A Tribute to Command & Conquer, the RTS Legend

Quick, what is the first genre that comes up in your mind when you hear the word "PC game"?

Results may vary, there's no right or wrong answer. Especially when literally every one of them can be related to a PC game, be it action, adventure, strategy, RPG, sports, visual novels, erotic games, etc. You name it, the PC got it, even the ones that makes you wonder "what the fuck am I playing?".

This should be a simulator for toddlers

As for me, I would go with Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games. Two reasons, the first one being that it is THE only game that you could play properly on a PC. Sure, there has been some versions of it released for consoles, but I didn't enjoy playing it there at all. How the hell can you manage multiple squads, constructions, resource gathering, and unit micro-management all at the same time with a goddamn joypad?

And let's not even get into the APM topic

The second reason would be a personal one. RTS games were my first PC game genre that I played way back when I was still on my 6th grade. My brother, who was on Junior High back then, started playing Warcraft II, and I watch him play it as usual.

It was a magical experience to me, seeing my first RTS game ever, almost as exciting as my first time seeing nude girl pictures. I started trying it too after a while, and even though both of us were using cheat codes that time (hey, we're still dumb kids back then), I really enjoyed those moments.

Later on, I came across another RTS game that really got me into the genre while I was visiting a computer exhibition. One of the visitors there was playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert, and I was so entranced looking at the game that it became the first PC game that I bought to play initiatively instead of waiting for my brother to play and get myself interested to play it as well like I usually do.

It's like falling in love with your crush's rival

I never regretted that decision, for it became the one game that I kept playing on PC aside from the SNES games that I play on the emulator. Sure, I play other games too, when Starcraft came along at 1998 I got hooked to it as well, but Red Alert was the one that really got me going for PC games until today. And also the one that got me fascinated with tanks, like I mentioned in a previous post.

I even started learning how to hack a game code because of it being difficult for my age (note the 'dumb kids' part above). For instance, I could make an Attack Dog launch itself as a V2 rocket, or make an Artillery fire a volley of mortar shots, or make all tanks armed with a mounted machine gun.

That's right, when kids my age was playing around with their Game Shark, I was learning how to change a game from the inside. And when I finally upgraded my computer the very first game that I brought along with me was Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, the sequel of Red Alert that has nothing to do with its predecessor's timeline, but it was still a lot of fun nevertheless.

Pictured above: A lot of fun

I was really disappointed when Westwood finally closed down after they released Yuri's Revenge expansion for Red Alert 2, thinking that it was the end of franchise. Thankfully, Warcraft III was released soon after, so I got something to play around with.

But then EA got the game license and announced that they will be releasing another CnC game, which turns out to be a not-so-subtle political propaganda based game meaning to bolster the USA's standing to the world for the Afghanistan war and the threat of China becoming the next super-power country. I mean really, all the Chinese and GLA generals looks so menacing, while the USA's looks so heroic instead.

Who picked these guys as actors anyway?

I still played it and its expansion though, because it did offer a new kind of gameplay compared to the usual CnC franchise. But it was like playing Fallout 3 when you have been a fan of the original series, or when watching the new Robocop and comparing it with the first movie; you feel guilty enjoying it, thinking that it would have been a great thing if they could just change the title so that it would not stain the franchise name.

However, EA tried to make it right by releasing Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, a sequel for Tiberian Sun from their original CnC series universe (Red Alert series is a spin-off) and I have to say that they succeeded in doing so. The game returned to its original mechanics, and it has a solid gameplay overall. The expansion also got mostly positive feedbacks from players.

Then they released Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, which became pretty much the next best thing since Red Alert 2. It has pretty much everything I could've asked for: Solid gameplay, three balanced factions, and over-the-top ridiculousness. And since most of the actors they hired in the past CnC series have bad actings already (except for Kane), they decided to just make it look like a comedy instead, since might as well, right?

You won't take anything else seriously after this shows up

But it appears that it was the end of EA's magic for the CnC franchise; The Red Alert 3's expansion, Uprising, didn't attract enough good feedback from the players. After that, there was a Red Alert version for iOS which probably nobody even bothered to notice (have you seen the crappy gameplay?).

And then came the plague in the form Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. The game was so bad compared to its predecessors that it might have made hundreds of hardcore CnC fans commit suicide, or at least caught a diarhea for several weeks. The only reason I beat the game was because I am a fan of the CnC series, and I also really wanted to uninstall it right away.

Seriously, it really became... something else entirely, there was no base building, no resource gathering, no nothing. You just play as a walking War Factory, deploying only to pop out vehicles to a given limit, and then return to the walker mode again to press forwards to your objective. I already forgot what the game was all about today, and I don't plan to remember it.

It became Transformers 4, in all of its glory 

It was all downhill from there. After the catastrophic CnC 4's release, the team was laid off, which killed the progress for the supposedly upcoming Command & Conquer: Generals 2, although it might have been for the better in my opinion. And then there's the Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliance browser game that was based on CnC 3's lore. Yes, a Real-Time Strategy legend has been reduced into a goddamned browser game, putting it in together among FarmVille and its cronies. I would have forgiven it if it was at least as good as the one phenomenal browser game we have today.

Currently, there has been no news at all for anything related in the hopes for a new Command & Conquer game, which saddens me a lot since their last releases were the worst ever, almost made me wish that they just ended everything there with Red Alert 3. Personally, the only one that could really satisfy my RTS hunger for the past few years is only Starcraft 2. That's why I'm really looking forward for the Legacy of the Void sequel, with high expectation.

Since I missed playing CnC so much, I installed CnC 3 again for nostalgia purpose (I already played the first and second Red Alert again last year). And I remember how much I enjoyed playing the series, since I got hooked to it so much that I procrastinated during the whole last week, hence the late updates.

As you can see, I was busy designing... strategic architecure

But then again, if I didn't do that, I wouldn't have the idea of reminiscing those fun times I had with the legendary franchise. Here's to every Commanders out there who played the game to the fullest, for the hopes of a new mind-blowing release of the series, or at least an honorable end to it.