Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight Review

6.0

Format PC

Developer EA Games

Publisher EA Games

Genre Sim / Strategy

8 Comments

Kane sounds like he's got a bit of a cold. He doesn't sound authoritative, he doesn't sound frightening, he doesn't sound like a omnipotent being from beyond time. Hell, he doesn't even sound like a mad dictator with hair issues. He just sounds like an overworked guy with a blocked nose. This, then, is how 15 years of the Command & Conquer universe takes its final bow.

Lest that sound a bit cruel, C&C4;'s failure to reach the heights of its predecessors is not face-of-Kane Joe Kucan's fault. If anything, he's the only tolerable actor in this, who, in the few moments the script makes sense, tries to add a little subtlety to a character who's previously been a pantomime villain. His distractingly less-than imperious voice is just the final straw in a massive haystack of lousy production values and even lousier plotting.

This is the end of a long-running C&C; storyline. EA promised us we'd find out who Kane is and what he really wants. We don't. We get some more hints which simply repeat what's gone before, and a big dumb cliff-hanger which doesn't give any closure. The supporting cast, all newcomers to the story and actors you won't recognise, are either a) annoying, b) terrible, c) constantly crying, or d) annoying, terrible and constantly crying.

RET-CONNED
If you've been following C&C; story, in all its campy, contradictory and clearly made up as it goes along glory, since the early '90s, then you may not have the highest expectations of its storytelling ability. Even so, this so-called conclusion will leave you thumping your desk and readying angry letters containing the repeated use of the word 'disgusted' as it comes to its final, woeful cutscene.

Long-running sci-fi has a habit of ending unsatisfyingly, but unlike, say, Battlestar Galactica (which, in music and in sets, C&C4; borrows hilariously liberally from) and its silly religious finale, this doesn't even try to give answers. It's poppycock of the highest order. You heard me: poppycock!

There is, of course, much more to this game than videos starring a bald guy with a small beard. C&C; is the populist father of real-time strategy games, and the longest-running series in the genre. Presumably, this is just the same-old build a base and go bash another guy's base routine, right? Absolutely not. This isn't so much throwing the baby out with the bath water as it is drowning every other baby on the street in the process. Take away the cutscenes and there's no way you'd guess this is a C&C; game. Base building and resource collection is gone, replaced by a class-based system centred around re-spawning Crawlers.

These huge machines are both factory and major unit, varying in build options and ability depending on if you opt for Offence, Defence (Ss and have changed to Cs to protect innocent British minds) or Support class. No tiberium or power is necessary to spit out their pitifully small armies of soldiers, tanks, planes and robo-suits - simply time. A bafflingly small population cap means you'll very rarely field more than a dozen units, so 5v5 multiplayer matches are your only hope of seeing anything like the scale of olden C&Cs.;

It's important to be clear here: this is not an inherently bad concept, and EA LA's intentions are worthy. You don't need to memorise build orders or make constant beelines for tiberium fields. You just need to build an army and throw it at various prescribed points on the map.

The strategy comes from ascertaining which units are best for any given fight - pretty strict rock, paper, scissors stuff - and which capture point to send them to. The simplicity of building, and the fact your Crawler can re-spawn, means pretty much anyone can manage to kill some stuff, and in doing so earn some experience points.

GRIEF,WHY?
Ah, XP. And so we come to C&C4;'s second critical failure. Levelling up and unlocking new stuff is all the rage, says Gary Greyson, Man In The Grey Suit With The Grey Computer Full Of Grey Spreadsheets About Money. Thus, all games should do it. Even if they're not at all suited to it. This isn't like Dawn of War II's Diablo-compulsive loot system - it's about unlocking the units themselves. Want a Scorpion tank? Tough. Not until you've played as Nod for about five hours. How about a GDI Mammoth? Yeah, give it a couple of weeks.

These are not lovely bonus toys heaped on top of an overflowing box of delights. These are the game's core units, drip-fed to you over days or weeks, and only in response to successfully killing tons of enemies and levelling up. Jump immediately online the day you buy the game, and you'll have access to about four units. Sure, hitting Tier 2 only takes a few missions or matches, and will double that roster, but it's absurd. It's insane. It's ludicrous. It's preposterous. It's being made to wait and to work for something you've paid for, not patting you on the head for doing well. It's one thing to unlock a variant weapon in an online shooter, but denying you access to most of the tech tree until you've put the hours in is not how RTS games work.

DEATH OF A CLASSIC
Unlocked units are supposed to provide choice instead of advantages, but that's utter nonsense. It is possible to win by swarming a Tier 3 enemy with Tier 1 units, but it's harder going and not much fun. To the game's credit, XP is earned from multiplayer, single-player, co-op and skirmishes alike, but it's still a long road to the best stuff.

As a final smack upon your red-raw buttocks, the two factions - GDI and Nod - have to be levelled up separately. You don't have to fight hard and fight well to get everything - you just have to play and wait and wait and play and play and wait, and that's incredibly boring.

Dear EA: You are total bastards. Love, everyone who bought C&C4.;

Worse still, the persistent unlock system is used to justify an anti-piracy measure that's the equal of Ubisoft's always-online DRM for pure contempt. No matter what mode you're in, if you lose your internet connection for any reason, you're kicked out of the game until it resumes. Progress will be lost, and train-based boredom will not be killed. Is this a worthwhile for having your XP, unlocks and scores constantly monitored and updated? The answer begins with "n", ends with "o bloody way".

All that said, when you've played long enough to unlock a decent clutch of units and enter the fray with a bunch of people in a similar position to you, the game does feels right, turning into the bastard child of World in Conflict and Company of Heroes - it has the instant action appeal of the former and the tug-of-war of the latter.

Frankly, it's just not C&C; without base-building and harvesters, but with the right unlocks and the right players it has a bloomin' good go at being epic sci-fi warfare. Co-operation is key, and also hard to avoid: as one vs one currently is the only way to fight entirely alone. You need a Defence player setting up turrets to guard caps, a Support guy deploying his magic powers to bail you out of a fraught fight, and you need an Offence player to get into that fraught fight in the first place. Things clicks together when all multiplayer pieces are in place, but it's unfulfilling in single-player.

While longevity hangs upon the multiplayer mode, and the potential string of patches and DLC - aargh! - unlocks therein, the reason this game really exists are the previous title's single-player modes. People have grown up with C&C; for 15 years; they're buying to find out what happens, and to have some neat scripted missions.

I've already banged on about how pathetic the story is, but the missions fall short too. The trouble with the new structure, regardless of its multiplayer merits, is that it permits very little variation. It's just a race to biff some other stuff on small, palpably arena-like maps. It tries to insert a little more oomph - a giant spaceship at one point, a tiny Kane pixel-man at another - here and there, but it feels limited and cheap.

Knowing that most of the developers were set to lose their jobs once C&C4; was completed, and that this game began as an RTS that was unrelated to prior C&C; releases it's hard not feel that this was a compromised project. If it is indeed the last gasp of C&C; as we know it, it's an incredibly sad way to go out. With a little more money, a little more time and a whole lot more reverence for what makes C&C; C&C;, the tiny exploding acorn underneath this confused, scrawny thing could have become a mighty oak of modern strategy. Take care of yourself, Mr Kane. It was good while it lasted.