Where’s the Mechanical Man? Review

Where’s the Mechanical Man?

It has been many years since the first Tiberian war. In the interim, Tiberium

has shown itself to be an aggressive, relentless, systematic, climate-altering

mechanism. The discovery of a crashed alien spacecraft, one that seems to be inextricably

linked to Tiberium, has raised more questions than it has answered. Is Tiberium

a biomechanical terra-forming agent? Does some distant intelligence have designs

on the Earth? Is a Tiberian world our inescapable future? On top of that, Kane,

years after his supposed death at the hands of the GDI Ion Cannon in his Nod Temple,

has returned with a plan to conquer the world once again. There is little certainty

here, only this: the war is on, and this time the very biological character of

the planet hangs in the balance.

Four years ago, the gaming world was stunned with the release of Command

& Conquer: Tiberian Dawn. Following up on the seminal real-time strategy

game Dune II, C&C polished the RTS formula to the hilt. For many

gamers, C&C was the first RTS they ever played. It was the definitive

addiction, causing loss of a social life and fitful dreams filled with Mammoth

Tanks, Obelisks of Light, and Orca attack helicopters. Included in the original

C&C was a preview, showing a rendered cut-scene of a unit that never

made it into C&C as a teaser for the planned sequel, Command & Conquer:

Tiberian Sun (C&C 2).

Now, four years and one prequel (Red

Alert) later, C&C 2 has finally arrived. As one of the most hotly

anticipated games ever produced, expectations for C&C 2 are, understandably,

so high that only if it was the biblical messiah of RTS games could it meet

them. Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, much like Starcraft

before it, achieves much more modest, though still respectable, success. C&C

2 is not revolutionary; it will not show you anything you have not seen

before. It does however, contain solid, refined gameplay that will feed the

appetites of the millions of C&C fans who cannot wait any longer to return

to the land of the GDI, the NOD, and green Tiberian pastures.

The most obvious change in C&C 2 is the move to a 3D, isometric view

of the battlefield. Gone are the days where cliffs were merely set dressing

and the world was predominantly flat. In C&C 2, not only is there an

incredible variety of environments in which you wage war, but those environments

also show the effects of the battle. This allows for subtle gameplay strategies

never before seen in resource based RTS games. For example, instead of merely

setting up a line of turrets as a base defense, why not carve out a deep crater

in front of them, adding more length to the approach journey of attacking ground

units and giving the turrets more time to shred them into a red pulp?

The sound, much of which was taken from the original C&C, is very good. While many of the overall musical themes from C&C have been adapted in some way for the sequel, most of the music is far more ambient and mood setting that the old C&C tracks.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun has also been afforded a luxurious

graphical overhaul. The new engine, which supports 3D vehicles and destructible

contoured terrain, also adds dynamic colored lighting, higher resolutions, and

a much better overall look than the previous games. However, the voxel units

are somewhat jagged, the infantry units (still based on bitmaps) leave something

to be desired, and the structures are adequately rather than exquisitely detailed.

The overall effect of the graphics is enough to carry the game and entertain

the player but still exhibits some of the roughness that characterized the previous

C&C games.

The unit balance in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is another improvement

that only the observant gamer will notice. This time around, all units have

an Achilles heel that must be covered and countered if you are to succeed. This

forces successful players to use more complicated attacks. When playing multiplayer,

the prize goes most often to the more creative player, not just the one who

can crank out 50 Mammoth Tanks (which aren’t in C&C 2) and storm the

enemy base.

As for the rest, multiplayer is flawlessly supported and the extra depth in

gameplay is fully apparent in a good match over the Internet, modem, or LAN.

There is also C&C: Red Alert‘s “Skirmish” mode, a simulated multiplayer

game that works just like the custom missions of Warcraft

2 and Starcraft.

The story is skillfully presented to the gamers through many full motion video

(FMV) cut-scenes. However, the clips do not just consist of mission briefings

from the perspective of a nameless commander, but tell a more Hollywood-esque

tale. To effectively do this, Westwood hired the talents of Michael Biehn (The

Terminator, Aliens, The Rock) as GDI Commander McNeal, James Earl Jones

(Darth Vader, that CNN intro) as GDI C.O. General Soloman, and of course Joseph

Kucan (Westwood’s resident ‘scary bald guy’) as the returned Kane. The production

value of the movies is good, although not quite as high as the excellent film

segments in Wing Commander 4.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is a perfectly acceptable follow up

to an amazing game. It faithfully continues one of the most revered gaming series

and should be just fine for all the starving RTS fans out there. That aside,

C&C 2 is essentially C&C with a facelift and a few nips & tucks.

Tiberian Sun is perhaps as good as Tiberian Dawn, but it definitely

does not show four years of improvement. C&C 2 falls short, but it still

deserves your attention. And don’t worry – there are some more sequels planned.

They just better not take another four bloody years…