Command & Conquer 4 "Open" Beta

[stereopixels]

I gave the beta a go, having been a loyal Command & Conquer fan as far back as I can remember, and I think I can safely say the game I played was not Command & Conquer - it honestly seems like they've taken another game, chucked the CnC units and story outline in, and said "That's the CnC cash cow milked for another year", before rolling around naked in all the money they've already made out of the series.

[Ironman273]

This is absolutely horrible. I can't believe they killed this franchise in such an appalling way...

[Xilo]

Leave it to EA to screw up a great franchise.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

^ My take on it was they wanted this RTS to be made towards casual gamers who might find base building, resource management more difficult to micromanager so they removed everything.

If you want to dumb down the game to cater for the lowest common denominator, then go right ahead... but do it in a franchise that hasn't got millions of loyal fans.

Command and Conquer is base building, gathering resources, building units, and attacking the enemy. This isn't Command and Conquer, by definition!

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I installed the beta and I couldn't find a game to play. I wasted 5 minutes going from Campaign to Skirmish, etc and I didn't even play a single game. What a waste of hard drive space.

[Sethos]

Sounds like it's not worth wasting my time with ...

[Argi]

Tried to play a quick match and the other player just hung on the loading screen until it eventually timed out with DISC_STATE_UNKNOWN_DISCONNECT which I'm sure would be remarkably informative for the devs. >_>

[bolerodan]

If you want to dumb down the game to cater for the lowest common denominator, then go right ahead... but do it in a franchise that hasn't got millions of loyal fans.

Command and Conquer is base building, gathering resources, building units, and attacking the enemy. This isn't Command and Conquer, by definition!

I agree. They ruined this game. They dont realize how large enough the hardcore CnC fan base is. They left all of them in the dust with a game that is not CnC that we know and love but has the CnC name. I just dont understand their mindset with this. Also, their art team have been making some weird design choices. Their units are all poorly done. Theres something about this group of developers that are just ruining this game.

[LingeringSoul]

If you want to dumb down the game to cater for the lowest common denominator, then go right ahead... but do it in a franchise that hasn't got millions of loyal fans.

Command and Conquer is base building, gathering resources, building units, and attacking the enemy. This isn't Command and Conquer, by definition!

Couldn't have said it better myself. While I haven't tried the beta (and after reading through this thread, I have no intention of doing so), the videos I've watched haven't shown me anything to suggest that a true C&C fan would be satisfied with this.

It's strange, because even as recently as Kane's Wrath, the developers made a pretty good effort to create something that the competitive C&C community would like. I remember reading somewhere that they even invited high-profile members of the community to their office to play a beta of Kane's Wrath and give their feedback. KW didn't take off in the competitive scene (too many imbalances, if I recall), but at least the developers attempted to reach out the community. Now it just seems like they're not even trying.

[Treemonkeys]

Does the beta give you the full game with videos and everything? It seems like for a story based game if I played the beta I would have no interest in actually buying the game, I don't play C&C for the multiplayer.

[Bag]

So by the sounds of it C&C has been successfully ruined... :(

Can anyone recommend some good base building games to get as an alternative? Since C&C is (well was) really the only one of it's type still around these days that I know of. o.o

[Shibby]

Not sure. ?I suppose there is Companies of Heroes. but that has a unit limit :(

I'm tempted to install anno 1404 again though.

[bolerodan]

For base building games? I recommend Supreme Commander.. or wait till the next one Supreme Commander 2 which looks awesome.

[Kanoxia]

I installed the Beta despite reading this thread and I wish I didn't bother. It feels so unlike C&C. Even the people I played with were confused on what we were supposed to do. Suffice to say I uninstalled it and I wont be purchasing it

[Ironman273]

I'll just leave this here.

I may sound melodramatic but I am devastated that they are doing this to C&C. They could've done a spinoff series like Generals to test their new play style without having to ruin what is fun about C&C. This is just ridiculous.

[Osiris]

Watching that vid I had flash backs to Dark Reign. First game was a fun RTS, second game was some sort of 3D nightmare with some completely different story line :\ I wish it werent so the gameplay doesnt appeal to me but theyll be getting my money as I have to see how the story all pans out.

[LingeringSoul]

I may sound melodramatic but I am devastated that they are doing this to C&C. They could've done a spinoff series like Generals to test their new play style without having to ruin what is fun about C&C. This is just ridiculous.

Indeed. I almost feel like if they had just created a new game franchise (or a spinoff like you suggested), the response wouldn't have been nearly as negative. It certainly wouldn't take off in competitive circles (the lack of base building guarantees that), but I think people would have given it more of a chance. The C&C franchise has a lot of history, and people don't like seeing Westwood's beloved creation defiled like this.

