Opinion: EA's taking C&C4 to all the wrong places.
The Command & Conquer series is one of those stalwart examples of an RTS done right, managing to bring together incredibly strong storylines and characters as well as fun units to entertain gamers for over a decade. One mention of Joe Kucan's character, Kane, is enough to send fans weak at the knees - but this is all set to change.
I've personally played every game in the series, hunting down Visceroids in Tiberian Sun and steamrolling the Scrin in Tiberium Wars. The gameplay mechanics were effective, the base-building kept simple and accessible and it challenged while keeping me entertained (who doesn't like Mammoth tank rushes?).
Electronic Arts is taking the series in a wholly unpleasing direction for the fourth and final installation of the series, removing a lot of the elements that were unique about the games and crippling others - not to mention sandwiching in features that just plain don't add anything to the game. It's all detailed over at bit-tech, but I'll summarise my gripes below.
If removing LAN play wasn't quite enough for EA, they've also tied the game into their servers whenever the player is playing the game, in either single or multiplayer. This keeps a track of your progress RPG-style, monitoring your every interaction with the game and most likely recording where you're playing it from.
Apart from the Orwellian over-the-top connectivity, this is just a plain terrible way to play a RTS, requiring certain amounts of experience points (XP) to be generated to even access units in the singleplayer campaign. Even that has less importance now, as units inaccessible through singleplayer can simply be unlocked in multiplayer play, removing the need to 'learn' the strengths and weakness of each unit and allowing a top-tier tech tree in levels not quite designed for them.
And you can forget about being able to use one side's entire tech tree - you're forced to choose between Assault, Defence or Support (I presume a commander-personality), where units will simply be removed that don't 'fit' into the archetype. Want to get some planes as an Assault class? Well you can't, those are arbitrarily moved into Support and are inaccessible. Want to toughen up your base defence as Support? Well, who knows?
Even the developers themselves seem unsure as to how the game will fit together, with basic mechanics such as the resource gathering not nailed down as certain. Gone are the glittering fields of green Tiberium, replaced with resource piles akin to Generals that periodically deposit cash and energy. Sure it makes it easier for noobs to figure out how to get money, but was it really so hard for them to understand Refineries?
If the resource-babying weren't enough, EA has also managed to cripple the whole point of building a base in the first place - if your Construction Yard is destroyed along with the rest of your base, you can just drop in another one and start again. This kills all units in a small radius around the MCV, but smart opponents can just hang back to move in once the replacement has been dropped. Not to mention the fact that this removes the finality of losing all your structures - surely this is a stupid move that will just encourage lack of thinking and poor base layout.
If I had to guess why they were taking the series this direction I'd probably point you towards Starcraft 2, but the major difference is that S2 knows where it's headed and introduces each new unit separately - as well as having a meaningful singleplayer campaign. C&C4 has no set rules, is introducing random game-breaking features left and right, and doesn't quite seem to know the difference between singleplayer and multiplayer. All of these add up to a game that will simply infuriate fans, and frustrate RTS players.
Though there's so much that is currently wrong with the game, I still think there's time to turn it around and give players something they actually want. Give us a persistent upgrade system throughout a unique singleplayer campaign, give us the choice of missions and an actual effect on the storyline, give us the feeling that we're actually fighting against the enemy - and the sense of victory when we beat them fair and square.
Because right now, this looks like one I'll be avoiding.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012