Aged Like Fine Wine

Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection

byKenneth Ang (GameAxis)

With a whizz, a bang and a press of the spacebar, the original Command & Conquer game from 1995 fizzles onto my PC monitor...and is promptly upgraded into a glorious modern-day reiteration of itself, complete with 4K graphics and an amazingly remastered soundtrack.

Yes, it’s been a solid 25 years since people started clicking on GDI and Brotherhood of Nod units, and what better way to celebrate this milestone than with a remaster of the OG titles? From the good old Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert to DLCs like Covert Ops, Counterstrike and The Aftermath, the Remastered Collection definitely packs enough nostalgia to tempt even the most steadfast RTS veteran.

Heading into Tiberian Dawn, let’s just say I didn’t expect much of it at first considering the game is older than I am. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that same, somehow long-forgotten bubbly sense of curiosity welling up as the opening animations played and I began to order my units around.

At that point, I had thrown away whatever notions I had prior - the game was just “enjoyable”, maybe even charming, especially with all the face-to-face-style briefing videos that we’ve come to adore from C&C playing in high definition.

Tying the aesthetics package up was of course the soundtrack, which has been completely remastered by the legendary Frank Klepacki, including over 20 tracks re-recorded with The Tiberian Sons. From full-on loud and adrenaline-pumping rock riffs to techno tunes sprinkled with a few robotic military commands, let’s just say the Jukebox quickly became one of my most visited tabs during my playthrough.

Moving on to gameplay, players once again have a choice between the GDI and Brotherhood of Nod factions, or the Allies and Soviet Union in Red Alert. Of course, I chose the latter...because playing the bad guy seemed much more fun.

Campaign gameplay is in classic C&C format. Players select various missions from a world map interface, then head into the associated levels to complete various objectives. From there, you build your structures, harvest resources and produce soldiers to fight for you - it’s as basic as RTS gameplay gets, which means it’s also rather refreshing to revisit the simple rock-paperscissors-style interactions between various unit types.

Many RTS titles nowadays tend to complicate the “triangle” a little too much to the point of being confusing rather than entertaining.

However, the Remastered Collection is far from being ideal. Sometimes I’d order a group of soldiers to a certain point, and then find that one smart fellow who would just head off on his own somewhere, often far south of the main group.

I also couldn’t help but feel that gameplay gets somewhat repetitive. Granted, this is an issue that most RTS games face, but it’s especially obvious here. Most of the campaign, for both Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert uses the same “kill your opponent, or a certain unit to win” requirement, and I’d wager you can win about 90% of them just by setting up a sturdy defense, building your own private army then sending the lot to blast your opponent to kingdom come. Essentially, it’s just a matter of how long it takes for you to do that.

Now frankly, RTS games should never be judged based on their campaign alone. Multiplayer counts for a great deal, although we can’t say much about the Remastered Collection yet considering it has only just come out. However, given that there are still many people dedicated to other old-school titles like Portal or the original Super Mario 64, it’s no stretch to assume that there will be a similarly-dedicated community for classic C&C games too. For the competitive crowd, there’s Elo-based matchmaking too - players who want to prove their undisputable strategic genius should definitely take it for a spin and see how high they can climb.

It’s important to keep in mind that this is fundamentally a game from over two decades ago, and that the C&C series in general is still recognised as one of the genre’s pioneers. Given there aren’t many new, top-shelf RTS games on the market lately, I’d offer that now is actually a pretty good time to get introduced to it if you’ve been meaning to. And what better way than to start from ground zero? Who knows, you might end up liking it more than you expected to.