Overview

Time flies

It’s been just four months since we last saw Command & Conquer Generals, but much has changed. This quickly became apparent when we sat down with the multiplayer test of the game at EA’s offices in Redwood City. For one, the idea of the generals has been revamped. Rather than having to choose between several, each with their special abilities, there is one set of Generals abilities per side. These are abilities are bought with the stars the player earns for gaining experience levels.

Home sweet terrorist home

Get that oil derrick

Demo traps make great base defenses

There is considerably more variety among the three sides as well. No longer content with having just a few unique units and some style changes, EA Pacific (formerly Westwood’s Redwood office, designers of Red Alert II) have taken the differences up a notch. Sides may have units filling similar roles, but none are identical with the exception of the Bulldozers used by China and the USA. In fact, only a few are even similar to each other. Infantry units obviously fall into this category. There are only so many ways that infantry can be different. Yet EA has diversified even the standard grunt. The US side gets Army Rangers, the Chinese get two soldiers for the price of one, and the GLA have a regular grunt. With mechanized and air units, the differences become even more pronounced. GLA comes in with a bunch of scrap tanks which may upgrade with parts salvaged off the battlefield. China has massive tanks, particularly the Overlord, and the US has a regular medium tank and a high-tech heavy.


All in all, the differences among the sides are extreme by C&C standards, and very significant even compared to normal RTS titles. While no one will accuse C&C Generals of being StarCraft (since the units do have to be based on reality and by consequence share basic designs), it is more diverse than WarCraft III and very possibly Age of Mythology.

More changes

This is the first 3D C&C game, and in fact, the first one with a totally new engine. Previous titles always had some legacy code. Now, with the chance to wipe the slate clean, EA Pacific has gotten rid of some relics from past titles. Buildings are built by units now – dozers for China and USA, and Workers for the GLA. This means that you can build anywhere, terrain permitting.

Attack the infidels!

Cheap and plentiful owns quality today

Get the scrap upgrades

Engineers are out of the game. There is no immediate capture unit to replace them, but you can get your base infantry unit to capture enemy buildings and oil derricks upon researching the capture ability. Each side still gets “ultimate weapons”. The USA gets the ion cannon, China gets Nukes and the GLA has a devastatingly powerful SCUD Storm.