Command & Conquer 4 Preview [PC]

12 Aug 2009 at 10:28:40 by Tim McDonald

Fallout lied to me. For nearly 12 years now, Fallout has told me time and time again that “war never changes.”

Well, Fallout, sorry to break it to you, but Command & Conquer – you know, that series of games about war - has. You big fat liar.

And changed in a big way, too. While plenty of people will tell you that Command & Conquer didn't necessarily define its genre, instead pointing out Warcraft, Dune 2, and Herzog Zwei (with a brief mention to The Ancient Art of War if they're half as nerdy as I am), it's hard to argue that it didn't provide a huge popularity boost for the RTS.

Command & Conquer was big and flashy. It came on two CDs, it had asymmetrical factions, it had FMV briefings and it kick-started the career of messianic terrorist Kane. These days, it's bigger and flashier, but it's all coming to a close.

Command & Conquer 4: Subtitle Pending is set to be the last game in the plot arc that started in the very first C&C, retroactively subtitled Tiberian Dawn. After the events of C&C3 and its expansion Kane's Wrath, the world is ravaged by Tiberium and is becoming more and more uninhabitable. When all hope seems lost Kane once again reappears and makes the Global Defense Initiative, C&C's “good guys,” an offer: he's willing to set up a Tiberium control network which will not only stop the spread of the dangerous (but powerful) material, but will turn it into a cheap power source.

Not everyone is happy about this, which is quite understandable when you remember that so far three wars have been fought between the GDI and Kane's Brotherhood of Nod. A GDI splinter faction doesn't believe the partnership between the two old enemies was the right choice to make, and before long, the fourth Tiberium war has begun.

What makes this different, initially, is what I wrote above: this is bringing it all to a close. While the Tiberium universe will go on, this is the end of the Kane saga that began, in game terms, almost 70 years ago. It's set to explain Kane's origins, his identity, and most importantly his motivations. In case there's any doubt left, the GDI campaign is titled “The Man Who Killed Kane,” while the Nod campaign wears the moniker of “Everything Has To End.” One way or another, it ends here.

Closing off a story arc isn't quite what I meant when I said that Command & Conquer was changing, though, so here's a few more quick facts: you don't build bases anymore, there are technically six sides, losing your new construction yard equivalent doesn't mean you're in a really bad position, and you accumulate experience points as you play. Let's take each of those in turn.

First, bases. No longer do you have a construction yard – instead, your “base” is a single mobile unit, dubbed a Crawler, which is capable of constructing every unit you need to mount an offensive. The implications of this are obvious; your ability to move around the map and the lack of a focus on holing up in one location will likely speed up the flow of play and rapidly change the hotspots on the battlefield, as well as allowing for strategies that used to be considered unorthodox, like setting up camp right next to your opponent.

Technically, there are only two sides - GDI and Nod - but each have three Crawlers at their disposal: offence, defence, and support. These Crawlers all have wildly different capabilities and will function as discrete sides, as the only unit common to all of them is the humble Engineer. Offence Crawlers are all about raw tank-rushing power; Support Crawlers have air superiority, support powers and some more “special” units; and Defence Crawlers are the only ones that can build an actual honest-to-goodness base. So, yes, six sides, with three for each faction.

Losing your Crawler isn't the end of the game, either, as it's capable of respawning a certain number of times depending on the map, the difficulty setting, and a variety of other possibilities; according to EA this is something that's still being worked on. Respawning itself will allow you to change your Crawler to another class if you so desire, and the landing of the Crawler is equivalent in look and feel to a meteor strike – expect every enemy unit in the vicinity to die an explosive death.

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