Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn
Command & Conquer 95 "Tiberian Dawn"Welcome to read another one of my reviews. This time i take Command & Conquer 95, also known as Tiberian Dawn under spotlight. Before i start, i should say its one of first computer games i ever played (Tiberian sun was first though). But lets get started, shall we?
By Meelis13
Basic introductionCommand & Conquer 95 Tiberian Dawn (from now on just TD or "Tiberian dawn") was one of the first Real time strategy (RTS) games released by Westwood studios in August 1995. Game takes place in alternate reality 1990-s earth. Few years ago, a meteor crashed in central Italy near Tiber river. It brought a new... thing with it. Thing that many take as a gift, but that pushed world into war. This "gift" is called Tiberium. Now that two mighty armies fight for control of this resource, desicions of one can affect the fate of the Earth...
Main menu screen of c&c Tiberian dawn
System requirements:
Processor: 486 DX2/66 or Higher
RAM: 8 MB
Disk Space: 30 MB (rather 1 GB, if you plan on having videos)
CD-ROM Drive: Double Speed or Higher
Graphics Card: VGA Video Card (320x200x25)
Sound Card: 100% Sound Blaster Compatible Sound Card
Operating System: MS-DOS 5.0 or Higher
Story
Faction symbols: Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and Brotherhood of Nod
As said in introduction, game takes place in alternate reality 1990-s (or 2000-s, according to some sources), where two armies fight for Tiberium, element (or entirely new life form) that was discovered near Tiber river by Dr. Moebius in central Italy after meteor landed nearby.
Factions are following: Global Defense Initiative, also known as simply GDI was officially formed as UN military branch in 1995, but actually it was around since Great world war 2 (timeline had been changed by then, so it wasnt ww2 we know), when it was formed as allied special forces group named Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9. GDI fights for preserving world order and peace.
Opposing GDI is remarkably resiliant multinational terrorist group known as Brotherhood of Nod, led by mysterious figure known only as Kane (portrayed by Joe Kucan). Nobody knows origins of Nod and its rumoured to be millenias old. Since first reported finding of Tiberium on earth, Nod has been taking control of its deposits, now having total of 49 percent of all known tiberium deposits. Goals of Nod are unclear though. Do they wish to take control of earth? Or do they aim for something worse?
In any case, after intro (that shows you flipping trough TV channels), you get to choose wheter you support GDI or Nod.
Choosing GDI will place you in European theatre as field commander James Solomon (who becomes quite important in Tiberian Sun) under command of Brigadier General Mark Jamison Sheppard with goal to liberate Europe from Nod's hold. You can consider first 3 missions as sort of tutorial ones, taking place in Estonia (yes, my home country, got a problem?) and Latvia (3rd mission only). From these missions you learn basics of gameplay by experience though, not trough hints and guidance of modern games (same applies to Nod campaign first missions, though Nod throws you in water bit sooner). In any case, you liberate country after another, choosing routes in the way and also learning more about whole conflict and about Nod.. and also about tiberium. You also have small chat with Kane himself.
Small hint- end mission has 2 possible endings.
Choosing Brotherhood of Nod, however, places you in Africa as unnamed Nod commander. Main idea is the same- you take country after another for Brotherhood. Your tasks are handed out by Seth, second in command in Nod. Again, you learn more about conflict, tiberium and have few unexpected plot twists. This campaign offers you 4 endings though. Oh and dont worry, you see Kane.
There is also expansion with 6 missions where you fight dinosaurs.
I would honhestly like to talk more about story, but i dont want to spoil anything even in spoiler tags.
Gameplay
GDI forces attacking Nod base
Gameplay is classic RTS gameplay. You use your mouse/cursor (how you like to call it) to control entire thing. You need to collect tiberium (only resource) to gain money, which is needed to buy buildings and units. Money bar is where "532" in screenshot is. Most battles, you start with Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV) and few units. MCV is one of 2 essential units in c&c- it unpacks into construction yard. If you lose construction yard (presuming you dont have backup MCV or construction yard), you are in quite bad position so guard it well.
