Command & Conquer is one of those rare franchises in my history that holds a special place in my gamer’s heart. Though I started on Tiberian Sun and Firestorm (its expansion), and then Red Alert 2, I have fond memories of watching and listening to my brother play the original C&C from ’95. I remember the big box versions we had of C&C, its expansion Covert Operations, and then Red Alert with its two expansions Counterstrike and The Aftermath. Many years have past, and even though I bought the C&C Ultimate Collection years ago on Origins, I never circled back to the original C&C games, admittedly in small part due to the 320×240 graphics — but now, that’s changed.
When I first heard that EA had greenlit a full remaster project for the first five C&C releases (two main games and three expansions), I was stoked. I watched some of Joe Bostic’s (of Petroglyph) videos during development, and loved the honest and candidness that they offered, as well as the homage they paid to this classic series and the great stories about the remaster process, including finding an archive of old video data that had to be shipped off to a special place in California to be converted to a modern format. Community involvement started immediately and is still ongoing today, with one member having actually designed the ‘box’ art to the Tiberian Sons music band recording tracks with legendary composer Frank Klepacki, to a Discord group for top C&C community members to work with the devs daily. I just appreciate the desire to engage the passionate C&C community for additional direction and suggestions on the Remaster, and as many of you probably heard the entire source code to the game was also released just a few days before the game launched. I later found out that the awesome 4K intro video upon first launching the game was created by a passionate community member. It’s very reminiscent of the original C&C installer, with EVA providing narration and all of the cool animations that PC gamers used to watch during installs. This level of transparency, community synergy, and honesty was just refreshing. It also gave me great confidence in the game, enough that I pre-ordered it via Limited Run.
All that to say that the remaster process and this release in general has paid off in spades for any fan of C&C or RTS in general. Petroglyph has done a superb job of modernizing C&C yet still keeping its spirit in tack. Yes, visuals have gotten an overhaul — all the way up to 4K — but the animations and that intangible feel of the game remain. Speaking of the visuals, players can instantly change between the old and the new visuals seamless and instantly while in-mission, just for comparison sake. That’s just a neat fan-service option to have and helps show just how far along visual fidelity has come, but it also offers every ounce of nostalgia that you might hope for.
Controlling the action on the battlefield has been given a few modern tweaks, too. While there aren’t all the features you would expect from a modern RTS, there are still some quality of life enhancements here that few players would argue with. The original games called for using the left mouse button for nearly everything, but right click integration is included in the Remaster. Plus, tabbed build menus all for quicker and easier access to all the structures and units you want to build, taking precious time out of managing such processes to let you focus on the action and directing your troops. I have yet to play through all of the missions — there are literally dozens upon dozens included — but there are some that require your attention and unit managing abilities much more than others, so having a streamlined UI helps. Having eighteen slots to peruse through speeds things up nicely, and being able to stop/start builds to adjust your queuing to match what you need on the battlefield right now is smart and convenient.
Speaking of missions, no doubt one of the coolest things about this Remaster for me is the inclusion of the Spec Ops missions from the N64/PSX console versions. These missions have also been fully remastered and their FMVs also updated, and they’re available from the Mission Select screen. Two secret unlockable missions are included too involving ants and dinosaurs, but I haven’t tried those yet — I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the original missions, actually starting with Red Alert since its story predates the great GDI/NOD conflict. Of note, I love how some missions, which have variants, now allow you to play the other variants instead of having to restart the campaign like you used to would have to do many years ago.
So much more than just graphics and gameplay have been poured into this Remaster, further making it very obvious that this was a task that was about passion more than it was about a paycheck. Over seven hours of remastered and new songs from Klepacki are included, the actress for EVA re-recorded her lines, over four hours of previously unreleased bonus video and b-roll, multiplayer support, observer and replay modes, a map editor, and Steam Workshops support — this is a total package of C&C goodness. The only gripes you could make about it are just elements of the original games that are part of their very fabric — to change them would have shifted this from a remaster to something hybrid, and that was neither the goal nor the desire of the community. Minor AI and control gripes aside, all of which are simply a testament to the times and absolutely manageable to work with, this Remaster is a gem and I really hope it’s just a sign of things to come as more C&C games get remastered with this level of passion, community involvement, skill, and heart.
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