering story and gameplay alike. On the other hand, this new gameplay still holds on, and the best evidence is that I bought the game immediately after release, even if I had experience only with the beta before. It was a bad decision, because the single player campaign is short, and although multiplayer was all right at first, because there were numerous people on the servers, lately there are only a few hundreds playing the game. I have no motivation for fighting against the machine in single player mode, because I reached maximum level somehow. C&C4 walks in Red Alert 3's shoes: It would do much better if it was released under another title. However, in this form it doesn't fulfill the expectations, so it deserves only three per five.
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Title: Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight What I liked:
What I didn't like:
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