Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy video game franchise, originally created by Westwood Studios and later acquired by Electronic Arts. Command & Conquer is considered a landmark and iconic figure in the PC game industry, and its fan community is extremely active in cooperation with current license holders.

Plot lines

In its beginning, the history of Command & Conquer was designed to be an alternate historical continuity to our own reality. However, with the appearance of new installments, the story ended up branching out into three variants. The first of these follows the original story of the Tiberian Wars; the second, Red Alert, deals with the war of the allies against the Soviets; and the third, called Generals, shows a world future not far removed from the current global political reality. Originally Red Alert had been designed as a prequel to Tiberian Dawn, but with the appearance of later games it was officially disassociated and will most likely continue in this form due to the loss of the public after abandoning the original idea and dedicating it to military propaganda with the migration of the genre and introducing factions "Arabs and Chinese" and moving away from the "Tiberian" as well as your target audience. There is a reason why many games have been censored: "inciting alleged conflicts between nations" and so it seems that the little acclaimed Generals 2 has not seen the light. In the case of the Tiberian Wars, as in Red Alert's, this article follows the story lines used by Westwood, although in these games there are generally two possible story lines.

Tiberian Line

The original script for Command & Conquer, whose first installment is now known as Tiberian Dawn (Tiberian Dawn), bases its argument on the appearance of Tiberium, a substance of extraterrestrial origin that in 1995 infiltrates the planetary ecosystem by mutating it by extracting its resources and concentrating them into crystals that are relatively easy to collect. Humanity discovers that the substance brought by the meteorite is an important source of raw material, perfect as a source of industrial and energy resources (as wood was in its time).

Soon, however, Tiberium is found to be highly harmful to all carbon-based life forms, including humans. This factor generates increasing global instability, particularly in countries with hot climates, where Tiberium expands at a faster rate (probably because molecular mutation is favored by greater thermal activity).

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn

In Tiberian Dawn, an asteroid of initially unknown material impacts the planet in various areas, covering more or less 75% of the surface. Initially and after the political situation has calmed down, a powerful pseudo-religious paramilitary organization of obscure origins known as the Brotherhood of Nod is interested in the exploitation and development of Tiberium-based technologies, whose financial gains obtained from these actions allow him to subsidize his plans for world domination. Faced with this situation, the United Nations Organization authorized the creation of a military force called the GDI (Global Defense Initiative or Global Defense Initiative). to deal with the threat of Nod. Soon the world is involved in an open war between both factions. In this war, the armies of the GDI face Nod achieving considerable victories on the battlefield. However, a media campaign by Nod makes it difficult to maintain the GDI as an institution, publicly discrediting it and forcing it to operate underground. Following a failed attack on the United States by Nod and the restoration of his legal status, the GDI track down Kane, leader of the Brotherhood of Nod, and his center of command in the Base Temple of Sarajevo. The GDI conduct an armored assault in conjunction with a bombardment attack using the Orbital Ion Cannon in an all-out effort to end the First Tiberian War.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

The Second Tiberian War, carried out under the title Tiberian Sun (which literally translates as Tiberian Sun, although it could also be understood as Tiberian Noon) spans 20 years after the events of Tiberian Dawn. Tiberian Sun shows a land devastated by Tiberium, where 10% of the planetary surface has levels of Tiberian contamination that harm ecosystems and human populations. Meanwhile, large migrations from various areas of the planet try to go to the polar regions where Tiberium practically does not exist.

In this context, national governments have disappeared and the GDI has become the political and territorial heir to the most powerful nations in the UN. The Brotherhood of Nod, which survived the death of its leader, occupies various extremely rich territories in Tiberium and is divided into various self-sustaining cells that soon unify under the action of General Anton Slavik and led by the supposedly dead Kane, who undertakes a global campaign with the ultimate goal of accelerating the Tiberian infestation and forcing humanity into a massive mutation that adapts them to this environment (although the events in Tiberium Wars could indicate that in reality their goals were other).

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Firestorm

After the Tiberian Sun the Firestorm events occur. This time the GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod must face the threat of the CABAL, a supercomputer originally belonging to Nod that tries to reduce humanity to armies of cyborgs under his command. The war against CABAL forces the GDI and Nod to ally, in the end, their combined warfare and military technology manage to defeat CABAL, although it is hinted in the final video of Nod that CABAL would have managed to escape annihilation and even have acted under Kane's orders.

