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Command & Conquer 4

Hermiod

Admiral
Admiral
Oh dear. This game has problems.

First, there's very little base building and no resource collection.

You get your MCV (or "Crawler" if you're playing as Nod). This can be deployed anywhere within a designated area of the map. You choose between Offence, Defence and Support with different sets of units for each.

Choosing Offence limits you to just ground based vehicles. These tend to be the most powerful units in the game, though.

Defence gives you a mixture of infantry and ground vehicles, and the ability to construct base defences - oh, and only Defence players get Superweapons.

Support gives you mainly aircraft with a few vehicles thrown in. You also get a wide range of support powers as well.

The size of your armed force is limited by your "command points". I might be missing something but I never found a way to increase them beyond the limit provided at the start of each mission. This leaves you with a tiny force but no worries about paying for it.

It also means that you just park your MCV/Crawler near an enemy base and then it becomes a simple matter of who can destroy the other side's forces the fastest. Having a few Engineers, whose function is largely reduced to repairing your units and capturing the husks of enemy vehicles, is vital.

Now the problems begin. You unlock new vehicles, structures, support powers, upgrades etc by improving your rank. Problem is that if you haven't gotten your rank high enough, higher level units that you need to win are still denied to you in the single player game. So you'll have to churn through multiplayer or skirmish games to get that rank up - and that rank is separate for GDI and Nod.

The final Nod mission, without giving too much away, is utterly impossible unless you're up to a Level 12 (which is where the Nod Support Basilisk unit becomes available) - which just won't happen if you only player the campaign mode.

Skirmish and Multiplayer games are no longer "wipe out the enemy" affairs. They are more akin to Battlefield games. There are control points in various places on the map. You have to fight for control of them, with your score going up faster the more you control. It's basically first to 25000 wins. Even if your MCV is destroyed you can respawn.

The single player game has made me so cynical that I've started playing 3 vs 1 skirmish mode games (in my favour) to easily get my rank up.

The cutscenes are very basic. Tim de Zarn (a frequent Star Trek guest actor) is about the only recognisable face other than Kane. Gone are the old days of C&C3 or Red Alert 3 - this is more like C&C1 or Generals.

I'm very sad to say that this is by far the worst game in the series. :(
 
Pretty pathetic considering it's supposed to be the Tiberium Saga's swan song :( Oh well, I've been with the franchise from the very beginning, I will be there for its death
 
Sounds like I was right about waiting to buy C&C4 until it's in the $20 bargain bin, then.
 
Oh dear. This game has problems.

...

I'm very sad to say that this is by far the worst game in the series. :(

From your description, I'm inclined to agree. It's not likely that I'm going to pick this up... hell, I haven't even gotten C&C3 or RA3 yet and they're not on my list to buy. I'll stick with the first two games in each series (and I do have Generals, but I never really got into that one either).
 
They looked at Relic and decided to copy what they did with CoH and Dawn of War. Pretty much every RTS is going that way except Starcraft 2... and that's because only super nerds play Starcraft and expect it to remain relatively the same as the original.

I'm more disappointed that the cutscenes are apparently crap. Given how they went full camp for Red Alert 3, to tone it down for the final game seems kind of sad.

On a side note, it's also a final game in terms of the fact that EA is letting a lot of the EALA staff go... in a way, it's like Ensemble Studios closing down after Halo Wars launched. Oh well.
 
^^^ It's too bad that Relic has basically buried Company of Heroes since it's last not really and expansion type expansion. I've got many an hour dropped into that game, both as Allies and Axis depending on my mood.
 
The cutscenes pretty much all take place on the same set, for both GDI and Nod, one that looks a lot like the old Daedalus/Odyssey set from Stargate.

There's one brief scene in the ending that isn't shot on a set at all and looks completely out of place.
 
^ Jesus, it just gets worse. You'd think EA would pull out all the stops for the final core C&C game, instead it sounds like they just didn't give a fuck and rushed a half-assed piece of shit into production. Why change the formula so radically for a core C&C game, couldn't they wait to get back to Generals 2?

