Resurrection: Command & Conquer

It would be a lie to claim that C&C isn’t sometimes deeply frustrating. It would take a serious RTS die-hard (who has most likely completed all the series already) to get these missions out of the way without at least a few moments of temptation – temptation to smash peripherals or strangle passing strangers, that is. Because its AI is so poor by today’s standards, C&C relies instead on viciously narrow margins of error to help its missions keep you on your toes. Before long you’re not surprised when you’re only given a single commando to complete the bulk of a mission, or if your pre-built base is decimated by a scripted enemy airstrike. Westwood want you to feel on edge, as if one wrong move could spell irrevocable disaster.

The missions through which you command your tiny tanks, buggies and troops are not the grand strategy of the campaign – that takes place on the map screen, and behind the scenes. The game’s engine isn’t capable of covering battles on that scale: the battles you fight are the tiny, surgical engagements through which your faction’s fate is decided. It’s actually kind of convincing, in a pixelated way, and it goes some way to explaining the sheer difficulty of the missions. Everything is on the line; you’ve got to be tenacious, economical and frequently ruthless to survive, let alone triumph.

A DIFFICULT TIME
Returning to this razor’s edge is enthralling because, as a snapshot of the RTS’ infancy, C&C feels mercilessly stripped down today. There’s no high-tech camera, no fancy bells-and-whistles interface to distract from the action; just a pure, simple, top-down 2D experience. Somehow it’s refreshing to know that, once the fog of war is explored, you can see the dimensions of your battlefield, you know what you’re up against. The battle won’t be interrupted by some badly voice-acted enemy commander taunting you; the combat area won’t suddenly expand, upsetting your plans by foisting upon you a new challenge. Instead, the few screens that the mission takes place on comprise a devious puzzle for you to crack, a puzzle of orca gunships, infamous mammoth tanks, and the ever-present infantry units, scuttling around like ants.

In this context, combined with the game’s difficulty, each success is a major one. Distract a mammoth tank with your commando, then strike at it with some bazooka troops – destroying it without losing a man represents a big step forwards. Throw a twenty-strong tank force at an enemy base’s frontal defences merely as a distraction, so that a smaller force can punch a hole in the rear’s concrete walls and sneak a squad of engineers in, allowing you to capture and sell the victim’s structures for profit. It’s a somehow purer equation of risk and reward than we are used to now – you know from the beginning that unless you use every man available in the most economical way possible to complete each objective, there’s no chance of being bailed out. No reinforcements will magically appear because you’ve lost your troops; no third faction will intervene to save you; and there are very few selectable powers – now a key trope of the modern RTS – to help turn the tide against the enemy.

It is sometimes amazing to think that Command & Conquer was released in 1995. Sometimes, given the repetitious and often ill-placed FMV, squint-inducing graphics and simplistic mechanics it isn’t amazing at all. But if you can see these issues as the neccesary ugly birthmarks of a brilliant series and a fascinating modern RTS history, if you can actually revel in their stripped down, retro appeal, you’ll find what remains a thrilling if extremely unforgiving classic.

Looking back, it’s a little painful to recall Westwood’s purchase and demise at the hands of EA. It’s unfortunate that Petroglyph, staffed mainly by Westwood’s former staff, haven’t managed to equal or even approach the achievements they were reponsible for during the 1990s. But it’s reassuring to know that those people are still around, still making games. It’s also reassuring to know that EA remain committed enough to C&C’s legacy to keep developing new games in the series, and especially that they are good-natured enough to gradually increase the number of old games in the series that are available free. Maybe EA aren’t all good, though. Maybe by releasing these games for free they’re just flexing their muscles. After all, he who controls the past commands the future… By Andy Johnson

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