"Can EA finish what Westwood started?"

More than a decade ago, Westwood Studios launched what is arguably the most popular RTS franchise of all time with Command & Conquer: Tiberium Dawn. Now EA has released the final installment of the Command & Conquer series with Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. But can CnC 3 live up to its predecessors?

Storyline: 8/10

The previous CnC games have all offered intriguing and gripping storylines. CnC 3's storyline provides a fitting end to the trilogy. The scrin finally make their official entrance and the link between the aliens and tiberium is finally revealed (though some may say it was pretty obvious from what was offered up in Tiberian Sun). The downside is that the storyline isn't that original. It is the classic "two factions locked in a life-or-death struggle then a third stronger faction enters the battle and the two factions join together to defeat the third faction." For this reason CnC 3 only gets 8/10 in this category.

Gameplay: 7/10

EA has revamped the gameplay in CnC 3, upping the pace and making it easier to quickly amass an army instead of worrying about resources. Each of the 3 factions: GDI, Nod, and the Scrin, have their own unique style of gameplay. GDI is the straightfoward bigger-is-better faction, Nod relies on stealth and sneaky tactics, and Scrin is sort of a mix of might and off-hand tactics. Unlike the previous CnC games, where any tactic can work with both GDI and Nod, in CnC 3, if you're Nod and try to beat GDI head-on with pure strength, your army will quickly get annihilated. Likewise, if you're GDI and don't play close enough attention, you might find yourself constantly crippled by Nod sneak attacks. Each unit is also quite nicely balanced, with its strengths and weaknesses (there are no all-purpose superunits). However, there are some bad things about gameplay as well. With GDI and Nod, you have to build new Tiberium Silos for about every 3k worth of Tiberium harvested. Take into account that every Harvester load of Tiberium is 2.4k and that means every 30 seconds you're going to hear "Silos needed", which gets really annoying after a while. Scrin doesn't use silos so they are fortunately exempt from this problem. The unit pathing also causes some real issues. In an attempt to be more realistic, EA has made it so that most vehicles can't just turn on a dime; they actually have turning radii now. But it gets really annoying when you're trying to micro and you order a vehicle to turn back and it makes a giant circle right into the enemy and gets killed.

Graphics: 9/10

Nothing much to say here except that CnC 3 has some of the best graphics in an RTS to date. Unfortunately, unless you have a top-of-the-line computer, you probably won't be able to run the game on full settings, which is why graphics doesn't get a perfect 10.

Cinematics: 6/10

One of the most disappointing things about CnC 3 was that EA decided to go back to the first-person cinematic view. I personally liked the 3rd-person perspective in Tiberian Sun, where you could see the commander doing something and kicking some butt rather than just staring at people while getting briefed on missions. The cinematics feature a great cast of Hollywood and TV stars, but the acting isn't as good as you would expect. The lines are also kind of cheesy with lots of cliches, and although that cheesy style has worked well for some games, it seems kind of over the top here.

Music: 10/10

The CnC series has always offered great music, and CnC 3 does not disappoint in this category. The game has a good mix of fast-paced rock, solemn orchestral music, and some eerie sounding alien themes.

Overall: 7/10

CnC 3 isn't a bad game, but it isn't the best either. If you're a diehard CnC fan, I recommend buying it but be prepared to be disappointed at times. If you're just looking for a random RTS game to play from time to time, I recommend finding a better RTS or at least waiting for the $50 price tag on CnC 3 to go down before buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/07