Tiberium Wars vs. Red Alert 3

Tiberium Wars is easily my favourite of the GDI/NOD series. Set during the Third Tiberium War, NOD has risen from the ashes once again under the leadership of Kane. The game features two fairly substantial campaigns, each with a decent variety of mission types, units, maps and objectives. It also features a new, third faction in the form of the alien Scrin, with their own small bonus campaign.

In terms of story, Tiberium Wars and its expansion – Kane’s Wrath – continues narrative threads introduced in Tiberian Sun relating to an alien artefact known as the Tacitus. The two campaigns of the core game play out in parallel, each offering their own unique perspective of the conflict. The expansion, however, is told entirely from a NOD perspective and covers events prior to the war, during the war, and a couple of missions set post-war that presumably set up the last Command & Conquer game – Tiberian Twilight.

Campaign quality is high in both the core game and expansion. Many missions feature optional objectives and ‘intel’ to discover that unlocks neat little pieces of information relating to the game world. Unit balance, overall, is pretty good, and multi-unit/role squads are a required necessity far more than the previous GDI/NOD titles.

Though not offering quite so much tactical flexibility as Red Alert 2 – or even Red Alert 3, in some respects – Tiberium Wars still provides an engaging and enjoyable RTS experience. It’s easily the most solid, fun and consistent of the GDI/NOD games.

Its expansion also introduces a new mode to the series in the form of Global Conquest, which is a very Total War style turn based campaign mode. The three factions – NOD, GDI and Scrin – compete for control of a 2D world map. Each turn allows you to construct forces to expand your territory or strike at your foes. Battles can be auto-resolved or fought in real time on a selection of skirmish maps.

It sounds like a neat addition, but the execution isn’t very good. The turn based campaign aspect is extremely basic in terms of mechanics, but needlessly convoluted in terms of UI and function. It’s just not very fun or rewarding to play and you’re honestly better off just playing regular skirmish games.

Overall, Tiberium Wars and Kane’s Wrath represent the best of the GDI/NOD series, at least in my opinion. But I’ve never played Tiberian Twilight – although from what I’ve heard about it, I doubt it will change my mind.

The story of Red Alert 3 dials the camp to 11. If you didn’t think it could get any sillier than RA2 – you were wrong. Once again, time travel shenanigans have given rise to a new reality and a new conflict between the Allies and the Soviets. But it’s also created a new, third faction – the Empire of the Rising Sun.

Each faction features its own unique unit roster and building chain, but also unique faction ‘powers’ and construction mechanics. Every unit now has an alternative mode or function. Old favourites make a welcome return alongside a healthy range of new units. Each faction really does feel different to play and in this respect, you could argue the game has more faction and unit variety than RA2.

Despite this, I can’t help but feel that RA3 is the weakest of the Red Alert series. In order to incorporate the new third faction, all of the campaigns have been reduced in size. There are only nine missions per campaign, the majority of which are disappointing in terms of length and complexity.

And because there’s so few missions per faction, you never really have time to get stuck into your chosen faction and enjoy or explore their various mechanics. The story also suffers, as it attempts to squeeze a three faction conflict (and internal faction conflict) into a very limited campaign.

But it’s not the somewhat mediocre quality of the missions that really bothers me – it’s the new addition of the ‘co-commander’. Every mission can be played in co-op with either a friend or an AI commander. It’s an interesting mechanic in theory, but poorly executed.

The maps, overall, aren’t large enough to accommodate a second player. For example, you’ll frequently find yourself racing against your ‘ally’ to secure resource nodes. You’ll also, on occasion, find yourself building your bases practically on top of one another – and if you’re playing with an AI partner, they’ll have zero regard for good building etiquette.

There’s no symmetry. There’s no careful thought to building placement. They just drop them down all over the place, sometimes around your own structures completely ruining your perfectly planned base design. It’s infuriating.

Your AI companion can be given rudimentary orders but on the whole, they do as they please. If you want to slow things down, take your time and plan your attack then think again – the AI is very eager to push ahead regardless of your strategy. You end up getting dragged into chaotic fights initiated by your AI partner.

At least, when they decide to help that is. On one map my AI companion spent the entire game building a fleet of submarines despite me already destroying the enemy naval forces. They must have had about 40 of them, and they filled the ocean part of the map so densely none of them could even move.

If you hadn’t already guessed, I kind of hate the co-commander system. It very nearly ruined the campaign for me. Fortunately, not all missions suffer for it, but it’s an annoying addition and completely unnecessary. It makes the game feel messy to play and I really didn’t like it.

If I was to score the base game alone, I’d probably rate RA3 at 6/10. Despite my gripes, it’s still enjoyable to play and the Empire is a welcome new addition – although it does seem to be at the cost of the Allied forces which feel rather dull in comparison.

That said, RA3 also features an excellent expansion – Uprising. It is, in many ways, far superior to the core game and far more enjoyable. It completely removes the co-commander mechanic. Its missions are larger, more elaborate affairs.

In addition to the three faction campaigns it also features a fun little ‘hero’ campaign, as well as a neat twist on Skirmish in the form of the commander ‘challenge’ mode. I had more fun with and put more time into Uprising than the base game. The only negative aspect is that there’s only a handful of campaign missions – 4 for Soviets, 3 for Allies and Empire.

Visually, RA3 is a clean and vibrant title. The sound and music is great. It may be the weakest title in the RA series but when combined with the Uprising expansion, it’s still worth your time.

So where do we go from here? There’s a Command & Conquer 4 – which I’ve never played – but no Red Alert 4. I might review C&4 separately, or I might put it head to head against Generals.

FINAL SCORE

Tiberium Wars – 7/10

Red Alert 3 – 7/10