C&C RA3 Commander’s Challenges [PS3] Review

28 Sep 2009 at 09:47:37 by John Robertson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

If you're one of the Red Alert 3 fans cursing EA's name for not having released any additional content for the game on consoles then it's time to pay attention, because your curses may be in vain. Please welcome the Commander's Challenges, 50 missions that will most certainly put your Command & Conquer skills to the test. And, if that doesn't sound enticing enough by itself, you also get to marvel at the acting skills of WWE ‘superstar', Ric Flair, as he barks orders at you during battle.

Essentially Commander's Challenges is a stand alone expansion pack that doesn't require a copy of the disc to run. The plot that guides you through the various missions can only be described as complete drivel. You play as a commander within ‘FutureTech', a seemingly all-powerful weapons developer that has somehow got its hands on the technology used by Red Alert 3's factions, the Allies, the Soviets and the Rising Sun. The catch is that you have limited access to the technology, initially only able to utilise the services of those units at the bottom of tech-tree. By completing missions and witnessing new technology in action you slowly unlock the full arsenal of each faction, thus adopting it into the FutureTech family.

The thin plot and overdone cut-scenes were always just an amusing sideshow though, the main event for any C&C title is, of course, the combat. Entirely unchanged from the original, the gameplay is excellent for anybody who can look past the fiddly control scheme and brutal learning curve. Despite the proclamations from various developers and publishers that the control scheme issues which have plagued console-based RTS title for years are now a thing of the past, the situation is far from perfect. Controlling your cursor with the left stick doesn't provide the required precision to quickly and accurately select units in the heat of battle, and the fact that command menu items are layered a few tiers thick makes rapidly building an army alongside a base a real chore. Controlling RTS games on consoles has undoubtedly improved over the past couple of years, but it's still in no way comparable to the venerable mouse/keyboard combo.

Commander's Challenges is a difficult game. If you haven't played through Red Alert 3 in its entirety it's more than likely that you're going to come up against a roadblock sooner rather than later. The ease of the opening couple of missions disguises the challenge ahead, quickly demanding that you put all of your RTS knowledge (as well as your patience) to good use. It's puzzling because the difficulty curve suggests that the game is squarely aimed at those who have finished the main game and yet having released as a standalone game, as opposed to an expansion, makes you think EA are expecting those without Red Alert 3 to pick it up. Anyone who falls into the latter category should think carefully about whether you want to spend a good few hours building up the experience necessary to legitimately compete against the A.I.

To ease newcomers into the game there is a decent enough tutorial to play through, but it doesn't explore fully enough the advanced tactics you need to master to beat the majority of the missions. Bizarrely, the tutorial doesn't cover the few new units that appear throughout the missions, resulting in an accumulation of dead bodies and wasted credits as you struggle to work out just how you're supposed to employ them in battle.

However, if you're an experienced Red Alert 3 fan there's a lot here to get stuck into. The 50 missions will take a significant amount of time to beat, and multiple attempts will be necessary more often than not to beat the pre-set par time for each one. In fact, a number of the par are so low that the sure way of hitting them is to either replay the mission over until you work out the perfect order in which things must be done, or to return to it later once you've unlocked higher level units. Many of the maps on show are a welcome break from the norm, designed to provide the ultimate controlled battle arena without worrying about making the layouts bear any resemblance to natural land formations. Missions that take place on tiny, two-person maps are a particular highlight, offering constant close-quarters combat within a tightly structured, dual-base design.

You're free to select whichever faction you want at the start of each mission. To begin with you're choice doesn't have much of an impact on your effectiveness in battle however, once you move onto the more difficult missions (and unlock new technology, unique to each faction), your decision directly affects both how difficult a challenge lay ahead, and the tactics you'll be forced to make use of. As a result there is some replay value to be had in trying the same missions with different factions, but only for those interested in observing the finer points of C&C unit differentiation. What would have really added to the replay value would have been the inclusion of multiplayer but, alas, there is none.

If you're a diehard Red Alert 3 fan then you have reason to get stuck into these extra missions and enjoy the challenge that they offer. Despite the dissapointing exclusion of any multiplayer, there's still just enough content to keep you pleasantly occupied for a long while. Everyone else should probably steer clear though, the difficulty curve and dubious control scheme making it just too much of a struggle to extract any real enjoyment out of. 

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