Introduction

Who hasn't played the C&C series before? Seriously! Going down memory lane, I can remember myself buying the game when I was a 10-year old lad and wasn't it awesome! Heck, my cousin and I actually played the first four missions without even knowing how to deploy the MCV... AND WE WON! Of course, our expertise in the game blossomed quickly after that.

The Command and Conquer series expanded after that successful start, spawning the excellent Red Alert series as well as the horrible FPS game, Renegade. The worst spin-off, though, was the Generals series, which I still make fun of by parroting the Chinese bulldozer's lines - “China will grow larger” in the most annoying Chinese accent EVER.

In my view, it all started going down the drain when Generals showed up with its amazingly horrible gameplay and even more horrible expansion pack. Not only did it lack a story and face behind it, it was pretty much a resource hog and a really slow porker.

However, one must admit that the C&C series has come a long way. It had survived the test of time, which many equally good games have not. It has a long-established and well-known storyline, very solid characters, great units and so much more. That's why I had really high hopes for this third installment of the Tiberium series from EA.

Will this new installment reestablish Command & Conquer's supremacy in the RTS genre, and make up for all the duds in the past? Well, read on and find out!

The Premise

Let's start with the basic story. Basically, it's 20 years since the Second Tiberium War, where the GDI kicks NOD's ass. Yet again. But the result has been a grimmer world, with most of the planet being covered in the funky alien stuff.

The GDI, as the last remnants of western civilization, control the 20 percent of the planet's surface that hasn't been jinxed by the green stuff, also known as the blue zones. NOD has pretty much been silenced since the defeat of CABAL, the NOD AI in the Firestorm expansion pack of Command and Conquer 2 : Tiberium Sun and had spent the last 20 years doing only God knows what.

Fast forward to the present. Out of the blue, NOD decides to take a jab at GDI by launching a surprise attack on GDI's missile defense post in North America. This allows them to take out the orbiting GDI space station, Philadelphia. They then mount an attack against all of GDI's blue zones, taking them by sheer surprise.

To cut the long story short, NOD has awoken from its slumber and wants to kick ass with Kane at its helm again. Damn, this man just won't play nice and die for some reason. He has a new nefarious scheme to seed the world with Tiberium. You can choose to be a GDI commander and stop him or become a NOD commander and help him achieve his devious aims!

Faction Backgrounds

GDI

The GDI was formed under the United Nations on the onset of the first Tiberium war. They're very much a conventional military force with emphasis on frontal and traditional firepower coupled with a love for very big guns. Being descendents of the Western powers has given them a solid foundation when it comes to full-scale combat, but they do possess the ability to adapt on-the-fly and launch scathing attacks that you'd expect from NOD.

Their bases are as solid as their military philosophy, their buildings utilitarian and spartan at best with loads of hitpoints. Their soldiers prefer a dig-in philosophy, their riflemen being able to construct bunkers and their transports equipped with firing ports for troop protection. Even their harvesters have turrets. Overall, they have a collection of units that can be applied in a wide variety of use.

NOD

NOD was founded by Kane (yes, he's the bald dude) at the end of Command and Conquer : Red Alert, only to resurface in the 90s as the leader of NOD. It has a very unusual combat and building philosophy with an emphasis on unorthodox tactics and infiltration. Generally, they are of the sneaky sort.

Most of their units are fast-moving but lack armor and hit points. They are a very much hit and run type of army with speed being their greatest asset. They have fast units to harass and pin down the enemy and strike units with powerful attacks to deliver the killing blow.

They also employ a lot of stealth technology, which is a technology the GDI isn't privy to. This allows them to mount diversionary attacks while sneaking units past enemy defenses, allowing them to create pure havoc once they've infiltrated the enemy's line of defense.

Finally, they have a definite advantage when it comes to using Tiberium and its derived weaponry. This makes it to tackle them in areas with lots of Tiberium.