Command and Conquer series: Which are the good ones? Quick!

[Stryc9]

Of the ones that are on Steam C&C 3 and the Kane's Wrath expansion are the only two on there that are worth paying any amount of money for in my opinion. Red Alert 3 might be OK if you can handle the idiotic "friendly" AI in the single player campaigns taking resources you intend to use and just being generally incompetent.

They really should have had an option to turn that bullshit off instead of forcing you to either find someone else to play with or making you deal with what basically boils down to another enemy you have to deal with only you can't fucking kill them.

If I had money today, and needed to purchase any of the ones on Steam for some reason I'd just stick with C&C 3 and Kane's Wrath. Alternatively you could seek out a copy of the First Decade pack and get all the classics...and not so classics (I'm looking at you Renegade) for maybe a little bit more money.

 

[Dark Prophet]

They are almost all great even Renegade although it has visually aged really fucking badly, also C&C4 is the only one I would stay away from because it's shit not even as a C&C game but as a game. Best in my books are Red 2,Yuri's Revenge and Generals, Zero Hour, those are also the ones with best mods and custom maps and there are a lot of them.
C&C Tib Dawn with it's expnsions and Tib Sun, Firestorm are free to download so is C&C Red and expansions if I'm not mistaken. C&C Tib wars, Kane's Wrath are both fun although multy has kinda died. Red 3, Uprising are both good and I'd say that Uprisng has some of the most interseting missions in the series not the most mind you, also Red 3 multy is not that good, I have a wierd feelnig that EA wanted it to be next Starcraft but it is unbalanced mess were the only viable strategy is rushing.

 

[loc978]

I'm a bit of a C&C heretic... loved the first one and its expansion, but they lost me with the Red Alert spinoff. Renegade was fun for LAN parties... then with Generals they captured Starcraft's "3 balanced factions" vibe while maintaining the hardline unit rock-paper-scissors thing that always made C&C unique (as a successor to Dune 2, anyway). The rest of 'em just didn't have the same balance. All show and no go, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[michael87cn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV1vodHcqkM

One of the best intros to an RTS IMO. The music gets you so pumped up for the game, and the actual soundtracks that play in-game are just as good.

These games are great.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

1) Do the Steam versions work properly on a modern computer (Win 7)?
2) Which of the series are the best?
3) Which one has the armoured bears in it and can you play as the Russians?

Major fan of the series here.

1) They should. The C&C pack, released a few years ago, works fine with no problems. I assume the digital versions are the same.
2) Red Alert 1 and 2 are often quoted as the best, and they both have the Soviets as a playable faction. Tiberian Dawn and Tiberian Sun are also really good. A lot of people praise Generals (and you can play as communist China, not a far departure from the Soviets), but it's more of a modern conflict game which used the C&C brand for advertising.
3) Red Alert 3 is the one with bears. And yes, you can play as the Soviets. But it's the second-weakest entry in the series (not counting Renegade) and feels like a failed parody of itself (RTS Movie, if you will). The goofiness is at its goofiest, fanservice is at its fanserviciest and the campaigns are painfully easy. The only redeeming qualities are nostalgia value (which doesn't count for you) and co-op campaign mode.

Extra info: Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert 1 (possibly also 2) have been released for free. But I haven't used that option, so I don't know how it works. It might require Origin.

I actually prefer baseless RTSs. More tactics, less logistics.

Is that the only reason people hate CnC4? Did it do anything else wrong?

There isn't really "more tactics" in C&C4. It's not deeper than other games in the series, gameplay-wise. It's also rather short and more concerned with making a grand finale to the C&C story (mostly through cutscenes) than making the gameplay engaging.

 

[Agent_Dark]

If you're looking to play multiplayer at all, I'd say CnC Generals: Zero Hour and/or CnC 3. Generals (and you must play it with the Zero Hour expansion) is not actually a part of the proper Command and Conquer universe, but it is a really solid RTS that has great multiplayer. Command and Conquer 3 is a 'proper' CnC game with the storyline and everything, and also has good multiplayer.

If you're only after Single Player campaigns, then they all pretty much offer the same thing gameplay wise. Red Alert 3 and Command and Conquer 3 are probably the best based on their (awesomely) cheesy cutscenes. I mean RA3 has Sulu and CnC3 has Lando Calrissian. So that's definitely worth it.

 

[Ross Tuddin]

My Favourites were Red Alert 2 and C&C3 they were my first introduction to the C&C universe. I once tried to play C&C, RA1 & C&C2 but even several years ago, I couldn't stand the outdated graphics. Maybe I have Nostalgia blindness for RA2. I didn't enjoy RA3 as much and I just didn't like generals.

 

[LetalisK]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV1vodHcqkM

One of the best intros to an RTS IMO. The music gets you so pumped up for the game, and the actual soundtracks that play in-game are just as good.

These games are great.

That was my favorite video game track. Until Red Alert 3 when we got the Hell March 1 remix.


It's basically just an update and gives it a bit more aggressiveness, which I love.

 

[Old Father Eternity]

Yeah, anything up to C&C4 is good or decent. The aforementioned mainly gets flak due to departure from the series normal gameplay. There were some interesting elements introduced but not enough to outweigh all the negative crap and the visual style was not very appealing either.

 

[generals3]

I actually prefer baseless RTSs. More tactics, less logistics.

Is that the only reason people hate CnC4? Did it do anything else wrong?

Well, both the story and cutscenes were major dung as well. But than again in my opinion they both went downhill after firestorm (C&C3's story doesn't do any justice to firestorm's ending).

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I have also been immersing myself into the Command & Conquer games.

Tiberian Dawn (the original C&C) and Red Alert 1 are dated, but still cool to play.
Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 are much more modern. I've almost completed all of the Yuri's Revenge expansion and I've found it and the original game to be pretty darn good. Tiberian Sun is a bit lacking, but I like it.

Never played Generals, Red Alert 3, or C&C3-4. I probably won't buy them cause I don't want to support EA. But I love watching the RA3 cutscenes on youtube, I love the hammy acting and JK Simmons and George Takei are awesome.




Anyone else want a Tiberiumverse continuation or spin-off? (when EA loses the license of course). It is probably my favorite apocalyptic scenario.

Also

PEACE THROUGH POWER!