Command & Conquer: Renegade

The Good
Renegade was the latest prostitution of the C&C brand before their ahum "next-gen" move towards 3D rts in Generals, but instead of being yet another ho-hum, tired exploit of their once interesting franchise this is actually a brand new spin-off!... yeah, whatever.

Anyhow, Renegade answers that question that kept you up all those lonely nights: How does the C&C universe look from the first person perspective of one of those tiny soldiers? What's that? You never asked yourself that? Well, neither did I, but the good marketing execs at EA and Westwood weren't going to let that one pass us by, hence they unleashed into the world C&C: Renegade.

Taking place in the Tiberium wars continuity, you take the role of Nick Parker, aka "Havoc", who happens to be the best commando in the GDI armada, your regular one-man-army who can level entire enemy bases all by himself, now out to take down Nod's base of operations to save a group of scientists. If it's starting to sound like your typically by-the-number fps premise don't worry, rest assured that Renegade IS your typical, by-the-numbers fps shooter, but fortunately it acknowledges this and goes along with it. Rather than trying to cover itself up with phony excuses Renegade goes the Duke3D route and goes for the cheese with gusto. "Havoc" is your stereotypical loose-cannon hero, with little respect for authority (except towards his typical buddy/superior) and with a propensity to spill out er..., "witty" one-liners a-la Schwarzenegger (my favourite being the one he says after asked if the appearance of an old flame in the war might condition his loyalty: "I don't have a conflict of interests [leans forward] I have interest in conflict!" har-har.... ah, yep. Don't worry Havoc, we love you anyway). The plot is pretty much the same as in those grade-Z Delta Force movies, dealing with the bad, bad cult of Nod kidnapping a key GDI scientist (along with his feisty supermodel/scientist daughter) whom you must rescue. This assignment takes you through a merry chase along the world searching for the eggheads, and along the way you'll meet other cartoony characters like the "asian femme-fatale antagonist", not to mention the "psycho latin-american terrorist", among other equally interesting dorks (I barely remember Kane's name, let alone the ones from the rest of these G.I. Joe rejects).

Do I need to continue? The only way the whole thing could have been cheesier would have been if Cobra Commander and Serpentor had cameos in it, but considering the game takes place in the laughably cartoony C&C universe, where the enemy is an "Evil Cult (tm)" that strikes wearing goofy space-suits, go around in red buggies and tanks, and speak with "evil" accents among other assorted foolishness, the whole thing fits the game like a glove. I mean, it just wouldn't have worked if they had gone for serious characters, interesting storylines and credible settings. This is C&C!! What we need here is cheese! And Renegade tunes in perfectly to that.

Moving on towards the gameplay, one asks oneself what new ideas does Renegade bring to the table. The answers are both nothing and a lot. For now, let's just say a lot, as the game incorporates (as tirelessly advertised) the classic C&C game mechanics. Now, the ads. for the game sold it as a virtual war theater with you being RIGHT THERE in the heat of multiple C&C campaigns. The truth is somewhat different. There's no dynamic war going on around you as advertised, but a lot of scripted events and conditions works towards creating a somewhat satisfying simulation of one. Basically, enemy units and installations work under scripted versions of the C&C game mechanics, meaning if you take out the power plant, you scale down unit production. Take out the officers and you'll stop enemy spawning (by cutting their ability to call for reinforcements), etc. etc.

No, this is not a dynamic environment that reacts to your actions following the same logic as the C&C rts universe, they are just scripted events that simulate the effects of it, but when you add to that cruising helicopters, artillery fire and similar smoke and mirrors, the result is a pretty credible warfare climate pretty much unique in the genre (well... uh... sort of, anyway).

To complement the package the game comes loaded with the standard C&C flashy interfaces and glitz (courtesy of EA's always top-notch production values). The same funky techno soundtrack, streamlined interfaces, carefully produced multiplayer options and funky installation routines and menus that we have all come to cherish from the many Westwood/EA products. The cutscenes, while graphically unimpressive, are very well designed. Using smooth noise camera controllers to produce that hand-held shaky feel and with the added motion captured animation the results are pretty entertaining to see, and mask the poor graphical quality behind it.

