Command and Conquer 4 Preview

Divide and Respawn

What’s sure to be the biggest and most controversial change to ye olde Command and Conquer strategy template though is the fact that you can respawn and have another go at a level if you die.

Yep. Respawning. It’s a strange thing to do in a strategy game – allowing you to just rebuild your forces and pick up where you left off even after you lost a battle, but that’s apparently the way that Command and Conquer 4 will function.

If your base is completely destroyed and your construction yard is demolished then you just choose a new class (if you want) and a new MCV drops out of the sky and lands on the old one. It destroys everything in the immediate vicinity too, including enemy units, so it can theoretically be used as an offensive weapon.

Chatting with one of the producers on the game it became clear that this feature hasn’t yet been totally nailed down either and that EA is still trying things out to see how it works. One of the ideas discussed was that you’d only have limited respawns on the harder difficulties, but for the moment it’s pretty much unlimited.


Honestly, we were completely boggled by the idea of respawning in a Command & Conquer game. We weren’t huge fans of the idea when it was in a wholly reflex-driven game like BioShock or Prince of Persia, which also used a ‘you can’t die’ mechanic and putting it into a strategy game feels more than just a little ludicrous.

In Command and Conquer 4 then, there’s theoretically nothing to stop you from using cheap spam or siege tactics over and over again – and while that’s true on some level for most strategy games, C&C 4 seems to actually be making it a feature. Are we the only ones who are made somewhat uncomfortable by the growing number of games where it’s apparently impossible to fail in any meaningful sense? Whatever happened to the old system of risk and reward and why is it changing to grind and reward these days? B’ah, humbug!


You aren’t just able to respawn your base either, but can actually move them around at will. The ‘M’ in MCV has stood for ‘Mobile’ for a long time, but only now are you really able to move your construction vehicle in style and no simply trawl it over to a single location for deployment.

Instead, the MCV is now a fully armoured and decently capable unit in its own right – striding across the battlefield and spewing out missiles and units alike. If needs be and you’re confident enough then you can probably rely on the MCV as a powerful offensive tool when storming an enemy base. What’s the worst that could happen anyway, you have to respawn?

While we didn’t get a chance to see it actually in action, it was mentioned that the MCV will be upgradeable as you progress through the game too and that you’ll be able to customise it based on your preferred class and gameplay style. Missile turret and laser batteries were all hinted at, as well as a few more unusual ideas that EA is still fiddling with. Again though, the idea of an offensive MCV does raise a few questions. Namely, if you’re starting the mission with a customised, offensive juggernaut and you’re not really penalised for failure why do you really need to build anything at all?