Game Overview

Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Command & Conquer: Renegade official home page: http://westwood.ea.com/games/ccuniverse/renegade/

Just what the doctor ordered

Renegade is an idea that people have been slobbering over for years: Take the popular Command & Conquer universe and make a first-person shooter out of it. The C&C universe is a strong franchise known to PC gamers everywhere, so it makes sense to attempt to cross genre lines. Through its numerous incarnations and expansion packs just about everyone knows about the GDI, NOD, and Tiberium.

A few years ago, Westwood decided to jump on the FPS bandwagon and start making Renegade. It’s a bold move; Westwood has really only had success in the RTS market; its RPGs haven’t done nearly as well. Renegade is their first attempt at a first-person shooter. Can they really pull it off? In a lot of cases game developers either “get it” or they don’t when it comes to FPS games. Croteam and id Software know FPS games. Volition (Red Faction) had good ideas but needs to keep trying. Westwood has been around for a long time, but can they pull off an FPS?

Hey baby

Logan’s not running

Hotwire

Story

No one wants to be a cannon-fodder unit. Instead you get to be one of the heroes of the RTS games, a Commando. But you’re not just any commando, you’re Havoc, a 100% cliché Special Forces grunt who doesn’t like authority, works alone, and womanizes anything with a pair of breasts. Havoc is stationed under General Locke, your other cliché army general that has a problem with anti-authority grunts, but knows how to handle them.

Escort

Ambushed

Helicopters drop reinforcements

There’s a thin plot about saving some scientists and stopping NOD from taking over the world (duh) but it’s about as exciting as the worst B-movie you can find at Blockbuster. From the cut scenes in Renegade you’d think, Westwood could make a killing in Hollywood producing B-movies with the endless amounts of clichés and bad dialogue. Expect to see Shannon Tweed coming soon to a Westwood game near you.