CnC3: Tiberium Wars hands on review

Some of you may ask, "You're just putting out a review now? There are dozens of reviews out online already!". Ah, yes, grasshopper, you would be right. However, I'm not going to visit a big website, see the rating and say "Ok, cool. I'll just take the idea from here, and do it all in my own words." For the past two weeks I've been pumping hours into this game, and I did not rest until I had beat the entire campaign, played the game on a LAN, as well as online. So believe me when I tell you, I know this game pretty damn well by now.

When Westwood was eaten up by E.A., I was probably one of the most angry people on the planet. Westwood made fun and interesting games, E.A. just buys developers and make them work for them. Pretty much like a sweatshop. So when I heard that E.A. were working on the next chapter in the Command and Conquer galaxy, I was pessimistic to say the least. You can ask Alpha or Bix bout all my negative comments prior to its launch. 

For those of you who never heard of, and never played Command and Conquer, something which is a blasphemy for many of LANThrax's higher ranking members, here's the story in a nutshell: Two sides, the Global Defense Initiative, the good guys who are trying to rid the world of a chemical called Tiberium, which is a green/blue like crystal which is spreading all over the world like crazy. Then there's NOD, led by the bald headed Kane, who are the bad guys/terrorists. They want to use Tiberium to reach the "next stage of human evolution". Then there's the new side, the Scrin, the powerful aliens who arrive on Earth to start gathering all the Tiberium they can. As you can tell from this paragraph, Tiberium is the key word in the Command and Conquer universe.

Then, when the game finally came out at the end of last month, I got my hands on the game, and the first thing I did was play it on a LAN with some of my friends, just to get used to the interface a little better. I had only played the demo for about 2 or 3 hours total, so although I had a feel for the game, I was hardly an expert in how the game worked.

CnC3 plays quite well on LAN, however, after we all applied patches (1.03 I believe, not quite sure), the game would periodically freeze, for a good 10-15 seconds. There were times that one or two of us was actually kicked, and the people that got kicked have PC's which make mine look like a museum artifact. But overall, the game did quite well, except when we tried to play 3 on 3 or 4 on 4, perhaps its an issue that E.A. are aware of and intend to address with the patch they'll be releasing at the end of April.

"Your mission is to find my barber. I need another hair cut. Immediately!" Kane, leader of NOD.

As for the campaign, like most people would, I started off with the GDI campaign. Once I started it, I realized that one thing that E.A. managed to do better than Westwood were the cut scenes and the way that the story was told. Westwood were never quite that great at telling stories, but E.A. truly excelled at making it very clear every step of the way what is going on, and what is expected of you. The GDI campaign was probably the easiest (in my experience), while it's ending annoyed the living hell out of me. I won't say what that ending was, but for those of you who beat it, and don't understand why it bothered me, I'd be willing to say why. But anyway.

The NOD campaign was more difficult, for many reasons. First of all, they're weaker than GDI at full blown assaults, as it always was in the series. Secondly, the storyline makes it clear that NOD have been dealt a bad hand, so to speak, so their missions are a bit more difficult. However, one big plus for the NOD campaign was Kane. This was without a doubt (at least for me) his best and most convincing performance yet. Kane truly made the NOD campaign more interesting for me than the GDI one was. However, my only complaint was a particular mission, called Operation Stilletto. While I won't go into any specifics so as to not give away any hints, it was a bit too difficult (until you realize what you're supposed to do)  and briefing definitely could have been a bit more informative.

Here's the only thing I will give away, and most of you probably know it already: there is a Scrin campaign. However, it is only open to you once you've beaten both the NOD and GDI campaigns. The Scrin campaign is shorter, but a bit more difficult than the other two. In their own campaign, you realize that the Scrin are not as almighty as you'd think, because the AI enemies do try to make your life difficult.

With all three campaigns complete, you are left with absolutely no doubt that not only is the story not over, but that an expansion pack will probably be released very soon. I thought that CnC3 would be one of the final chapters of the CnC universe, however, it looks as though it is just beginning, so expect the new CnC games to have more action and probably different combat areas. Once again, finish the campaign, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

The multiplayer element is fun, as I have described before, although I have yet to play it on Battlecast on my own PC. The observer and commentator roles in games looks like fun, although I'm not quite sure how many of us would prefer to comment rather than actually play.

Some artwork of GDI troops in a tiberium field.

Units in the game are quite balanced, although I do believe there will be a few units which will have either their combat ranges or strengths reduced a bit with some future patch. In a nutshell, GDI are quite good all around, NOD have high standard defenses and the Scrin are awesome with their aircraft. E.A. have done a good job overall with balancing the sides with strengths and weaknesses.

While perhaps the sound is nothing to write home about, the replayability factor is definitely there. I've never had so much fun playing a skirmish game against the computer. It is actually like you're playing against a living, breathing person. The computer adapts its tactics to what you're doing. So if you're pumping out Orcas, be sure that you'll find anti aircraft defenses. You have to outwit the computer, and its not always as easy as it seems.

The graphics in the game are stunning if you're running it on a higher end Nvidia 7 series or a similar standard ATI card. Perhaps it doesn't have the terrain interaction that Company of Heroes did, but while Company of Heroes brings out the tactician in you, CnC3 brings out that angry monster in you that you've been hiding, the monster that was created because your boss gives you crap at work, the monster that feeds off your frustration with school work, the same monster that you've been waiting to unleash all along.

So, let's wrap it up. Awesome, if sometimes needlessly difficult, campaign, pretty good sound, awesome graphics, intelligent AI, some multiplayer issues, but nothing that can't be fixed without a decent patch, an excellent story line, and the promise for more of CnC3 very soon.

To make it short and sweet: This game is definitely a must-buy.

Pros: Great gameplay, awesome graphics, more Kane, Aliens!
Cons: Sound could have been a bit better, multiplayer issues.
Rating: 92%

Minimum Requirements

# Windows XP, Windows Vista (32 bit)
# 2.0 GHz or higher, or AMD equivalent / Windows Vista 2.2 GHz
# 512 MB RAM or more / Windows Vista 1 GB RAM or more
# 8x or faster DVD drive
# 6.0 GB or more of free space
# GeForce 4 Ti series, ATI Radeon 8500 or greater video card
# DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

General S.E.A.L.