Command & Conquer: Generals

   

                                                      “In the modern world, great leaders resolved their conflict… with words”

 
 The Middle-East can be the bad place. A place that is conquered by war and games, games like Command and Conquer: Generals. This game's scenario which places you in a middle-eastern country plays out the real war that we have today, such as a plethora of games and movies today and believed to recruitment tool of the government. This type of modern-esque games can be cool, seeing real units from the US military are in play in these games. It is my dream coming to reality, seeing crusader tanks to tomahawk missiles on the battlefield with stealth bombers flying above them. It’s just amazing.

 

  
C&C: Generals is a RTS game created by Westwood and published by Electronic Arts, which is probably the last game that we see that Westwood created. Its previous contenders, C&C: Red Alert 2 was known for its wacky humour and game-play which was complimented with better graphics and features. Now, Generals created something different and steer away from the majority of C&C games like Tiberian Sun to Red Alert.

As you entered the title screen, you see something different; it isn’t a plain screen with some animations but a look into the game-play which has 3-D view as you see a group, defending while the opposing force is swarming them. This is something that looks awesome in that era, seeing a fully 3-D view and it is truly eye-popping to witness. 

The campaign consists of three sides; you can choose the patriotic Americans, the people’s republic of China and the deadly Global Liberation Army known as the GLA. Also it contains a tutorial which contains one mission, teaching you some of the basics of Generals. Each campaign consists of seven missions who follow the example of Starcraft which goes in chronological order, starting from China, GLA and the US.

Starting from chronological order, China starts off in the most controversial where the GLA ambushes the Chinese military parade at Tienanmen Square, ending up with a nuclear explosion, destroying it. From there on, the Chinese army strive to liberate their territory from GLA and drive them back to their lands. The GLA however is recovering from the Chinese attack and focus on retrieving their military strength, on the series of attacking the US and Chinese forces. And finally, the US finishes the GLA which the first mission is reminiscent of the real war of Iraq and then drive them back to their headquarters in Kazakhstan.   
 
Each mission opens a briefing screen which tells you the objective like previous C&C games, the big difference between those games is the cinematic opening for each missions. The cinematic openings contains of only game-play which is weird because the C&C series is the stable of full-motion video and this game lacked it. But it compensates with a 3-D isometric view which you can zoom in the battlefield or switch to a 360 angle view to change the camera of the battlefield. 
     
Each side has its specialties and their way to play. The US plays technological as they focus on technologies like lasers, tomahawks, a strong air-force, unmanned drones to either repair or scout, aurora bombers to particle cannon that are reminiscent of the ion cannon in the Tiberian Sun game. The problem is that their units are expensive and lack the resources to fund them. China uses hordes and nuclear power as their advantage, encouraging you to produce hordes and compliments with propaganda towers, napalm, gatling guns to producing two basic soldiers instead of one. The problem is that they move slower and can be ambushed by the US air-force or the GLA. The GLA however acts with no power and air supremacy, ending up with deadly tactics like toxic tractors, terrorists, quad cannons to SCUD storm which rains missiles of poison and destruction to their foes. 
 

Also each side is complimented with their perspective powers, as you defeat units in the battlefield, you can get experience which is used to purchase “General Abilities” to further strength the outcome of the battlefield. Each side possesses a different one, the US powers relies majority on air supremacy and exclusive units (paladin tanks and snipers), the Chinese relies on promotion of units, one exclusive unit (nuke cannon) to artillery support and the GLA power relies its ambushes emplacements, toxin drop, bounty bonuses to some exclusive units (hijackers to marauder tanks).

The game-play interface is reminiscent to Starcraft and Age of Empires where the HUD is at bottom which is different than its predecessors. Like other RTS games, you can acquire supplies from supply piles which can be gathered by building a supply center. Each side had different types of vehicles to acquire resources; the US acquires resources from a Chinook and also can take the role as a transport, the Chinese acquire resources from a supply truck and the GLA acquires resources from a worker which is used to build buildings.

