Lost the essence, deviated from its roots, watered down by EA, Westwood spinning in grave.
Point being is that Tiberium Wars is made for kids who want pretty colours and explosions, too much detail which makes it hard to play (the reason for Orange Smoothie productions for Q3 and being able to tweek the .cfg file to adjust game for personal needs in online and offline play). There was a scene in the old Westwood C&C game where somebody blows the head off from a POW - this pretty much sums up the proper attitude in the legendary series before EA took over. This new refined approach to make everything look nice and shiny and pretty is something I don't understand. What's pretty - the guts spinning on the tank's tracks?
I have to admit though - the new Scrin - the alien race - has some sweet abilities. Perhaps EA has decided that everyone is bored of the same old GDI vs. NOD wars so decided to add the oldest concept of them all - an evil alien race with a malevolent purpose. Out of ideas, it seams. Then we'll go back to Sims 4 and all give it a score of 10. Please. It seams that the average age of gamers has risen from 15 to 35 but IQ has dropped from 125 to a 100. I am no implying that older people have degraded our society - perhaps it's EA's beautiful strategy to sell to the ill-disposed which has created this demographic paradigm. But - enough of the EA bashing - there's plenty of that on the web. Back to the game review.
Obviously, it's sad to see the walkers go, the only one remaining (and the most rubbish one) is juggernaut, which gives no real tactical value, as it is too slow, has a very low reload rate and is inaccurate, even though apparently the technology has advanced enough for repair drones to repair onboard microcomputers. Perhaps they need to clean the barrels. And what has happened to NOD? After 9/11 America has become so influenced by mass media and the propaganda threat fed by the government that all of a sudden, in the parallel sci-fi universe of Tiberium Wars, we have jihad-like suicide bombers. That's pushing it a LOT. It'l like they are trying to mix Generals with Tiberium Universe. George Lucas never had Vietcong fighting the Emperium, did he? It's because George has some common sense (left).
The new NOD's walker abilities to upgrade through destruction of own units is a lovely little concept however. The third Scrin campain after finishing GDI and NOD missions delivers a new perspective and familiarises you with alien tactics (not too different from ours - pillage the village, 12gauge style, with a portal). Online playing is interesting because of scrin's portals and numerous special abilities, which is fun and adds a new flavour. Symmetrical maps are a big minus, however, and get boring fast. Tiberium isn't the cute flower it once was but the game fails to make it the evil they tell us it is. The ion storms are minor and don't effect aircrafts which is a big blow. The lack of fauna in the tiberium-infested areas makes the game look half-finished since the cities are all oh-so-well made. Whatever happened to the concept of tiberium-accelerated mutations of plants and animals? I was expecting a big and beautiful new landscapes, not holes with big tiberium crystals. Slackers. I can draw better than that.
Kane and NOD are the only entities which hold the thing together. Atrocious acting by the girls Tricia Helfer and Jennifer Morrison. Sometimes it feels like this is all just one big joke - the campaign, the story line, the characters, the politics, the news feed. Simply horrible - I've seen very bad b-movies do better than that. You bring in pretty girls to be an eye-candy? Don't make me laugh. C&C universe is supposed to be rough and dark, everyone scarred from tiberium burns. Proves the whole point that game is made for nothing more than profit. And wow look we have an alien unit - a tripod walker - oh god I've seen this so many times I have them in my dreams, walking around on the streets. Be original! C'mon - the game is just uninspiring.
The music can't beat Frank Klepacki's work and fails to deliver.
RIP C&C franchise. Westwood made a legend. EA killed it.