I loved Command and Conquer. I remembered blasting mammoth tanks with obelisks when I was in 6th grade, then finally using GDI's ion cannon to blow up the white house as the finale to the NOD victory.
When I heard C&C 4 is going to change a lot of things, I was skeptical. What was wrong with C&C formula of blowing up stuff with tank rushes or superweapons? I know the online competitiveness is nothing much to talk about, but I wasn't looking for strategic depth when I played C&C series. I wanted Hollywood action military plot with a good mix of tech-toys of mayhem. The "No-DRM, just be online" feature was also a bad sign.
Too bad my friend didn't listen. He invited me over one night to try my hands on C&C 4.
Immediately the signs of failures are there:
A chat lobby, filled with strangers when loading up the single player campaign main menu.
An EXP system to level up tech trees to carry on in both SINGLE & MULTI PLAYER.
But the worst is probably the first mission briefing. They called me Commander. That's OK, I'm used to that. The nameless Commander who always finds a way to blow shit up when things look grim. But this time, there's this civilian lady popping in front of me.
"Dear, are you OK? They told me you'll be fine!" she looked at me with those eyes.
What-the-fuck. I have a wife? IN COMMAND & CONQUER UNIVERSE? If I had a mouthpiece in game I would've told her to fuck off. But I was mute and had to play along. I endured the painful tutorial and realization I had no base to build. All I could place was turrets and bunkers. With three possible option ROCK , SCISSOR, PAPER army, there was infinite resources. You basically need to play unit counter with the given maximum allocation. I wasn't enjoying any of it. To play a C&C game with unit cap and no base is horrible, but nothing prepared me for the plot revelation at the end of the first real mission, where I had to choose side.
I finished clearing the final civilian evac point when suddenly the transport, carrying my wife was taken down by a red rocket.
I shit. You. Not.
"I'm sorry, Commander. There was nothing you could've done to save her." my superior comforted me.
She was right. There is nothing I could've done to save Command & Conquer. She's dead.
Rating: Utter Crap. & Pray hard they didn't fuck up Red Alert.
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