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By Lachlan (20th May 2008)

The world is a ruined, bombed-out wasteland, with the scraps being fought over by militant religious extremists and a dogmatic, militaristic world power. Our choice of fuel, with which to power our modern lifestyles, has spelled the doom of our world, and raised the prospect of invasion. A madman in a cave issues apocalyptic proclamations to his followers, further heightening world tension. I’m so glad that I have videogames to offer some kind of escape from reality.

Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath is the latest release from Westwood’s series of real-time strategy games, a franchise which should be instantly familiar to just about anybody who has played a video game in the last decade or so. While this well-known lineup of titles used to be notable for their stellar game play, innovative mechanics and fantastic B-movie cut scenes, the last few releases have seen the franchise fade away to a fraction of its former glory. While still dependable and well-made, does the series really have anything new to offer?

The first game in the Command and Conquer series appeared in 1995, a veritable lifetime ago in the world of computer gaming. With a wide selection of units, some amazingly well-developed background fluff, and an array of attention-grabbing and memorable cut scenes, Command and Conquer was a huge critical and commercial success. While the even-earlier Dune II was the first game to popularise and define the real time strategy genre, Command and Conquer was an involving, exciting experience. While it hasn’t aged as well as, say, Monkey Island or Doom, Command and Conquer was the pinnacle of cinematic strategic gaming when it first appeared.

As the latest full game in the series, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars dropped with considerable fanfare a year ago, and while the updated graphics, classic user-interface and epic sci-fi storyline were for the most part well-received, there was always the feeling that the game wasn’t doing anything new. There were a few tweaks here and there, along with a newly introduced faction of creepy aliens, but for the most part, it was the same tired ground that gamers had been trekking through for more than a decade.

Expansion packs can be a risky proposition. While there has been some notable exceptions, most add-ons that aren’t designed to be stand-alone have an audience limited to those who just couldn’t get enough of the original game. Given the smaller audience, developers seem loath to introduce any new ideas or deal out any shocking plot twists, perhaps saving their best material for the next full-priced installment.

Kane’s Wrath picks up from the point that the ending of Tiberian Sun left us at, just prior to the events of Command and Conquer 3. For a story-driven series like Command and Conquer, Kane’s Wrath offers very little in the way of real plot advancement. The story skips around, beginning with events that occurred prior to Tiberium Wars, to events that have occurred concurrently in the series, filling in a few plot holes and further establishing the back story of the game’s three factions, before finally offering a few hints at what the future holds. In a departure from the rest of the series, the entire set of campaign missions are played from the perspective of just one faction, the evil fundamentalist Brotherhood of Nod.

The campaign difficulty level has been ramped up considerably for this expansion. Although the original game had a few levels that were no picnic, the Nod missions in Kane’s Wrath require concentration, and a knowledge of each unit’s strengths and weaknesses in order for victory to be achieved.

The addition of “sub-factions” for each of the three previously established sides were touted as a major selling point for this expansion. Overall, they’re a little underwhelming, offering just a handful of new units, a lot of which are just slight modifications of existing units. Their existence ties into the overall story nicely, but they just don’t add that much to the core game. I understand that there are game balance issues to consider, but if Relic are capable of adding new and unique armies to the Company of Heroes or Dawn of War series with every new release,

Kane’s Wrath also comes with a new skirmish game setup, in the form of the Risk-style “Global Conquest” mode. This is a turn-based mode similar to what we’ve seen before in the Total War series, or the more recent Universe at War. Battles between opposing forces are conducted in real-time, and are geared towards quick resolution. The skirmish maps are kept small, fog of war is lifted after a certain point, and stealth units lose their ability to hide a short period after that. Overall, it’s a fun distraction for a little while, but isn’t quite as involving or focused as the campaign mode.

For the most part, production values for the series have always been top notch. Kane’s Wrath proves to be no exception – the maps have a lived-in, apocalyptic feel, the new units are as well-animated as their predecessors, and the cast includes some familiar faces. Sure, household names or members of the Hollywood A-list they ain’t, but we’re talking video-game acting here. Performances that would be laughed off the screen in any other context suddenly become bearable, at least when they punctuate bouts of random violence against little polygon people.

For better or worse, the elements introduced by Westwood studios have become mainstays of the RTS genre, affecting gaming to this day. Base-building, harvesting resources, and building an unstoppable combined-arms force with which to overwhelm the enemy base has been the norm in RTS games for too many years now. Kane’s Wrath doesn’t offer any real deviation from this style of gameplay, and I think most people are coming to expect more from their strategy titles.

Let’s face it, at this point it looks highly unlikely that the Command and Conquer series is going to recapture its glory days of the mid to late nineties. There’s some enjoyment to be had, sure, but there are plenty of developers out there that have taken the RTS genre to new and exciting places in the last decade. If you’re bored of World in Conflict, Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander, or if you’ve been following the series from day one and just can’t get enough of Joseph Kucan’s ham-tastic acting, then Kane’s Wrath is good for some more RTS fun. Of course, if you fall into the latter camp, you’re probably going to be picking this one up anyway.