What is different from its predecessors, is that you need to build workers or dozers to construct buildings rather than queuing up a building and placing up within your perimeter. The advantage of building dozers is that you can build any-where in the map, provided that you safe-guard your dozer to that location. Also these builders can remove traps like the demo trap to Chinese mines. Similar to other RTS, you need to build basic buildings to advance to the higher ones, provided that you have sufficient amount of power when you played as the US or China. 
 

The US with air superiority and technological advance units are quite expensive especially when faced to upgrade them, they lacked the sufficient amount of supplies to produce a large army and acquire further resources like supply drop-zones. Their buildings are powered by Cold Fusion Reactor which can be upgrade with Control rods to increase power input. As the US is elitist to air, there are a plethora of upgrades to improve your air-force with deadly proficiency. The ground forces, like crusader tanks, missile defenders, snipers to tomahawk missiles can be deadly as-well, provided that you can see good micro-managing among them. Infantry like Rangers can be upgraded with Flash-bangs which can clear out buildings and other infantry.

They start with a satellite radar which you can use it to reveal hidden areas on the map and can see the mini-map without any upgrades. They also can build a detention center which has the ability to reveal the whole map. Other buildings such as the Strategy Center is the HUB for upgrading units, furthering the building tier and can choose either bombardment which raises the attack power and fires nearby enemies, “hold the line” which boosts units and structures’ defense and “search and destroy” which increases unit and buildings’ range. Their main source of defense is the patriotic missile which can connect to other patriotic missiles, resulting in a strong line of defense against their enemies. And finally, the particle cannon which is the super-weapon for the US and like the Ion cannon from Tiberian Sun, it can move in a straight line causing havoc upon units and structures.

The Chinese with the power of producing units quickly and the usage of propaganda can be deadly first but weak second. Building hordes of units can be suspected but with ambushes like GLA SCUD launchers or the US air-force can be resulted as fatal to China. The Chinese focus on napalm strikes from their MiG aircraft and inferno cannons, propaganda towers which heal them to nuclear warfare like nuke cannons to the deadly nuke. Their buildings are powered by Nuclear Reactors which special ability, “over-charged” can increase power but decreases the health of the reactor. While MiG can be deadly against ground forces, it doesn’t compare to the US air superiorly. China relies on ground forces, which you can upgrade them into more of a formidable foe, battle-master tanks and overlords can be only upgraded to its full potential by the Chinese super-weapon, the Nuclear Missile. Their basic unit like the Red Guard produces two of them instead of one and their rocket soldiers can plant tnt charges on buildings and such.
 

They start off with no radar and require upgrading radar from their command center. All of their buildings can purchase mines around their buildings to prevent them from easy captures or terrorist bombings. They can build propaganda towers which heal and raises attack power for units that surround the area of it. Their main defenses are bunkers which can hold up to five infantry and gatling cannons which provided with these combination can be deadly to air and ground forces. Other buildings such as the Propaganda Center upgrades Nationalism which increases attack, provided in a group and subliminal messaging which increases propaganda towers. Producing Overlords gives you the choice on upgrading them, whether it’s a bunker to store five infantry, gatling cannons to destroy air and ground forces or propaganda towers which heals and boosts the attack power of units. If resources are proven, insufficient, you can build hackers to “suck the internet dry” of cash, benefiting small quantities of cash at first but later on with a horde of hackers, can restore your economy, granted that you protect them well.   Finally the Nuclear Missile is their super-weapon and launching it will cause a mushroom cloud of radiation upon your enemies and death.

The GLA is one of the most deadly sides to choose upon. The fact that you can use deadly chemicals to ambushes of angry mobs to terrorists is just cheap yet great at the same time. While their forces produces cheap units that can be easily destroyed, having an army of specific units like SCUD launchers, Demo trucks to Scorpion tanks can be really deadly to your foes. The GLA relies on amounts and amounts of toxins, AK-47s for angry mobs, armor-piercing bullets and rockets for Quad Cannons to RPG troopers and rocket buggy. Their buildings aren’t powered by reactors so this could make an advantage as you are choosing the GLA. They also don’t have any air units to support them which means they are somewhat vulnerable to air attacks from US and Chinese forces, to compensate this, you are offered by building a deadly force that focuses on toxins and guerrilla war-fare. In the battlefield, you can upgrade units like technical, scorpion tanks, toxin tractors to quad cannons and improve them by just destroying enemy vehicles and picking up. Units like Technical can be upgraded into two tiers; 20mm recoilless rifle and a rapid-fire RPG launcher. 
 

