Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - A Review

"The future lies with the brotherhood," says Kane, the enigmatic and self-styled Messiah of Nod.

"Arise my children, for our time has now come".

He couldn't have said it better. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is THE game of this season. The funny thing about Kane is that no matter how many times you kill him (he apparently was killed in the last two games), he keeps coming back with badder machines from the NOD drawing board and more diabolical schemes to take over the world. This time, Kane gets lucky and fires a nuke which destroys the GDI's planetary-orbital control station, the Philadelphia. In the ensuing chaos, NOD forces attempt their third bid at world domination.

So yes, NOD has nukes and Tiberium-based weapons. GDI has the Ion Cannon and more high-tech gadgetry. Familiar weapons like the EMP are also available.

There is also a third faction known as the alien race Scrin, which arrived on planet Earth - apparently attracted to the large swathes of Tiberium that infected most of the world in 2050 - to make the bloody world war between NOD and GDI become a fatal three-war fight for supremacy.

Boasting of exotic and insectoid-like units, the Scrin reminds me of the Protoss in Starcraft. Think that these unearthly-like creatures can be squashed by volleys of homing missiles and a couple of well-placed cluster bombs? Think again! The Scrin possesses the Rift Generator - a powerful superweapon that creates rifts which suck up anything unfortunate to be caught up in its vortex.

Boasting an interface that fans of the Command & Conquer series should familiarise with in no time, this game packs enough punch and kick-ass like the new units in the game.

The graphics are enhanced and projectiles and explosions now look more realistic. Structures crumble and bellow with smoke when you fire rockets into them. Tiberium glows with a green haze above them. And with enhanced 3-D modelling, the terrain is no longer a backdrop of 2-D ridges and lowlands.

I grabbed a couple of screenshots while playing the game. Here they are:

This beautiful welcome page greeted me when I first embarked on my third foray into the Command & Conquer series

In one of the missions, I find my base attacked by wave after wave of NOD infantry consisting of Militant Squads, Missile Squads, elite Blackhands and Fanatics

......But my base defences consisting of Watch Towers and Guardian Cannons quickly turned their foolish assault into a rout

Explosions in C&C3 are now more spectacular. Here, the row of parked NOD vehicles gets reduced to smithereens

The NOD commander now will have his hands full toying with the familiar NOD structures such as the fearsome Obelisk (bottem), Command Post, Secret Shrine, among others

My assortment of APCs, Predator Tanks, and Mammoth Tanks lay waste to the NOD Secret Shrine and Hand of NOD