Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

"An excellent RTS for the 360"

I really enjoyed the Command & Conquer series back on the PC and even the PS1 ports. It was my first introduction to the real time strategy genre. We now have the 3rd installment, not counting all of the expansions for the other games. How does the third entry hold up? Is it the best of the series? Read on!

The game has your usual war theme. Take that for whatever you will but it works for the game. I personally didn't care for the setting but everything else seemed fine.

I know this game doesn't look super realistic and it has large models but it sure looks good. It's easy to make out what everything is. It runs smoothly and it's one of the better looking 360 games out there.

The sound in the game is good. Voice work is excellent but of course with real actors that is to be expected. The music is just right for this kind of game and the sound effects are great as well. Gun fire, explosions and all of that sound good.

Usually a game that is ported from the PC has questionable controls and when a game relies on the mouse for movement and you usually expect a bad control scheme on a console. It's not the first time this series has been on a console but the controls on those games weren't perfect. For this port we have dumbed down controls. And it works great. The cursor movement is just the right speed. Everything is pretty much done with one button so it's easy to get the hang of and the tutorial really helps set things up.

Any fan of the RTS genre should feel right at home with C&C3. While it doesn't do anything new for the genre it does continue to provide a solid entry into it.

The idea behind the game is that you are controlling a base. You building the buildings, harvest items for fuel/supplies, "create" soldiers and the list goes on. Each situation is different but usually you need to defeat the enemy before they destroy your base. So you send troops out into the darkened space beyond your camp, doing so makes it so you can see what's there and destroy the stuff in your way. You may need to take over a tower or maybe build a bridge. It's all fairly simple.

I haven't had such ease with playing a RTS game in a while. Its very user friendly and the tutorial set it up all for me. The units all look drastically different enough to tell them apart. The action really gets intense on the later levels and only then did I have some problems with managing, as if I couldn't do it fast enough.

The real thing to keep in mind while playing is just to keep track of your units and what's being built and if you need to build more, maybe you need more power or whatever. Micromanagement is a key factor in all of it.

The game is fairly long. It contains 3 stories to follow. It also offers on-line play so there is a lot of meat in this package. You can even create maps so that's an added bonus and I really think so downloadable content will be coming at some point.

I'd recommend this game to anyone who's a fan of the RTS genre. It's one of the best to come out in a while. Series fans will also love it. If you're deciding between the PC and the 360 version I think it all depends on if your PC can handle the game and if you want achievements. The game is playable on the 360 though and offers everything that PC version has.

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 8/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 9/10
Replay Value - 9/10

Final Score - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/07