PC Review Reviews Gaming Command and Conquer: The First Decade


Sublime games are plentiful. Push past the move licensed titles, the generic action title starring a buxom blonde, or a toned Aryan gentleman, and there’s a wealth of gaming delights to be discovered. But equally as impressive series are all the more rare. Sure there are a few dotted around each genre, the Football Manager, Civilization, and Age of Empires titles for example, but how often has a promising start ended with a sequel that severely lets down what the original promised us? But with the Command and Conquer series, EA seemed to only improve as time progressed.


It was way back in 1995 that we first bore witness to this sublime Real time strategy series. Seeing thinks from a vantage point high above the game map, you built up your base, and created units as you saw fit, all the time keeping an eye out for those sneaky opponents of yours. In fact, the first title brought the odd concept of being able to play through a story mode from both sides. Giving you control over both the GDI forces (the goodies) and the NOD units (the bad guys).

Unfortunately for the first titles at least, time most certainly has not been kind. Aesthetically thinks look an age behind what we expect nowadays, even generations behind the likes of the latter C&C games. Thankfully those good old story sequences played between missions by ‘professional actors’ remain fully intact however, which no matter how many times you witness them, they never grow old.


Instead of bogging you down in reams of stats and various other figures as was the trend at that time, the Command and Conquer ethic was to offer pure unbridled fun. Though ore needed to be mined in order for units and buildings to be created, it was always plentiful, allowing you to obtain a mass of units in double quick time. Though this little fact did bring the tradition of ‘tank rushes’ to the forefront of our minds. In multiplayer action in particular, it was relatively easy to quickly knock up a mass of units as quickly as possible, and simply overcome your opponent simply by how quick your fingers were at clicking to create the next unit.