Command & Conquer

Adam Parsons · Apr 1, 2004

So, what does everyone think about the AH of Command and Conquer?

Personally, I was OK with the events of the "Tiberium" games (Tiberium Dawn, Tiberium Sun, and Renegade). As for the "Red Alert" timeline, well...it's signifigantly messed up. As for the Generals timeline, it is a little weird, but somewhat plausible nonetheless.

Thoughts?

David Howery · Apr 1, 2004

Red Alert qualifies as real AH, and it isn't a bad storyline... Hitler killed early in life, and Stalin goes on a mad conquest of Europe. C&C is OK, but I really prefer RA... both 1 and 2. It's a whole lot easier to get into the allies vs. commies roles than into the vague GDI/NOD mindset. I wonder if the Brits like RA2, as the sniper and the Harrier simply rock....

Pax Britannia · Apr 2, 2004

The RA games are set in a TL where WW2 didnt happen. Yet the campaign map in the first RA game is the same as modern europe. And why doesnt Britain still have its empire? If the war was primarily fought and won in europe without overseas colonies being threatened i dont see how the British empire could collapse in time for RA2.

David Howery · Apr 2, 2004

there was agitation for independence even before WW2... wouldn't it be likely that these movement would grow? Perhaps with the long war in Europe, Britain (and the other colonial nations) granted them their independence in return for troops and support for the war in Europe....

Xen · Apr 2, 2004

David Howery said:
there was agitation for independence even before WW2... wouldn't it be likely that these movement would grow? Perhaps with the long war in Europe, Britain (and the other colonial nations) granted them their independence in return for troops and support for the war in Europe....

But the storyline isnt sound. There is both a north and south Korea, why? When the communists lost the first war, the Korea's should be united.

Then there is the borders of Europe, post World War II borders, please explain how that happened?

In the first Soviet Mission we see the Iwo Jima Memorial, how was there an Iwo Jima Memorial without a war with Japan? We see clearly in the opening movie the President has a Hotline phone to Tokyo as well as Moscow. That basically means no war with Japan.

Face it the term think outside of the box does not apply to the people who wrote this story line. The Alternate History is very amateur, the butterflies effected little outside of technology, it crosses more into ASB than it does true Alternate History.

David Howery · Apr 2, 2004

yeah, it probably wasn't all that thought out. But what difference would it have made? If they really plotted out the ATL really thoroughly, who beyond the rather tiny audience of AH devotees would notice all the details and go "Ooh, neat"? For the background of a computer game, it's about as well thought out as any of them get... and to be honest, do you really play this game to play out AH scenarios or just to blow away commies far and wide?

Trotsky · Apr 3, 2004

I played Red Alert to blow capitalist pig-dogs far and wide, actually.

Pax Britannia · Apr 3, 2004

I love the RA games but as an AH its full of holes. Like in the allied mission where you have to defend pearl harbour. You can see the arizona memorial and others. How is this possible without the war with japan.

David Howery · Apr 3, 2004

actually, the POD is that there is no European war... I don't remember anything about no war in the Pacific... it still could have happend....

Adam Parsons · Apr 3, 2004

Yeah, with the original Red Alert, I assumed that two seperate wars were going on at the time: One between the Europeans and the Soviets, and between the Americans and the Japanese. This explains the various OTL WW2 memorials in RA2, and why we didn't see the Americans in the original game. I figure that after this war, Japan retreats into isolation, and China never pulls itself together enough to become a superpower, leaving the field wide open for little Korea, which, by the way, is one country in RA2.

The only two things that really bug me are the European borders in Red Alert, the biggest problem being Germany and Poland having present-day boundaries, and the technical hyperacceleration. Modern Apaches in the 1940's? Now, if they'd used a helicopter from the Vietnam War, I could have believed it. I'm willing to put up with stuff being invented 20 years early, but not 40+.

Also, does anyone find it odd that a lot of the units used in Red Alert are used in the original Command and Conquer, 40-50 years later according to the storyline? Who still uses units from WW2 now?

Okay, I'm all done ranting.

David Howery · Apr 3, 2004

the Allied side in the original RA wasn't differentiated at all. You could choose to play as a specific country in free form games, but there wasn't any difference in choice of units. The Allies were just 'the allies', all units the same. I'd always assumed that the Americans were part of the allies, due to the name of some of the units in the game. Of course, the cut scenes only show a Greek and a German as your immediate commanders.
RA2, though, has specific nations with some variation in units available to them. Personally, I love the Brits in RA2... the sniper simply kicks long range butt on the enemy troopers.. put him in an IFV, and he can move fast, strike hard, and run away.....