Product Reviews

It's been six years since we last saw a genuine incarnation of Command & Conquer. Admittedly, there was C&C Generals, but that was a predictable affair that had little in common with the true C&C series other than its game engine.

The game remains a traditional real-time strategy, with a base to expand and units to build. But where other RTS games have you collecting a range of different materials, C&C has only one resource - tiberium - which you harvest and convert into cash.

The game picks up two decades after C&C Firestorm. Tiberium, which isn't good for natural ecosystems, is spreading across the globe with disastrous effects. GDI (the successor to NATO) wants to remove the threat and return Earth to its former glory; the terrorist organisation Nod (led once more by the super-villain Kane) wants to use its mutating properties to create the next generation of humanity.

As with all C&C games, the levels are spliced together with well-crafted live-action movie clips that drive the storyline. There are more than a few recognisable faces this time round: Grace Park and Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica and Michael Ironside from Starship

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Troopers all put in an appearance. When you first start playing Tiberium Wars, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was just a rehash of C&C2, with the same cast and different maps. That quickly changes when an alien invasion fleet launches an all-out assault on Earth, attracted by the abundance of tiberium.

The designers have done a fantastic job of making the alien Scrin models look convincingly organic and Starship Troopers-like. The only drawback is in multiplayer mode, as working out which Scrin does what can be tricky. The units of the other two sides are more easily identified, from the GDI's giant twin-barrelled tanks and rocket infantry to Nod's chemical weapon rockets and dynamite-wearing suicide bombers.

The game provides a wealth of 3D visual detail, from ejected brass casings to the dust clouds that tanks kick up.

Getting your head round the control system takes a matter of minutes, or seconds if you've played a C&C game before. Mastering each level is another matter; while some of the early maps can be conquered in an hour or less, later missions are fiendishly difficult and can take hours.

There are two campaign modes - GDI and Nod - although the skirmish and multiplayer modes also let you play as the Scrin. The three sides are different enough to make for a whole new experience while remaining balanced. GDI forces are technically advanced and heavily armoured, but slow to produce; Nod are weaker but have stealth abilities, enabling them to perform sneak attacks; and the insect-like Scrin can mass-produce units but are inherently weaker and have less fire power.

C&C3 is pure fun. It's complex enough to last ages, but simple enough that you never feel out of your depth. What more could you want?