4 years ago
OpenRA, a game that brings back nostalgia, it is really Command & Conquer, that was bought by the players as an open-source version which happened by number of games that, in the mind of the player base, disgraced the game franchise, so they took the matters in their hands, and like Minetest, published the game as an open-source project.
I will look at a few factors in terms of this game:
- History of the game
- Overall looks and graphics
- Gameplay
- Multiplayer and the community
Command & Conquer, you heard about that game? I heard about it, a long time ago, I knew it was a strategy game, which really appealed to me, so I decided to play it again, and I found this game, OpenRA. A nostalgic version of Command & Conquer, it has the old graphics, sound, vehicles...
So dug up the dirt around this game which was an open-source project to recreate the Command & Conquer experience about which I will talk right now.
History of this game
Ah, Command & Conquer, the game everybody knew about, but most didn't even play it back in the days, it's an RTS game which, as said before, republished as an open-source project that
recreates and modernizes the classic Command & Conquer.
The original C&C was created in 1995 by Westwood Studios and in 2010 it reached its peak, and after that, in the eyes of the player base, it was a blatant cash grab.
OpenRA was a project that reminded the player base about its former glory and did I mention that OpenRA IS free.
Overall looks and graphics
The graphics, nothing to talk here really, it really looks like an old RTS game, it brings back the nostalgia to the players about the Command & Conquer franchise in the glory days. The textures have that old pixel look and the game is beautiful really.
Performance isn't a problem here, if your pc lags, then you would better off with a toaster. Stacking too many units, structures and having a lot of bots playing may cause the game to lag, BUT there is 1 problem in this game about the performance, there are no central servers in this game which means that if even 1 player has a crappy PC, it will lag for everybody, so try not to use you crappy old laptop for this one.
Gameplay
The gameplay is smooth, you have numerous missions with bots that you can complete if you are bored, missions that can be imported and scripted by others, the vanilla missions are just to get you going and make you learn the game. You can choose multiple nations with their unique units (like the German with their Teleportation tanks). Also, there are land, sea, and air units
You start with an MCV and 5000$ with which you mine your first ore and create your first units.
The game is still updated and like other games, it has updates that create and destroy metas (basically whats the best in the game).
The game demands skill and I found actually by doing a 1v1 with a REALLY good player... It didn't go well, but at least we speak the same language and the taught me how to play the game and introduced me to their discord server which goal is to make OpenRA players better at the game, they even organize small online tournaments in OpenRA). Every unit in this game has its own advantage and i believe there is no RNG in this game and 100% skill game.
OpenRA also comes bundled with three distinct mods:
- Tiberium Dawn ( focuses on fast and fluid play with features like multiple-queue production)
- Red Alert (mod focuses on strategy, providing a range of units and tactics to conquer the land, sea, and air)
- Dune 2000 (currently focuses on providing an experience that is authentic to the original game)
Multiplayer and the community
Huff, this is going to be a short one
The community is not that much different than other RTS communities, it has mods and maps(which I highly recommend) and it isn't toxic.
I earned 3 friends playing this game, it is a lot of fun and it has multiple servers (but most of the player base is from North America) and maps and discord serves like ORA and ORA Academy(that's where I learned to play the game).
That's that, it was created as a rebellion to the developers, to show them that they are not gonna sit there and get fed everything that EA gives them from this franchise while digging it deeper in the ground, the game was solid and I'm sure that multiple people are happy for this project that exists.
My personal biased rating: 8.5
Thanks for reading and for the support on my previous article :D
