Command & Conquer: Renegade

The Good

• Art design is appealing and true to the RTS games
• There's plenty of novelty to be had seeing the C&C universe in first person
• Good graphics for the time
• FANTASTIC multiplayer
• Lengthy campaign
• Good sound effects

• Single player campaign can get dull at times
• Pathetic artificial intelligence
• No Single player Nod campaign
• Have to use GameSpy arcade to find servers
• Mediocre story

The Bottom Line
I love Command & Conquer. They are fast paced and a ton of fun to play, they may not be the deepest strategy games on the planet, but they're still fun as hell; especially the bloody awesome Red Alert 2. C&C Renegade takes a different approach though, instead of being tasked as a commander, you are tasked as being a commando; a fan favourite character from the first game. You also aren't playing a strategy game, but rather a first person shooter.

You play as Havoc, a GDI commando who unravels a Nod scheme to create an army of Tiberium mutants, as well as the standard Nod scheme of trying to use Tiberium as a weapon. The plot isn't especially interesting, and is bogged down by a cast of uninteresting and forced characters that the game expects us to know simply by showing us their model and a text scrawl in the installation screen. Havoc isn't a particularly interesting character, he pretty much is just a generic C&C Commando even if he talks more.

There is plenty of novelty to be had in both the single player component and the multiplayer component. Entering the Tiberium universe; circa the events of the first game, so its not quite as dark or dreary as Tiberian Sun; is a very cool thing and it is handled well. You'll storm Nod bases, drive both Nod and GDI vehicles, and use weaponry such as the GDI Ion Cannon. It certainly is a treat to enter a Hand of Nod and see Nod soldiers training and seeing the inner workings of a base.

The campaign is fun, but it isn't without some flaws. Firstly, some maps are gigantic. This isn't a problem for some shooters, but Renegade simply doesn't know how to pace a huge map. There's one map maybe 3 or 4 levels in that is enormous, and en route to a Nod base you have to shut down you'll travel about 30 minutes in a vehicle and 45 minutes on foot before you'll find another enemy to shoot. This makes some maps confusing, dull, and frustrating. To add to these frustrations, bases can sometimes be confusing as well with winding corridors and inconsistent floor plans and key card events.

The AI is also pathetic. At least the zombies in Doom would actually walk and try to avoid your bullets. The soldiers here, once they catch sight of you, just stand there shooting at you while you tear them apart. The only way to get a challenge from the basic soldiers is to crank up the difficulty. To be fair, more advanced characters and vehicles pose a greater threat but regardless, the AI is just bad.

I also would've liked to see two campaigns, both to even out the pacing and to stay truer to the traditional C&C style. Playing as a Nod soldier would've been cool, but we don't get that treat save for in multiplayer but that's still not quite the same thing as having a story driven Nod campaign to play.

The multiplayer is the star here though. I am not joking when I say its easily one of the best and most overlooked multiplayer components in a first person shooter. It plays exactly like a regular C&C game, there's a NOD base and a GDI base, Tiberium is being harvested, and they must build an army and destroy the other base. But, naturally, you are playing as a soldier on the frontline. You can buy weapons, vehicles, and special characters using Tiberium credits; but remember, your team shares the income. In fact, your team is very important. There's still some strategic depth here, to win you must be able to coordinate attacks and move in squads. Both bases have defenses that must be taken down, though several maps do provide secondary passages to the enemy base if you are sneaky enough to find them.

There are plenty of maps to play on and playing with 32 or even 64 players is a joy, and the units you can control are all quite fun and unique and the action is always pulse pounding but it never sacrifices the squad based elements.

The only real flaw I find in multiplayer is the server interface. Before they were forced to close their doors by EA, Westwood Online was the primary method of finding servers and the easiest. WOL is gone now, and even then it was buggy. To be able to play Renegade online now, you must use GameSpy arcade which is a bit of a nuisance with its ads, lag, and poor Windows 7/Vista support. But even then, it is still worth playing simply for the multiplayer. There are servers up and there is a wealth of maps to play, and there is a mod called Renegade X being made on the Unreal 3 engine which is going to replicate the multiplayer experience of Renegade for free and with modern graphics. Very cool, but if you haven't checked this game out, its fairly cheap now and I highly recommend it to C&C fans. It has a decent campaign, but the multiplayer is the real meat and potatoes of this particular package.