Good thing there's StarCraft II to look forward to this year, at least.
 
Hey, remember last time when we got Josh Holloway, Tricia Helfer, Michael Ironside, Billy Dee Williams, Grace Park and Jennifer Morrison ?

This time we get the woman who voiced Storm in the old X-Men cartoon.
 
I have experienced this twice now myself.

First time the game refused to start at all, the second it stopped in the middle of a mission and told me my progress would not be saved.
 
That's disappointing... I was looking forward to this game. How does unit building work since there's no resource collection?
 
That's disappointing... I was looking forward to this game. How does unit building work since there's no resource collection?

Your MCV/Crawler also acts as your War Factory, Barracks, Hand of Nod, Airbase etc etc etc all in one.

You have a set number of "command points". Each unit costs a number of these. If a unit is destroyed or you decommission it, then you get those command points back. The number is absurdly small. You'll probably get about 10 of your side and classes' ordinary tanks. This means that as long as you or the enemy has a crawler, you will be able to build new units.

Defence players also have a limit amount of power to build static base defences. If your crawler is destroyed or if you decommission it to switch to Offence or Support then these defences lose power - so no building a load of defences and then switching.

In order to build Tier II and Tier III units, you need upgrade points which you get by collecting the different coloured Tiberium Crystals dotted around the map. Some (the red ones) can be cashed in then and there, others need to be brought back to your base.

As a result of this whole system, it's impossible to build an overwhelmingly large army. Tank rushes are completely ineffective.
 
That's disappointing... I was looking forward to this game. How does unit building work since there's no resource collection?

Your MCV/Crawler also acts as your War Factory, Barracks, Hand of Nod, Airbase etc etc etc all in one.

You have a set number of "command points". Each unit costs a number of these. If a unit is destroyed or you decommission it, then you get those command points back. The number is absurdly small. You'll probably get about 10 of your side and classes' ordinary tanks. This means that as long as you or the enemy has a crawler, you will be able to build new units.

Defence players also have a limit amount of power to build static base defences. If your crawler is destroyed or if you decommission it to switch to Offence or Support then these defences lose power - so no building a load of defences and then switching.

In order to build Tier II and Tier III units, you need upgrade points which you get by collecting the different coloured Tiberium Crystals dotted around the map. Some (the red ones) can be cashed in then and there, others need to be brought back to your base.

As a result of this whole system, it's impossible to build an overwhelmingly large army. Tank rushes are completely ineffective.

Thats the bit i loved about all the previous C&C games, being a very slow player i could take my time, build up my fortifications and my base, then unleash hell.

Its a shame its went all Dawn of war, not a game style i like personally, so no C&C 4 for me.:(

But the good news is no DRM issues.:lol:
 
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No economy at all?

I've played one other game that didn't have an economy: Earth 2160. In that one, you just accumulate resources at a fixed rate over time. It was boring.
 
^The only resource collection you can do is send units to collect the green and blue Tiberium crystals and bring them back to the base to turn them in to upgrade points.
 
Huh. I would be willing to give it a shot, if it weren't for one thing: the bloody DRM. The way the game is set up sounds slightly intriguing, and I have all of the other C&C's. But I don't want to support something as stupid as requiring a permanant internet connection. How that even seems like a good plan is beyond me.
 
Does this form of DRM extend to even the steam version?

As far as I know, yes. It uses a constant online progression system that tracks you across campaign, skirmish and multiplayer modes.

Finally completed the Nod campaign today.

The answer finally became clear - Basilisk spam. Respawn as Support and get whatever upgrades you need to unlock Tier III units. Then build nothing but Basilisks and send them after the Bomber.
 
Does this form of DRM extend to even the steam version?

As far as I know, yes. It uses a constant online progression system that tracks you across campaign, skirmish and multiplayer modes.

Finally completed the Nod campaign today.

The answer finally became clear - Basilisk spam. Respawn as Support and get whatever upgrades you need to unlock Tier III units. Then build nothing but Basilisks and send them after the Bomber.

cc4 is out?
 
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