Command & Conquer: Renegade

The first Shooter in the saga chronicles the adventures of commando Nick "Havoc" Parker of the GDI in his fight against the special forces of the Brotherhood of Nod, the Black Hand, during the Renegade campaign (only one was created for the GDI). Havoc takes on the Black Hand's most powerful warriors with the help of former members of an elite team working for GDI, as well as GDI itself to stop Nod's plans to create armies of cybernetically enhanced mutant soldiers through Project "ReGenesis". In this episode it is shown that Kane (the brotherhood leader) is still alive before he is defeated in Sarajevo.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

The Third Tiberian War, set in 2047, shows us the GDI settled in the "blue zones," territories with little or no Tiberian infestation, where a prosperous population live in modern and futuristic eco-cities. This territory covers 20 percent of the Earth and they are considered the last refuges of human civilization (when looking at the blue areas in the initial presentation video of the GDI, you can see, among other areas, the East Coast of the United States, Tierra del Fuego, Sydney, Japan, Greenland and Iceland).

The Brotherhood of Nod, for its part, has become a pseudo-world state spanning the "yellow zones" (50 percent of the planet), territories where war, the disappearance of national governments, the infestation of Tiberium and ecological and climatic disorders have produced the ruin and impoverishment of the population of these sectors (the zones of the East Coast of Brazil, the Amazon Desert, the Carolina Páramos, Central Australia and Eastern Europe); soon the Brotherhood of Nod become the sole maintainers of order, security and stability in the yellow zones. This fact has made the majority of humanity (80 percent of the world's population), located precisely in these areas, become supporters of the Brotherhood of Nod against the "oppressors" 3. 4; of the GDI. According to the information offered by the initial video of the GDI, Nod would have been in a state of torpor and secrecy, causing the closure of GDI bases in several yellow zones.

The remaining 30 percent of the planet covers what are known as "red zones", territories located on the equator line (the Mediterranean Coast, Central America, the West Coast of the United States, the Páramo stand out, of the Amazon and Central Africa) where the Tiberian infestation is so great that it makes human life impossible. The weather in those regions is virtually apocalyptic, with category 8 hurricanes, tornadoes of up to 1,700 km/h, radioactive fallout. Also in these areas, Tiberium has begun to infest the oceans, forming reefs of several square kilometers.

The appearance of a third faction of alien origin in the midst of the conflict started by Nod, called Scrin, who were the ones who sent the tiberium to Earth, with the plan of turning Earth into a collection area for it. This faction has previously been discussed in previous installments, making Tiberium Wars, which spans the Third Tiberian War, the first entry in the Tiberium line to feature three completely different sides.

To understand the story, you must play with the three factions since each one will tell all the events as they happen, part by part in each of these factions. It also has to be clear that each faction has a superiority in a type of unit.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath

The events recounted in "The Wrath of Kane" they show everything from the end of the Second Tiberium War, at the precise moment that CABAL was destroyed and the Brotherhood of Nod was disintegrated, to 10 years after the end of the Third Tiberium War.

It has both units and new buildings, which are sometimes of older technology than those shown in Tiberium Wars, due to the earlier timeline. In addition, it is complemented by a total of 6 new sub-factions, 2 for each base faction.

As a curiosity, in the GDI subfaction "Claws of Steel" we find original units of the Tiberian Sun such as the Titan or the Wolverine.

It tells of the disappearance of the Tacitus and how the NOD recovers it, as well as how they resurrect new, more experienced cyborgs called: the Enlightened and the Awakened.

The factions of the Tiberian Wars

In the game, each of the factions has its own unique style of play:

• GDI, for its English acronym: Global Defense Initiative. Organization created by United Nations member countries to combat the terrorist threat of Nod. Its strategic idea is based on the use of strongly-armed units of slow but powerful advance. This philosophy is reflected in the phrase "Do you want it done quickly or do you want it done well?"

His biggest weapons: The MARV or the Mamoth (tank and walker).

• The Brotherhood of Nod, a mysterious cult disturbing the world stability that proclaims the divinity of its leader, Kane, and supports its quest for political and economic power in terror and astuce. In the battlefield Nod demonstrates this with the use of fast, furtive and equipped units with powerful but unstable technology. Like the Soviets in the Red Alert saga, they don't care about the number of casualties and often sacrifice thousands of human lives in their own brotherhood to achieve victory.

Best Weapons: Avatar, Stealth Bombers and their wide variety of units (such as the Stealth Tank or Ray Cannon).

• Scrins, are an alien race that came to invade the Earth and collect the Tiberius (this faction calls it "Icor"), there is the possibility that the Scrins have been the breed of this substance, their warp superiority is based on weapons capable of manipulating the very fabric of reality (warp disruptions, ion storms) and on an air force, or better, spatially, incredibly. Actually, the Scrin are not present at any time on the battlefield. All its troops, artillery and fleet are controlled by remote systems from space.

