Publisher: Virgin RRP: 44.99 Format: CD Rom Available: Out now Tested on: P-100 MS-DOS 6.0 16MB RAM Quad speed CD-ROM Stealth PCI 2MB Requires: 486/33 or better MS-DOS 5.0 or higher 8MB RAM VGA card 30MB Hard drive space Double speed CD-ROM drive Microsoft compatible mouse and driver.
Command & Conquer is one of those games that I have been waiting for with baited breath for months. The previews have looked impressive in the magazines, but it did seem to be forever delayed. I was just hoping that when it was eventually released it would actually live up to my expectations.
When it finally arrived on my door step I was ready, and had booked the
day off work (Yes I know I'm sad:-) ), the wife, Mandy, was at work,
the baby was at the child minders, in fact the scene was set for a full
days un-interrupted game play. Ahh what bliss:-)
I opened the box and was slightly disappointed with the manual which seemed to contain very little useful information. Never mind, I had played Westwood Studios previous game Dune II to death so I hoped that it wouldn't be too different to control.
I ran the install routine and was very impressed. In fact its probably the best install routine I have ever seen. The only niggle was that the auto-detect kept getting my soundcard totally wrong, but as you can over-ride it, it didn't matter much.
The intro is also very slick, and whilst not actually telling you very much that's useful, it was fun to watch.
To anyone who has played Dune II the game itself will be familiar. The
same basic ideas are here. You control either the goodies (GDI) or
the baddies (NOD), rather than the three houses in Dune II, but you are
presented with the same type of challenges. You generally will start
with a pot of money, and a small force which includes a mobile
construction yard which provides the ability to start a base. Once
again, as in Dune II, to further finance the expansion of your base you
will need to find and harvest crops of Tiberium.
The aim of the game in each scenario is to achieve your set objective by gathering tiberium, building an army, and then blasting the enemies army to bits. This is not always as simple as it seems as you start with sparse forces, and on some levels you can run out of tiberium to harvest, leaving you with limited funds. It is rarely sufficient to just hurl all of your forces at an enemy base as they will probably all die unless you have a much bigger force than them. This game is definitely a case of getting some tactics and trying to refine them as the game gets harder.
Each mission has a set objective which is explained to you using video clips and a briefing from your commanding officer. This was true for GDI which is the side I chose anyway. The mission usually includes wiping out all of the opposition forces in the area plus a secondary objective, like protecting a village, or rescuing a hostage.
Each map area starts blacked out and is revealed to you as you explore it with your forces. All the action tales place in real time which leads to some nail biting battles as you try to manage all your forces without getting them all killed. This results in a very exciting atmosphere and a lot of snap decisions which quite often lead to your forces getting toasted by some sod with a flame thrower.
You have the option to create many different types of building in your base, the main ones being power plants, Tiberium silos, factories, barracks and repair facilities. You start with only a few options, but as these buildings are created further options then become available. For example, once a barrack is built you can create infantry units.
There are several infantry units that you can create including
grenadiers and machine gunners, and many vehicle types including tanks,
hum vees and APC's. As in real life, each have their strengths and
weaknesses which must be discovered and then utilised to be successful
at the game. The NOD forces have different buildings, units and
technology to the GDI which would make playing the other side
worthwhile as tactics should be different.
As you proceed through the missions you are given occasional technology increases so you get new units to build. Also, on some missions you are given special units that you cannot normally build but get a couple of at the start so you must protect them as much as possible.
One big advance over Dune II is the ability to select multiple units and give them the same orders. This is done by simply dragging a box around the required units and issuing orders in the normal way. You can also allocate a short cut key to multiple units, making the same group easily selectable at a later time.
It is impossible to play the game for long without noticing the music. Personally I love it and have it playing at full volume with my headphones on. There are about twenty tracks which you can set to repeat and shuffle, and some of them are very good IMO.
The presentation in the game is a big step up from Dune II, with both the graphics and sound being very impressive. The landscape is pretty varied with cliffs, rivers, forests, bridges, villages and tiberium fields as the main features.
The games AI is very competitive too, especially when it comes to enemy
vehicles running over my hapless foot soldiers. It can become a little
predictable after a few missions but that does not mean it gets easy,
far from it. Some of the missions are very challenging and will take
you many hours. The game does allow saving at any point though, so its
always possible to restore after disasters.
The missions start off fairly easy but rapidly become very challenging with numerous periods where you are convinced that you will never finish the level. You start pulling your hair out, but sooner or later you change your tactics and manage to do it in the end.
Long term appeal is helped by the ability to replay the game as the other side, so there should be plenty of hours enjoyment before its totally completed.
One thing that really impressed me with C&C is the head to head mode. I spent a very pleasant three hours exchanging heavy gunfire and mayhem with Gadget, and it was brilliant. Its the first strategy game where this has really worked for me, and the modem link does not appear to slow the action down at all.
Be warned, C&C is very addictive, and if you don't want to spend a lot of time in front of your PC then don't buy it. On the other hand, if you want a game that is stonkingly good fun, very good in the eye candy department, has great music and sound effects, and you can afford to lose your family and friends, then this is the game to buy.
Overall, this game is top notch. The only criticism I have is that its quite similar to Dune II, but as I loved that game to bits I can't really complain too much, can I :-)
================================== Rating: 9/10 (Classic - Must Buy!) ==================================
