Entertaining story/characters for it's time and enjoyable fast-paced RTS action.
Kane the mastermind and leader of NOD was presumed dead after the events of the first C&C game but has appeared once again and somehow has retained his youth and his vision of using tiberium to create powerful weapons and taking over the world is becoming closer to reality as NOD now have very advanced high tech weapons(including cyborgs,some of which can regenerate damage caused to them by using the energy of tiberium in tiberium fields and whom have powerful plasma weapons and NOD also have aerial units that can maneuver extremely well through the air and which also have powerful plasma weapons)and also because much of the human population has become scattered due to much of the Earth's surface being toxic and because the GDI is in disarray it makes Kane's ambition of conquering the world seem much more easier.
The story is quite good and Kane is one of the best villains in video gaming history and Michael Biehn's acting performance as GDI commander McNiel and James Earl Jones acting performance of GDI general Solomon make the story feel lively.Other things that make the story enthralling is the way weapons of mass destruction are used and the introduction of the mutants and other surprises I don't want to spoil,but I'll say seeing how the world has deteriorated so much after the first C&C game had a bit of an emotional affect on me.
As for the gameplay,it's very similar to that of the first C&C game.The gameplay doesn't require a great deal of strategy compared to other famous RTS games such as StarCraft or Total Annihilation.All you really need to do is build lots of the most powerful unit you have available for the mission and use them to overrun the enemy bases.The gameplay is very fast-paced and you and the AI can build units very quickly and send them to the enemy base very quickly,which makes the gameplay fun.If you play the game on the harder difficulty level all it means is you need to be faster and more resourceful with how you build units but otherwise you'll still be using the strategy of building 30 tanks/titans/cyborgs/infantry to win missions.
The gameplay in C&C Tiberian Sun didn't really evolve much.Aerial units are a little more effective than in the first C&C game but still not worth building because they don't do enough damage to structures to warrant their purchase and there is no way to cloak them to allow you to use them tactically.Still the aerial units are fun to use because they look very high tech/futuristic but they don't really help that much to win missions.
A good addition Tiberian Sun adds is how you can make decisions mid-mission that create more optional mission objectives and the mid-mission decisions you make can make a mission easier or harder.Keep in mind this game was released in 2000 so this kind of feature stood out more back then.
The factions are a bit more balanced compared to the first C&C game and just as diverse.In the first C&C game the GDI vehicles were more heavily armored,had more firepower but were more expensive.In Tiberian Sun,there isn't that much difference in firepower/armor between the main groud vehicles NOD and GDI use(NOD's main ground vehicle is a Tick Tank and GDI's main ground vehicle is a Titan).NOD can build cyborgs which can regenerate health by entering tiberian fields but GDI's wolverines have more armor.
The GDI can build big,slow flying bomber aircraft which can do much more damage than NOD's Banshee but NOD's Banshee is cheaper,can fly much quicker(less exposure to anti aircraft weapons)but is less armored but is cheaper
and the banshee plasma weapon can still pack quite a punch to any unit/structure it hits.
For certain missions,NOD can use a cyborg commando which is like a regular cyborg but it has a powerful plasma weapon which can allow it to easily kill enemy units and to destroy structures easily.GDI can use a mammoth 4-legged unit called a ''Mammoth MK II'' which has the most powerful weapon in the game and it has the strongest armor but it moves much slower than a cyborg commando(a cyborg commando can walk quite quickly and lay waste to bases in no time).To keep things balanced,NOD can only use 1 cyborg commando per time and only for certain mission and the same applies for GDI's mammoth MK2.
The unit designs looks very high tech and are entertaining to see and use but don't quite offer the same ammount of tactical depth as those in certain other RTS games because the easiest way to win by far is to build 30 tick tanks/titans where as certain other RTS games make you utilize a variety of units to win missions.
The structures,units and terrain for the battle maps were significantly sharper and more detailed than those in the original C&C.Tiberian Sun was released around a time period when RTS games were starting to use 3D environments but I was happy Tiberian Sun used a more traditional visuals style that focuses on realism and detail rather than 3D(because the graphics for the 3D RTS games released around that that time hurt my eyes).Tiberian Sun also improved environmental details by including city-style environments and day/night environments.I also like the glowing affect the tiberium has.
I like how the mechanical gates automatically open and close for bases and the green,plasma energy effects make plasma weapons look quite powerful.
Like I said before,the FMV with well-known actors makes the characters/story and visuals feel more lively.
The music suits the futuristic theme well and is a nice change the the militarized music that was in the original C&C and that's in so many war themed games.I like hearing the robotic voices of cyborgs and the mechanical sounds of gates opening and closing and the robotic voices telling you when you're building a unit/structure,it gives a more eery feeling to the game.
Overall,whilst Tiberian Sun isn't the best RTS game I've played,it's definately one of the most fun,because an entertaining story/characters/setting/unit designs make it so.