Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- May 09, 2007 14:33 PM PST
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Command & Conquer is perhaps the most recognizable real-time strategy series, and it's always offered absorbing excursions into an alternate reality of high technology and explosive warfare.
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Tiberium Wars might boast superior graphics and modern gameplay, but it still retains a potent kernel of nostalgia that's actually nurtured by the story's reliance on ham-fisted live-action cut-scenes.
Accessible Annihilation
Tiberium Wars for the 360 retains all the fast-paced combat, unit variety, and tactical possibilities that make the PC version so pleasurable, while also debuting a thoughtful new control system. Holding the left trigger and pressing A selects all on-screen offensive units, the left bumper modifier allows for finer adjustments, and groups are easily formed and cycled through via the d-pad. Meanwhile, just about anything you could want to do, from building vehicles to planting power stations, is accessible from the right trigger's "tab bar." Better still, the reticule in the center of the screen is context-sensitive in the extreme, replete with icons and visual cues that make issuing appropriate orders a snap.
War in Your Living Room
Tool-tips seem inexplicably reticent to show up at times, the tutorial doesn't go quite deep enough, and making the most of the tab bar in the heat of the moment demands a bit of rote memorization, but both single-player campaigns do a wonderful job of ramping up the difficulty, slowly preparing you for online multiplayer showdowns.
The PC version of Tiberium Wars certainly retains an edge, thanks to its mouse support, but chances are you'll be pleasantly surprised how quickly that advantage comes to seem moot when doing battle from your couch instead of an office chair.
PROS: Detailed graphics, well-designed control scheme, wonderfully reactive environments wear the ravages of war.
CONS: Sluggish tool-tip appearance, enemy AI sometimes a bit dopey, seemingly endless talking head cut-scenes.
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