Best Weapons: Space units.

Red Alert Line

This line is based on the argument that Albert Einstein travels via the Chronosphere (a machine for traveling both in time and space) from 1946 to 1924. Once around this time he removes Adolf Hitler from history to avoid World War II, however, since there was no Hitler or Nazi Germany, the Soviets under the command of Joseph Stalin found no reason to reach cooperation with the Western allies and began a campaign of Eurasian conquest, this conflict would be known as the Great Second World War.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Originally this game was a proto-sequel to Tiberian Dawn, Kane even makes an appearance as Stalin's adviser. The story begins with the beginning of the invasion of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union, the allies are initially defeated by an attacker superior in number and in armored power, due to this they must use cunning through surgical attacks to be able to slow down the Soviet attack, with this they manage to buy some time, however soon almost all of Western Europe is occupied by the Russians, in this situation it is revealed that to force the defeat of the allies Stalin orders a nuclear attack against the largest Allied cities, including London and Paris, in a race against time, a group of commandos led by agent Tanya manage to infiltrate the nuclear weapons guidance center in Leningrad (currently Saint Petersburg) and neutralize the attack by canceling the charges. missile explosives. The attack by the Soviet Union and the bravery shown by the Europeans in stopping what clearly appears to be a global threat prompt the United States, India and Japan to join the fight against the communists, finally, the united forces of these nations in combination with the technology of the chronosphere they manage to defeat the Soviets, occupy their territory and eliminate Stalin.

Red Alert had two expansions, Counterstrike and The Aftermath, the latter adds new units to both sides, such as the allied chronotank and the soviet shock trooper, both expansions add new campaigns for both sides.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Red Alert 2 reaffirms the independence of this line of argument with respect to that of the Tiberian wars and places us in World War III, which broke out with the invasion of the United States by a Soviet Union rearmed and more powerful than ever, under the command of Premier Romanov, his right hand Yuri (experiment with psychic abilities and mind control) and General Vladimir. The allies must face the Soviets, who manage to capture a large part of the Americas, however, and despite the warlike power of the Soviets, the allies under the command of President Michael Dugan and General Carville, equipped with futuristic war technology devised by Professor Einstein (including the Storm Machine, the Chronosphere, the Spy Satellite, the Gap Generator and the Prism Tower) manage to expel the Soviets from the continent while stopping their advance into Europe. Determined to win once and for all, the Allies teleport a powerful army to Moscow and after a violent fight capture Premier Romanov, leader of the Soviets, forcing the Soviets to surrender in the Allied version of victory. Instead, in the version of the Soviet victory, Yuri turns against Vladimir by controlling the mind of Romanov in order to have world dominance; After capturing the mind of General Vladimir, Romanov comes out of the hypnotic trance and informs his army of Yuri's betrayal ordering him to be destroyed and then they end up conquering the American territory with the destruction of the last Chronosphere, but Yuri's technology apparently destroyed, not it was.

Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge

The expansion to Red Alert 2, this installment features the central character Yuri, who betrays the Soviets and reveals a psychic army and network of mind control devices around the planet ready to attack. be used. The story begins shortly after the end of the events of Red Alert 2, the allied leaders are called to an emergency meeting, Yuri infiltrates the broadcast and reveals his plan to use the Psychic Dominators to mind control the entire population. of the planet. After an attempt to persuade Yuri to back off his plans, President Dugan orders an airstrike on the Psychic Dominator, the attack fails but one of the planes crashes into the device's power source, disabling it, the allies take advantage. After this failure to activate a time travel machine with which they go to the past and start a planetary campaign against Yuri, due to the danger that he has become, the Soviets decide to carry out a ceasefire with the allies and unite to defeat Yuri, this battle even has the Moon as a battlefield (in the case of the Soviet campaign). In the end, the allies end up cornering Yuri in Antarctica, capturing him and, later, imprisoning him in Professor Einstein's Psychic Isolator. On the other hand, in the version of the Soviet victory, Yuri's Fortress is destroyed, but he at the same time tries to go back in time to use the Psychic Dominators again; What he doesn't know is that if the reserve power was not used, this could cause him to go back to another very ancient time and, thus, Yuri arrives at a prehistoric moment, where he is eliminated by a dinosaur. The result of this time travel prevents General Carville from being eliminated and at the end of the story he appears in the Red Alert timeline explaining to President Dugan of this continuity the events that changed history (in the case of victory ally). In the Soviet version, the troops commanded by Romanov manage to invade the United States and triumph over the allies.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

The third installment in the series, released October 28-31, 2008, features three factions: the Allies, the Soviets, and the Empire of the Rising Sun. Although it has many features of the previous games (cinematic sequences, agility of the game) it introduces a greater presence of maritime units, as well as a cooperative campaign. The game takes place in a parallel universe in which World War II never occurred and the Soviet Union instead rose as a threat in the 1950s. The first world wars were between the Soviets and the Allies, but now there is a new one. and third faction known as the Empire of the Rising Sun, which is nothing more and nothing less than Imperial Japan, which wants to dominate the world through a powerful army based on technological superiority.

