tib sun/firestorm are my favs. the feeling from the game is great and i love everything about it.
The Command & Conquer game series has been around for nearly 15 years--arguably longer if you care to trace the game's roots back to the very beginnings. The series has come to be associated with both modern strategy games and the classic real-time strategy games of yesteryear, which saw their first days with games like Herzog Zwei for the Sega Genesis and Dune II for home computers. And Dune II, a game based partially on David Lynch's motion-picture interpretation of the classic Frank Herbert novel, begat Command & Conquer. This started a chain of events that led to modern real-time strategy as we know it, including building bases, harvesting resources, climbing the tech tree, and commissioning armies. And from there, we've seen more than 10 years of Command & Conquer and all that we've come to associate with the series. Tanks, harvesting Tiberium resource crystals, fast-paced online multiplayer, commando units, top-level superweapons, tanks, electro-squids, tanks, actor/director Joe Kucan as series villain Kane, parachuting Soviet attack bears, tanks, robo-dolphins, former pro wrestling champion Ric Flair, former Dr. Frank-N-Furter Tim Curry, and perhaps most importantly of all: tanks. And now that nearly 15 years have elapsed since the first Command & Conquer game, what better time to recap the history of this long-lived series? Let's take a look. Part one of our feature will cover the series up to 2001, while part two will cover more-recent entries in the series.
Command & Conquer (PC | PS | SAT | N64)
- Developer:
- Westwood Studios
- Publisher:
- Virgin Interactive
- Release Date:
- Aug 31, 1995
The original Command & Conquer from 1995 started off the series and its trademark "Tiberium" storyline. It was set on a near-future Earth torn apart by war between the Global Defense Initiative--an organized military faction known for its sturdy tanks--and the Brotherhood of Nod, a formerly secret society that tends to use hit-and-run tactics and stealth rather than full-scale assaults. Command & Conquer set the stage for the series--the war between the two factions, the energy-rich Tiberium crystals that were harvested as resources, the asymmetry between the two factions and their armies, the enthusiastically acted live-action cutscenes, the engineer units that could take over enemy buildings, and arguably the first "hero unit" to appear in real-time strategy games. The wisecracking commando was both a powerful antipersonnel sniper and a demolitions expert who could blow up enemy structures with C4 charges. Command & Conquer would later be expanded twice with two different follow-up products: the Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations expansion pack of 1996 (which added 15 much-harder playable missions) and the unusual single-character, multiplayer spin-off, Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor. The original game also later made appearances on the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn, and the Nintendo 64.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC | PS)
- Developer:
- Westwood Studios
- Publisher:
- Westwood Studios
- Release Date:
- Oct 31, 1996
While the relatively straightlaced Command & Conquer was a war story, 1996's Red Alert went off to explore speculative "What if?" fiction by proposing a war-torn future Earth where a time-traveling Albert Einstein attempts to rewrite history by removing Hitler from the picture, only to instead end up replacing the Nazi regime with an all-powerful Soviet Union. The conflict, then, was between the Soviet forces and the Allied forces and evolved Command & Conquer's gameplay with new units, such as Soviet submarines and attack dogs--the latter being the first animal units to appear in a Command & Conquer game, a precedent that many Red Alert fans will appreciate. Red Alert was also the first game to feature the female Allied commando Tanya, who became a recurring character in the Red Alert universe and was typically played by a young actress wearing a halter top, in this case, actress Lynne Litteer. Red Alert also had two expansion packs, Command & Conquer Red Alert: Counterstrike (which added new maps, including a secret mission that pitted your soldiers against gigantic ants) and Command & Conquer Red Alert: The Aftermath (which added new units like the chrono tank and the Tesla tank), both released in 1997. The two expansions were also compiled into the PlayStation game Command & Conquer Red Alert: Retaliation. The original Red Alert also made an appearance on the Sony PlayStation.
