In the meantime, Blizzard followed up on the critical and commercial success of Warcraft with a sequel, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995), that improved the graphics and controls. The developers didn't quite get this right, though, so, far from embracing the diversity of approach this enabled, competitive players quickly identified a dominant strategy: play as Soviets, build lots of heavy tank units, then "rush" your opponent's base. Red Alert was also notable for increasing the distinctions between rival factions-to make Soviet and Allied units more distinct from each other in skills and capabilities than Nod and GDI forces had been-at a time when the trend was to go in the other direction. In-game, the Soviets weren't as evil as the Nod forces in C&C, but they could still delight the sadist within us with weapons like the Tesla coil-which quickly fried any unit unlucky enough to come within range. The Brotherhood of Nod was here, too, of course, with its enigmatic leader Kane involved in various underhanded maneuvering in the halls of Soviet power. The story began with Albert Einstein making a quick trip back in time to kill Hitler, then it ran with the most absurd possible implications as the Soviets got their own visions for expansion and ended up starting an alternate World War II-in which you could fight on either the Allied or Soviet side. It brought the original's zany FMVs, slick and fast-paced action, and '90s 'tude into a mid-20th century alternate history setting that somehow fit the style even better than before-and that would fittingly act as a prequel for the ridiculousness of the first game. The Command & Conquer series would cement its place in pop culture with the World War II-themed spinoff Red Alert in 1996. Commandos were by far the coolest units yet included in an RTS game, in part for their varied abilities but mostly because they always punctuated their acts of destruction and carnage with gruff one-liners like, "I got a present for ya!" and "that was left-handed!" Nod soldiers didn't get all the fun, though the GDI campaign included an amazing mission where you used a commando to single-handedly obliterate an enemy base by sneaking around planting explosives. In one memorable Nod mission you were explicitly asked to be party to the amoral philosophy of the Brotherhood and steal a GDI helicopter to then destroy a nearby village. Nod forces would gleefully kill defenseless villagers and raze their buildings to the ground, both during missions-if you weren't protecting the village-and during cutscenes. GDI forces always seemed to be winging it, while the Brotherhood of Nod was so on-the-nose maniacal evil that you couldn't help but laugh at their scheming, backstabbing, and wanton violence. The intentionally hammy melodramatic cutscenes, filmed with live actors in front of green screens, brought a quirky revelry to the game's darker themes. But to leave its description at that would be to neglect the brilliance of its other elements. Westwood had lessons of its own to apply in Dune II spiritual successor Command & Conquer (1995), a campy, light-hearted take on war over an alien substance between the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod-a kind of decentralized militant secret society with deep corporate connections and cult-like fervor.Īt its core, Command & Conquer was a faster-paced rehash of Dune II transposed to an alternate timeline of our home world-notably with click-and-drag multi-unit selection, multiplayer support, and a streamlined interface. The game notably introduced fog of war mechanics to take the RTS genre further.
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