Note: This review specifically covers the single-player campaign for Tempest Rising. Please wait until after launch for any thoughts on multiplayer.
It was only a matter of time before EA waited for the EA to announce a new Command & Conquest real-time strategy game without cancelling in a few months. Finally, Danish developer Slipgate IronWorks has now put the problem into his own hands. Tempest Rising does a pretty good job of playing like a C&C game with serial numbers submitted and mixing itching for this style of fast action. However, given how closely it continues to that template, it’s a bit disappointing that it didn’t build the personality and atmosphere between missions more enjoyable.
How closely? Aside from recreating the gameplay of plate spinning and the basic technology tree (as many have done in the last 30 years), you can easily change GDF from GDI to Tempest to Tiberium. Beware when they encounter enemies. Some of the similarities are funny to the nose: the structure of the noddish fact barracks, shaped like a giant hand to reach out from the ground, did not mind changing the name of the Mobile Construction Vehicles (MCV) that would expand into the base’s central construction yard building. Yes, it’s pretty close!
Campaign stories reframe GDI/NOD conflicts among global global defense and are treated in a derivative manner with almost the same loving affection Leadership The forces and paramilitary dynasties fighting for the territory of Europe and North Africa are set here in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, and things have become much worse than we do. However, with the exception of the destroyed roads on the battlefield, the briefing regional map looks pretty normal and missions don’t occur anywhere you can recognize, so you really don’t know that it’s the three worlds after World War I. But even more importantly, it lacks some of the secret materials of C&C. Of these, he is a good villain.
Much of the character of the classic C&C game came from the evil nods and their mysterious ageless leader Kane (played with Wild Eyed enthusiasm by Joe Kucan). Certainly, the dynasty leaders who tell you before every mission have more personalities than the general and disgusting generals of the GDF, but the constantly distraught Alek can’t hold a candle on Kane. It is impossible to build a cult of personality around a grumpy man in a beret, and beyond being a fetishist in black leather, the dynasty does not do much ideologically. They don’t even explicitly framework as fascist baddies because of global domination (especially compared to the shadowy councils pulling the strings of the GDF). If it weren’t for such a thing to invest, and coupled with some instances of comically poor voice acting, I was unmotivated to sit through multiple strings of optional dialogues that would give you a clearer background to lore.
At a day and age where anyone with a smartphone can replace Zoom backgrounds with a high-tech command center or a dark, ominous paramilitary headquarters, I have never won accrue the resources to do C&C style live action cutscenes and won’t get anyone to break the virtual scenery and follow the legendary footsteps of Time Curry. These common animated characters cannot compete, especially if the budget is not revealed to match most people’s dialogue and mouth movements (notably, both factions have eu while giving you orders via gas masks for no reason).
However, when it comes to actual real-time strategies, Tempest Rising’s fares are much better. It may be played within highly defined genre and style constraints, but it looks good and runs well (it only crashed when loading certain saved games). Once you’ve passed the basic infantry, you’ll have almost all the special abilities and twists, and instead of selecting everything and sending it to an attacking meat grinder, you’d like to decide if you have time to use it and whether it’s worth micromanaging. It’s too much to list, but the heavy use of GDF’s drone controller units is fun. Can be controlled independently to scout within the radius. You can pack the pilot into an APC or transport choppers. It’s also a great touch to generate resources for special abilities by taking extra steps to mark the target before destroying it. That’s a good reward for a little micromanagement in small engagements.
When the GDF posed, I did not praise him and answered the question of what would happen if the GDI Mammoth Tank and the Siege Tank of Starcraft 2 loved each other so much. This is a great wish fulfillment for fans of these series. These Trebuchet hybrids deploy very quickly in about a second and don’t deploy deployments, which really drives how micromanaged Tempest Rising is built. There’s no need to constantly repeat between mobile and fixed modes, but if so, you’ll get more firepower and range.
On the other side, the dynasty scrap truck is a very powerful unit that can be deployed to automatically repair all vehicles or buildings in radius while still standing, and become turret structures with even greater repair ranges. It can then be used to expand the building area of the base and stock fire and missile turrets (the dynasty builds the structure in advance and then positions it immediately, while the GDF places the structures in place and then builds them). It combines with their ultra-long range porcupine missile truck and deadly Sam Launcher to make Dynasty a great offensive tartling fan. And when they want to be a little more aggressive, if they can’t destroy them first, they can literally deploy a giant metal ball that flattens tanks and infantry along that road.
Overall, when you pass the first few tutorials, the various missions are respectable, but you can expect a lot of base cracking, defense holdouts and final stands, commando missions led by powerful expert infantry. It’s also interesting that some of these purposes don’t pop up unless you scout the entire map. This is why I go back and replay, but if I’m trying to do everything at once, I might troll a bit. All of these missions are well done, but again, they are very traditional. There’s nothing here that fundamentally thinks outside the box or effectively builds mini-game modes on the abilities of units in the Starcraft 2 way. They are a good time to break, but there are few that stand out.
Like almost every RTS campaign done so far, Tempest Rising gradually accesses new units and uses Airstrike support capabilities to select all missions from one of three linear trees. Additionally, you can unlock it and then refill the expanding slots. Some of the upgrades are minor, but they are useful, such as stats bonuses that start units at the veteran level, such as adding burn damage to dynasty flame agents over time. Some people are a bit exploitative, like increasing the range of infantry vision by 50% (which makes it a highly effective spotter for artillery). But some are definitely meaningful choices that I will definitely think hard to think if I go out and play again with a higher difficulty. The biggest of these, to me, was the “stolen plan” ability, allowing us to build some vehicles of conflicting factions without catching their buildings. Some of them, like the Trebuchet Tank and the Porcupine Missile Launcher Truck, were game-changers and helped them quickly break through the tough line of defensive. Rather than leaning towards these and highlighting what makes each faction unique, it is true that we can homogenize the campaign a little, but we appreciate the ability to customize the power. Also, the ability to repack the Dynasty Scrap Truck after deploying it was a huge upgrade that saved me from having to build an entire fleet of those.
To say that you continue to the same event from the opposite perspective later in both campaigns doesn’t ruin what’s not on the Steam page. The story suddenly introduces the third technologically advanced faction tied to the sparkling resources they are fighting for. It’s a bit difficult to understand how they behave differently because it’s multiplayer, but it’s good to be here for variety. It’s not dramatically different to taking on the GDF or dynasty in a campaign fighting heavier troops. They have similar basic structures, tanks, aircraft and infantry, but they have some scary slow gaming units where the GDF and the dynasty cannot match toe and require them to take completely different stances.
