Starcraft 2 approaches. Even a third of that product, however peculiarly released, must cow and alarm Blizzard’s competitors. While SC 2’s release date is doubtlessly a no-fly zone for RTS’s, the genre of RTS practiced by Blizzard must also be dangerous territory. Traditional RTS’s will always have to stand up to SC 2, and chances are, they’ll be found wanting (as the most recent Red Alert game was found wanting). What better way to escape the approaching storm than to proclaim loudly that one’s franchise is now not just an RTS?
While the RTS genre has been splintering and growing for many years, today seems like as interesting and revolutionary period as any for the genre. Relic, the undisputed masters of the full-3D space RTS (until Sins of a Solar Empire came along and slyly one-upped them), are carefully molding their once-traditional Warhammer 40k RTS into a delicious RTS RPG hybrid. Of course, many genres and games are discovering the siren call of the RPG “mechanic” or “element.” It allows them to tack on a progression mechanic to their otherwise staid game. It’s a tactic that works, but the question remains: what really changes?
This is the perfect question to ask of the forthcoming Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight. The sister series of the ailing Red Alert franchise, Tiberium Twilight aims to shake things up a little; this game will, hopefully, make you forget about those less-than-stellar entries in the series, or its creeping lack of relevancy.
At once, the multiplayer Beta of Tiberium Twilight makes a favorable impression. Instead of a starting base, with attending units, you’re given a drop-zone and a choice of three mobile command centers: the Assault Crawler, the Defense Crawler, and the Support Crawler. Each Crawler, once launched from orbit, can float or trundle across the landscape, picking the spot where it will anchor itself and commence production of units.
Instantly, the game’s incremental, experienced-based advancements are clearly delineated. Your unit cap is level-based, as is the quality and tier of units you can produce. While this provides new players with a shining, desirable goal clearly in sight, it also presents an unpleasant gameplay reality: experienced players who have completed progression in one of the game’s two factions (GDI or NOD) can field devastating, vast armies, in comparison to your tentatively built squads and small collections of units.
It’s an issue that I soon forgot, thanks to my favorite RTS Universal Truth: most people will obliterate me without even breaking a sweat. In the face of total tactical superiority, the fact that I have more or less units than another person often means little. I’ve lost games to players several level lower than me, and won (rarely!) against higher-level players. It’s actually somewhat heartening: superior numbers matter, but not as much as you might fear.
What does matter, sadly, is the tiers of units. High-level players can field units that I couldn’t even imagine existed. More importantly, I didn’t possess the proper units to counter my enemy’s offerings. This is where the pleasing-yet-frustrating combat effectiveness rules of Tiberium Twilight rule supreme. Units fall into various classifications. There are light units (these can be mechanized, airborne, or infantry), medium units (normally mechanized and airborne) and heavy units. Regardless of the unit type, every unit has a unit that they are strong against (light units) and a kind of weapon (explosive) that they’re vulnerable to. Attacking a strong mech with rifles is not necessarily pointless, but you’ll lose tens of troops for every tank you bring down. On the other hand, if you throw a few low-flying attack craft at the tanks, you’ll clean up. This rock, paper, scissors combat mechanic works well. I quickly learned what units worked well against other units, what units worked best together, and to my frustration, what units were completely beyond my ken, and beyond my simple weapons.
The game even has a section (in each unit’s status bar) that shows players what the “counters” to each unit are. From here, I can instantly recognize the image of my tank class of unit, upon sighting a squad of troops: time to start producing tanks! It’s unspeakably frustrating to see units you cannot produce in this little bar. That glimpse telegraphs the inevitability your defeat instantly.
It’s a terrifying sight, that of several top-level mechs trundling toward you, knowing that your massive army of Ospreys, Battle Tanks, and SCVs (really, let’s just call them that) don’t stand a chance against such a powerful force. It makes a wonderfully balanced game feels horribly balanced. It’s a bad design decision, and it will undoubtedly scare away players who (for some reason) don’t like losing games thanks to the fact that they’ve played the game less (not worse) than their opponents.
If you ignore this not-inconsequential flaw, Tiberium Twilight is an addictive, attractive multiplayer game. There’s a lot of interesting tactical situations that arise from commanding a mobile, highly armored production center. Depending on your class, you’ll unlock different classes of units: Assault Crawlers get powerful tanks, troops, and mechs, Support Crawlers get superior air units, and Defense Crawlers get strong structures and turrets, and tough, slow units. It’s a system that lends itself nicely to (smart) online players. A Support and Assault Crawler team can steamroll over pretty much anything, all while their Defense Crawler comrade adeptly holds encroaching enemies at bay.
As always in multiplayer matches, this kind of synergy is often a rare beast. Most players (in this Beta) spend their time pursuing their own fronts and offensives. It’s only when my units were on the brink of complete annihilation that a teammate grudgingly committed their forces to the fray. Even this is a rare occurrence. Teamwork primarily consists of assaulting the same spot in an enemy’s defenses.
This is no fault of the game’s, which capably and efficiently informed me of my opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. I’m never more than one click away from all vital information I might need on an enemy unit. Fielding the right units is for a particular job is how you’ll win these fights. Even if you have a massive army of attack bikes, shotguns mounted up front, a well-directed group of fast assault craft will ruin you quickly. The times that I’ve avoided total destruction are the times when I’ve quickly changed my production and tactical strategies to match my enemy’s (a rare occurrence). Recognizing a flotilla of NOD’s smallest, “weakest” attack ships for the danger they are is the first step: canceling all production and mass-producing my own light attach craft is the second, crucial step.
Peculiarly, despite the fact that game’s progressive RPG elements provide new players with impossibly strong enemies, the progressing through the game’s tiers and levels is still propulsive and fun. I always have a reason to keep playing, since I know that I can unlock heavy assault mechs (and speed boost for my armored units) at the next level. In the long run, leveling up doesn’t matter. Once you reach max level, Tiberium Twilight will become like every other RTS, albeit with a fun, challenging base-protection and army-building (not to mention combat) mechanic. This shouldn’t be a problem. After all, all RTS’s eventually devolve into a battle between a superior and inferior opponent. Tiberium Twilight makes a cardinal error, however, among all of its successes: it freely pits the most advanced characters (level-wise) with level 1 characters.
This seems like the kind of thing that a small amount of research would have quickly fixed. There’s a reason why most MMORPGs don’t let level 1 players face off in PVP against level 60 players. It’s the kind of duel that leads to unhappy, annoyed players. People like to have just a bit of a fighting chance in such situations. While Tiberium Twilight is a fun, well-designed RTS (I can only imagine it’s single player will be strong from a tactical standpoint, if not a narrative one), its segmented multiplayer gameplay is a severe misstep for EA. It’s instantly divisive and frustrating. That’s not the kind of thing you want in a genre already given to thrashing new players.
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