Command & Conquer Remastered Collection

More than a year and a half ago, in 2018, the news arrived that the long-rested Command & Conquer series would be revived again and although unfortunately we don’t get a new part, the very first part as well as the Red Alert remaster version are being made.  

When I went to primary school, there was a guy in every class who played strategy games only and exclusively. Tomb Raider, Half-Life, or Quake could have come, they could never be blown out from the RTS world. We also had a guy like this, with whom I spent quite a bit of time because on the one hand his PC was much more better than mine, and on the other hand he was constantly getting the latest strategy games, even in the original, boxed version. I can clearly remember that I first met by him with success titles like Age of Empires 1-2, Empire Earth, Warcraft, Dune 2000, or even Command & Conquer. We spent many many times playing Command & Conquer games, especially Red Alert 2.

Commander, it's good to see you again!

While we’ll have to wait for the re-release of Red Alert 2 (and with it the Tiberian Sun), the prequel has already been brought to us by EA, thoroughly expanding the base game. The first C&C (Tiberium Dawn) was released in 1995 ( became Westwood's second big game after Dune 2), and at the time we could only control our units at 320x240 resolution, but the Remastered Collection has pulled this up now - hold on! - 4K. The whole thing remained the same nostalgic, as the textures were not redrawn, but by increasing the resolution, they were absolutely adapted to the needs of today. Of course, if you want, you can switch back to the original graphics with the touch of a button. We also have the option to play with Classic (Legacy) and Redesigned (Modern) button layouts.

The story outlines an alternative future, in which two factions, the Brotherhood Of NOD and the GDI (Global Defense Initiative) military organization, fight for a crystal, Tiberium, extracted from a strange meteorite. In the sequel called Red Alert - which is actually a prequel story - Albert Einstein travels back in time to kill Hitler, and with that, Stalin eventually comes to power. Interestingly, in Germany, the homeland of video player censorship, Hitler was replaced with some kind of cyborg for Einstein to end up with. That is to say, I don’t know how much it would have changed world history, but let’s not go into the details now.

It’s important to point out that true to the name of the two-game Remastered Collection, it’s a remaster, if you like, a revitalized release, not a remake. So the basics have remained the same: we get a top-view, building-up, "unit-mining" gameplay in the same way, where our goal in the two different campaigns (Nod and GDI) is to destroy the enemy. As for its difficulty, C&C has not changed anything. Although we can choose the level of difficulty ourselves, we will sweat for victory if we choose the Nod campaign as we used to, because despite their technical superiority, their units are still weak and even expensive. The path finding has not improved either, . Of course, I don’t want to get involved in tactical analysis right now, as the Remastered Collection is designed primarily for dedicated fans of the series. Let’s focus more on what has all changed.

In addition to the renovated visual world, for example, the music has also been remixed, but if we like, we can switch back to the old ones at any time. The multiplayer is sure to boost a lot thanks to the Steam community, although on the day of release I was permanently dropped from the server. We also get unlockable achievements and mod support, but it's not to be overlooked that the uncut version of Red Alert has finally been included in the package, so we can say goodbye to Hitler's successor cyborg in German-speaking areas as well. And for the biggest ultimate fans, even Behind The Scenes videos have been included in the repertoire, which they can unlock as they progress through the campaign. An Observer mode has arrived, the essence of which is to be able to watch other people's online matches - this is also a good feature.

You win this time!

It has become a worthy refurbished edition. What’s more, it’s also substantial, as it includes all three DLCs (Covert Ops, Counterstrike, and The Aftermath). The essence of the real, original Command & Conquer can be felt in this release, and it must be admitted that EA has done it very well now. There are still a few technical glitches, online servers aren't stable at all right now, and we can run into bugs, but they'll be fixed anyway, and the nostalgia that explodes like an atomic bomb is simply too strong for fans. I am confident that Red Alert 2 will also receive a worthy release in the near future, so not only Kane but Yuri can come back in a better version.