games: Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s wrath

On the menu today we have Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath on the 360 on the menu. Now it’s always interesting to see how sprawling strategy games cross over from PC, so lets take a look at how this fares.

Probably the most important thing for RTS games on console is the control system, and while you can’t beat mouse and keyboard for precise control in this sort of game, I have to say Kane’s Wrath does a very good job at re-imagining things for joypad, and is probably one of the best for console RTS.

It puts menus of options on radial dials that you can access by pulling the right trigger. If you have a unit or building selected you will get that specific menu, or if nothing is selected you will get a top menu from which you can access everything else.

It’s a pretty straightforward system and easy to use quickly in the heat of battle once you get used to where everything is. Moving the cursor around is a bit more cumbersome though. It’s not bad, but it just doesn’t match the way that you can intuitively blend speed and precision with a mouse.

The campaign is quite fun, with 13 missions around 3 separate linear plots ranging over the Command & Conquer cannon, which come together to tell facets of Kane’s story, and leave you with a bit of a cliffhanger about what will happen beyond C&C 3. Gameplay is all fairly standard C&C stuff, apparantely following the adage, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but you do get to play as Nod for the whole campaign.

As well as the campaign there is Kane’s Challenge, which is a gauntlet mode where you can pick any of the 9 sub factions, to play through a series of AI skirmishes. It’s ok, but not particularly inspiring, particularly as it has replaced the fantastic ‘Global Conquest’ mode of the PC version, which being turn based, offered a completely different type of game.

Skirmish mode should have some serious advantages on the 360 as Xbox Live is a much more robust system for online play than EA Online, but there have been a lot of problems with things like connecting to the servers reported in forums, and these are still being reported, so if that’s your main reason for wanting this game, make sure you keep your eye on the web for updates about bugs and patches.

The 3 factions GDI, Brotherhood of Nod and the Scrin, are supplemented in Kane’s Wrath by two sub-factions for each, so you can choose from 9 in total. Each of these sub-factions has unique units, powers and upgrades, and if you know your RTS will give you a range of quite subtle strategic variations. There’s also a new epic unit for each main faction.

In terms of graphics, it isn’t going to look as good as it does on a good gaming PC, but it still looks nice, and you have the advantage of being able to play on a nice large TV.

It’s also important to note that while Kane’s Wrath was an expansion on the PC, it is a standalone game on the 360. Now obviously if you’re new to the series or new to it on console, it’s great that you only need to buy one disc, but do be aware that it will still feel like an expansion.

In conclusion, if you have a choice between the two, you are better off with the PC version, not least because of the Global Conquest mode. But if you are a strictly 360 gamer looking for some well implemented RTS you could do a lot worse than Kane’s Wrath. 3 stars.

For the best of the rest:

Game Spot:
If you’re a fan of the Command & Conquer series, three small words are bound to get you excited: Kane is back. Indeed, so are a good number of beloved series hallmarks, like a huge amount of full-motion video and intense strategic combat. But Tiberium Wars is a lot more than just lip service to franchise enthusiasts, and you don’t need the rose-hued glasses of nostalgia to appreciate its polish and intensity. It’s simply a superb game that’s fun and exciting to play both online and off.

IGN:
EA LA stuck to C&C’s roots in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, almost to a fault. While there are new features and tweaks to increase the pace of play, the core fundamentals remain strikingly similar to previous games in the C&C Tiberium series. Players looking for something new in their RTS aren’t going to find it here, but they will find plenty of fun. The tempo has been given a jump start but this is basically the same RTS we’ve been playing for years and years, which will undoubtedly please throngs of fans. This time around it’s just more polished and presented in its most beautiful package to date.

Euro Gamer:
Watching Sin City last year, I spent the first twenty minutes or so picking it apart in my head, worrying about how hollow it all felt, how nothingy a piece of film-making it was. And then a man torpedoed himself feet-first through the windshield of a moving car, and I had a moment of total clarity. I’m not supposed to take this remotely seriously, and I really, really shouldn’t be thinking about it. This is purely hedonism. So, I just decided to go with it, and from thereon in a certain part of my mind was perfectly happy. The same happened with C&C3; the first few levels didn’t make me feel anything. It was just there, the campy cut-scenes came and went, I was told exactly what to kill and where, and I kept feeling somewhat unsatisfied. I have done all this so very many times before, and a reasonably pretty 3D engine does nothing to change that.