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EA delivers the Xbox 360’s second real time strategy game. EA’s LotR: Battle for Middle-earth II for the Xbox 360 proved that RTS games can work on a console. With the success of the game, EA has now released C&C 3 for the Xbox 360. Originally released for the PC a few months ago, Tiberium Wars is a top-notch RTS game that remains wonderful fun on the Xbox 360.
Tiberium Wars’ campaign tells the story of the Brotherhood of Nod, Global Defense Initiative and Scrin. The titular tiberium is a mineral that all three factions need for their future technological needs. The three factions are going to war against each other to secure as much of it as possible. The story is surprisingly interesting even though it’s told through familiar though nonetheless cheesy live-action video with a lot of over-the-top acting. The game’s missions are interesting and usually extend beyond just blowing something up. Since the game takes place in the near future, you’ll see a number of real-world locations including Sydney and Washington, DC.
Tiberium Wars is very quick, especially for a RTS game. Yes, you’ll still have to gather resources but the game makes this very easy to do. Enemies will also level up as you use them and there are upgrades to earn if you have the necessary structures. Nonetheless, it’s often a mad dash to develop the necessary equipment to harvest resources before devoting yourself almost entirely to defending yourself against a rush attack. In fact, rushing is arguably one of the best things you can do in the game because if you don’t the enemy does it to you. The game’s three factions are appropriately different from each other. Brotherhood of Nod units have a number of stealth vehicles, Global Defense Initiative units are generally more powerful and require less micromanagement, while the Scrin are arguably the most powerful but require more micromanagement than the others.
On the Xbox 360, Tiberium Wars’ control scheme is very intuitive and easy to use. The A button handles your attacks and movements, although it’s a touch too difficult to select small groups sometimes. The right trigger handles a lot of the special powers and builds queues, which are easy to manage using the D pad. There are a few small issues but it’s easy to see that EA LA has worked a lot on refining the control scheme and making it work on consoles.
As expected, the game makes extensive use of Xbox Live. The game includes the following multiplayer modes: versus (standard skirmish), capture the flag (self-explanatory), and siege (the game implements a timer and you can’t attack before it runs out), as well as king-of-the-hill and capture-and-hold (take and keep control of a certain spot in the map). The last two modes allow for the most frantic, chaotic fun but the siege mode really lets players delve into the game’s strategic elements, which you don’t always get a chance to do in the singleplayer campaign.
Tiberium Wars, like other recent RTS games, looks quite good. The highlight of the visuals are the unit designs. The different factions have unbelievably different looking units but they all look great. Otherwise, the backgrounds are highly detailed and authentic near-future recreations of real-world environments. The game often has a lot going on. Thankfully, the lighting engine is excellent and really brings all of the lasers, lighting and explosions to life. The Xbox 360 version does seem to have some trouble keeping up sometimes but this is rare and hardly noticeable.
The game’s audio is also very good. The sound effects accurately portray the chaos happening onscreen and the explosions in particular sound great. The soundtrack is all over the place but nonetheless seems to fit the game well. The voice acting is solid even if the dialogue is intentionally over-the-top and cheesy.
Command & Conquers 3: Tiberium Wars is a fantastic RTS game. Very little was lost in the transition to the Xbox 360, which is an encouraging sign for future RTS games on consoles
-- Jose Liz & -- Michael Taylor, PGNx Media
---- May 15, 2007
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