izigame.me

“Peace through powe... 💥”
~Kane

So, overwhelmingly negative status, huh? You don't see that often. Also, it's a well-known fact that this game is a series killer. That's right. One of the most influential and important series for the RTS genre, the one that shaped and defined it the way we know it today was destroyed by this little fella here. How did that happen? To understand that we should first go for a quick summary.
1992 – Dune II is released. Based on David Lynch's adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, it introduced series' core gameplay. We were collecting Spice with out harvester vehicles to earn credits and then spending those credits to build ourselves base and an army. 1995 – the first C&C is made. While being spiritual successor of Dune II, the game had much more serious tone, while also including FMV elements. 1996 – Red Alert. Pretty much the same thing with C&C, just with some improvements, naval battles and an important backstory to C&C villain – Kane, who was revealed as evil mastermind behind the humanity's major history events. 1997 – Sole Survivor. Failed attempt for online-only deathmatch experience based on the original C&C game.
1999 – Tiberian Sun. The first game after EA acquisition. Originally planned as much more complicated project, it ended up feeling a bit rushed, but still, in many ways it was a sequel everybody waited for. 2000 – Red Alert 2. Made mostly by new members under EA, it rebooted the RA series. Shared universe was no more. 2002 – Renegade. Failed attempt to make next-gen mixture between RTS and FPS genres. 2003 – Generals. The first game after the series' creators were shut down by EA. Rather weird attempt to reboot series by dropping the old lore and altering core mechanics from Dune II. 2007 – C&C3. A pretty smart U-turn for the series that brought it back to its roots and felt a lot like remake of the 1995 game. 2008 – Red Alert 3. A consoles-oriented game that felt more like Generals 2 and also introduced us to co-op. Thanks to which it felt more like online-oriented spin-off. Yet it was a very good game that lots of people loved. And that was the beginning of the end.
How's the good game is a bad thing you may ask? You see, it made EA believe that quick online sessions is what people wanted. You may expect them to learn from Sole Survivor's failure, but it was an ancient history, while at the moment RA3 was selling really well, so... Yeah. C&C4 was planned as a co-op-oriented project. Which... Isn't a bad thing per se. I mean, RA3 was good, right? Unfortunately, the fact that people swallowed RA3 being more Generals than the original C&C, gave EA another idea. An idea that... *SIGH* But OK, let's finally take a proper look at what we've got. And what we've got is... Anything but C&C.
I know, I know, it comes from a person who keeps saying that Generals was not really C&C, but this here? It took every single C&C element and flushed 'em down the toilet. Resource gathering? Believe it or not, it's no more. Remember the days we were arguing about Generals having resource management similar to WarCraft instead of our usual Dune II thing? Well, resources are no more. No resources – no problem by EA logic. Technically, Tiberium (C&C's counterpart of Spice) is still here, but it's just some crystals you'll be able to pick up now and then to upgrade units. Like I said, resource gathering? Not a thing. And so is a base building. Again, remember that old argument about how in Generals we were able to build anywhere (similar to WarCraft too), while “real” C&C was all about the construction yard and things we were building around it? In this game we can't build at all. Well, technically, there is one building. And the whole game revolves around it.
Everybody who played C&C is familiar with the MCV. So-called mobile construction vehicle was pretty much a portable construction yard. The original idea was to let us choose place for our new base to get the advantage we wanted. Now? Now it's more like our portable all-in-one base. Not only we can move it at any time (StarCraft anyone?), it also acts like all other buildings from previous games. We build units, we purchase updates, we use powers... You've got the idea. Our whole base is just that – one fat MCV. Where do we get money to produce units, you may ask? Well, that's a very good question, because in this game? You don't need money. You're free to build as many units as you want. There's a very strict population limit now, though, much more strict than in those BLIZZARD titles. But that's just a thing. Forget about those big armies. Our goal in this game is, while only having a few units, to figure out perfect combination to outsmart our enemy.
But OK, you may say that simplified take on Company of Heroes, while not being a C&C at all, may still be a good game. True. And that's where our second problem comes in. See, C&C4 is not a well-made product. Not even thought-through. The first thing you'll notice after the initial shock is... how hard this game is. Which... isn't even true. The problem is – single player campaign here is tied to your online profile. Remember the challenges from RA3 expansion? The ones, where you started with close to no technologies (units)? That's the stuff. You start single player campaign with nothing. Yet doing some skirmish grinding first will make it much easier. And a lot of grinding? You guessed it, there are no limits. Grind for the highest commander level (may take quite some time, especially since GDI and Nod are leveled separately) and get big advantage for your single player experience. What. The f*ck? Pretty sure single player experience implies dealing with properly calculated conditions. Here? It's a lot like playing story in some MMO. You stuck? Go grind somewhere else and come back later. Like I said, WTF?
Thankfully, most likely, you won't even get a chance to suffer through all that. Why? *SIGH* Did you play Anthem, guys? C&C4 was exactly that long before it. Starting C&C4 goes like this – launch the game, enter login and password for your EA account, get an error, change password to fit eight symbols (don't ask me why) and voilà! The game works. Is it, though? Right after launch you'll be asked to enter login and password again. Only this time even the short password won't help. Why? Because you need to have EA app running on background. Again, don't ask me why (it doesn't look like the game interacts with it). Even after all that, there's still a chance for a game to tell you to go f*ck yourself. Hello, Anthem. How you doin'?
So here we are. Not only this game dropped everything that we fell in love back in 1992, it also feels rushed (naturally, it's buggy and imbalanced too) and, well, it's half-broken. And it's all pretty sad, you know? The atmosphere here is quite solid. Moreover, the story is quite creative. It has FMV cutscenes, it's told from the first-person perspective and we, the commander, are the main character. The one who plays the most important role. We finally got Kane explained, there is a proper ending for the Tiberium saga... Sure, it's too short (game only has seven missions per faction), but still, with some proper gameplay, it'll be quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, C&C4 is a mixture of the unfortunate coincidences and bad decisions. When you look back, you see that such a mistake was inevitable. But it is EA's fault that shot ended up being deadly. Dixi.