(this is all based off the demo and logical assumptions. All of which are subject to change in the actual game)
I can’t say I’m horribly disappointed. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the latest C&C, especially after Generals was just mediocre and C&C2 was such a joke. But damn me if I wasn’t hoping for more.
As my good friend Squeaky describes it, “the game is more about action and blowing shit up than ’strategy’”. Now, for him, that’s not a bad thing. For me, that’s a horrible thing. It’s a got damn Real Time Strategy game, not a FPS or some other thing where blowing up stuff is the point of the damn game. There is supposed to be strategy involved, not just building tanks as fast as possible and rushing them. As I was playing the demo and built up some medium tanks and they got pwned by some infantry, I was pretty impressed. I thought, “Wow, they actually added in some rock paper scissors action.” then I upgraded my tanks to have rail guns…nevermind. It completely removes the need to have any infantry, except maybe a few here and there at your base. And yet, there are about 6 or 7 different kinds of infantry you can build…Thanks for all the useless units guys!
And just coming from SupCom where defenses matter a lot, the sillyness of these defenses is horrible. They are worse than useless. And buildings…dear god man. They die in about three seconds to two or three tanks. Which means serious base rapeage. Sweet! Oh wait.
And a now special comment about the level of zoom being locked to the height a three year old can jump…wtf? Sure, your game must slow way down on zooming out what with all of the special effects, but man, they aren’t that great so as to limit me to seeing so little at once. I’m going to let the size of the maps go at this point, assuming they are just a demo thing (if not, you’ll find me gunning for you, because they are damn small).
Overall I’m anything but impressed. Yeah, some of the grahpical effects are cool and the explosions are somewhat fun, but for my money, RTSes aren’t about supar special effects, but about actual gameplay. And there? C&C3 fell down hard.
What Would Matt Do: Try to educate EA about what Strategy means. Or maybe just call C&C3 an RT, skip the S all together.
One Comment
While I have only gotten through the tutorial and the ‘prologue’ for GDI I share your impressions for the most part. Coming off of the RTS high that is Company of Heroes and the brain exhausting high-strategy that is SupCom (good thing) C&C3 feels very backwards.
The ceiling, lack of noticeable strategy, and how incredibly difficult it is to see and keep track of your units is very unpleasant to see this far along in the games development.
Everything I’ve seen so far has been trumped to the nth degree by one of my favorite action-RTS games, Ground Control II. GCII had incredible combat depth: elevation bonuses, Line of Sight, meaningful garrisons, fantastic unit combinations and worthwhile abilities. Oh, and the camera had a very impressive zoom on it as well. That game didn’t get the fame it should have.