7/10 Fair game.
Tempest Rising tries to be the new Command and Conquer. Although I like C&C a good amount, Im not the hardcordest of the fans, so Im not an expert on it.
Pros.
Good engine. I have lagspikes here and there with default settings, and I have a decent rig. Could have been optimized a bit better, but its fine. UI feels familiar, no need to learn a single thing if you played C&C before.
Decent amount and diversity of units, just that one of them is just overpowered, and there is really no point to make other type. It has big ground and air damage and insane range. So you just take everything from a fair distance without much interaction. All other units lose purpose.
Good graphics. Sound is amazing. It is overall a good engine. No complaints there.
The cons.
I have played the GDF campaign only. The main appeal of C&C was never the gameplay itself, at least not for me, it was the cheesy cinematics played by real actors and compelling storyline. Cain, the villain, was the central part of both the game itself and the cinematics. He frequently appeared in the "good guys" side, hijacking the communications, so you knew who he was regardless of which side you picked.
That doesnt happen here. To begin with, your briefings are given by a animated characters, they are not memorable at all, not cheesy, not serious either, just kinda meh. I still dont know if there is a villain leader. Never got a hint about it, nor a mention, nor anything.
So the great thing about C&C, which are the briefing cinematics are not present. And apparently no villain. Big miss. It was really a letdown.
And the other big miss was the campaign itself. It was just short for what was happening in the story.
Not gonna spoil what happens on it, but it was a letdown, even though the mission themselves were dynamic and kept you on your toes.
The game its still very playable and has some both nostalgic value and value on its own, it just falls short at emulating C&C and just fails at being its own thing. Ill still going to complete the other campaign, but I dont think Ill play multiplayer, not my thing. But you guys might enjoy it, so feel free to try it.
What I think is that this game will have a sequel, you dont build an engine like this to not do it. So, @Slipgate Ironworks. Please, if you are trying to emulate C&C, work on the briefings. They need to be more cheesy and they need way more characters.
And if you are going to introduce a third faction mid campaign, make sure both enemies have a proper conclusion, and if you need to do 15-20 missions instead of 11, so be it for the story sake.
And add charismatic leaders for all the factions, you have to know who they all are regardless of which campaign you are playing. You need to know your enemy. Thats why C&C is memorable. You only need to fix the storytelling, the gameplay is already there and it is solid (maybe a few nerfs, but perfect overall).
Do that and you will have a masterpiece. You just fell super short on the storytelling here, and I mean you dropped the ball big time. The engine is great and the gameplay is fantastic.
Unfortunatelly Ill have to close with this.
If you are fan of C&C, you should still buy it full price to support the company. I myself do not regret this purchase.
If you are curious about the game itself, full price or maybe get it on special.
But if you want to explore the RTS genre, its probably not the best choice. Try the actual C&C games.
