RTS Classic / Pretty Graphics / Almost perfect UI, is marred by terrible acting and very poor game/economy design.
Graphically the game is a higher polygon version of C&C Generals. Overall graphically the game is aesthetically pleasing from the Menu system to the gameplay visuals. The UI is fairly standard with one new element: when you have more than one of the same build structure, the sidebar allows you to tab between them all. For some a nice touch, for other fairly frustrating.
Storyline. Absolutely pathetic outing from EA here. Terrible plot choice for a unique Sci-fi world (seriously aliens invaders? Be a little more creative please). Also the campaign story videos were completly ruined by god-awful acting even for C&C standards. The actors chosen for the roles in C&C are known B-movie/Sci-fi actors and have shown they are not this bad at acting. So the reasonable conclusion here is that EA flubbed on the directing and writing.
Game play. Personally I think the gameplay is too extreme in the spam/rush bias. Turtle-ing ( a very viable and competent strategy) is not possible in this game. Many have complained that this is due to the terrible economy. I agree with this sentiment. The economy favors spamming and rushing early on. This is not a good set up for strategy games. I feel that RTS games should be more about the strategy less about clicks-per-minute. The game had very strong balance issues immediately after release, most of those have been correct via patches released in the following months.
I have been very disappointed with this outing of C&C by EA. They had in their hands one of the best RTS franchises know to gaming and they completely demolished it. I can only hope the next C&C game has a better plot/setting (please use this unique sci-fi setting for better stories, alien invaders is a tired story) and better game design. Another C&C game like this and I'll no longer respect the franchise. EA should be ashamed.