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Game: Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath Developer: Electronic Arts

9 out of 10 turtles recommend Kane’s Wrath for all your RTS gaming needs …

Cynical gamers would probably agree with the statement that “the primary motivation for creating RTS game expansion packs is to capitalize on the fiscal success of an existing title.” After all, it’s a highly cost-effective method of garnering revenue at the expense of minimal effort. A developer merely whips up a dozen new missions using existing tools (if he’s particularly smart, he re-uses assets and maps from previous games,) hire’s some disinterested actors to feature in some “talk to the camera” cut-scenes and wraps it all up with a plot that makes you wonder if the Hollywood screenwriters are still on strike! The game mechanics remain the same, game-play issues remain unfixed and the publisher sits back with a Cheshire-cat mien and ponders how he can convince gamers to buy last year’s major sports titles with an incremented last digit in their titles.

If you aren’t a cynical gamer, chances are that you will turn to the dark-side if you are curious enough to sample Electronic Arts’ latest Command & Conquer expansion pack, because it meets all the criteria necessary to trigger such a philosophical change.

The Basics
Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath continues the increasingly far-fetched saga of the radical Brotherhood of Nod in its quest for domination of an Earth devastated by the alien crystal that first made its appearance in the late 1990’s. Unlike previous Command & Conquer expansions, the 13 new single-player campaign missions focus purely on the Nod faction and cover events spanning the last few games in the series. Of course, revisiting past events has provided EA with the perfect excuse to recycle some old maps and they’re happy to do so, even to the extent of having some unit’s in-game voices stating that “this place seems familiar.” The maps still look terrific on any PC that was made in the last two years but, as with the previous game, some serious hardware is needed to run the game with all the visual “bells and whistles.”

Game-play still follows the same recipe that has graced the series from its initial inception under Westwood Studios: harvest resources, expand your base, build lots of units and mete out vengeance upon your hapless foe. There are also a couple of covert operation missions that provide you with a small force and a set of objectives that don’t require you to nuke the entire map.

Bracketting each mission are the ubiquitous “talk to camera” FMV cut-scenes that have blessed most of the releases in this franchise. In years gone by, when video cut-scenes were fresh additions to computer games, these segues were added as “rewards” for players successfully completing a mission. Today, when you look at the painfully awkward acting of Natasha Henstridge and Alias good guy, Karl Lumbly, you’re repeatedly tempted to press the “Escape” key to move onto the next battle. Joe Kucan reprises his role as the megalomaniacal Kane and is clearly the best actor in the cast; it’s a pity that this isn’t a ringing endorsement of the overall performances. Without releasing any spoilers, I will say that Kane’s Wrath has one of the most un-satisfying conclusions of any game or expansion I’ve ever played! The final cut-scene provides players with no sense of conclusion and it certainly wouldn’t have hurt to put something in place to hint or allude to some ominous future events. Instead, we are treated to a CGI mish-mash that looks like it could be the opening sequence to “Trippin the Rift: Season 4.” My guess is that even EA don’t know where this franchise is going and are keeping their options open at the gamers’ expense.

Those of you who prefer to indulge in multiplayer gaming have also been blessed with the inclusion of several dozen symmetrical multiplayer maps. While you won’t be seeing settings like this in real-life, their layout does guarantee a balanced starting position for all players. Still, it would be nice to see some thought being put into multiplayer map development that doesn’t involve the use of so many mirrors.

The last added feature is Global Conquest mode, an attempt to mount a turn-based strategic layer on-top of the standard real-time game. Within it, you build bases and unit strike-forces across a stylized map of the globe. Your objective is to either defeat the two opposing factions or carry out a special victory condition that revolves around population control. If one of your strike-forces meets an opposing force or enemy base, you are given the option to fight out the battle on a terrain specific map using the real-time game engine.

Overall, there’s quite a bit of content available within the expansion pack, and the single player game will probably keep you occupied for 8-10 hours. Unfortunately, a large number of issues that plagued its predecessor (and, indeed, many of the more recent games in this series) are still present and seriously affect overall game-play.

