Westwood and its successors' RTS games retrospective.
I've played all of these now, including expansions, with the minor omissions of Dune 2000, Tiberium Twilight and the Covert Ops expansion to C&C 95. This is how I would group them, with brief comments focusing on their comparative place amongst their peers, rather than description, as in my AARs and earlier overview posts.
Dune 2 (1992)
Primitive, but not bad, and still a unique point in the vast RTS design landscape. I recently became aware of its Megadrive port, due to other posters ITT, which seems quite different to the DOS game and perhaps closer to its inspiration Herzog Zwei, the link between two of my favorite genres -- the RTS and the shmup.
Command & Conquer (1995) and
Red Alert (1996)
Revolutionary games that, IMO, are still the "must plays" in their respective series, for both the way they play (they have very solid mission design, despite, or maybe even due to, how primitive they are -- there's no fog of war, just shroud, but flying units don't reveal shroud, yet from the very start the mission design is aware of this and built around it), and due to their artistry -- presentation, music, FMV, geopolitical commentary etc. You can tell these were inspired games.
N.B. If you play these games, I recommend the DOS and Windows originals, respectively, run at resolutions of 320 by 240 and 640 by 480 respectively. Don't play them at super high resolutions, it goes against the design of the games akin to playing an N64 FPS with a mouse. Attention rationing is a big part of Westwood RTS design (otherwise, why have the minimap as something you have to invest resources into?) and IMO for maximum enjoyment and challenge it's best to respect that. The recent remasters, AFAICT, fix the field of view irrespective of resolution, so they may be a good choice too (they're made by many of the same people as the originals over 25 years ago, though I haven't played them). Don't play OpenRA's version of these campaigns, at least not initially, as too much is different.
Tiberian Sun (1999) and
Red Alert 2 (2000)
The last pure Westwood (Nevada) RTS and the first Westwood LA RTS. Also the first after EA bought Westwood. Powerful, full featured, simulation oriented 2D isometric engine begets less focused single player campaigns and, in the latter case, IMO, less inspired writing and setting. Of the two, Red Alert 2 is the more refined game, unfortunately by shirking away from the challenges of advanced simulation (e.g. gone is the deformable terrain from Tiberian Sun), rather than rising to them.
Emperor Battle for Dune (2001)
The first 3D RTS from Westwood, and the first game built with what would become the SAGE engine, which I believe Westwood bought from a 3rd party. In terms of game design, it's the first serious flirtation with a "risk-style" "over" game (glimpses of which we could see as early as Dune 2 and C&C 95), though undercooked, as missions get a bit repetitive due to map sameyness, and some of its elements being better on paper (e.g. direction of attack, again, due to map sameyness). Worth playing for its unique system of joining minor houses to your own during the campaign by completing secondary objectives (IIRC), though your house determines which minor houses are easier, or harder, or impossible to recruit.
Generals (2003) and Battle for Middle Earth (2004)
The last game core Westwood worked on before they broke off early on during development and formed Petroglyph, and the first game (presumably) wholly in their absence. With regards to fundamental RTS design and play, this is the genre at two different local optimums. At a glance, Generals might deceive players into thinking it's simply a refined, 3D C&C game (which is what Tiberium Wars actually is, see below), but it's only because it takes elements from a familiar combat model, only to then emphasize and combine them to the point of subversion. Generals, is also, IMO an inspired game with regard to its artistry. Battle for Middle Earth on the other hand puts the miniatures-like combat model from genre adjacent games such Shadow of the Horned Rat or Total War, in an RTS proper, along with a constrained take on base building to the benefit, not detriment of, its strategic play. It also makes maps interesting and the AI more capable (don't expect miracles).
Empire at War (2006)
An evolution of the Emperor Battle for Dune risk-style, strategic over-game, to a real-time format, but shifting the strategy away from the battles, too much so, at least as far as the campaign is concerned, which falls flat on its face IMO. Space battles are very well done, especially between capital ships due to the genre first (AFAIK) targetable hard points on these units.
Battle for Middle Earth 2 (2006), Tiberium Wars (2007) and Red Alert 3 (2008)
Uninspired, very corporate, big budget games from new blood at EA LA -- The majority of the original LA team, which had been around since Red Alert 2, left after finishing BFME 1, to say nothing of any stragglers from Westwood Nevada.
BFME 2 had troubled development, as evidenced by its janky single player campaign (the expansion, OTOH, has a much less janky campaign, with a couple of excellent missions, though even then, it is let down by some jank), and other tells such as the fact that it was released in 2006 without widescreen resolution support. Nevertheless it made important innovations in unit control (adding a means of specifying facing and formation with move orders, as well as issuing different orders to multiple units simultaneously) that would carry over to Tiberium Wars and RA3. Compared to its prequel, BFME 2 is a lot more conservative in its design (e.g. gone is the innovative build plot system), which is another thing all three games have in common, with the latter two setting out from where 1998 left off.
Unlike BFME 2, which was undercooked, Tiberium Wars and RA3 are overcooked, if anything i.e. they are overproduced, and, IMO, lack soul. Made up for by the fact that they both have very good campaigns. RA3's campaign is also of note because it is entirely co-op, while its expansion had no multiplayer at all. Beyond that, Tiberium Wars also has a surprisingly competent AI (don't expect miracles) and RA3 makes naval units and water tiles interesting by expanding and subverting genre conventions, albeit within the confines of an overly simplistic, retrograde combat model.
Universe at War (2007)
In many aspects of its design, a sequel to, or evolution of, Generals, from combat model, to economy. Perhaps revealing some of the direction Generals might have taken had Westwood Nevada stuck around in 2002 and 2003. Highly unique remix of familiar elements from all Command & Conquer games bearing the Westwood name, in addition to Generals, along with Petroglyph original ideas such as the capital ships from Empire at War, but now they're huge walkers on land that are their faction's production buildings and can also crush other faction's production buildings, or a power-grid for base expansion doubling as a unit transport super highway, and all round incredible asymmetry between factions. Excellent interface and attention to attention (not a mistake in my wording there) that makes it clear that the absence of shift clicking is a deliberate design choice, not a programming oversight.
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Recommended for anyone who likes RTS games:
- Command & Conquer,
- Red Alert,
- Emperor Battle for Dune,
- Generals,
- Battle for Middle-earth,
- Universe at War
Skip unless you're after or especially interested in what I put in parentheses:
- Tiberian Sun (simulation, Y2K angst era grim future sci-fi),
- Red Alert 2 (gold standard 2D isometric RTS),
- Empire at War (space battles within a Total War-like strategic context),
- Battle for Middle-earth 2 (refined minatures-like combat model and controls),
- Tiberium Wars (good, well produced, content rich, campagin, surprisingly competent AI),
- Red Alert 3 (co-op campaign, Starcraft-like combat model but where unit design makes terrain matter)
I know some readers will hate me for putting Tiberian Sun and RA2 in the skip category, and I suppose they'd be right -- it's worth, almost mandatory, playing at least one of the two if you are a fan of the genre. OTOH, if you don't care for the sci-fi, Tiberian Sun is a tech demo, RA2 dials a lot of it back, and unless you really miss naval units, Generals can be considered a refinement of sorts on RA2 (although it goes well beyond that, as well). Well, this was my reasoning anyway.
