Real Time Strategy titles are hard to come by in an age of RPG and FPSs. However, the new Command & Conquer – developed by Victory Games and published by Electronic Arts – is set to bring about a brand new age of RTS titles, and what better than the ever popular Command & Conquer franchise.
Originally titled as Command & Conquer: Generals 2, and set to run on the revolutionary Frostbite 3 engine, the new game is expected to go on par with the likes Battlefield 4, as far as in-game graphics is concerned. Although there were some major plans for the game in the beginning, the game has since been decided on becoming the first Free To Play (FTP) installation in the series.
It seems like EA is interested in carrying over in-game factions from previous titles in the franchise, and the ones that have been carried over to the new Command & Conquer title are as follows:
Global Liberation Army: Although being a weak opponent in the game due to their technologically disadvantaged state, the GLA is highly mobile via its ground vehicles (no air force, though). Being on the ground all the time, the GLA operatives have mastered the use of guerrilla tactics such as tunnelling, suicide bombing, hijacking, and ambushing.
Command & Conquer’s GLA faction did run into a bit of a controversy back in June this year when GLA was deemed to be crafted in the likeliness of Middle Eastern-ish militant generals.
Although the GLA’s presence in the previous games didn’t have this sort of an impact on global politics, the problems started after it was revealed that the upcoming title will offer a more varied group, emerging from different ethnic backgrounds, as stated by senior development director Tim Morten.
"This is actually a pretty big change for the game," he said. "Anyone who knows this series will know the Global Liberation Army. But at the studio we had a bad reaction from people saying it was pretty offensive to have Middle-Eastern characters as militants," Morten told Polygon.
“Initially, Command and Conquer's GLA empire was said to span Kazakhstan, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, among other countries, while — according to game lore — support was mainly within the Middle East,” the report stated.
People's Republic of China: Next in line is the PRC that relies largely on sheer brute force and massive manpower (with China in context, who didn’t see that coming?).
Although facing a problem with limited air power, PRC’s playstyle stresses on direct assaults and sheer power to defeat American and GLA threats. Another troubled area for PRC is its generally slower ground force, which is slower than the other two factions. Nonetheless, the Chinese are more than capable of winning long and drawn out battles that involve extensive damage over time.
United States of America: As expected, the U.S. is the most technologically gifted faction with advanced weaponry. The U.S. playstyle relies on skill, mobility, and high technology, and have a number of special abilities.
These abilities include stealthy snipers and a powerful commando named Colonel Burton with a number of abilities related to demolition and stealth.
Back in August this year, it was revealed that the new game would arrive with shorter matches, as compared to the previous hours-long battles in the past.
"We've been noticing since the original Generals, the preferred play session has gone done from an hour plus to 30 to 45 minutes," said Jon Van Caneghem, general manager of Command & Conquer developer Victory Games, as scripted by Polygon. "So we've changed the pacing [of Command & Conquer] to deal with that."
At the same time, Van Caneghem also confirmed that players, nonetheless, will have the option to play longer matches with options present to customize the gameplay duration via design and scenario choices.
Command & Conquer is currently scheduled to arrive this fall for PC.
