The best Command and Conquer I have experienced so far. There is a high chance that it might be the same for you!
Tiberium Wars retains many of its previous traditions of interface, full motion videos, gameplay styles.....etc. It's more of a combination between the traditions of old Command and Conquer games and any gameplay element that made C&C Generals a success. Which I believe is one of the main reasons why it is considered as the best C&C in the series by many players.
The good:
- The return of the old tradition of building up your base, upgrading your units and defenses and finally crush your enemy is back, and not just that, but there are many stuffs added at some maps that can make the battle look more than just a matter of who crushes the enemy first.
- The story continues after the events of Tiberian Sun and Firestorm. The plot is large and the story is much bigger and exciting than it was in the previous Tiberium universe. The return of Kane is enough to make you wonder what next he has in store for you!
- The 2 old and traditional factions, GDI and NOD, are back and are more powerful and unique than they ever were. Plus the rise of the third faction, Scrin, is a great addition to the story, gameplay, as well as offers the player a deeper choice of which side to choose.
- The campaign is long enough to keep you entertained for as long as it lasts. Plus it has the same tradition as of Tiberian Sun where you get to choose of which part you would like to strike first. There are many different types of missions that are more than just destroy the enemy base, plus the availability of "Optional missions" makes the campaign more interesting and entertaining.
- The campaign is filled with live action clips, and it's not like generals where there is a guy with a microphone just standing and giving you your mission, but you will get to see some "action" within these clips from time to time and it also includes some popular actors, as well!
- The dangerous Tiberium material is once again used as the resource for all 3 factions. The blue tiberium still exists to offer a variety of strategies. You can also capture tiberium spikes for constant flow of income, capture specific buildings to hire mutants, and not to mention some tiberium-related upgrades and powers.
- The right-side interface bar is back and you don't need a bulldozer or a worker to construct your buildings, nor you need to click on the building to train your units. The traditional right-side interface can do the whole job for you. In other words, you can construct buildings, train units, repair or power-down buildings by just using this interface alone.
- The new "Analyzes" feature is a great way to keep you involved in the story and keep you up to date with full information about each unit and character. Some entries are considered as "Secret" entries and you need to do specific things to unlock them, such as accomplishing optional missions. A great way to keep the player more open minded than just focused on the primary objective alone.
- Like Generals, when you beat any skirmish map, a star will appear next to that map to help you know what maps have been done, as well as encourage the player to participate in more challenging difficulties, as the color of the star differs depending on what difficulty you have finished that map.
- You have the opportunity to upgrade your units and structures in specific ways, as well as unlock some powers by constructing a building. This makes the player think twice before spending resources on anything. The most exciting of these powers, other than that you can summon reinforcements anywhere around the map, is the return of the super weapons! Nod's nuclear missile is more devastating than it ever was, Scrin's Rift generator is powerful enough to "Vacuum" anything in its path, and GDI's improved "Ion Cannon" is now finally a "Fearful" super weapon, you get "WOW!" the first time you use it and notice how different it is than the old Ion Cannon strikes.
The Bad:
- While the graphics are really impressive, it requires you to have a strong graphic card to enjoy the game at its full performance. You do have the option to lower the quality of the game's graphics to suit yours. However, with weaker graphic cards you may not enjoy it as much as people with good cards can, such as a slow gameplay (Even if it was at the lowest quality).
- The factions aren't THAT unique from each other. The GDI and Scrin have similar firepower and defensive levels, whereas Nod is the only faction that seems to count on stealth, speed and long range than firepower, which has made some people think that Nod is not well balanced with the other 2 factions. You CAN make Nod a deadly faction on the battlefield with some focus, however, this can limit the number of players who play with them and they might prefer to go for GDI or Scrin instead.
So as you can see, the Command and Conquer series seems to be at its best with the Tiberium Wars chapter, with the exception of the 2 minor problems that I have mentioned, this can be a great RTS for you to enjoy, even if you never played any Command and Conquer games before, the level design and difficulty of the game is well suited for both newbies and hardcore players.