[:: Lyon ::]

I haven't tried it yet but I like games where you are only given limited resources/units to win the mission. I don't really like base building too much especially if you can build unlimited armies.. less strategical approach... just build 200 tanks and 50 anti-air vehicles and you'll get an instant win

[Ironman273]

I haven't tried it yet but I like games where you are only given limited resources/units to win the mission. I don't really like base building too much especially if you can build unlimited armies.. less strategical approach... just build 200 tanks and 50 anti-air vehicles and you'll get an instant win

So you're saying there is no strategy to having to build certain buildings to be able to use certain units while handling your income? All while making sure your base is safe from ground and air attacks? And taking into account building location, location of resources and natural formations?

Yeah, I'd much rather have a base drop from the sky and then start pumping out units.

[Rob2687]

It was much easier to "pump out units" and spam people to death in the previous C&C games. The different classes give you different units, capabilities and roles as part of the team. It's not simply about who's got the faster/better build order like the previous C&C games. The element of teamwork is key. If a team mates don't pull their weight the other team will easily over power you and conquer more of the map since you can't build any kind of unit you want and manage the entire map yourself. Tiberium is still an important part of the game as you have to collect enough for upgrades, abilities and upper tier units. Controlling and holding key points on the map gives you access to more Tiberium thus giving the advantage over the other team. Tiberium drops are scattered through out the map so it requires each player on your team to gather the Tiberium in the area that they control. People have tried to spam certain units in the beta but it's easily countered especially with team mates swinging into action with some back up. It's easy for one player to steamroll the enemy in this game but this only seems to happen when the teams are horribly unbalanced. Someone can take the support class and (with enough tiberium gathered) build some 'wtfpwn' units as the kids say these days and blow everything to smithereens but if the other team is any good they will be able to hold them off or prevent them from amassing such a force in the first place.

That being said I still think this game is crap. Yes, it is different from the good ol' C&C but I don't really mind that. It had potential if they would have took time to design and build a proper game. Most elements of this game are way too simple. As I mentioned above the tiberium is important but after like 20-25 tiberium points you can pretty much upgrade everything. This usually happens pretty early on in the game if your teammates aren't noobs and gather tiberium properly. The unit selection is pretty poor too. You'd think by removing base building they'd have more units, special abilities or more depth or something to keep things interesting but there's really only a handful and it's the same few units that people tend to use. There's a quite few units that people never use unless people build them for the lulz.

The whole level system is garbage too. It's way too easy to level up and 20 is the max level. You can level up to 20 in a few games by playing with some decent people and playing a supportive role to gain XP. The low level players end up being pretty useless on their own because they can't build any useful units especially late game when you're faced with tier 3 units and stuff. The game is supposed to be released soon (March or soemthing?) so I really don't see them overhauling the level system.

They should have made the maps a little larger and added more reward for capturing control points like building specific units, unlocking tech trees or something. If the maps were bigger they could have Tiberium harvesting in certain zones while other control points unlock certain tech trees for units and upgrades. That way there would still be a monetary system rather than a dumbed down Tiberium drop thing. If the level system been a per match type thing. i.e. Each game everyone starts from lvl. 1 and works their way up. This would remove the imbalance between players in a match right from the beginning.

IMO EA is just another megacorp who's only motivation is making money. It's pretty apparent from this and the last few C&C games that their primary goal is to slap together a product, market it and wait for the cash to roll in.

[Ironman273]

I guess that's my main quirk with it. It's not about "teams." I played C&C mainly for the single player campaign and the story. Multiplayer was just a bonus thrown in. I want to hear about what Nod is doing and how I can counterattack in a particular scenario. Then I want to play the Nod side to see how the scenario played out from that point of view. I guess everything is going multiplayer these days. Maybe they could've made a C&C MP edition and played around with online balancing there. Then they could've released a "proper" C&C 4.

[Shibby]

I agree, a lot of things seem to be going multiplayer. ?I want to play the game in my own time and not rely on other people :(

I really hope someone creates a game to get this C&C market, because C&C seems to have hurt themselves now with this.

[CentralDogma]

Steam says it got released today. Is that true? I haven't heard anything about it since the open beta.

[Ironman273]

Steam says it got released today. Is that true? I haven't heard anything about it since the open beta.

I got an email from Impulse saying the same thing so I guess it's out. I guess the series ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.

[Osiris]

Wow none of the reviews have much to say about the single player except it was limp, too short, not engaging and Kane didnt get a fitting ending :( since I have no interest in MP I guess ill have to wait till this hits the cheap bin before I can play it to see how it all ends.