Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

The original Command and Conquer game, released more than ten years ago, is considered by many to be the grandfather of the real-time strategy genre and brought a series of innovative features to gamers never seen before. So it is with great fanfare and no small trepidation that EA brings us the third installment in the franchise, a game that aims to get back to its roots and return many of the features that made the original so fun.

The forces of the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod continue their battle for dominance over the earth and its fields of Tiberium, the source of all power and corruption in the world. The player can side with either faction with a mysterious third side opening up in the later stages of the game.

Each level is punctuated by full motion video clips to illustrate the scene and advance the plot line with some well known (and some less well known) TV stars making appearances. Michael Ironside (B-grade action/sci-fi actor extraordinaire), Josh Holloway (Lost) and Jennifer Morrison (House) ham it up with a perfect blend of science fiction melodrama and computer game gravitas, making the scenes enjoyable rather than cringe-worthy. Fans of the first game will also be delighted to find Joseph Kucan reprise his role as the self-proclaimed prophet Kane.

The action is fast paced and entertaining, with some new features to keep the game interesting, while retaining the soul of the series enough to please older fans. The infamous Mammoth tank makes an appearance but there are new units that add some interesting strategy options too. The ability for units to interact with structures to lend extra firepower is intriguing and gives the game much greater depth. Infantry units can also garrison themselves in empty buildings, lending more defensive options in urban levels.

EA have done a great job creating intuitive controls for the Xbox, building on the lessons learned from their first foray into the RTS genre, Battle for Middle Earth 2. I found that after around 15 minutes I could direct the action with close to the thoughtlessness of a mouse and keyboard. There is however a certain upper limit to this as the speed and difficulty of the later levels demand a level of accuracy that somewhat inhibits the player of the console version.

Fortunately the visuals are close to that of the PC version, being out-done only by high-end systems. The frame rate issues that plagued Battle for Middle-Earth 2 have now been ironed out and only a few instances of slowdown were experienced. The full motion video does a great job drawing the player into the story while not being overly serious, allowing for some fairly tongue-in-cheek acting.

The game is not without its problems however. The control panel is too small at high resolutions leaving the player with the options of either squinting to read the text or moving the couch closer to the television. Likewise, some of the specialty infantry units can easily get lost against the colouring of certain terrain types. This is obviously advantageous when fighting the enemy but can become irritating especially since it could easily have been fixed with an intermittent flash that only the player can see. The absence of a restart option also leads to some unnecessary frustration when the player is forced to exit back to the main menu and cycle through the cut scenes to get back to the level again.

However, these drawbacks are only minor complaints when considering all the positives the game has to offer. The game is both challenging and interesting, providing some depth for multiplayer action. The single player plot goes a long way to drawing the player into the game and the cut scenes contribute greatly to the sense of participation in a grand, unfolding drama.

C&C 3 is a great game that fans of real-time strategy and newcomers alike should check out. [Andrew Ferris]