Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun – Green Armageddon

Climb into your Tiberium proof suit, because we are heading for the ecological apocalypse of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. This is one of the more unique settings of the franchise, a setting that unfortunately fell off a little in the future games. In Tiberian Sun we get to experience battles in the Tiberium wastelands of Earth in this direct sequel. And what a sequel it is. Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn was a cool game, and certainly sets up the story and lore. However, compared to Tiberian Sun it feels a little mundane looking back, seeing as that conflict took place in the 90s with mostly conventional weapons and vehicles. Tiberian Sun is a totally different beast that plays into what I love about sci-fi with a war theme: a dystopian world, filled with wondrous tech, but rests on the brink of destruction.

Technical stuff
Before we start munching Tiberium, like a nicotine starved cowboy on chewing tobacco, there is something I want to go over. Nothing bad at all, I promise. There are different ways to play Tiberian Sun, but I went with the OG way on Steam, since I wanted it to be as authentic as possible. Surprisingly enough, the Steam version works out of the box, with it looking good and running well. However, the maximum resolution is only 800×600, which is fine to me, but seeing as it’s 4:3, it leaves nasty black bars on the sides on a widescreen monitor. 

There is an easy solution to this, and still keeping it looking like the memories in your head. The first step is to go to the installation folder, and open DDrawCompat.ini. There you will see a line called SupportedResolutions, and the only thing you have to do here is to add the resolution you want to use. In my case, I added 1024×576, which is the nearest widescreen resolution to 800×600. 

Then you will have to open SUN.INI, found in the same location. Here you must add your new resolution under VIDEO. I recommend changing StretchMovies to no, otherwise the aspect ratio will come out wrong in-game. That’s all you have to do, and this ends the technical stuff. The UI looks correct regardless of what resolution you use. Now for the story.

Tiberium disaster
The first war that had NOD and GDI battling it out over world supremacy left Earth in a terrible state. War produces its own scars, but the ecological disaster left by the uncontrolled alien substance Tiberium is on a complete other level. The world has changed, with large swaths of land being made uninhabitable for humans. There are only a few precious blue zones left, areas that so far have remained Tiberium free-zones that GDI defends with tooth and nail. They’re humanity’s last refuges, in an apocalyptic world, with a green foreign crystal that with one spore can infect and kill. Earth is a bad place, but oh so cool, and it’s a perfect backdrop for a fictional war between two forces hell-bent to nuke each other out of existence.

After years of a shaky peace between the two, hostilities are about to flare up again. Kane, the enigmatic and charismatic leader of NOD, somehow survived the first war, and is now back for revenge – or is he? NOD attacks a GDI base, and GDI responds. But this is not just some ordinary attack – out there, in the blue and green wasteland, ruled by devastating ION storms, lies something in wait, something alien that can tip the scales of war…

FMV glory
The plot is presented through glorious and cheesy FMVs (Full Motion Videos), and the commander you play as is named Michael McNeil. He is played by none other than the famous 80s actor Michael Biehn. At least for the GDI campaign, which was the one I picked for this review. Now, this is cool and all, and in general I found the plot serviceable. All the actors involved did a good job. However, I couldn’t help but feel that Michael Biehn felt severely underused. The guy is known from iconic roles like Kyle Reese in Terminator, and Corporal Dwayne Hicks in Aliens, which makes him perfectly suited for a sci-fi romp. Yet, he is not used for anything truly awesome. His role in the GDI campaign is to sit on his ass in his transporter and command others. Fair enough, I would say, considering it’s his role in his war, but picking an actor like Biehn for that, and not using him in barely any physical scenes is a damn shame. 