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (PC)
- Developer:
- Westwood Studios
- Publisher:
- Westwood Studios
- Release Date:
- Aug 24, 1999
1999's Tiberian Sun was a sequel to the original Command & Conquer and picked up with a new conflict between the GDI and Nod some 30 years after the original game's war. It also placed Hollywood actors in the commander's seat--the GDI commander (your character) was played by The Terminator supporting cast member Michael Biehn (who reported to a general played by none other than James Earl Jones, better known as the voice of Darth Vader from the Star Wars motion pictures), while the Nod commander was played by actor Frank Zagarino. Though Tiberian Sun offered visual improvements in the form of a new isometric perspective and raised terrain, the game was delayed and features were cut prior to its release, leaving a game that was very similar to the original, but with unfortunate performance issues. Tiberian Sun went on to receive an expansion pack in 2000's Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Firestorm, which added a new, heavily story-driven single-player campaign for both the GDI and Nod.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
- Developer:
- Westwood Studios
- Publisher:
- EA Games
- Release Date:
- Oct 21, 2000
By the end of 1999, Electronic Arts had acquired Westwood Studios, the original developer of the C&C series, and was credited as the publisher for subsequent Command & Conquer games, such as 2000's Red Alert 2. The sequel to Red Alert picks up after the defeat of the Soviet Union, as rebuilding efforts in the Eastern Bloc are revealed to actually be the plans for an invasion of America by a revitalized Soviet army. The single-player campaigns for each side offered distinctly different experiences, and each faction offered different gameplay (the Allies were a slower, stronger faction, while the Soviets were quicker but not as well-suited for longer sieges). However, Red Alert 2 is perhaps more memorable because it was the point where the Red Alert series went from the philosophical exploration of alternate history to full-on wacky, featuring such controllable units as telepathic giant squids and sonar-attacking dolphins, as well as over-the-top cutscene performances from actors such as the "new" Tanya, Sliders star Kari Wuhrer, and character actor Udo Kier as the psychic Yuri. Red Alert 2 received an expansion with 2001's Command & Conquer Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge, in which Yuri returned to conquer the world by way of psychic domination, forcing the Allies and the Soviets to work together to combat this new threat.
Stay tuned for day two of our retrospective, when we cover C&C's progression into 3D graphics and…first-person shooters?
Leave a comment and share your favorite memories of the Command & Conquer series with us. 179 comments
my personal favourite was red alert 2 the reason that this my favourite cnc game is because it is simply fun as hell for me
its a bity that the didnt make Command & Conquer: Tiberian Incursion . could of been better then C&C3
I still play RA2/YR to this day, along with generals. C&C3 wasnt too bad either. I hate how they switched right and left click in the later games D: i was so confuzzled :S
EA ruined the Command & Conquer series. Red Alert 2 was awsome! Red Alert 3 is boring and looks like it was made for little kids. Poop on EA.
love westwood games, generals was ok, cnc3 was good except there was only 1 (!) mutant unit.... and i really hate ra3. it's for 12 year olds. ra2 is the best strategy ever. EA: get rid of famous actors. it only worked with udo kier as yuri (james earl jones was quite ok also). but the best were nicolas worth (rip) as romanov, the carville guy and of course kane. and girls in ra2 were the best. natural beauty, not plastic.
RA2 was the funnest game to play with a friend, adn the missions were very upbeat and exciting to play! Tiberium Sun was atmospheric, though it tried to be too ambitious for it's own good.
C&C was and is a great game.......2 years of ra2 and yuri on lan with my friends, one hell of a strategy game for lan players (that was in 2002 ), generals and the expansion awesome and tiberium wars more than i expected, i believe that c&C 4 will be good........red alert 3 was nice but not enough to satisfy the need to play an old school strategy game and the veteran players didn't like it ........Renegade mediocre fps with strategy elements (if you played it online or on custom maps you could see the combination between building and fighting) in my opion was a mediocre fps with new elements (so it was a good game but not a good fps).......C&C 4 will be a good game or i hope it will
I really hope that cnc4 evolves the franchise beyond just a visual upgrade. The games have gotten so stagnant and boring in recent years.
i do forgot to add, that i have hight hopes for C&C 4, RA 3 was just horrible, no offense to the fan (i am a big one) but cmon stop wit the animal uses, its just not fun having a dolphin attacking the opposite army, is just not fun and the cinematic trailers were just horrible, why in the heck were the girls trying to give guys a hard on while playin a game, by all mean i like women but when im playin a game please let it be a game, give me story and action and im happy, which is why C&C 1, Red Alert 1 and tiberium wars where great, n so did RA2
oh man i still have all of them, that includes the first one for the N64 even though i also have it for the PC, but im about to go back and play some Tiberium Wars 1 and Red Aler 2 (but lets not forget Red Alert 1, which it was amazing too) but as many will agree, General was the top notch and let me also add that Renegade was an amazing game, i wont lie i still play it from time to time, which they will kinda rework on it and make it better, right now is amazing
C&C began "cartoonizing" their graphics from 'Generals'... RA3 was at it's worst... buildings and units ain't cool anymore. look like cartoons characters. it was unbearable.
