The Solo campaign has some interesting plot twists, as one would expect, and some fairly involved missions. While it’s been criticized as being too short it’s still two campaigns in one as you can play as either GDI or NOD in the same storyline (as always). The absence of the Scrin as a playable faction, in my opinion, doesn’t really
harm the game. Nor does it limit it in scope. Overall, the campaign mode was mostly satisfying. Sure it could always be longer but it’s not exactly short at present. Perhaps you might make it through Normal difficulty, both campaigns in 6-8 hours, difficult in perhaps 10-12.
The graphics on the game are great and have continued to grow with the franchise. Stages still maintain multiple physical levels (limiting mobility) and there is a wide assortment of environmental visuals to distract you from time to time. The units are fairly well detailed and each have their own unique look, along with strengths and weaknesses. The cut scenes, while missing big acting names, are still well done and move the story along as they always have. Just because there are no big name actors does not mean it is not top quality.
The audio side of the game is well done also. Never did I hear some sound and think ’that doesn’t quite fit’ and I laughed out loud when the unit was created and simply said "Hey, nice suit!" The Engineers have some of the best lines in the game. If you tend to make a diverse array of units, as I do, you won’t be annoyed by
the repetitive statements they make when they’re created or given orders. In fact, they are some of the least intrusive of any RTS I’ve played. There wasn’t once where they even mildly annoyed me. The soundtrack is one of epic struggle and even though at times you block it out or forget it’s there, it very much adds to the atmosphere of the game and helps keep you engrossed.
Overall Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight does a great job of wrapping up the series. With the end of the series also comes the end of the team that made it. So now the future of Command & Conquer is also fading into the darkness of twilight. Will we see another game or another series of games? I’m sure the franchise will continue. I like the changes they made in this version as it makes the game much quicker to pick up and play. With the limited number of command points it calls for far more strategy than the old, just build a structure to get more units, way to play. In fact, that was a lot of the reason I stopped playing a lot of RTS games, it was too muc
h focus on gather and build and not enough on strategy. This game does its franchise, the Tiberian series and indeed the entire genre justice. It refocused on strategy and brought it truly into the realm of real-time. But man my finger hurts, I wish they’d work on some voice commands if they decide to bring the franchise back.
The future of C&C is now shrouded in darkness. The team that worked on these titles was pulled apart by EA and we don’t know what will be next for C&C. Perhaps they’ll take a few years break until they find a story worthy of the franchise. I had better get to writing so I have something to suggest to them.