The game is a sequel to Command and Conquer Red Alert 2. In this section the Soviets, being already defeated, use their own time machine and kill Albert Einstein by changing the timeline of the game, giving the Soviets great power and a withdrawal of Europe's allies from it. But this change also made both commands another common enemy, the Empire of the Rising Sun, which began by attacking the Soviets and later the Allies.

The factions of Red Alert

Although originally the factions of Red Alert were only two, with the arrival of Yuri's Revenge we saw the introduction of a third faction, each of these armies show characteristics diametrically opposed to the other ones. two others:

• Allies: usually considered the good of the game, their strategy is based on speed, hand strokes and the use of highly advanced technology that gives them enormous tactical superiority in the battlefield, their units are often extremely versatile.

• Soviets: the Soviets use units that win in resistance by sacrificing speed and with an enormous firepower, also they always seek numerical superiority in the battlefield, not fearing to sacrifice much of their forces for victory.

• Yuri: This army, which only appears in the expansion of Red Alert 2, is characterized by the use of mental control technology and genetic mutation to ensure victory, its units are usually especially lethal given its tendency to confuse the enemy attack.

• Empire of the rising Sun: this faction appears for the first time in Red Alert 3, is characterized by unprecedented mobility of its structures, in addition to highly technological units (e.g. King Oni, a giant fuse) and specialized.

Generals Line

Considered a storyline totally unrelated to the rest of the Command & Conquer, Generals offers us a game set in the near future where the United States and the People's Republic of China, world superpowers, fight against the global terrorism of the GLA (Global Liberation Army), an international subversive organization of Arab origin. This game is the only one that could be considered as located in our own time line, Generals brings as a novelty the use of the Starcraft-type command bar as a substitute for the traditional control side bar of the previous Command & Conquer also uses the construction system similar to Age of Empires instead of the classic MCV (Mobile Construction Vehicle or Mobile Construction Vehicle translated). These and other features such as the absence of live-action videos have led some players to not consider Generals a Command & Conquer, however, this does not take away from Generals being one of the most popular games in the saga, a factor that makes it very interesting are the general's abilities, which are obtained as the player gains experience points that allow activate them.

Command & Conquer: Generals

In the not too distant future, the world lives the scourge of global liberation led by the GLA, an organization of Arab origin committed to liberating the Third World peoples from Western sovereignty. In the face of this uprising, the superpowers of the United States and China begin military operations that lead to a global armed conflict and in which each side deploys lethal devices and radically different tactics. The story begins with an attack by the US in the middle of Tiannanmen Square, making such an attack appear as if it was carried out by the GLA, which leads to a Chinese military escalation, soon the Chinese army pushes the GLA towards their Central bases in the Middle East, leaving the organization in critical condition, but soon an effective campaign of looting and stealth operations led by the GLA against China allow them to regain lost ground and finally, after stealing biochemical agents protected by the Americans, they launch a attack with weapons of mass destruction on the US armies This action forces the US to escalate the unjust war against the GLA and try to stop their global liberation campaign at all costs.

Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour

Zero Hour continues the Generals storyline, providing the ability to access specialized armies led by veteran generals in certain tactics and strategies. The Zero Hour campaign narrates how the United States army continues the fight against the GLA forces, which have regrouped around a General specialized in biochemical weapons known as Dr. Thrax, who continues the campaign to liberate the GLA against the US armies, and manages to defeat the Americans in Arabia, however the US once again manages to regroup and through a daring campaign of surgical strikes forces the Chinese to withdraw from Europe, leaving this continent in the hands of chaos, without However, the GLA make their appearance, achieving after fierce battles the liberation of Europe and the formation of a military alliance between it and the third world peoples.

Generals Factions

Command & Conquer: Generals has three factions, later in Zero Hour these are increased with specialized armies led by their respective generals:

• The U.S. Army bases its military superiority on well-trained infantry units and highly sophisticated vehicles capable of individually overcoming the enemy, and Americans also have the largest air force in the game, with particularly lethal aircraft, such as the F-117 Stealth, F-22 Raptor and the Aurora Supersonic Bomber, the U.S. generals are the Air Force General, the General of Superarms and the General of Laser.