The Good
You're playing GDI, you're playing a commando, you're playing that little top-down units from the original "Command & Conquer", and that's the only unit you control in this game, and nope, this is not "Sole Survivor 2". Nick Parker, code name Nicky... ahem, I mean, Havoc, undisciplined, fast on the trigger, and barely doing anything left-handed. This time, the exact time of 1995 during the first Tiberium conflict, you'll be shown the war you've already passed, only from another perspective... from a commando's eyes. You can easy shift between first-person and third-person perspective, and in both of them, navigation and controls are extremely well done, and easy to master in no time. Now, since that is original war, you'll encounter many enemy and allied units in game, from the Nod minnigunner infantry and rocket soldiers, to GDI grenadiers, minnigunners and civilians. The ranking is making some extra abilities, so Nod and GDI officers can call for backup and reinforcements, which is why you should set your prior targets on officers, and than on grunts. Also, the game goes way into touch of "Tiberian Sun", so there will be experimentations with Tiberium, and even couple of different types of mutants and enhanced Nod soldiers resistant to Tiberium. Also, units such as Hum-vees, Nod light tanks, GDI Mammoth tanks, Nod buggies, Flame tanks and others will be present in the game, but that's not all. You will as well be qualified to control them (though in third-person perspective only), and although this may reseble to "Grand Theft Auto", it is nothing like it, hehe. This game is made so there is no corner for resting, and war is omnipresent all the time, so you see flying orcas help you with some Nod turrets, Nod Apache helicopters shooting atcha, A-10 planes bombing enemy installations, or GDI gunboat firing missiles incorrectly so most of them comes in your direction. GDI support won't be heavy, but you can always expect bunch of Nod troopers behind every corner, constant incoming reinforcements, landing from the transport helicopter, exiting APC, or incoming paratroopers. All the houses also have affect on the game (for example Hand of Nod is helping with enemy infantry reinforcements, or helipads will increase Apaches activity in the area, or power plants giving enough energy for Nod obelisk tower, etc.), and this time you can check them all inside out. Or you can destroy them with Mammoth tank, or Ion Cannon pretty quickly. Hand weapons arsenal is more than enough, from the ground basic silence pistol and machine gun, to spray gun, flamethrower, hand ion cannon, lightning gun, C4 explosive charges and more. The game uses cinematics that look pretty much as ingame, and are done with the same engine, but just the look at some character talking and moving lips won't be able to stop you laughing, hihi, dunno if they did that on purpose, but I like it, hehe, breakes the seriousness of the game from time to time. Also, there are some funny dialogues throughout the game (for example, Syndey demostrates you how your health bar works by shooting you to which you angrily say "Was that really necesary?"), you get the feeling as if they inserted part of their "Malcolm's Revenge" humor in it. The detail level is simply fascinating, and every level is entirely different, using different textures and places, beaches, ships, town, ski cottages, bridges, frozen rivers, dam, and using pretty nice rain, snow and volcanic ashes effects. The game follows the story of the original "C&C" almost entirely, with a little knocking on the "Tiberian Sun" surface. Basically, what you used to see in the masterfully done FMV of "C&C", you will now experience from first-person and see those 3D objects as well as interact with all of 'em. Music is also great, and it approximates the one in original "C&C", and some songs are identical, only reconstructed a bit, to couple of "Command & Conquer" and "Tiberian Sun" songs, and they're even called the same (which you can check on the game soundtrack). It works fast and fine on my ol' ASUS RIVA TNT with some drivers that are even now two years old, but the thing is, if they made it work great with such an old card, this opens range to users with not so upgraded computers, and believe me, this one is a must of all musts.

The Bad
I was thinking raging a bit about the game's shortness, but I guess all great games are somewhat short. And to think Westwood was developing this game for so long, and I finished it so soon... sigh, it's not healthy thinking much about it, hehe. This game has so many varieties and goodies, that the fact they made so many differences in it, and were so faithful to level of details is really rising this game up. They didn't just make this game on some already existing engine and try to take a fame from their renowned RTS, no, they needed two years just to create the engine for this game from scratch, and what once was an idea for 3rd-person shooter, they extended onto 1st-person shooter, and left both modes (something like in "Jedi Knight"). But just as I got this longly anticipated game from "C&C" series, they're already announcing new game in the universe called "Command & Conquer: Generals". If they continue with this pace, "C&C" universe may soon enough surpass the quantity of "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" series.