The Bad
As I mentioned Renegade adds nothing to the fps genre, it's your average Half-Life clone with cliche'd weapons and tired gameplay that revolves around shooting everybody down, getting keycards, maybe escorting some bozo and then shoot everybody down again. The much vaunted vehicle use is a joke, with only lousy-controlled tanks and humvees that slug around the battlefield and which are barely more effective than a well-placed rocket. And while shooting everybody down might sound like fun (heck, I can dig it) it becomes extremely boring when the faulty AI means the enemies are more of a threat to themselves than to you (ha-ha! Stupid rocket soldiers!) and the officer-controlled spawning backfires into the game design and turns the whole thing into a first-person MegaMan clone (the last mission is a piece of CRAP!). And besides being easy as pie, the game is about as long as a C&C mission pack.

The weapons are the same tired arsenal you've been seeing since the dawn of time, except you don't have a shotgun (WTF??) and you have C4 charges and ion cannon beacons that can call upon a rather impressive death from above, but that's it.

While the sound department is excellently developed, graphic-wise the game is pretty unimpressive, with pretty much nothing in the way of special effects, and blurry textures that make character close-ups a pain to behold. As for the cutscenes (pre-rendered but using the game's models and textures) while they may be interesting enough, the use of the same low polygon models from the game results in several unintentionally funny moments, such as when morpher tries to make the 3 vertex or so that each character has in their mouths form words and ends up making their lips fly all over the place and make the characters look like retarded rednecks when they talk.

Finally, while the whole cheesy cartoony thing has it's charm, the premise can get on your nerves from time to time. Havoc tries to play it cool, but he doesn't have a tenth of the charisma Duke had (probably because he doesn't say anything during the game itself, anything funny that is), the other characters have about as much depth as a cardboard cutout, and there are plot-holes so big you could drive a mammoth tank through them (yeah! I'm going to release you from prison because, like... yeah, I need a diversion! That's it!).

Oh, and raise your hands all of you that would have rather played as Tanya in the RA universe.

The Bottom Line
The closest thing there is to a full fledged G.I.Joe game, complete with retarded plot, cartoony characters, and braindead challenges. C&C fans will delight in the fact that it IS C&C from a first person perspective. From the sounds to the look to the stupid units (flame tanks?) to the game mechanics Renegade faithfully simulates the look & feel of the C&C series. However, that' about everything the game has going for it, and as for the C&C game logic, only in one mission the game plays as advertised, letting you loose in a full-fledged Nod base that you must bring down.

For the most part Renegade brings nothing new to the table and disappoints those that were looking for a fully dynamic environment that emulated the rts games. It's not that it's a bad game, it just comes short at pretty much everything when compared to the competition. If you are willing to put up with those shortcomings (be it because you are that forgiving or because you are a C&C freak that has wet dreams about Kane) you will rewarded with a couple of hours of G.I. Joe in your pc, but that's it. If you are so desperate for that kind of cheese you might get more value from just renting the G.I. Joe movie or Delta Force...Now you know, "and knowing is half the battle!"

The Good
The main character is awesome.

The engine cut scenes are simply brilliant and add to the fun of the game.

The gameplay features a good variety of missions and settings.

The vehicles are a nice bonus.

The whole ambiance is pretty faithful to C&C.

The Bad
The graphics are a bit dated.

The enemies are repetitive.

The Bottom Line
"Not another FPS, please !" Yes, but this one comes with a very cool main character, named "Havoc", and You can blow up the Fist of NOD from the inside :D

The best thing first: the game has the most entertaining cut scenes I have ever seen in any game.

Havoc is such a cliche that the ironic approach Westwood took simply hits the nail on the head. Perfect.

The gameplay isn't worse than Unreal2 or any other "simple" shooter, and while it can become repetitive, the whole "Commando"-style presentation with primary objective/secondary objective is refreshing. Add to that the vehicles You can use, and You got a pretty good FPS, not quite the quality of No One Lives Forever, but better than some newer games like Unreal 2.

The graphics are a bit outdated, but the look of the C&C universe is well captured, and the new ideas and implementations of the well known items like Tiberium freighters, mutants, buggies, copters and tanks is well done. For the current budget price, You can't go wrong.

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...