Command & Conquer: Renegade

Author : Martin Date : 25th February 2002

...Product	Command & Conquer: Renegade
...Manufacturer	Westwood
...Supplier	Westwood
...Price	TBC

 

 

 

It started with a Construction yard and a few $'s. Your aim was to build your base, your army and work on your strategy while trying to improve your defences and fight against the enemy all at the same time. The tides have now changed. You are now part of that army. Your base is already built. The battlefield is set. Get your gear loaded and start the havoc called Command & Conquer: Renegade.

Command & Conquer's History
1995
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn
Westwood released the game to revolutionise the RTS field, based on the Dune/DuneII engine. Set in the future, you either chose the Global Defence Initiative (GDI) who fought for peace across Europe, or the dreaded Brotherhood of NOD who let nothing weak stand in their way.
What made Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn stand out from the rest of the crowd was the advanced artificial intelligence (AI), that learnt your skills and weaknesses, which kept you on your toes and challenged even the expert gamer! No game was the same!

1996
Command & Conquer:The Covert Operations
Command & Conquer's official Expansion pack. New weapons, maps and operations to complete, some near impossible! The Covert Operations also included a hidden Campaign, which took you to a dinosaur island, which merged GDI's and NOD's technology to create a superior team.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Set in the past, Red Alert takes you away from NOD and GDI and sets you up with either the Soviets or the Allies. With the same concept as the Original C&C, the addictiveness factor increased. You were now using old technology and it was down to you to either keep history how you remembered it, or to change it for the worst. The further on you got in the game, the more links with Tiberian Dawn were revealed

1997
Command & Conquer: Gold
The original DOS C&C had a revamp. Now running on the improved RA engine, graphics and resolution had improved, but with the classic levels and game play of the original.

Red Alert: Counterstrike
The 1st official Expansion pack for Red Alert. Included new and improved technology, levels and operations.

Red Alert: The Aftermath
The 2nd and final Expansion pack for Red Alert
Adding more toys and life in to the famous and now rated best RTS

1998
Command & Conquer: Retaliation
Only available for the Sony Playstation, this was a mini-sequel to Red Alert. As Playstation is a console, add-ons were unusual so this took its place. New levels and vehicles never before seen on another platform

1999
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
The wait is over. A brand new engine, with amazing resolutions. Based further in the future then the original C&C, the story unveils on what really happened to the Brotherhood after the last war, and for the majority, the investigation into the mysterious Tiberian.

2000
Command & Conquer: FireStorm
Tiberian Sun's Expansion pack. Would be better described as the next chapter to Tiberian Sun. Its up to you, as either GDI or NOD, to defeat NOD's malfunctioned computer system, Cabal. Includes a new Cyborg team, controlled by Cabal. Brand new units and AI make this the most challenging yet.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Red Alert's Sequel. The GUI has had a facelift. Although based on the Tiberian Sun engine, you are now given you more control by placing the different buildings/men/vehicles under different headings on your command bar. More interaction with the surrounding buildings, including barricading buildings for extra defence.

2001
Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge
The Evil telepathic Yuri, from Red Alert 2, has let the power go to his head. Defeat Yuri and his mind controlled army, or become part of his will-free army if you fail.

2002
Command & Conquer: Renegade

 

About Renegade Multiplayer Demo

The Multiplayer side of Renegade is all that is available at the moment (unless you are a beta tester of course, which I didn't succeed on), and what an experience it is! Command & Conquer: Renegade takes you away from the usual RTS style that we have all grown to love. This time, you are holding the gun and fighting on the terrain yourself a la Quake/Unreal.
You start off as a basic infantry in one of your team's buildings. The buildings consist of small control panels or large Visual Displays. From what I could work out, the control panels don't do anything, although whether they do in the single player or in another style of Online mode is still uncertain.

The large screens are your focal point to what ammo, vehicles or special weapons you want. Still on the Original C&C: Tiberian Dawn style, you can only buy 1 item from each group at a time. All the Tiberian Dawn units, vehicles and weapons are at your disposal, including the Nuclear Bomb and the Ion Cannon with a few new ones too! The unit training is slightly different to the RTS though, as you are the unit. When you select say an engineer, your gun changes to a repair gun and you are then transformed into an Engineer! This is practically instant (if you have the credits of course!)

The one thing that you notice instantly is the lack of building structures. Whether it will stay this way or you will get the choice to construct buildings is still unknown, although I don't know how you would be able to place the buildings (unless the computer done this for you). I can see this as being a downside to Renegade. Once a building has been destroyed, your future for survival could be looking gloomy (especially if it is an important one like War Factory)

In the demo, the two teams have their bases in large caves. Your knowledge of C&C defence is a must to even get into the enemy base!! They have kept very close to the original RTS so you actually feel like you are in the RTS game! I won't give any secrets out, but play a little to see where the weaknesses are if you don't already know them.

I was worried about the vehicles on Renegade before I played the game. I wasn't too sure how you would be able to aim and drive it without having problems. I was happily surprised at the controls though. You steer the vehicle with your keyboard, and aim with your mouse. A perfect combination. The steering could have been better though and maybe the camera angle too, as you cant always see the sheer drop next to you!! You mustn't think of the wheels while steering however. For example you would usually steer left if you wanted to reverse to the right, not here. You have to reverse while pressing right which can become a little frustrating, especially when you want to escape or flatten your victims quickly!! Also dont worry about your Harvester too much! It rebuilds one automatically for you, again as long as you have the credits!!

The gameplay of Renegade seems a little slow to what is available today. When your unit is running, it seems like he is actually walking! Sometimes it's near impossible to get out of the way of the enemies fire. Maybe I'm thinking too much about the playability of Quake/Unreal, but if I think this…wouldn't everyone?

Renegade's graphics aren't jaw dropping compared to today's FPS, but that didn't seem to matter. The magic of being involved in the C&C world seemed to make everything alright! Although maybe some texture compression (as shown on Westwood's screenshots) would have been nice to show off what was to come.

When it comes down to gameplay, you only have to say C&C and you know how addictive this is. Although its only one level, you are always drawn back for more.

The version that I played on was buggy on the internet, with everything jumping around the screen but a new patch has been released which apparently solves this problem. Playing it on the LAN though was perfect! There were no bugs at all. This is how I expect to see the final game.

With the bugs, it did make me worry with the release date timer counting down on their site. I was and still am expecting a release date fall back. If Westwood keep to their trusty way of having a brilliant game, which works on launch, then I have no worries!

Certainly one to keep your eye on!

Martin

 

 

 

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