Coming from a long time c&c fan since their very first title (aka tiberium dawn), and being a loyal fanboy (to go as far as putting Westwood equal to almighty Cavedog and higher than popular Blizzard) I feel like this article is nothing but game summary description. GS might as well just give us a link to allgame.com for the game synopsis. Where is the in-depth comparison to other RTS at the time of release or the receptions from the critics and sales? c&c generals have nothing to do with c&c series except for the title of course. Somebody had a brilliant idea: "Let's stick a name from the popular series for this upcoming RTS being developed." Turned out to be pretty good game by itself. And I am more than willing to accept c&c generals as part of this series as long as it will help me mentally block& erase one game from my memory: Red Alert 3. C&C 4 finally seemed like the first step towards the right direction since EA took over, and this abomination comes along. what a kick in the gonads for the fans. RA3, what a nightmare. Probably the first time ever regretting being a fan.
oh yeah, great strategy series. too bad the last one sucked ass. i sure hope they are not trying to pull the same one with 4.
I know a lot of people aren't fans of red alert 3, but personally, i loved it. Ive been a long term fan of the series, and I found that it lived up to all my expectations, and more. The cut scenes are particularly impressive, and as a huge Tim Curry fan (mupppet treasure island, anyone?), I am very glad he has such a major role.
It's funny to think now how I first found Command & Conquer. I was about 6 or 7 and found a demo of it hidden on a Launch (a sort of monthly music magazine in the form of a CD) issue. I installed it and never understood what I was doing and why I couldn't take control of any of the tanks or helicopters and fire them myself, but it was so much fun I played that demo for four months before getting it for the Sega Saturn. Funny to think how all my friends hated it at the time.
never played the first c and c was only 9 at time of its release but I have played everyone sense then and gotta say its a great series loved replaying thou time and time again for the unique campians mainly for red alert and tiberuim by far the best out of them all
EA should re-release all these games via steam, it would be nice to relive these games all over again. i bought the first decade pack a couple of years ago but it contained nerfed copies of red alert/red alert 2 that weren't capable of playing online at all.
I really liked Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun. Probably my first strategy games and loved the hell out of them.
I'd love to see EA make a Generals sequel. My brother and I played it and Zero Hour extensively. Even now I still dust it off and play it from time to time. Tons of fun!
Get a good look at the Renegade screenshot. When a nuke is planted in your base and you need to find a way to disarm it all while dodging laser fire from those Stealth Black Hands, the adrenaline REALLY kicks up!
red alert is pretty much my favorite game ever... but i've been scared/reluctant to play ra3. it seems too over the top to me.
@ SPARTT : Command and Conquer: Red Alert is a completely different universe from the standard Command and Conquer games. EA didn't "pretend Kane was never involved in the RA series" because Kane was never involved in any Red Alert game... tongue-in-cheek cameos don't count. Also, since the Red Alert series has always involved some sort of time travel, messing with the timeline isn't out of the question. If EA wants to send someone back to take out Einstein, it'll still fit in the RA universe.
I love the C&C series. Having both Halo Wars & Red Alert 3 for 360 i generally prefer RA3. That's just me ^.^
Renegade was the business, proper awesome. Single player was a bunch of dog crap but the multiplayer was so good. Still play it sometimes, loads of people still do, quite simply one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time.
I must thank Westwood for this piece of art they created. EA sucks compare to Westwood. Respect to Blizzard and War of Warcraft!!!! And for once Micro$oft do something good with Age of Empires II: Age of Kings ------ For me this was superb!
Personally I thought Generals was the best Command and conquer, maybe its just the modern setting
over 30 million copies sold?????hahahahahahaha!lol!super mario bros single-handled has sold 40 million copies so all the command & conquer games togheter are pawned by poor little mario from 1985! ... anyway,red alert 2 is the best c&c ever!it's the 3rd best rts of all time!
God I love this series. Sure, by today's standards the games are unpolished and unbalanced, but I have never had more fun with an RTS than in RA2 and RA3.
seeing this it reminds me of Dune, that game should be remade or re-released on xbox live arcade...
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