Command & Conquer: Renegade Preview

All Christendom counts its time from Christ's birth, the Romans counted their time from the day Rome was founded, the Jews count their time from the beginning of the world, and all the war-simulation fans consider life to make sense since the appearance of real-time strategies. This genre achieved the success it did thanks to its basic notion of combining the dull world of turn-based strategies with some action, introducing time racing tactics, microeconomics and base organization.

Sorry...

Oh boy, You're going down...

This strategically oriented introduction is not by any means an announcement for another future RTS, but I still believe that strategy players will find the title as interesting as if it were belonging to their favorite genre. The Westwood programmers, whose Dune 2 and C&C serial left a mark on video game history, decided to take a shot at the third person shooter genre (this may as well had been driven by pure love of money, but if the project does succeed, I am willing to allow my modest pocket money to return that love).

C&C Renegade was conceived as a classic 3D action shooter with a third person view. I must say I'm a bit skeptic about how this would work because Westwood had never before undertaken a project of this type, so that the game is likely to suffer the typical illnesses of the genre, especially poor camera positioning. The programming team pointed out that this perspective is needed and far more adequate for presenting such vast level which will take more than an hour to be completed. They spent over two years developing a special engine, which should be rid of these ailments and capable of presenting indoor and outdoor combat. There should be no loading during transitions, and the camera should adjust its position automatically in order to provide utmost functionality, and a truly dynamic experience. All this looks just great on the demo cinematics, but we'll just have to see for ourselves how that really works. The engine will also use the Radiosity technique, which should provide realistic lighting, and spectacular scenes. There is no information if the game will support 3D sound, but I guess it will, because it already became a common thing barely worth mentioning.

This project should unite the fans of two fairly different genres. The FPS fans will gladly accept any new chance to start molesting their adrenal glens once again, and the strategists should leave their worn-out mice and take up joysticks in order to see the battlefield they had been controlling from a different perspective. The feeling you get from entering a building you constructed or driving a vehicle that was only a dispensable resource barely a moment ago could prove to be more than just fun... it could be a memorable experience and make you play the old hits once again (and certainly not miss the new ones to the benefit of all programmers, producers, publishers, retailers, editors and their families).

The renegade takes place during the first part of C&C trilogy. The campaign commences during the fights between GDI and NOD over the Tiberium sources. For the first time you won't be free to choose sides: you have to play a GDI commando named Nick "Havoc" Parker. NOD fans can play the game by immediately committing suicide or starting the multiplayer mode where you can choose sides. Nick, on the other hand, is not someone you could call a typical soldier, he likes to play by his own rules without consulting his commanding officers or the Geneva Convention. That's why he only gets sent onto the battlefield in cases of extreme emergency. Now is the time of extreme emergency as NOD and their Black Hand organization kidnapped Dr. Mobius - the world-renowned scientist dealing with physics, chemistry and genetic engineering with the intention to use his knowledge to create super soldiers using Tiberium. Our hero will have to go through 16 humongous missions in order to rescue the good doctor, using all sorts of vehicles and weaponry that could have been seen in the previous C&C games.

The authors gave you the chance to look at the Hand of NOD from a completely different perspective, and the fighting will go on through refineries, silos, advanced power-plants, communication centers, and construction yards. While you're in the open, you will always be endangered by Obelisks of Light (Destroying their power supplies will make them harmless), and you will be able to destroy SAM sites and make air support available. AND you'll finally see what ION cannon looks like from up close.

Panic...

Come get me!!!!

Nick wouldn't be much of a commando if didn't know how to use an entire arsenal of weapons. He will be highly proficient with knife, handgun, M16 automatic rifle and a hybrid of M16 and grenade launcher. He's also quite good with Gatling Gun, Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Sniper and three types of C4 explosives with a safely remote control. The authors promise that each weapon will have an alternative fire mode (the sixteen weapons, as currently expected).

Beside the license to kill, our lad name Havoc, also has the license to drive all sorts of vehicles. Renegade should provide the full experience of going through the enemy infantry lines with your harvester (windscreen wipers included, hopefully), or driving an Orca helicopter, or burning the enemy forces with your flame-throwing tank, or all the difficulties that you come across when you try to maneuver or park a Mammoth tank, Each vehicle should have its own movement physics, but the controls will be as simple as they get.

The multiplayer mode has been given special attention. Westwood servers will provide standard Internet play with up to thirty-two players per game. The game supports classical Deathmech mode, Catch The Flag mode (actually called Catch The Mobius) as well as Fortress Assault mode in which one group defends a fortress while the other tries to breach it. If I just add that each of the modes will have more than thirty parameters to define the game, what we get is a promising multiplayer experience. I also have to mention the possibility for two players to use one vehicle, one being a driver and the other a gunman.

Another great thing could be the hit positioning system, and different enemy reactions depending on where you hit them. It seems that the AI has also been given full attention; computer characters should use optimum routes, and react to the first sign of your presence (a series of detonations from the tactically important buildings, a plane crash and parking a tank in their leaders living room should do the trick).

I dislike the fact that there will be absolutely no FMV sequences and that the game engine will render all the animation. This does not necessarily have to look ugly, but we all got used to the high-budget movie sequences from the C&C serial that actually made the players finish the game (in spite of the uninventive, monotonous game play, and ridiculously stupid AI). Kane won't appear in the game himself, but Westwood claims that "you will be able to feel his presence" (?!?).

3DO had tried a similar thing with their Crusaders Of Might & Magic, and got a disastrously mediocre game as a result. This doesn't have to mean anything, but it's good to keep the fact in mind. I personally am keen on this type of experimenting, but I was more looking forward to a game featuring Tanya instead of Nick Havoc.