Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (PC DVD)

It is always sad when a great historic game franchise comes to the end of its road. But it is depressingly sad to watch it do so in this condition.

KANE IN DISNEYLAND?
The graphics are laughable. True, EA has been steering the C&C franchise towards the ...cartoon direction ever since the RED ALERT 3 installment. But the RED ALERT series had always been more playful. Even so, what was barely palatable for a RED ALERT game is outright insulting for a TIBERIUM one.
If his tanks could still run-over infantry units, have no doubt, he would hunt down whoever did this to him.
Because, you cannot mock Kane and avoid having your lungs infused with Tiberium fumes!

MORE UNITS? PLEASE WAIT BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE. FOREVER.
One of the most annoying features of the new C&C4 is the units cap. You cannot produce more units above a (very low) number. Upgrading your tech-tree with such a unit cap in place means you have to kill and replace most of your units - and make painful decisions as some units are more equal than others. It feels like having to deal with a (small) Diablo-like inventory: whatever does not fit within the grid must be left behind to rot.
And to add insult to injury, extra units are bestowed with a dropper. A tiny one.
This cap reeks of one thing: an attempt to turn this series into a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (fewer units means less lag). And no one seems to care that this took away one of the most fun tactics in a C&C game: tank rushing.

SORRY, ALL OF OUR TIBERIUM-HARVESTERS HAVE BEEN RECALLED. WOULD YOU CARE FOR A SENSIBLE COMPACT?
A COMMAND & CONQUER game without harvesting? It could be an RTS game of any name (and there have been baseless RTS games before), why did it have to be a C&C game? Because, once again, EA proves to have no respect for this beautiful art-form. If it means exploiting a classic title in its swan song to sell a few more units, so be it.
Moreover, game publishers seem to have an ever declining expectation of their targeted customer IQ. Hence the ever simplified games released. So, yes, this feels like C&C-for-Dummies.

BATTLEFIELD CONTROLS OFFLINE? YOU'RE SCREWED COMMANDER!
Yes, this must be the most inconvenient DRM scheme ever.
If you hate STEAM for requiring endless updates, this is worse.
If you hate games that require online activation because they never actually become yours, yes, this is worse.
And if you hate games that come with Limited Activations and become worthless the moment you pop the box, well yes, this is worse.
This inconceivable scheme demands for the owner of this game to always be online to verify that the copy he payed for is legitimate. That's right, not just activation, ALWAYS ONLINE. Yes, even for a single player game.
Will it deter piracy? No, pirates will be playing the game without all those DRM hassles. Legitimate gamers are left complaining - and, once more, EA will turn a deaf ear.

All in all, C&C4 will not appeal neither to old friends of the series nor younger gamers. And (for as long as it will keep working), it will have you jumping through hoops for the privilege of having ...bought it. And I thought it was the other way around.

This Tiberium field is long depleted.
Move along Commanders.

If you've never returned a game before, this product will show you there's a first time for everything.

I want to talk about the actual game instead of the ridiculous DRM software I'm sure you've all heard about. However, there are many people who do not realise the following:

The DRM in this game does not prevent piracy, not in the slightest, it is important you understand this. Even though the game requires a constant Internet connection so as to send and receive game information during play, this can be emulated by an advanced programmer so that the game can run offline. What this means is that the game can be cracked by pirates (it already has been), allowing illegal downloaders to play the game offline.

Thus you have a pirated product which in some aspects is actually better than the original...

This is exactly what has happened. If DRM actually prevented piracy it would be well worth implementing, for some reason Electronic Arts don't seem to understand this isn't the case and so the only customers it punishes are those who share the discs with friends, hardly a target worth stopping. If anything it rewards pirates.

I repeat, DRM does not prevent piracy. It makes it "slightly" harder for a pirate to crack the game, but this only needs to be done once and so doesn't really achieve anything.

Now for the game itself...

Change is not always a bad thing, it can be very refreshing when old aspects get tedious. The problem? I have built bases hundreds of times, not once have I found it tedious. Resource gathering was always a major part in the tactical game play, I thought the game was about the spread of tiberium?

But no lets throw all of that out the window, it will save a lot of money. Is that enough? Nah, let's put in a unit cap so it doesn't trouble our servers too much.

Why end there? Let's film a scene with a white background and put in a portal looking like it was drawn in MS Paint.

We could think up a decent ending that ties everything together and ends the saga... OR, we could just make up some love story, forget a few plot lines from the previous games and end the whole thing without really revealing anything, no one's going to notice.

And so this is exactly what it feels like, a saga they couldn't be bothered to finish so they just came up with a quick "cash in" product to milk customers who are always going to pay to see how it ends.

If you're thinking about getting the game just to see how everything turns out I'd really advise you to just watch it on youtube. I feel incredibly sorry for anyone who played through the game just to see "that". It's pathetic, it was the one aspect to redeem the game and they completely screwed it.

If my boss came up to me and told me they're closing my project to move on to something else, all they want is a quick sellable product to end the series, I literally would make Tiberium Twilight. I would throw out base building and resource gathering to dramatically reduce development time and costs, selling it as some new tactical approach so it looks as if I did it to enhance the game. I wouldn't even bother ending the story properly, I'd just leave a lot unexplained. That's creative right? Leaving the player to fill in the loose ends themselves? At the end of the day the company is moving on, let's just spit this out and see if we can make any money for it.

EA have achieved this, hats off to them.

Having complained to Amazon about reviewing not being permitted for this game, they now seem to have enabled it. Sadly that was after I took a chance and purchased this game.

Prior to purchase I begrudgingly accepted the DRM and trivial requirement of the game to always be connected to the internet. Many people here have already detailed this so I'll leave it at that. These features were annoyances but not deal breakers.

The changes made to the gameplay that made Command and Conquer a ground-breaking and hugely successful series are however unforgivable!

As someone who loved the early Westwood Studios games, and was pleasantly surprised when EA actually managed to create a good sequel in Command & Conquer 3, I cannot understand why they would suddenly choose to rip the heart out of the tried and tested formula, leaving us with a pitiful excuse for a RTS.

As a result of removing resource gathering and base building, and instead replacing it with a respawning mobile base and a pathetically low unit cap, any element of strategy (and fun) has been completely removed from the game. Throw in a new and subpar interface and the results are dismaying. I gave it a chance, but I couldn't find any enjoyment at all. This has to be the worst RTS I have ever seen.

Loyal fans, who may be tempted to see how the story closes will also be disappointed. The cut scenes are hardly engaging; many of the characters are completely annoying and even Kane fails to come across as his usual enigmatic self. It's weak stuff.

This is what I feared would happen to the series when EA took it over. It once again proves that they don't care about and are completely out of touch with their customers. This feels like a rushed and lazy game. Following this I have vowed never to buy a game that emerges out of their sadly massive operation ever again.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!