Let’s talk some more about the story. As mentioned, the plot is serviceable, but it can’t be denied it meanders somewhat, and I felt the stakes never escalated – like you would expect it to do. Going from smaller engagement to all-out war over the course of the game. The background setting is absolutely solid. However, the war, the part that should be the main event of the game, never felt more than a random bunch of skirmishes – and then it ends. I wouldn’t say it was disappointing, but I have to say, it surprised me how little conflict, and following ramifications, there actually was. It’s a rather awkward switch from a global war in Tiberium Dawn, to something that feels very local, even if it involves large areas of Earth, going by the campaign map. It’s like the fight never makes it out of the early skirmishing phase, then for it completely out of the blue to finish. A bit unsatisfying, even if you spend hours in-game crushing NOD units and bases with your military might.

Mutants
Another interesting aspect that is seemingly never mentioned in the franchise again in any lore capacity, is The Forgotten. A bunch of mutant survivors, who instead of dying from Tiberium poisoning like the majority of humankind, become mutated and slightly deformed. They look for the most part like humans, however, they thrive in the Tiberium hellscape where normal people succumb faster than you can say “green death”. These mutants get healed by standing in Tiberium fields, which is shown in-game through its mechanics. I found them fascinating, so it’s a shame that they truly become forgotten in the later games. I like to imagine that after helping GDI against the NOD forces, they were granted a reservation in one of GDI controlled yellow zones. Sadly, thanks to being mutated and radiated, their reproductive systems were compromised, and eventually died out. Yet, I think they exist as mercenaries in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, but that feels like an unfitting end to me. I like my head-canon better!

Bipedal tanks & battles
It’s time to transition to gameplay. Seeing as Tiberian Sun is a classic RTS, it comes with all the trappings of it. You will build a base, harvest green and blue Tiberium, and build your forces to eventually pave a parking-lot over your enemy’s base. How Tiberian Sun pulls this off is a massive upgrade over Tiberium Dawn. One of the more important changes is that resources to harvest does not feel as limited now, as Tiberium fields regrown after a while. This allows for failure and longer matches – you basically can’t run out! I enjoyed this change, as I found many missions in the old game frustrating. You must do the missions in this exact way, or you will never ever be able to recover.

Other general improvements are the pathfinding, and the infantry, since they remain useful even in the later stages of the campaign. Survivors of battles even go up in rank, and get improved stats, which makes keeping your soldiers around worth it, instead of throwing them away in suicide attacks. The GDI side also comes with a medic. He is pricey, but he will keep your battle hardened infantry men alive – and he does his job automatically. Especially, if you put him in guard mode. Excellent addition.

The scale of everything just feels right – men to vehicles and vehicles to buildings. It adds a great immersion factor to battles and the base-building. The bases can become quite sprawling, but that’s of no issue either, since most of the time, space will be plentiful. As with most RTS games, surviving the initial setup of the base is the most important. When you have established yourself, and got a nice defense, there isn’t much that can stop you. Having a good economy is everything, so spamming those tiberium refineries is key!

The enemy
I played on medium difficulty, which actually has been a tad easy, now in hindsight. It wasn’t for the enemies lack of trying per se, it just felt that the scripting might have been a little too passive at times. When there was no timer to stress about, all the base-building missions were fairly relaxed. The game threw in a few twists from time to time, but the golden rule always remained: survive the initial base setup, and then you are golden. NOD did attack my base, but never in any overwhelming numbers. This can feel disappointing when you have built up a monstrosity of a base, and never seen its defenses in all its glory. I assume hard difficulty setting differs here, but I hope it’s just not in the form of bonus armor and such silliness. 

That’s not to say there weren’t struggles, but the hardship came in the form of one specific enemy unit, and one type of mission. The mission type is the one where you only have a handful of men to accomplish your task. Most of the time, these assignments felt more like a puzzle, than a battle, with you having to figure out the best approach, or what the game designer intended for you. To be fair, most of these missions can be accomplished in different ways, so the game allows for some experimentation, which is always welcomed. 