The Bottom Line
It's a flawless perfection you shouldn't miss. I really don't think I should comment much on this topic. There can only be two people who may consider trying this game out, fans of "C&C" series, and fans of FPS genre. Actually, there's also a third type of people, like me, who loves both "C&C" universe and FPS genre. So if you like "C&C" RTS, but not because it's C&C but only because it's good, then this may not be a good decision to try, but if you've wondered how Hand of Nod or Construction Yard look from the inside, and how does it feel to try drivin' some of the units, this may be a step you should make.

Okay, so let's try to summarize...

The Good
The game is a must have for C&C fans. For the first time, you’ll be able to take part in all those epic battles you directed before as the chief commander of the GDI. In addition, the game boasts very good graphics and sound.

The Bad
Lots of hardware problems, miserable tech support, awful multiplayer and a very short single player. The A.I. leaves lots to be desired as well.

The Bottom Line
C&C: Renegade was a valiant effort, which fell short of expectations. It brings nothing new to the world of First Person Shooters except of a familiar setting, translated from a real-time strategy. In fact, the game has been translated so well, that it follows the trend that has been evident from the first game in the series: each subsequent game has a shorter gameplay and less replay value. Command & Conquer: Renegade will last you only 8-10 hours in the single player mode.

Let’s not spoil it to you and start with the good things first:
Graphics: People in this game have been motion-captured. That means that they move like real people, and not like puppets. It always amazed me how realistically the people moved, depending where you hit them. The settings are very well crafted as well; whether it is a snow-covered alpine backcountry or a French village.
Sounds: The music is superb, and helps to keep you in a state of expectation. Some people are not too happy about the sounds, but I found them refreshing; ripped straight from the original C&C game.

On the other hand, there’s lots to be desired in this game:
Setting: The game reeks of male chauvinism. Not even Duke Nukem (who was chauvinistic in a funny way) managed to aggravate me as much as this game. I’m a male, but I still got upset by how much this game presented women as sources of pleasure for the main character, who was well aware of this. I got to hate my character so much that often suicide seemed like a good option. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out how to finish the game with my character dead.
Technical issues: Where do I start? Maybe with the fact that the game supports only a very limited roster of 3D cards. Voodoo owners are hit particularly hard, with only the newest cards working (and that only after installing an unauthorized patch). Or I may mention the fact that the combination of the main, 900MB file and SafeDisc 2.x protection of the CDs creates a situation in which very often the game crashed during install if the CD has the slightest flaw. I would also point out the fact that virtually hundreds of people reported 10-15FPS refresh rate, way below the optimal 60FPS. In fact, there were so many reports of technical problems that Electronic Arts shut down the official tech support forum for this game and is heavily censoring any posts mentioning technical issues on other official boards.
Single player: The game is easily beatable in 8 hours on easy and medium mode, and in 10-12 hours in the hard mode. While there are a few spots where you may get stuck, your time to finish will not be much longer than that. The only difference between the first two modes and the last one will be that in the hard difficulty level you’ll spend much more time as a sniper.
Multiplayer: Electronic Arts decided to do a competition here. They created a ladder system, where each player gets points for everything he or she does while playing multiplayer. The best player would then get a video card. This has caused enormous amounts of cheating. Due to the fact that games are hosted by players, more often than not the server owner will end up with the most points, kicking people who don’t play by his rules. In addition, the multiplayer tends to be a little too intense and a little too short, with most games being finished in 20-30 minutes.
A.I.: The A.I. is a sore spot in this game. Enemies are so heavily scripted that replaying the game is like replaying Super Mario Land – you’ll know when to jump and when to run. In addition, in a few missions, you will have to keep your teammates alive. Unfortunately, they have an uncanny ability to get themselves killed very fast, so you’ll spend lots of time reloading missions.

Overall, I am sorry I spent $30 on this game. I may have given it a try when it appeared as a budget game for half that price or as a part of a compilation, but as it stands now, this game is not worth it. You’ll do much better spending the money on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault or saving it for Unreal 2.