As already mentioned, MCV unpacks into constuction yard. Construction yard allows you to build buildings. While building, keep in mind, that you cannot build even 1 block away from building- buildings need to be placed side by side (ignore AI here. AI cheats. A lot. But dont mind AI as its sadly still quite dumb). Here is a hint though- you can use cheap wall pieces to build away from original base. Building buildings (as its usual) allows access to new buildings and new units. Building silos will allow you bigger stored income, building satellite allows minimap. While expanding the base, keep in mind that its end of 20th century and buildings need power. Having insufficient power will mean that production is much slower and you dont have minimap and best defense buildings cease to function. So keep eye on powerbar (between battleview and build list)
Another critical structure is the Tiberium refinery along with Harvester (provided free with every refinery). Harvester collets tiberium and returns it to refinery for credits.
About units- c&c uses common element in RTS games- so called "rock, paper, scissors" approach. It means while one unit type may be effective against one, it isnt against another. For example minigunner is more effective vs rocket infantry than vs tank. Also tanks can crush infantry, so beware. In addition- tiberium hurts ALL units (true, it kills infantry lot faster). Only non-combat infantry units are engineers (for both sides), who can only capture enemy buildings. Truth be told, it is rather good, as if you'd capture opposing force's construction yard, you'd be able to build same buildings and even same units as opponent. You can also sell units.
For building units, you need barracks/hand of Nod for infantry and War factory/airstrip for vehicles. You cannot queue units (or buildings) though, not even when you have multiple buildings of same type, which is definetly big minus, especially if you happen to have great economy but enemy tanks are attacking and your army just got its butt kicked or when you are attacking down multiple alleys. You can, however, build additional buildings to speed up production considerably.
Should any of your buildings need repair after attack, in case you hadnt notice, there is repair button just under minimap. Repairing costs money though.
If you happen to need money, but lost last harvester, you can always sell few less important buildings (or vehicle, when its on repair bay). Selling building will grant return you part of buildings value and few minigunners (sometimes one or 2 technicians as well. technicians cant be built and are more of fun unit than anything else).
Map button under minimap is just for zooming minimap.
Another bad thing about gameplay is that some units are only available in some missions only (with exception of multiplayer games) and the fact you cannot play skirmish in singleplayer mode, at least not with original version. Gold version added over 10 missions in total for both GDI and Nod, but it still doesnt beat normal skirmish.
Graphics and musicConsidering its the mid 90-s were talking about, i'd say graphics are very good. There is fair ammount of detail, which doesnt make it bad to look even in 2014, almost 19 years after initial release. Yes, i know, it aint best graphics you have ever seen, but still, quite good for 90-s. What i like even more are build animations. I just loved them. Also, there is fan made HD patch out there (pictured in spoiler), named 1.06, which has also become most used patch in multiplayer.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Comparison of different versions to fan patch
Also, TD has fair ammount of cutscenes, that made you want to finish mission. And im not talking about story cutscenes, im talking about random battle situation cutscene, such as Orca flying trough canyon to blow stuff up, forces of one escaping from another, stuff like this.
And the music. C&C series overall has great music and TD is no exception. It has about hour long of soundtracks, that you can loop, play in suffle mode or even play single track over and over (my personal favourite for long time was "fight, win, prevail"). If you expect famous "Hell's march", you should know this game was made before that.
Summary
Kane (portrayed by Joe Kucan) is definetly most iconic character in C&C franchise
Command & conquer Tiberian Dawn is what'd you expect from RTS game- challenging despite its somewhat dumb AI (though for beginners, it can become quite difficult). Its strong sides are 2 unique factions with different style, relatively good graphics, good music and great story dripping with extra info and also- its FREE. Yes, its made freeware by EA (who bough Westwood studios and frankly killed c&c, but at least they did this right).
Its weaknesses are no skirmish mode, no queue ability and relatively dumb AI (despite unfair advantages it gets, its often too easy to defeat it).
My Rating: 10/10- great start for epic franchise.
Edit! I add few useful links- links to fan patch page: http://www.moddb.com/mods/command-co...ial-patch-106/ (you can download game from there, but be warned, it has no videos, so for best experience i reccommend to get iso image and download patch from site) and http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/
Link to guide how to install c&c Tiberian dawn- http://www.cncworld.org/?page=featur...s/tdfree_vista (download links seem to be broken though, you can download with videos here: http://www.joystiq.com/game/command-...ree-full-game/)
