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Command & Conquer: Generals

	Author: Rick Fehrenbacher Article Type: PC Game Review Publication Date: 6/3/2003 Developer: EA Pacific Publisher: Electronic Arts Related Categories: Real-time, Strategic, Present Day / Near Future

Editor's Note: Our first edition of this review stated that Generals had been developed by Westwood Studios. This is factually incorrect, as the game was completed by EA Pacific which included members of the former Westwood team.

Introduction

Fans of the Command and Conquer games-everyone's favorite quick-twitch real-time strategy (RTS) franchise-will find the series' latest offering, Command and Conquer: Generals, different than its predecessors in several ways. For instance, it sports a new interface, new 3D graphics, a new, more realistic setting, and of course, the new "generals" feature. Fortunately, all of these changes also happen to be big improvements.

What hasn't changed is the relentlessly straight-on Command and Conquer gameplay. Generals, like all the previous Command and Conquer games, offers a multitude of gameplay options but not much gameplay subtlety. It's not Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, for sure. Though there are some potentially crafty strategies open to players, most will still find themselves frantically collecting resources, hammering up buildings, and more or less indiscriminately throwing groups of units at enemy hordes. While other venerable RTS's, like the Warcraft series, have moved away from the frantic clickfest mentality of the early RTS days-remember games like Total Annihilation?-Command and Conquer: Generals unashamedly embraces a slightly refined version of good old-fashioned tank rushes and zerging. Combat moves so fast it can be difficult to tell who's winning or why until the smoke clears. And don't even think of going on the defensive. Frankly, for all the game's flashy new surfaces, it won't take the experienced Command and Conquer player long to detect that the game's heart beats to the same adrenaline-rush rhythm as Red Alert's.

As with all C&C games, the action remains non-stop and wild.	Nice physics engine: enemy soldiers go flying.

Presentation

Unlike previous Command and Conquer games, which were set in the sort of alternate-universe worlds in which Einstein could help players time-travel around in order to kill Hitler, Command and Conquer: Generals is set in the world of "today's headlines." Players take command of one of three factions-the U.S. army, the Chinese army, or the Global Liberation Army, a collection of thinly-disguised Arab terrorists. One of the missions takes place in Baghdad, and one is very Mogadishu-like. Given recent world events, this is some ticklish territory for a PC game to be treading, and already our German brethren have instituted a de facto ban of the game in that fair country.

But even though the game freely references recent events, it's in no way a serious representation of them. Every aspect of the game is given to broad, over-the-top caricature-the gameplay, missions, army composition, and units are often more or less contemporary and recognizable, while at the same time remaining extremely cartoonish. Frankly, this makes it difficult for me to take the game's setting or objections to it very seriously, but folks looking to be offended no doubt will be.

Plot

For most Command and Conquer fans, the most disappointing thing about Generals' single-player game will be its complete lack of narrative. Forget plot, there's not even a story-rather, each faction runs through seven missions that serve primarily as a fairly disconnected series of advanced tutorials. While the missions are varied and fun, I can't help but miss the goofy, overacted full-motion video cutscenes of the previous games featuring such luminaries as Yuri, Einstein--and of course Kari Wuhrer as Tanya. Again, the game's lack of narrative is a shame because the individual missions are quite good, typically full of twists and turns and varied objectives. It wouldn't have taken much to tie them into the sort of preposterous but entertaining story we've come to expect from the series.

Tanya, we hardly knew ye. Kari and the familiar FMVs have been replaced...	. . . by rather dull briefing screens. Which would you rather look at?