The Issues
The biggest problem with Kane’s Wrath is undoubtedly the A.I. which, to put it nicely, is shockingly bad and totally predictable. Within any of the scenarios, be they Skirmish or Campaign, the computer controlled units generally sit around in “Sentry” mode. At the same time, base facilities build up a steady stream of new units within the base confines. When a certain critical mass of units is reached, they all move off together heading in-erringly towards your base, presumably courtesy of some waypoints that the game developers installed in your area of operations. Defending against such a strategy is simply a matter of having adequate units and perhaps a few base defences in place to defeat the attacker in detail when he arrives. Once the force is defeated, the A.I. will take some time to rebuild the same (or similar force) and then repeat the entire process again … and again … and again!

“Unit veteran” status is another issue. Players that “turtle” around their base can rapidly acquire elite units with enhanced fire-power and the ability to self-repair by killing off waves of attackers and then quickly repairing before the next wave strikes. When this happens, you may as well toss out any notions of “rock, paper, scissor” unit strengths and vulnerabilities, as a dozen elite units of any type are nigh on unstoppable. During a test run of the final campaign scenario, I managed to wipe out 90% of the final map using just 7 elite Viper aircraft!

The A.I. is also completely mindless when it comes to learning from battlefield experience. I’ve seen squadrons of G.D.I. Orca bombers repeatedly decimated by the same defensive SAM sites over and over again, as they vainly attempt to knock out a cluster of Nod Power Plants. You can also bait your virtual opponent once you have identified his attack patterns by putting vulnerable units in the open near enemy march routes and setting up traps for the incoming units.

The developers did see fit to add a wide range of new unit types for all three factions (including some uniquely powerful Epic units for each side,) but as the Campaign only allows you to control Nod forces, you’ll be limited to playing with the new G.D.I. and Scrin units in Skirmish or Global Conquest modes only. Although a large number of different factions are cited as being bundled with the game, in reality, they are only derivatives of the standard three opposing powers. The tiered structure of gradually introducing unit types is also unfortunate as you only get to play with one of the factions during the last mission in the campaign.

The highly touted Global Conquest module exhibits quite a few idiosyncrasies. Once again the A.I. routines are questionable at best, executing a number of “interesting” ploys during several games. There is an auto-resolve combat system present if you don’t want to fight out each tactical battle that occurs, however the results vary wildly. Fighting out each battle in the tactical engine will invariably reduce your casualties but it does increase the length of the game considerably. The interface is tedious to use and there are visual elements that aren’t touched upon in the tutorial that you’ll have to figure out through trial and error. By the way, I challenge a player to successfully complete the tutorial if he loses the tutorial battle; try destroying your own units and see what happens! In essence, Global Conquest lacks a lot of the polish that the rest of the game possesses and almost appears to have been tacked on at the last minute.

While the scripted missions are diverse and portray a wide range of combat environments, it’s too easy to break the logic of the game. Many objectives act as triggers for follow on events. Unfortunately, some of these are used to “pace” the game and it’s a simple matter to avoid completing the objective immediately in order to build up your forces prior to the next phase of the scenario. The covert operations are also too “puzzle-like” in nature with one false move often triggering defeat. The mission around Temple Prime is a particularly irritating affair that you will automatically lose if your Saboteur is killed; you are cordially advised to “save early and save often.”

Accurately placing base facilities on the map is still a nebulous affair when other buildings are close, and God help you if you want to place a Nod turret on the map in a hurry! Closely spaced buildings also tend to wreak havoc on unit path-finding algorithms as my experiences with a GDI Commando marching back and forth in front of a row of SAM sites can attest to.

Finally, there are some minor technical issues with dual-screen support (the same issue was noted in the core game.) While the game only displays on a single monitor, you will have trouble scrolling the map if you move the mouse to the joining edge of both screens.

Conclusion
The inherent value of Kane’s Wrath depends greatly on what you expect from an expansion pack. Multiplayer aficionados will probably consider the extra units and multiplayer maps a suitable incentive to go out and pick up a copy. EA have been excellent at tweaking unit balancing for the core game as evidenced by the nine updates released over the last year, and it’s safe to say that the additional units in this expansion will also need massaging as online game results come to light. If you’re only interested in the single player experience, you have to ask yourself if a badly scripted single faction campaign, lax A.I. and an unpolished Global Conquest mode are really worth the price of admission.