Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars

Sound

Sound was initially not something we picked up on. Naturally in the heat of a battle it can be hard to concentrate on the music and we spent most of the time paying more attention to the subtly digitized female voice of our base constantly telling us that we were on the verge of defeat.

Later though, with the voice volume pulled down and the music pushed to maximum we were able to appreciate more the way tension was stacked on through the soundtrack.

The music isn't as memorable as it was in the first games and I doubt that it'll be hummed or whistled throughout the office in a day or two, but its certainly good enough to do the job in-game. With a gentle sci-fi theme, the rise and falls of the orchestra put us on the edge of our seats without ever realising it.

Voice and unit dialogues too were well done with just enough variation in them to prevent clicking on your soldiers being annoying. Players can also get in-mission visits from their advisors who will donate valuable advice in early levels and stern warnings in later maps and the developers have done an excellent job of laying slight static over the audio here to maintain a sense of realism as you send your railgun-toting tanks into battle.

Conclusion

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars is an excellent game and it's impossible to deny that the same balanced gameplay and intriguing story that made the series a classic to start with has returned in new graphical glory. You're going to need an 8800-series card to get a decent framerate at 1600 x 1200 or higher but the good news is that the game is still perfectly playable with framerates into the high teens and low twenties.

While it's possible to argue that the game is essentially the same as the original and therefore isn't really worth the money, that argument would be ignoring the higher quality of acting and improved graphics and sound offered in Tiberium Wars, not to mention the slick multiplayer battles. The missions are generic in terms of objectives, but the maps allow for a fair deal of tactical freedom which helps to balance it out.

There are undoubtedly downsides to the game too though, mostly in that it doesn't offer the fantastic epic scale that players may have become used to after playing Supreme Commander. The fact that the game loses a lot of its graphical charm at anything below high quality could also be a deciding factor for those with lesser hardware.

In the end though, Tiberium Wars is not just a worthy addition to the Command & Conquer franchise, but a triumphant return to form for a series that had arguably experimented too much in the wrong direction. It doesn't feature the long-term gameplay and replayability of other titles, but it does successfully give shorter and more manageable missions suitable for filling a nostalgic hour or two at a sitting.