COMMAND and CONQUER 4
PC
2 out of 10

Trends in popular culture generally start off with a small fan base, which grows and word of the trend spreads. At first there is an aura of mystique, and then comes general acceptance, and finally the trend has transformed the landscape and integrated itself into the very fabric of the culture. In simpler terms: someone comes up with a good idea and everyone else just rips them off. Some evolve the original idea into something greater; some…have managed to turn gold into dirt.

The release of Blizzard’s Warcraft 3 changed the landscape of all RTS games going forward. At that point in time, each RTS could be summed up with the term: macroeconomics. You basically managed your economy, and you were the general of your massive nameless armies. You set a rally point from you base and went around making sure you had enough resources to keep pumping out those soldiers. Warcraft 3 did something different. If all the RTS games on the market at the time were macroeconomics, WC3 was microeconomics. WC3 made you focus more on the squad level. You still had an economy to worry about, but the focus was not on gather as many resources as possible. You had control of a smaller army, but each unit had special skills and abilities. This forced players to play battles on a smaller scale, requiring the player to make a squad made up of different units with different abilities. You actually had to *think*, vs. just mindlessly spamming 1 type of soldier into the enemy base.

Needless to say, Warcraft 3 was huge. So huge, that all other Real Time Strategy games that game out after it, were the microeconomics model. There were games that came and went that followed this style of RTS game. During this time, the rise of the MMORPG into the general gaming public became accepted. Things such as different classes, leveling and increasing stats became integrated into non RPG games. Eventually all these things became standard in games. Not having these “features” was now not the norm.

However, with all trendy things, some can do them well; some have absolutely no business doing it. Command and Conquer 4 is one such example. CC4 is like used up chewing gum, a half eaten burrito, a crushed diet pepsi can, moldy rice, and fish heads all held together with imitation tape you buy at office max. Oh, there’s some dog turd somewhere in there too, but enough have the game’s good points, let’s see what’s really wrong with it.

CC4’s game play is a departure from the Command and Conquer franchise. It’s the first command and conquer game to have a basis on micromanagement. Before, you were commanding vast armies of several nations each one to their deaths without even batting an eye. This time around, you’re limited to about 12-16 units. Quite a demotion eh? Where’s the command? Where’s the conquer? I came to subjugate entire nations, not someone’s backyard. In the end, focusing a franchise that’s been known for leading massive armies into managing your team of 10 sales guys really isn’t that big of a deal. Hell, Warcraft did it and did it well. The problem arose when CC4 tried to integrate the whole “rpg leveling” thing into it. Some games, like the Dawn of War series, have been able to do this quite successfully. However, these games were designed from the ground up, with the squad as the basis and without the use of a complex economy.

CC4 goes wrong when they try to implement “classes” and “leveling” into the game. The premise is this, you’re a commander and you can field a mobile base that builds all your units for you. When not building, it’s this clunky metal box that walks around on 4 legs. It’s like a dog, except it craps out tanks instead of turds. You have 3 different types of mobile bases and units that come with it. They’re conveniently labeled “offense”, “defense”, and “support”. When you are the “offense class” you are only able to build and field certain troops/vehicles. Offense is mostly vehicles with some soldiers here and there. Defense is mostly infantry in robotic suits with guns. Support is mostly airplanes with 1 random motorcycle. The ironic thing is the only real difference between these classes is the character models and the animations. My defense units don’t have the option to patrol an area (which btw, was an option in starcraft, a game that came out in 1998). They don’t seem to have any defensive capabilities (i.e. able to shield targets, weaponry able to handle any type of attack). They’re just…there and they shoot stuff. The most awesome part? When your base is being attacked at point blank, and your units spawn at your base, the first (and last) thing they do is idle there. Yes, while you’re trying to defend those 3 buses of innocent civilians from Molotov cocktails, you have to *manually* tell your freshly spawned *defensive* units to attack enemies that are attacking *your base*.  

A nice feature you’re allowed in CC4 is the ability to change “classes” midgame. There’s a timer you’re required to wait while you base powers down. (For multiplayer purposes) What’s not so nice is that you’re only able to spawn your new base at the beginning of the map or at resource nodes (which need to be captureable). Why do you need to changes classes when you’re obviously able to push the offensive and capture things? Also, what’s the point, since all the units don’t have any real special abilities? The kicker: in previous command and conquer games, *all the units* from *all three classes* were available without the “classes” requirement.   

