Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

The culmination of fifteen years of games will come as EA Los Angeles wrap up the story in the Tiberian universe of the Command & Conquer series with Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. In fact, rumours has it that EA will disband the entire RTS team in Los Angeles upon completion of the project so this could very well be the last time we see a new Command & Conquer for quite some time.

The game's prologue starts 15 years after the events in Tiberium Wars and 10 years after Kane's Wrath. It's 2062 and with Tiberium spreading rapidly across Earth it will become uninhabitable by 2068 (going by the rate we are destroying our planet we should be glad if it lasts that long). Desperate times call for desperate measures and Kane travels to the Global Defence Initiative's head quarters to work out a plan to control the spread of Tiberium and turn it into a power source. The main game kicks off 15 years after these efforts, when tension has once again reached a boiling point between the GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod. The alliance falls and the fourth Tiberium Wars are on.

Once again the GDI and the Brotherhood are the playable factions, but both the Scrin (Tiberium Wars) and the Forgotten (Tiberian Sun) will appear as non-playable factions. But everything is not what it used to be in the Command & Conquer series and there is a decreased emphasis on base building as EA Los Angeles have opted for a more action oriented approach reminiscent of Relics' Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War titles.

The last chapter of the Tiberian saga will feature classes and more RPG elements than what we are used to:

I think a lot of games these days are [adding RPG elements]. There is something about being able to earn something over the period of time that you play the game. It's a compulsion that keeps you coming back for more. And it also allows us to expand the game with content that we wouldn't have done in the past, says Senior Producer Michael Glòsecki.

The campaign can be played co-operatively (as in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3) and this is where the different classes truly come into play. And we can of course expect some over-the-top cutscenes in line with what the series has delivered in the past. The graphics look clean and crisp and the absence of any console version (at least so far), gives some hope that there has been no limiting factors to the development as far as that goes.

Players choose between defence, support and offence classes. Only the defence class can actually build a base, while the others will have to produce troops out of the walkers. So for a more traditional base building experience you should go with the defence class, while the others sport more attack minded units.

Is a more action oriented game what we truly want from the Command & Conquer series? I'm not sure, but it will be very interesting to see whether the team in Los Angeles can pull this off and make the last chapter of the Tiberium saga one to remember. I have my doubts, but I would like to be proven wrong.