kajinking said:
That's good to know, in a very weird bit of timing I picked up the C&C ultimate collection at Walmart the other day for $20 and was worried about compatibility. I'm planning to play through C&C3 again but I'm not sure where I should go from there. This pack came with literally every game and expansion, can anyone make any recomendations of which games might be the better ones?
Red Alert 2 and
Tiberian Sun are probably the best in the franchise. They're pretty similar to each other, it's mostly up to you whether you prefer the post-apocalyptic hypertech atmosphere of the Tiberium series, or the tongue-in-cheek feel of Red Alert.
But in general, I would recommend choosing one series and playing it from the beginning. As a handy little guide:
1) The Tiberium series starts off as a modern warfare RTS. It struggles with the general feel though, as in
Tiberian Sun it dives head on into post-apocalyptic SF, then goes back to near future in C&C3, and then back to post-apo in the abomination that is C&C4 (which is explainable through the "blue, yellow and red zones" in the lore, but feels like setting whiplash). C&C 1-3 games are all pretty decent RTS offerings, can be challenging at times, but the trilogy never sacrifices gameplay for the sake of spectacle. It also has a consistent (if occasionally ridiculous) story throughout all games.
2)
Red Alert 1 was very similar to
Tiberian Dawn in terms of gameplay, but went more for schizo tech and comedic touches. The gameplay to atmosphere ratio was perfect in RA2 (good gameplay, with a more comedic feel to the game), but then they decided to go bonkers with RA3, which threw away any attempts at subtlety with its "LOOK ITS SOMETHING MENTIONED ON THE INTERNET, LAUGH!!!" humour, switched female characters from "eye candy" to "spank material" and topped it off with making the game painfully easy. The time travel plot is somewhat consistent if you read it, but in practice you end up with three free-standing game stories. The series has, in my opinion, the best overall atmosphere, but suffers from relatively low difficulty.
3)
Generals is... not something I could get into. For me, no cheesy B-movie briefings = not a C&C game. But I know the game (and its expansion) are praised for tactical depth, so I presume that out of the three series,
Generals is your choice if you're in it for the gameplay, not atmosphere.
4)
Renegade is a painfully mediocre shooter where you play as a GDI commando during the events of
Tiberian Dawn. You won't miss anything by ignoring it.
Hope that helps!
