Finally a sequel worthy of the Command and Conquer name!
Taking place after Tiberium sun the world finds itself swamped in tiberium. For those who dont know tiberium is a parasitic substance from the original game which leaches minerals from the soil. Making it the perfect resource but less than perfect in the sence that it is covering the entire planet and is rather toxic. GDI and NOD are back and when i say NOD is back i mean KANE! The story is told through FMV cutscenes which put you in the boots of a rather overworked commander.
The quality of these live action cutscenes are extrememly high and really pay tribute to why the original command and conquer was such a great game. Far better than Tiberium Sun in my mind. The acting is terrific (albiet at times a little cheezey. The sound is terrific as well, while the music may not be quite as memorable as others in the series it is very solid. During the game you will sometimes hear comments coming from your units which is influenced by your current situation. One example of this is when you play as the scrin destroying a city and you can hear people fleeing in terror. This is a nice touch and realy enhances the game.
Lets talk about gameplay itself. It stays extremely true to its roots, sometimes almost to its detriment. Playing as GDI tis units are the most straitforeward. Smash through your opponents defences usng brute force. Nod on the other hand has more subtlety using cloaking and sneak tactics. The interface is quite nice and offers many improvments to the RTS formula. It is extremly easy to get up and play but if you really want to get into it there is alot more depth. The only quibble is that the right click moves you troops which will throw alot of people at first. Luckely EA is patching this in the fiture. The units are responsive and even with hundreds of troops on the screen the game played smoothly. The three single player campains are great and when you are done its onto the internet for a little multiplayer. There are a few things which make this unique although for the most part they seem to be underutalized. Overall multiplayer works well with a few irratations. If you are trying to start a game with more than 4 people it can get bogged down with people leaving the game and most irratatingly of all not being able to connect with each other. I would say about fifty percent of the time i have to wait quite a while while the host has to kick people from the lobby because for some reason they cannot connect properly. This tends to slow things down and will hopefully be addressed with future patches.
Besides those concerns the mutiplayer works really well. Voice communication allows people to talk to there teammates. Some interesting additions have been made which i think can be quite cool. This allows somone to be the commentator of the game and allows observers to see and hear the match in progress. So far these capabilites do not seem to be used very much though. Hopefully EA will patch the game so it takes better use of these features. I would love to watch a few teams go at it but all of the time that I have joined a game to observe i couldnt because there was an automattic cap of people and by default only allows enough people to join the game and not observe.
Overall it is an amazing game which could possibly be the best in the series. Containg great multiplayer and single player experiences. The game stays true to its roots but brings many modern RTS innovations into the game as well. It plays great as as a sequel but also as a stand alone game. RTS fans should definetlly give this a try. There was no reason for the trepidation.
Welcome back commander.