Command & Conquer is one of the iconic franchises from the 90s and 2000s. It was one of the first Real-Time Strategy games I played, and it built on what Westwood started with Dune 2. It also started an amazing series until EA got its claws into it.
I remember hearing about the first game in school. I don’t think I had a subscription to a PC magazine at the time, so I learned about new games during lunchtime or on the school bus. Before the Internet, you had to know someone who played the game or had access to one of the many magazines that covered video games. No one knew about every game.
While I like the main Command & Conquer series, I like Red Alert a little more. Both have fun stories, but I like Red Alert’s time-travel plot. I’ll cover the first game in that series later, but for now, let’s focus on the first Command & Conquer.
TLDR: As good as I remember it being.
Narrative
There is a war going on! The UN created a multi-national military organization called the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) with a mandate to fight terrorism in the form of the Brotherhood of NOD (NOD).
Depending on the campaign you choose, you’ll get a different ending and story. The GDI campaign occurs in Europe, and the NOD campaign occurs in Africa. I played the GDI campaign for this review.
The GDI is similar to a UN military mission, except it is a little more competent and acts with more independence. Its units are more like traditional military units. As the series continues, it slowly becomes the world’s government.
NOD is a religious terrorist organization. Their leader is Kane, we don’t learn much about him in this game. Their units are less advanced, but I’ll break them down later.
In that campaign, you push NOD forces out of Europe until you reach Sarajevo. Once you destroy the NOD forces, you win! The cutscene that follows explains that Kane is presumed to be dead. There are sequels, so no, he isn’t dead.
In the NOD campaign, the player is used by Kane’s second-in-command, Seth. Kane kills Seth and then has the player take control of the GDI’s orbital Ion Cannon. Kane then lets you destroy one of four possible targets and plans on taking over Europe.
There is a corniness to both campaigns that I love. The stories feel like something out of a low-budget movie like this story was supposed to lead to a cataclysmic war, and an action hero has to save the day. That is where my mind went while I was playing.
It is very cool how the game makes a commentary on propaganda and the use of the media in spreading it. Kane is waging an information war against GDI to undermine their public image. Watching this play out in the early cutscenes of the GDI campaign is awesome.
Gameplay
Command & Conquer is a Real-Time Strategy game. This means you’ll build a base, recruit military units, and wage war in real time. Once a mission starts, it doesn’t stop until the player wins, loses, or restarts it.
There is only one resource to worry about. You need to gather Tiberium, which is a green crystal. This is similar to collecting Spice in Dune 2 and ore in Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
Most of the missions deal with base building and resource gathering. Unlike the Warcraft games, there is no illusion that you’re building a city and don’t have to deal with food and building farms.
Building your base is a key component of the gameplay. Each building has its uses, whether it is recruiting troops, gathering resources, or letting you construct buildings. Here is a list of what you can build; both factions have the same buildings, but call them something different (NOD Building Names in Parenthesis):
- Construction Yard – Allows you to build other buildings. If this is destroyed, your chances of winning are severely damaged.
- Power Plant—Supplies power to your base. Without enough power, some buildings won’t work.
- Advanced Power Plant – It is Two Power Plants in one!
- Refinery – This is where your harvester drops off Tiberium, the game’s currency.
- Silo – Stores extra Tiberium.
- Comm Center – This lets you see the areas you’ve explored on the mini-map if you have enough power.
- Advanced Comm Center – It is advanced… also it gives you access to super weapons.
- Temple of NOD –
- Barracks (Hand of NOD) – Lets you recruit infantry Units.
- War Factory (Airstrip) – Where you can recruit/build vehicles.
- Repair Facility – Repairs damaged vehicles
- Helipad
- Guard Tower
- Advanced Guard Tower
- Turret (NOD Only)
- SAM Site (NOD Only)
- Obelisk of Light (NOD Only)
- Sandbags
- Chain Link Fence
- Concrete Wall
There are also three super weapons in the game. NOD gets a nuclear missile strike, and GDI gets air strikes and the Ion Cannon. I’m guessing NOD only has one because they have an extra defensive structure.
Here are the units you can recruit/build:
Infantry
- Minigunner
- Grenadier (GDI Only)
- Engineer
- Commando
- Rocket Soldier
- Flamethrower Infantry (NOD Only)
- Chem-Warrior (NOD Only)
Vehicles
- Harvester
- APC
- Humvee (GDI Only)
- Light Tank (NOD Only)
- Flame Tank (NOD Only)
- Artillery (NOD Only)
- Rocket Launcher (GDI Only)
- Medium Tank (GDI Only)
- Mammoth Tank (GDI Only)
- MCV
- Orca (GDI Only)
- Chinnock Transport
- Buggy (NOD Only)
- Recon Bike (NOD Only)
- Stealth Tank (NOD Only)
- Surface-to-Surface Launcher (NOD Only)
- Apache (NOD Only)
One flaw of this game is the lack of naval units and the limited air units. This is similar to what Blizzard did with Warcraft. Neither game needed naval units, but it would’ve improved the games.
Unlike the Blizzard RTS games, Command & Conquer lets you select a large number of units at once. You aren’t limited to four (Warcraft) or nine (Warcraft 2). The controls for moving and attacking are also much better than in the first Warcraft and similar to those in Warcraft 2.
Overall, the gameplay is very good! I know most people remember this for online play, but I don’t. Most of the people I knew didn’t have the internet at the time, and the few who did had no interest in playing with me or didn’t want to play when I could. Not everyone experienced video games in the same way.
Visuals
The big thing for me is the cutscenes. The mission maps look great, but I only care about that grainy and pixelated footage we get between missions. Everything looks great. I was playing the remaster, but things looked fine even when I switched to the original graphics.
The cutscenes are a mix of CGI and live-action. It is the type of thing fans could create now with a camera, green screen, and a handful of costumes. Heck, look at any skit-based YouTube show, and chances are they have similar production value.
Many games did similar things for cutscenes. While Westwood wasn’t the first, it did a very good job with the cutscenes. It did an excellent job of building the game’s world and telling a great story.
Some of the scenes are recycled, but back in the 90s, I don’t think anyone cared about that. It was so cool to see stuff like this, especially if you were coming to PC gaming from the home console, where things like this was extremely rare. They add a lot of charm to the game that you don’t see as much today.
I like the graphics a lot! They still hold up today, and having the option to switch between the original and the remastered graphics is great. I wish there were a better ending scene, as the current one is a little underwhelming.
8.5/10. This is a terrific RTS that is still fun to play today. While it doesn’t have a third faction like Starcraft or Dune 2, Command & Conquer is well-balanced. It also has a great B-Movie plot that I adore!
Pros
- Nostalgia
- Easy to Switch between Original and Remastered Graphics
- Great Story and Campy Cutscenes
Cons
- Only Two Factions
- Little Variety in Gameplay
- A Few Bugs
Conclusion
The Command & Conquer Remaster is fantastic! It lets a new generation experience one of the best RTS games from the early 90s. While it isn’t as good as the later games in the series, it is still worth playing today.
I love that I don’t have to swap between discs when I want to play one of the campaigns. That wasn’t the worst thing, but it was disappointing if you were borrowing the game and only had the NOD disc. That happened a few times in the early 90s.
It is also one of the most memorable things from that time. Thankfully, I didn’t have to relive the frustration of only being able to play the NOD campaign. I enjoyed going back to play Command & Conquer, and I look forward to revisiting the other games in the series.