Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight Preview

Red Alert 3 was a great game, but innovation was hardly one of its major strengths. On the contrary, it was a release that almost seemed to revel in the most familiar elements of its ancestral series: camp acting, a gloriously silly plot, and a massive selection of over-the-top war machines. Under the circumstances, it would be natural to assume that Command and Conquer 4 would follow a similar trajectory.

As it turns out, this isn’t the case. While C&C4 is certainly packed with all its most recognisable assets – Tiberium crystals, massive tanks and a certain bald-headed ultra-bastard – it’s also evident that EA has been keen to shake things up a little. Nod and The GDI are still the two playable factions, but now you must choose one of three command styles – sub-factions in all but name. Only one of these options will allow you to build structures, so the days of massive bases are all but gone. Generals now deploy all their vehicles from something called a Crawler, a mobile HQ-cum-War Factory, and you’re only allowed one at any time. And perhaps most controversially of all, this vital tool will respawn if it happens to get destroyed.

Remember the old days, where you’d send wave after wave of tanks at a base in a desperate bid to crush your mate’s Command Centre? Well, kiss ’em goodbye. If your Crawler bites the dust then a new one will drop from the heavens, crushing any enemy troops beneath them. A few seconds later the dust will clear and you’ll be able to start pumping out tanks again. Depending on the difficulty level you’ll have a set number of respawns, so if you’re really rubbish it will certainly possible to lose. All the same, this can only be seen as a massive departure to everything that’s come before.

The turnaround from EA is all the more surprising given that this is officially the last entry in the Tiberium Wars series, a franchise that began with the genre-defining original C&C back in 1995. It’s always unexpected when a developer makes big changes to a long-established brand, but to do this to Command and Conquer? In the final chapter of the story? Why, surely even Kane himself would balk at such audacity?

But on second thoughts, perhaps this was exactly what the series needed. EA has openly admitted that their hand has been forced by success of games like Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II. Blizzard may be in a position where it’s happy and content to stick to its old-school format, but everyone else has to move with the times. It’s taken a long time for the RTS genre to really start changing, but now that the ball is rolling there’s a strong argument that developers must survive or die.

I’m sure that there will be more than a few C&C die-hards who are gnashing their teeth at all these changes, but personally I think that the new format looks pretty exciting. Take the new command styles: Whether you’re playing as Nod or the GDI, you’ll have to decide whether you’ll adopt an Offence, Defence, or Support play style. So far we’ve only been shown the faintest of glances at the unit selection, but expect Offensive armies to focus on massive tanks, Defensive ones to focus on turrets and base-structure, and Support to get all the aircraft. Each of these choices will give you a unique Crawler: the offensive Nod one looks a bit like a beefed-up AT-AT walker, while the Support Crawlers will apparently fly. Imagine that – a giant, airborne fortress that spits out planes and other vehicles. It’ll be like a pissed-off Skynet version of Thunderbird 2.

But the new Crawlers aren’t the only unique toys for each command style. At the time of writing there’s only a single unit that crosses over between each of the three options on either side, effectively offering a choice of six separate factions to use. Clearly this has massive implications, since, to cite one example, only Support generals will have access to aircraft. Now, you can change your style when respawning, but if your strategy requires a diverse attack force, your best weapon may be an allied general. The entire campaign will be playable in co-op, and apparently multiplayer matches are being built around a five versus five dynamic. In short, it looks like you’ll have to play to the strengths of your chosen style while supporting (and relying upon) your buddies.

Did I mention the XP system yet? No? Oh lordy me. Among all the other changes, EA has also decided to completely scrap the ancient system of spoon-feeding you new units as you progress through a campaign. You remember how it went: a cheesy cutscene would pop-up with your commander bleating on about some new vehicle, and then in the following mission you’d get to use it. Well, now that’s all gone. Instead you’ve got a ranking system that roughly mimics the likes of CoD 4; every time you destroy a unit – or indeed perform any kind of action – you’ll earn XP points. Once you’ve accumulated enough, you’ll be able to cash them in to unlock new vehicles. And thanks to the new class system, you’ll have to decide whether to upgrade across all three play styles, or else just focus on improving one. Your rank also remains constant across game types, so if you get stuck in the main campaign you can just play some skirmish or multiplayer maps, unlock some new weapons and then return to the fray with a better selection of tools.

It all sounds like a big departure from the C&C of old. Hell, we still don’t know about all the changes EA has made. Resource collection remains something of a mystery, but it seems that your cashflow will be linked to a number of control nodes that can be captured on each map. These modules are part of something called the Tiberium Control Network, which in turn will figure heavily into the overall plot of the game. From what’s been revealed so far, it seems that the story will pick up roughly a decade after the events of Kane’s Wrath. By this point in time the Earth is almost completely overrun with Tiberium crystals, forcing the GDI and Nod to form an unlikely alliance. Together the two powers set up the TCN to hold back the spread of the killer crystals, and the human race experiences a new golden age. Until it all goes tits up, of course; then everyone starts killing each other again.

Little is known about the two main campaigns, other than their names – “The Men Who Killed Kane” (GDI) and “All Things Must End” (Nod). They both sound suitably portentous, and EA promises that the new story will wrap up all the loose ends that have been created over the past 14 years. We’re also told to expect a darker and grittier tone than in previous games, with even The GDI displaying some truly un-heroic behaviour. It all looks extremely slick too – both in terms of the in-game graphics and during what’s been shown of the cutscenes. Few would have predicted that EA might take so many risks with Command & Conquer 4, but if the new tricks work then this will be an explosive end to the most important franchise in RTS history.

Command & Conquer 4 will be released on PC in 2010.