• China: China uses overwhelming numbers of heavily motivated units to fight and powerful war vehicles equipped with ballistic flamethrowers and missiles, the combined effect of the number and Chinese attacks is able to generate terribly destructive fire storms. In addition, the popular army has hackers that allow them to give special coverage to their forces during the struggle and plunder money to the enemies, through a computer technology system, the Chinese generals are the General of Tanks, the General of Infantry and the General Nuclear.

• GLA: the GLA (in Spanish Global Liberation Army and in English Global Liberation Army) uses guerrilla and resistance tactics to achieve its objectives, sacrifice, creativity and high determination and insistence, are recurrent in this faction, additionally this faction lacks air force, compelling veteran Command ' s players to rethink classic strategies, the GLA generals are the General of Demolition, General Furquítivo and General Furquítivo.

Timeline

• Westwood Studios (1995–2002)
  • 1995 - Command " Conquer "
    • 1996 - Command " Conquer – The Covert Operations
  • 1996 - Command & Conquer: Red Alert
    • 1997 - Command " Conquer: Red Alert – Counterstrike
    • 1997 - Command " Conquer: Red Alert – The Aftermath
    • 1998 - Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Retaliation
  • 1997 - Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor
  • 1999 - Command " Conquer: Tiberian Sun
    • 2000 - Command " Conquer: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm
  • 2002 - Command " Conquer: Renegade
• EA Pacific (a.k.a. Westwood Pacific) (2000-2003)
  • 2000 - Command " Conquer: Red Alert 2
    • 2001 - Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge
  • 2003 - Command & Conquer: Generals
• EA Los Angeles (2003-2010)
  • 2003 - Command " Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour
  • 2007 - Command " Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
    • 2008 - Command " Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
  • 2008 - Command " Conquer: Red Alert 3
    • 2009 - Command " Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising
  • 2010 - Command " Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
• EA Phenomic (2011)
  • 2012 - Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances
• Victory Games (2011–present)
  • 2013 - Command " Conquer "

Command & Conquer: Renegade differs from the rest in that it became a first-person shooter video game, where we took center stage through Captain Nick "Havoc" Parker.

Red Alert, Red Alert 2 and Generals modified the script bringing it closer to our story as well as integrating many of our technological advances.

On August 31, 2007, Command & Conquer Gold, included in the Command & Conquer: The First Decade, is released for freeware download on the occasion of the twelfth anniversary of the saga's appearance.

On August 31, 2008, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, is released for free download on the occasion of the thirteenth anniversary of the appearance of the saga.

Collections

• 2001 - Command " Conquer: Theater of War Compilation
  • (includes Command " Conquer, C fakeC: Tiberian Sun, C fakeC: Red Alert and C fakeC: Red Alert 2)
• 2003 - The Command " Conquer Collection
  • (includes C fakeC: Tiberian Sun, C fakeC: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm, C fakeC: Red Alert 2, C fakeC: Yuri's Revenge and C fakeC: Renegade)
• 2003 - Command & Conquer Generals: Deluxe Edition
  • (includes C fakeC: Generals and C fakeC: Generals – Zero Hour)
• 2006 - Command " Conquer: The First Decade
  • (includes Command " Conquer, C fakeC – The Covert Operations, C fakeC: Red Alert, C fakeC: Red Alert – Counterstrike, C fakeC: Red Alert – The Aftermath, C.S.: Tiberian Sun, C.S.: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm, C.S.: Red Alert 2, C.: Yuri's Revenge, C.
• 2008 - The Command " Conquer Saga
  • (includes C fakeC: The First Decade and C fakeC 3: Tiberium Wars)
• 2008 - Command " Conquer 3: Limited Collection
  • (includes C fakeC 3: Tiberium Wars and C nightmareC 3: Kane's Wrath)
• 2008 - Command " Conquer 3: Deluxe Edition
  • (includes C fakeC 3: Tiberium Wars and C nightmareC 3: Kane's Wrath)
• 2012 - Command " Conquer: The Ultimate Collection
  • (includes Command " Conquer, C fakeC – The Covert Operations, C fakeC: Red Alert, C fakeC: Red Alert – Counterstrike, CSF: Red Alert – The Aftermath Alert, CSF: Tiberian Sun, CENTEC: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm, C parentC: Red Alert 2, Cwi: Yuri Wars Revenge, CWI

Source code release

In May 2020, EA announced, in the context of the release of the C&C Remastered Collection, that it will release the source code of two DLL libraries for Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert under the GPL to facilitate the development of mods by part of the community.