Since CC4 is doing the whole RPG leveling thing, they might as well go all the way with it. When you start a new campaign, you’re not allowed access to all the units. You have to “level” up your “character”. You gain skills points by doing campaign missions or and I quote straight from the manual: “play a few skirmish games to gain enough experience points to unlock new units if the campaign is too difficult”. What? Seriously? I have to play the multiplayer to advance in the single player? Isn’t the whole point of a single player campaign is to train the player to get used to all the units? The best part is, when you gain experience, you gain it for all the classes. Limiting abilities and skills work in RPGs by not letting you get overwhelmed when starting with a new class. You’re baby fed new skills and abilities and after you’ve have some time practicing and getting used to your current skills, you’re given 1 or two new abilities to incorporate. What’s the point of having a leveling system when you can level all 3 classes by just playing with 1 class? Don’t get me started with the in game campaign tutorial missions. At best these missions just tell you how to click different places with your mouse. What they don’t tell you is in the first mission in the real campaign, you can use your engineer class to *heal* the buses of civilians you’re escorting. Is it in the manual? Hah, no. 

A glaring issue with the single player game is that the levels are based around a macro style RTS game. The level that finally made me give up hope on CC4 is a good example of this. In the level, you’re required to destroy the enemy’s mobile base. The base has this ability to drill through the ground and instantly appear in 1 of 3 locations. You are tasked with diffusing these bombs he sets up at these locations and destroying him before he “bombs” the level. The problem is, no matter what class/unit you use, your attack force is unable to diffuse and destroy him in time. By the time you reach the new location, he’s instantly teleported across the map, and you’re forced to turn your 10 sales people around to diffuse the new bomb and hopefully actually do 1 point of damage upon his base. This level is best suited for a macro style RTS. You would send your massive armies and fleets to each location diffuse and just bomb the ever living crap out of him. This style of level objectives simply does not work for this style of game.  

All these “features” seem neat on paper. The problem is that they’re not implemented well and instead of being “oh hey this is neat”, it becomes something along the lines of “man, I have to shut down my offensive mobile base, wait 60 seconds, respawn at the beginning of the map, make sure I have enough resources, wait for my units to build, *before* I can get an airplane to fly over mountains and bomb the crap out of somebody?”. It basically boils down to game play being more frustrating and tedious than just plain ol’ fun. When you throw in the tedious and obtrusive DRM, (entering in my randomized alphanumeric 16 digit key code 3 times, having to register an email, creating an account, and logging in 2 times just to play single player for the first time is not fun). Also, being forced into a chat room with other players in order to play the single player is not fun, especially when people ruin the story for you in said chat room.

This Command and Conquer was supposed to close out the story introduced in the first CC game which came out in 1995. The storyline advanced and the CC world became more enriched with lore and its mysteries. The worst part and the absolutely worst part out of all of this is that: Command and Conquer 3 was such a fantastic game. It was done so very well. Production values, game play, writing, everything was top notch. CC3 ended upon a cliff hanger and it was said that CC4 was supposed to reveal all the secrets and resolve this 15 year old story. It seems the writing in CC4 is just like the game play: a piece of turd. No answers, no closure, nothing. For a hardcore Command and Conquer fan, who’s played the first game in the franchise to the spin offs like the Red Alert series, this is a kick in the balls. No, this is more like someone wanting to kill your puppy, only finding out you don’t have a puppy, going out buying a puppy for you and then dropping it off an 11 story building in front of your face.  

Everything about this game seems very last minute and poorly thought out. It looks great and the interface is very slick, but none of it works well together. It feels like it’s just a bunch of great ideas that were stuck together and no one really bothered to make sure these ideas flowed well. If there is one word that sums up Command and Conquer 4, it is: regret. I regret spending 60 dollars for this game, I regret how one of my favorite franchises ended on a sour note, and I regret what a really cool game Command and Conquer 4 could have been, if it’s ideas were implemented right. 2 out of 10.