My most dreaded unit was the NOD artillery tank. This thing will turn everything to ash, regardless of armor or flesh. Apparently, this unit was nerfed for the expansion Tiberian Sun – Firestorm, but no such luck here. Thankfully, the NOD forces only got a handful on each map, and they are shown on the map when they fire. This makes life a little easier. However, they are often behind thick defensive lines, so sending a few Orcas (air unit) for their imminent destruction isn’t always available. Eventually, I started to dislike these units, since all campaign missions bogged down into avoiding the range of these beasts of destruction. Forcing you to wait to finally afford the best bombers to nuke them off the map. Not the most riveting gameplay. There are of course other ways to counter these bastards, you can rush, or find chinks in their defensive lines, yet for me, it mostly ended in the same way: a smoldering wreck, until my Orcas could reduce them to metal scrap, that is.

RTS fun
Beyond the NOD artillery, the battles are engaging, and while the game apply the typical paper, rock, scissor balance to the combat units, it’s not entirely set in stone. Most units can survive a few rounds, even when they meet their nemesis on the field, which gives you time to consider the situation. All around, the war aspect, and the building of bases is very pleasant, elevated by the awesome visuals and animations. 

Ecological disaster visualized
I have already talked about scale, but it’s worth mentioning again, seeing how much it does for the game. The terrific scope also goes into the environment, with vast fields of deadly Tiberium lighting up the dark night with its eerie green glow. Scenes like this are sprinkled throughout the campaign, and it makes it clear how much of an effect Tiberium has had on the Earth’s ecological systems. There are even new life forms to spot out in the spooky wasteland, and they are not friendly, let me tell you! All this comes together in a really solid engine made by Westwood that has aged superbly. Especially, when compared to early 3D engines from the same time period (around 2000). Sprites have an ageless charm, and often enough, scales beautifully with modern screen resolutions. 

Beside the captivating doomed world, the units that you control look fantastic too, from the simple infantryman, to the bi-pedal futuristic tanks. What I also like is the difference between the two factions. Both have a sci-fi flair to them: GDI has remained with the typical military design, while NOD has gone down the road for the experimental, horrific body horror included. Those cyborg fellas are something else. That’s not all, the animations also have a lot of detail to them. During battles, it’s not uncommon to see men being lit up like torches, running around screaming for dear life. The only thing missing is having the bodies stay on the battlefield. The ground does get deformed, though. You can easily tell where grand battles have been fought by spotting the smoking pot marks on the ground. 

Sound and music is on the same masterful level, with Frank Klepacki once again creating amazing tunes for the apocalyptic future in Tiberian Sun. The soundscape is excellent in general, with many iconic moments, like having the female computer AI reminding you of your horrible losses. The FMVs are quality too, at least when it comes to the audio. Nowadays, the resolution of these videos is low, but it’s not something that some kind of AI scaler can’t fix – for a future remaster, *nudge nudge* EA.

Conclusion
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is an awesome RTS, in the most classical sense. The cool sci-fi approach, with it’s engrossing take on the ecological disaster due to Tiberium was the right step to take for the sequel. While the war between GDI and NOD is the focus, the setting makes Tiberium a natural antagonist by itself – something the remaining survivors can’t ignore, regardless of their ideological view of the green visitor. While I did think the direct plot of GDI campaign felt a bit weak, and the actors underutilized, I had a great time playing and finishing the campaign. The mystery was interesting, and apparently, it leads directly to the expansion, which is considered the better story. So, that has me curious.

When it comes to the gameplay, it’s excellent, with a small stumble concerning the world destroying NOD artillery piece, and the somewhat lax defensive scripting for the enemy. However, the game is a sum of all parts, and these parts easily outweigh these two issues. And seeing how I played it on the medium setting, the hard difficulty option might be the salvation to the passive AI. Not to forget, Tiberian Sun comes with a lengthy campaign for NOD, too, with its own FMVs and story. There is a lot to dig into here, which makes Tiberian Sun an awesome package for everyone that enjoys the RTS genre. If you missed out on this game the first time around, I highly recommend you to dive in now. You won’t be disappointed!

Thanks for reading, and see you in Firestorm!

/Thomas