Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

It seems that my choices for games have narrowed down to roughly 4-5 in recent years.  Most games have moved to consoles, but I have opted to stick with my PC.  One such game is Command and Conquer.

I have been a fan of most of the Command and Conquer series since Dune 2, which was my first real time war strategy game.  I haven't kept up with all variations on the series, missing Red Alert 2, Generals and a few expansions.  But C&C 3 was a fun game to play and I couldn't miss the opportunity to try some of the newer epic units.

From a history perspective, I didn't exactly follow the chart, especially where Kane got the funky little goggle thing on his head.  But I guess the game is supposedly centered around him, maybe after one of the C&C 2 expansions packs that I missed.  The storyline only evolves around the NOD forces.  There are three acts to the primary game and in typical C&C fashion, you must bypass each stage before getting access to the newer, cooler units.  Despite having these three acts, there are no opportunities to merely play the Scrin or GDI forces from a storyline perspective.  This is a true bummer because you only get one viewpoint in the entire game.

There are some new upgrades and abilities as well as a few throwbacks to the older series like the titan and wolverine that the GDI units get.  The biggest additions are the epic units.  The epic units are, like the name implies, epic in size and capability.  Probably, the most interesting feature in this is the ability to take your infantry units and integrating them as "hardpoints" to become permanent additions and upgrading these epic units' capabilities.  The GDI MARV is particularly cool because you can add 4 units total.  I really like the concept of being able to customize your epic units.  In theory, you can have a completely self-repairing unit with four engineers for the MARV or an aerial focused assault tank when you add rocket launchers to it.  Or you can play it balanced by giving it a blend of troopers.  The only thing is that you can build one of each at a time (unless you capture another team's base; then you can build the unit again.  For instance, if you're playing a generic GDI group, you can capture the Zocom's construction site and build a new MARV).

Some other additions I liked was the return of a new form of the Behemoth, this time replacing the Juggernaut and allowing for a troops to be garrisoned inside.  This is cool because like the MARV you can have variations and even treat the mecha like a slower version of an APC.  Imagine putting a few engineers in this puppy along with some rocket launchers and Zone Troopers then invading your enemy's base.  You'll have close quarter and air covered while your engineers have heavy armor to shield them as you do your invasion.  The Heavy Harvester from the Steel Talons' side does the same thing, except that the intent would be to give your harvesters some defensive points.  The Mechapede was another unit that was pretty unique; I like how you have to "buy" hard points in upgrading the Mechapede.  So you can build up to 8 or so of these points, which is similar to inserting your infantry into your APCs.

The game feels quite balanced overall.  I mean the GDI railguns almost mimic the capabilities of the NOD lasers and Scrin shard weapons.  The nuclear blast is similar to the ion cannon and the Overlord's Wrath.  In the past, I usually ended up playing GDI because their weapons were cooler overall compared with NOD's.  This time though everyone seemed even.  I'm not sure if I really like that though.  In some ways, the imbalance makes each side more unique in nature.  For instance, now both GDI and NOD have some form of APC.  NOD got the Specter which is basically a faster, smaller version of the Juggernaut.  Certainly, there are differences but no real sense of uniqueness at a certain point.

In terms of game play, I've come up with a few strategies that are fun.  Like placing outposts near my enemy's front door, immediately building barracks (or Hands of Nod), followed up with War Factories and huge amounts of defenses.  Afterwards, I'll create a bunch of engineers and try to capture my enemy's base.  Another kinda cool thing to try is capturing as many distinct type of enemies as possible (e.g. Nod, Steel Talons, Scrin, Black Hand, etc.) and building them up until you get all the epic units.  Afterwards, group your epic units together and enjoy the action!

Probably, my biggest complaint about the game thus far is that you only had Nod's storyline.  No GDI or Scrin storylines were included in the expansion pack so your only chance to play them with the new units is through Skirmish mode.

I hope that Westwood/Electronic Arts put out a few more expansion packs to give us more units.  There's never enough new units and it really helps make the game more interesting.