Space Satan
Arcane
C&C was the greatest RTS of its time. limitless potential, recognizable franchize, perfect for tournaments. But it failed and vanished into oblivion, consumed and raped by EA. And Warcraft with Starcraft franchizes rose to prominence and assumed complete domination with Warcraft III and Starcraft releases.
But prior to this, there were a period of time when C&C could outperform Warcraft\Starcraft.
But then it failed. I always wanted to know why.
1. C&C vs Warcraft II. 1995
Both games have been released in 1995 with C&C 4 months earlier than WCII. C&C was first to implement assymetric units gameplay, when Warcraft II had symmetric grunt-footman, ogre-knight etc. approach. WCII established a fog of war as a new standart for RTS games and added importance of recon to the game. C&C had free resource harvesting and WCII limited it to mines. Yet both games fared well in multiplayer and catered to different audiences- fantasy and magic vs Sci-fi. Westwood and Blizzard had parity here and both games became a classics of video gaming, both improving RTS genre in their own.
2. Tiberian Sun(1999) vs Starcraft(1998)
Starcraft roared into RTS genre and defined it so much that to this day it is THE only RTS remaining that have at least somehow large audience. Korea phenomenon aside, at the start Starcraft proved that it learned from cmain competitor's shortcomings and could fix them. Starcraft:
3. Firestorm vs Brood War
Both Expansions advanced the plot. But if with Starcraft all sides were interested and had a solid addition to to their storylines, Firestorm continued from GDI victory, making NOD story branch of Tiberian Sun stillborn. No competition here, Firestrom added minor fixes and three new units for all sides, while Brood War overhauled entire gameplay. Medic alone made terran infantry a force to be reconed with.
4. Tiberium Wars(2007) vs Starcraft II(2010)
In 1998 Westwood, after commercial failure of C&C Renegade, was consumed by EA, which started by firing laying off most employees. By that time C&C was a shadow of its former self and Blizard used 500$ as toilet paper. Yet Tiberian Wars arrived in good shape. Reworked with aims to compete for RTS competitive scene. With quite fast engine, somehow utilitarian UI and the first C&C game with singular storytelling for all sides. BUT. We are talking about EA. Game had virtually no support there were seven patches, released in a span of 6 months, all with balance adjustments...and then no patches at all. Having grabbed all cash, EA axed all support and stopped communicating with community. By the time Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty early beta arrived game was dead already and there were no one to compete with. Red Alert 3 faced similar fate with axed support and bad balance. To add salt to the injury Tiberium Wars used GameSpy to run their multiplayer games and after its stutdown online plays could be accessed only via custom made alternatives and programs.
5. C&C4: Tiberian Twilight
Endgame. Game was so badly recieved that it became a tombstone of a franchize. It was obvious to everyone that EA used it as their typical shovelware and a cashgrab. Game was universally abhorred and had no redeeming features.
My conclussion:
Tiberian Sun marked the downfall. Westwood aimed to make the first 3D RTS game and produced a cumbersome and crude Tiberian Sun. Failing to determine vital parts of audience demands they staggered and could not catch up with the Blizzard. Unable to make C&C franchize into a continuous story they stick with Dune approach of separate stories, they failed to unite fans of all warring sides to s single plot. Lack of support killed any involvement with multiplayer games.
But prior to this, there were a period of time when C&C could outperform Warcraft\Starcraft.
But then it failed. I always wanted to know why.
1. C&C vs Warcraft II. 1995
Both games have been released in 1995 with C&C 4 months earlier than WCII. C&C was first to implement assymetric units gameplay, when Warcraft II had symmetric grunt-footman, ogre-knight etc. approach. WCII established a fog of war as a new standart for RTS games and added importance of recon to the game. C&C had free resource harvesting and WCII limited it to mines. Yet both games fared well in multiplayer and catered to different audiences- fantasy and magic vs Sci-fi. Westwood and Blizzard had parity here and both games became a classics of video gaming, both improving RTS genre in their own.
2. Tiberian Sun(1999) vs Starcraft(1998)
Starcraft roared into RTS genre and defined it so much that to this day it is THE only RTS remaining that have at least somehow large audience. Korea phenomenon aside, at the start Starcraft proved that it learned from cmain competitor's shortcomings and could fix them. Starcraft:
- had ultimate unit assymetry approach, with three sides with completely different gameplays.
- was fast. It was fast on 486, on Pentium, on Athlon, it was fast on anything.
- had a singular storyline. With all three sides sharing their story parts
- had continuous support
- had separate storylines. Which meant that NOD will always be the losers and GDI will always win. No singular storyline, every campaign played for itself, making NOD campaign useless when sequel will arrive.
- was slow. Voxel graphics was 3D for tanks only, infantry still were sprites. Yet voxel graphics made graphic accelerators like 3Dfx and early nVidia into a slo-motion show.
- lacked support. There were FOUR patches(pre-firestorm) and only one of them adressed game balance, while Starcraft had seven during same time period and ALL of them had balance adjustments and multiplayer optimizations.
3. Firestorm vs Brood War
Both Expansions advanced the plot. But if with Starcraft all sides were interested and had a solid addition to to their storylines, Firestorm continued from GDI victory, making NOD story branch of Tiberian Sun stillborn. No competition here, Firestrom added minor fixes and three new units for all sides, while Brood War overhauled entire gameplay. Medic alone made terran infantry a force to be reconed with.
4. Tiberium Wars(2007) vs Starcraft II(2010)
In 1998 Westwood, after commercial failure of C&C Renegade, was consumed by EA, which started by firing laying off most employees. By that time C&C was a shadow of its former self and Blizard used 500$ as toilet paper. Yet Tiberian Wars arrived in good shape. Reworked with aims to compete for RTS competitive scene. With quite fast engine, somehow utilitarian UI and the first C&C game with singular storytelling for all sides. BUT. We are talking about EA. Game had virtually no support there were seven patches, released in a span of 6 months, all with balance adjustments...and then no patches at all. Having grabbed all cash, EA axed all support and stopped communicating with community. By the time Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty early beta arrived game was dead already and there were no one to compete with. Red Alert 3 faced similar fate with axed support and bad balance. To add salt to the injury Tiberium Wars used GameSpy to run their multiplayer games and after its stutdown online plays could be accessed only via custom made alternatives and programs.
5. C&C4: Tiberian Twilight
Endgame. Game was so badly recieved that it became a tombstone of a franchize. It was obvious to everyone that EA used it as their typical shovelware and a cashgrab. Game was universally abhorred and had no redeeming features.
My conclussion:
Tiberian Sun marked the downfall. Westwood aimed to make the first 3D RTS game and produced a cumbersome and crude Tiberian Sun. Failing to determine vital parts of audience demands they staggered and could not catch up with the Blizzard. Unable to make C&C franchize into a continuous story they stick with Dune approach of separate stories, they failed to unite fans of all warring sides to s single plot. Lack of support killed any involvement with multiplayer games.