Like the Chinese, they start off with no radar and require an arms dealer to produce a radar van unit. What makes the GLA special is when buildings are destroyed, you need to immediately destroy GLA holes or they will rebuild itself.   Buildings like Palaces can not only upgrade units’ potential but can hold up to five units. Other buildings like the Black Market are the main hub for main upgrades to boost your military strength and can also fund credits for your economy. Their main defenses are tunnel networks, stinger sites and demo traps; after building up a tunnel network, it produces two RPG troops and can be garrisoned and transferred to other tunnel networks throughout the map, stinger sites with armor-piercing rockets can be deadly but the use of flash-bangs and dragon tanks can kill off the units of this defense and can proven a easy target after and demo traps can be really deadly if approached upon. And finally, GLA’s super weapon, the SCUD storm is known to be more deadly than the nuclear missile, causing toxins to spread in the area which was launched.

There are also hero units in this game for every faction, each of them having their own special abilities and remains invisible until shot upon. First the US, has Colonel Burton which stereotypes Arnold, plants demo charges, backstabs enemies and can climb up mountains with proficiency. The Chinese has Black Lotus which is unable to attack but can hack into buildings, vehicles and can steal cash from supply centers. The GLA has Jarmen Kell, which acts as a sniper and can use his ability to pluck off drivers from vehicles so that infantry units can control them. 
 
This game doesn’t have engineers like other C&C games but basic infantry can be upgraded to capture buildings. These units can either capture enemy buildings or tech buildings that appear in maps. Similar to Red Alert 2, you can acquire these tech buildings and granted with beneficially bonuses that will help you in the battlefield. Tech buildings range from Oil Derricks which produces credits to fund your economy, and Hospitals and repair bays heals your infantry and vehicles. The flaw towards capturing buildings is that, it takes longer to capture it but having additional units can speed up it while unlike other C&C games, you can just move the engineer into the building and capture it.
 

The skirmish which is like any other RTS game, can be a fun experience, especially when you are playing the maximum amount of players in the largest map. This however can drag the frame-rate down if your opponents build up a huge army to contend with yours but it is a satisfying experience to enjoy. Besides that, the game encourages you to play skirmishes and beat the campaign because it awards you with a medal and having all medals can be a victor of bragging rights. These medals ranged from blitz medal which requires you to finish your opponent within ten minutes or less, a medal that will be awarded if you complete all the skirmish maps on the highest difficulty to building a sizable army of air-forces to ground forces.

The multi-player is nothing special, you can either choose online or LAN, adopting the similar format as typical RTS. You can choose either a random match or a custom match that are designed by the host of the game. The online play therefore fails to compliment the true potential of this game, adding nothing to the table to a exciting experience.

The soundtrack for this game is truly astounding and compliments the game-play. Composed by Bill Brown which composes a number of Tom Clancy games, he gives a militaristic edge and memorable theme for each faction in the game. Each theme possesses diversity to compliment each faction; the US theme consists of epic, militaristic scores that present itself as patriotic, the Chinese theme consists of orchestral scores that combines Asian influences and the GLA theme consists of Middle-Eastern influences with a touch of heavy metal. This soundtrack works perfectly as you roam the battlefields with your units, mowing down your opposition. 
 

 
Despite having no FMV cut-scenes or in-depth story-telling, Generals proves to be a satisfying experience. Not only it is the first C&C game has 3-D and a different engine from its predecessors but has an addicting game-play that satisfies for years to come. Having a modern look on units that are in the real world and some that will be developing in the future looks compelling and duking them out with the opposing force seems awesome. Also Generals comes with a World-Builder which you can created your own maps or go to a fan-site to download theirs. The fan community of Generals is quite dedicated on creating their own revisions of maps, with a hint of creativity. This type of dedicated can make you addicted for more Generals. The downside of this game is that, it lacks a potential of multiplayer as it plays like other generic RTS. This game is a recommended purchase for RTS fans, especially C&C fans or people that want a modern-day RTS.