Command & Conquer is a title which is also known as C&C or CNC and was produced and developed by Westwood Studios. The game was inspired from Dune III, a strategy based game from Westwood Studio’s. It was released in the last quarter of 1995 and was a blend of real time strategy and first person shooter.
Command & Conquer was a tremendous success and very quickly established a cult of followers from all parts of the world. As per the records of “PC Data”, it sold about 800,000 copies of the games in America alone. The game established itself as the top 20 most selling PC-CD ROM game.
Westwood Studio was eventually bought over by Electronic Arts Studio, also known as EA, in 2003. The Electronic Arts studio continued the development of the game and brought more stories that would follow its origin. Command & Conquer has been improved over the years and EA has celebrated each year with the success of each new release.
But what is Command & Conquer or should one ask who do I command or I do I Conquer?
Command & Conquer is to be a supreme power that would dominate the destiny and decision for the world. The game is about establishing a military base, using the natural resources in order to support the war, building structures and advancements for better and heavy arsenal. The game has about 30 to 50 different missions, with certain surprise or bonus missions.
You have to choose a player front which could be the US Army, Chinese or the Russian Army etc. With each, you get to choose a general who has at least one special unit or power as you may call it. The game has 6 versions released under the same header Command & Conquer where one was a prequel and rest other sequels and all of them have been a huge success.
We have learnt quiet a bit about the inspiration and development of C&C from a nascent stage to a grown gamer’s cult. Now let us see what the present scenario for the game as is on date. In the last few years C&C has launched multiple variations of the title i.e. C&C: Kane’s Wrath was launched in June of 2008 and in November of 2008, C&C: Red Alert was launched for the Xbox 360.
The game has been and will be ported to all the available platforms for gaming. The game has an elite class of gamers who have been religious to follow the foot steps of the game and have always wanted more since the beginning of the game.
If we look at the graphics, story, sound and arsenal of all the versions one by one, we would find that the game has moved from an era to another each time when there was a new version launched. With the use of the available technology, the game has been brought to close to realism. The game story line has changed a little bit here and there, but has been in line with its heritage in an ongoing sequence.
It would be fools gold at hand if you have not experienced the game so far and I would not say that you would like Command & Conquer (choice and opinions could be different) but it will definitely leave you tempting and demanding for more and more. Not being to optimistic about the game or the gaming industry but one thing that I have been able to believe with all who have the interest in the game I could proudly say that “what we have and we are experiencing today, is a game that would make a legend out of a legacy.”
In the end here is a little something for all the readers:
“When you go home tell them of us… and say for your tomorrow we gave our TODAY…”
- By Anuj Gupta