Command and Conquer 3 continues in the Tiberium universe and it succeeds to make the statement of being one of the best.
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Command and Conquer 3 picks up the old school gameplay from the original Command and Conquer and adds new elements to keep it fresh, but still a true CnC game.
The game is set in 2047 after the first CnC and after Tiberian Sun. It's set in the same universe as those games. Meaning Tiberium is the main source of funds, units are futuristic and it's basically a fast paced war. CnC also knows two other universes; Red Alert, where the units are slightly futuristic, main source of funding is Ore, but the gameplay is also relatively fast paced. This universe doesn't differ too much from the Tiberium universe. Then there is also the Generals universe, which revolves around present day warfare, with Supplies as main funding and the gameplay is allot more general paced then Red Alert and Tiberium Wars.
CnC3 is set in the Tiberium universe and in it, it's revealed to you farely quickly that Kane is back. Which is good news for fans of the series. The single player portion of the game has a good length. Offering around 17 missions for GDI, 17 for NOD and 4 missions for the new faction; the Scrin. It should take you around 8 hours to complete GDI's campaign and then another 8 for NOD respectively. The Scrin missions can be done in as little as two hours. Still, the overall length of the game is great.
Besides the 3 campaigns there is also the standard Skirmish mode. You can take it up against 3 AI's at a time or team up with one of them and go against two other AI's, or whatever teams suit you best. There aren't allot of maps in comparison to other CnC games, but there is still enough variety in them to make it enough for the time being. Skirmishes are as always extremely fun to play when you go crazy with the settings. In previous CnC games you could only adjust the AI's difficulty. In Tiberium Wars you can not only adjust the AI's difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard, Brutal) but you can also decide what strategy they will use on you. You can choose from balanced, rusher, turtle, guerrilla and steamroller. Or you can keep it a suprise by chosing random.
A balanced AI is pretty much you're traditional CnC AI opponent. Using infantry, tanks, aircraft, superweapons and whatnot. Basically using everything at their disposal, but nothing truly massive.
A rusher AI explains itself. It usually attacks you straight on in the first three minutes of the game with infantry or tanks or a combination of both. Depending on the difficulty, he will rush you just once on the lower difficulties, where on the higher ones, he will rush you as fast as possible and then provide a continuious flow of more units to you're base.
A turtle AI also speaks for itself. It builds allot of harvesters in his main base and expands his base usually only once and in a small step. He builds allot of defenses and uses a few tanks and infantry here and there, but mostly relies on air power. Depending on the difficulty, he also builds a decent force of tanks along with his aircraft to try and swipe you off the battlefield in one hard swipe. A turtle never really attacks early on in the game, but also rarely with few units.
A guerrilla AI is a new tactic which actually doesn't work all that well. A guerilla AI doesn't rely on advanced weapons, but more on definding his base a little bit and expanding allot. As you may guess he also tries to garrison every structure on the map with infantry. He uses some aircraft and some tanks. It's a nice strategy in theory; expanding base allot, garrison every structure and try to defend you're base from other points on the map so they can't make it to you're base. But in practise this AI proves the least threat against you. The brutal guerrilla AI is probably the first brutal AI you can defeat.
A steamroller AI is argubly the most dangerous in the game. It builds loads of war factories and barracks and spams out a whole lot of basic tanks along with a few other ones. When he has a decent force he will attack and from there more and more tanks will roll towards you're base (hence the name steamroller). A brutal GDI steamroller is basically unbeatable if you wait too long. Before you know it, you have 50 enemy tanks in you're base, with another 50 on the way.
Other then single player, there is also multiplayer via Xbox Live. You can chose of various modes made specifically for Xbox Live. You can chose from a standard versus match to things like King of the Hill where you need to control a point on the map for a certain amount of time. There is also a mode called Siege, in which rushing is impossible. A special barrier prevents you from moving out of you're main base with any unit for a set amount of time. Time can be set from 3 to as long as 10 minutes. At that point the barrier will be lifted and the game is on. It's suprising that this mode isn't available in the PC version. Because fans must know how many people state before the match starts: 'No rush for 5 min!'. It's suprising to see this mode this late since so many people are apperently in need of it. So it's a great addition for allot of players.
The new faction, The Scrin, are a great addition as well. GDI has always been about very expensive, slow, but very powerful weapons. NOD has always been about relatively weak but cheap and fast weapons along with sneaky tactics like stealth. The Scrin are basically like NOD on the ground and like GDI in the air but even a step further. So, they have relatively weak ground forces with a few strange twists like their main tank is able to fire at both ground and air targets and is effective in it for it's price. They use a strange standard infantry unit called Buzzers which can be compared to Kryl from Gears of War. A group of strange things flying around and instantly killing enemy infantry when they make contact. But they are weak so in a 1 on 1 with standard infantry of the other side they will lose. When handeled correctly though, they can take out allot of enemy infantry. They can also clear garrisoned structures when they make contact for a second or two. In general they have a not so effective ground force, but it sure has some useful strange twists. Their air force however is the most powerful in the game. Most of their air craft do not require a landing platform on an alien air field like usual. They can just maintain there position anywhere on the map and fly anywhere they want. Also, none of their air units need to get back to base for re-arming. This makes them devestating units. There main air unit isn't all that powerfull and requires a slot in the airfield. However, it never has to return to base if you don't want it to. Which makes them very useful. In large forces they are extremely hostile but you can only build 4 of them per airfield. The more advanced air units cost up to 3000 bucks but are worth there money in power. The Scrin can also equip air units with shields that improve their health by 25%. When the shield is destroyed it will regenerate after enough time has passed. In short, the aliens can be very dangerous foes, but they lack good rushing strategies and their truly useful units are very costly. It's hard to describe their tactic but like stated; they are NOD on the ground and they are GDI in the air. Let's keep it like that.
Graphics
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The graphics in CnC3 are great. There improve on the graphics of Generals allot. However, considering how much time has passed since then makes it not that big of an improvement. Some things do indicate that they are pushing the 360's power, like a unit cap. However, this is probably for frame rate issues. Which, the game barely has, even in large battles. Sometimes it has some frame rate drops but nothing truly annoying. Overall, the graphics are decent, but they could have used more time to get it right.
Sound
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The sound is true CnC. Dying sounds are real CnC work. The background music is great and the live cinematics and voice overs make the sound worth being mentioned as suberb.
Value
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Easily put, this game is worth your money. The single player campaigns should last you around 20 hours to complete, give or take a few depending on the difficulty. Then there is allot of Skirmishing you can do and you can go nuts with the settings. It will be a long time before Skirmish ever gets old. Then there is multiplayer which should have you hooked a long time. If you are a true CnC fan, you can easily game the multiplayer until the expansion or next CnC title arrives.
The live cinematics also add to the replay value. You can watch them if you beat the campaign. They are great to re-watch since they are played neatly. And... Kane. That's all I'm saying.
Tilt
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It's been a long time since a CnC game was released from this universe. It makes it's comeback, and greatly. It's pure CnC and fans won't be disappointed one single bit. Playing this game really takes you back to those days and it reminds you why CnC can be considered one of the best RTS games at this time.