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Campaign-o-rama

Sadly, with Generals we seem to be saying goodbye to the days of hokey full-motion video sequences between and during missions. Having once reached such lofty peaks as hiring movie stars like James Earl Jones, the games once famous for their video sequences now have none. Well, there are useless little briefings which vaguely center on one remote location or another, but they don’t really do much to tie the game together.

Aaaand artillery strike!

China rules all

I suck as GLA

And that unfortunate fact composes one half of the huge problem that ails Generals’ singleplayer campaign. Nobody could care less about what’s going on in the game. The missions, though strung together with ever-increasing weapons options, don’t have anything tying them in with what’s going on. The funky Red Alert maps which showed Soviet and Allied advancements would be extremely welcome. The brief mission introductions (which regrettably can’t be skipped) don’t really add a sense of place or reason to the campaign, only set up the current situation.

More problemos?

The other half of the problem are the missions themselves. Most are fairly interesting and innovative as far as RTS design goes. The liberal use of the powerful game engine for cinematics really helps Generals impress, though no mission is nearly as fun the second time around.

Don't hit the train whatever you do

Ah they attacked early

Not good

The problem with the missions themselves is the difficulty. On even Brutal difficulty, the China campaign, for examplem, is quite easy and rarely does a mission require more than two or three tries. Yet the last mission is infuriatingly difficult even on Normal, the easiest difficulty level. To suggest there’s a difficulty balance and play-testing problem with Generals is like saying that Mortyr sucked hairy, sweaty donkey balls. Both are major understatements of a criminal nature.

When you get right down to it though, Generals has an intriguing and satisfying singleplayer experience. The campaigns could be longer and be interconnected, though after playing ORB we concede that short and sweet is better than tedious and drawn-out.