C&C: a niche franchise?

Cartoon violence: Elvis has left the building

Verdu's vision is realized in at least one feature: infantry can now garrison certain buildings, and defend them effectively. A maximum of three units can occupy a building at a time, and they won't be damaged by ordinary weapons fire before the building collapses. This makes infantry units very useful even late in the game, as they can be used for very cheap, effective and mobile defensive installations. Garrisoning a building near an enemy base can be a huge nuisance to them, and vital for the success of an attack. All sides, however, have a special unit or two for clearing garrisoned infantry out of their hiding places. This is in line with the game's rock-paper-scissors balancing mentality: while other units are poor at destroying dug-in infantry, Grenadiers and flamethrower-equipped Black Hand troops clear buildings with laughable ease. Without individually modelled and intelligent soldiers, as seen in Company of Heroes, C&C cannot really simulate the use of cover. C&C3's troops go prone and return fire, and in aggressive stance move towards the enemy firing wildly, but they never seek cover without specific orders. Your riflemen or militants are happy to stand their ground while a vehicle - even a cumbersome Tiberium harvester - squashes them under its tracks.

How about C&C3's new command and control features, which should give the game more strategic depth than its predecessors? The most important of these is a new planning mode, where you can set waypoints beforehand and execute complicate maneuvers and coordinated attacks using multiple units and groups. This brings a new level of strategy C&C3's multiplayer game: you can no longer be sure that your opponent is directly controlling an active group of units - they might be a decoy to keep you occupied, while stealth units circle around your defences and sneak into your base. However, C&C3 comes up short against Supreme Commander in terms of strategic command: you can't combine waypoints for simultaneous coordinated attacks from different angles, there's no option for setting multiple waypoints for units rallying from production facilities, and there's no support for automatic ferrying with transport aircraft.

Even though C&C3 copies some of the new features introduced to the RTS genre by Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander, they never become integral to the gameplay. Just before C&C3's publishing date, Mike Verdu was quoted comparing his game to the previously mentioned competitors, claiming that all three occupied their own niche. Times have changed: Command & Conquer, the once unchallenged king of RTS games, doesn't take the competition head-on. Instead, it prefers to do its own thing and hopes that it's enough to satisfy the millions of fans.

One way to get to the fans' hearts is by offering a great multiplayer experience. C&C3 has online features that are second to no other RTS, even including Supreme Commander. C&C3 has ranked ladder games for either 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 players, combining co-operative with competitive ranked gaming, and even features moderated clan games. The normal multiplayer lobby with player-hosted games is there and works well (although some kind of obscenity filter for game names would probably be in order), along with all the career statistics you could ever hope for. You even get to vote on the sportsmanship of your opponent after a ranked game - of course, if you ever get any negative feedback, you can write that off as sore losers whining. A great battle recorder system lets you share your fights with spectators either live or replayed, and there's even an option for a dedicated game host to commentate the action to spectators. With all these options and an already huge fan base, I foresee a long, prosperous future for C&C3 multiplayer.