While they might have taken out the third faction and some staples of the RTS genre, they’ve replaced it with more strategic decision-making. One might even argue that it’s more real-time than previous games as you simply don’t need to wait around
while peons/harvesters/grunts grab up resources for you (something StarCraft II still requires you to do along with base building). So effectively what EA Los Angeles did (prior to being disbanded) was to split the RTS genre into two different factions itself. The traditional gather, build, attack and the new, and as far as I’m concerned, improved quicker build on-the-move.
Now many fans of C&C will complain that they shouldn’t have changed the formula. But change is generally good and these changes make the game faster and levels take far less time than they did when you were forced to micromanage every aspect of resource collection and structure-building. Some will disagree with me and that’s fine, we’re all entitled to an opinion.
Tiberian Twilight has been criticized for being more geared-toward multiplayer, but it does contain campaigns for both factions on solo and co-op. Yes, there is a large multiplayer aspect to the game but that’s what RTS’s have been about since the days of Warcraft when you could play against your friends as well as a campaign. The
multiplayer does have a lot to offer including player-vs-player, players-vs-AI, custom matches and quick matches and 5-on-5 objective-based games. On top of that you can practice up in some skirmishes just you against the computer outside of the campaign so you can familiarize yourself with the levels and units available to you.
The most interesting of the modes for me is the Co-op, returning from Red Alert 3, where in two friends can share goals on a single level and includes level progression (the RPG elements in the game that unlock new technology as you level up).