Game Review - Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight (PC, 2010)

Story:

Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight is the final game in the original series and takes place three years after the end of the smash success Tiberium Wars, which brilliantly relaunched the series in 2007, this time the sacred green crystal called 'Tiberium' has spread throughout the Earth and is close to making it uninhabitable to humans, but GDI (The Global Defence Initiative) has received a very strange visitor: Kane, the reclusive leader of the Brotherhood of NOD and he wants to help GDI contain the Tiberium outbreak, but does he really want to help or is it all for his own purposes.

I have a ruling when it comes to PC RTS (Real-Time Strategy) Games and that is there is one for everyone be it this series, Age of Empires, Starcraft or C and C's sister series Red Alert, well this series was mine and I had been eagerly awaiting this game after the well deserved success of its predecessor despite the major changes to the game's layout, but does it deserve to be hailed a worthy finale to a great series.

Well, no it doesn't and for precisely the reasons of the layout changes, it gives the game a different feel and one that I found to be unwelcome this time around, 07's C and C 3 relaunched the series for all the right reasons; improved graphics, a new race called the Scrin and the traditional RTS feel and soul of its predecessors.

This one tries to go in the direction of an MMO and as a result, it fails miserably, you are unable to build up a big army of tanks and soldiers to attack an enemy base, you cannot create a single player game on your own and you're stuck with the credits given to you with no chance of Tiberium mining, a mainstay of this series.

But then I can't help but feel that Westwood Studios had little to no say in the development of the game, as EA have simply gone it alone and botched it by mixing things up, this game essentially ends up proving the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" to be right.

Visuals:

Bumping up the visuals to the higher settings gives this game a great look, shadows and maps are very well detailed and soldiers, tanks, bases and airships are easy to spot and have a slightly animated look to them, all in all a job well done and one of the game's few bright spots.

Controls:

The very soul of a game is how its mechanics feel to the person playing it and they're one of the few things to stay as they were from last time around, you do the obligatory tutorial mission to get a feel for them and then you're off and running to the races, again not much to be said but I wasn't complaining.

Overall:

Unless you're a diehard Command and Conquer fan, this game will disappoint, heck I'm gonna say that this game will disappoint even them, as someone who loved Tiberium Wars so much, it pains me to say this one is a big failure, what could have been a great send-off for a beloved series is a complete mis-fire, Tiberium Wars is now out on sale for cheap, if you want a modern day C and C to play with, buy that one, it's a much better game at a cheaper price.