Command & Conquer: Kanes Wrath Review

BY Rabie Hassoun | POSTED: 15 April 2008

Kane is back with a brand new campaign and much more.



Creating an expansion pack for one of the most successful PC games last year is not exactly a simple task to take on and complete. Add that up to the deep and rich history of the command and conquer series and you have yourself a nearly impossible task on hand. Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath will allow you to travel over time uncovering story elements and secrets from all over the C&C universe. Using the same old C&C gameplay engine this expansion pack cannot go wrong. With a completely new single player campaign, a collection of multiplayer maps and a new game mode altogether Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath qualifies to be a game on its own rather than simply an expansion pack and will certainly provide a bang for every Riyal or Durham (dollar for the international folks, -ed) you pay for it.

If statistics is what you are looking for, Kane's Wrath comes with precisely 13 brand new single player missions along with 6 new subfactions and 1 new turn based game. As you might have figured out this expansion pack will be focusing on the Nod and there leader Kane over a period of time kicking off from right after the Second Tiberium War and for many years after that. You will be shifting back and forth in the C&C universe between missions. If you happen to have no background about the series you might have some trouble understanding what is going on from time to time. As many of you old time RTS fans might remember, RTS games back in the days were all about building a base and an army before whooping your opponent's butt. This is exactly the way your game time with Kane's Wrath will be like. Unlike many next generation RTS games on the market, Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath is built around the simple formula of destroying your opponent in each and every level. You will be getting some interesting side objectives every now and then, but in the end the main goal is still to wipe the map clean from everything not marked red (Which happens to be you by the way). In a nutshell C&C 3 and this expansion are the same C&C game released 15 years ago but with better graphics and HD cut scenes.

The gameplay, old school or not, is still a ton of fun. After building a solid military and arming your city well, waging war against your enemy and marching on destroying everything in sight is as fun as it sounds, and then some! The explosions and screams echoing from your opponent's camps only add fire to the already thrilling experience. Zoom in and you will get to see exactly what is going on with a very high level of details and graphical beauty. Each type of unit in the game has its own strengths and weakness, so figuring out a balanced mixture of all units is necessary to win some of the massive wars later in the game.

Playing online or offline, you must make good use of every second you get in the game. If you start a game not knowing what to do or where to go you will be crushed within a few minutes. Playing against well established players online especially might be the most painful experience of your life as a gamer. The AI in the game overall, at any difficulty, is not exactly something to fear or spend time planning for. In each level the AI will be using the same strategy over and over again. Take this simple scenario as an example: Try building a laser defensive system north of your base and watch as the enemy keeps walking into the trap every time, the AI will rarely attempt to use another route into your base. The AI overall will rarely adjust its attacking plan based on what is going in the game, which hurts the replay value of this game badly.

The global conquest mode is a much needed fresh breath of air in the series, but sadly it fails to deliver. The mode is essentially a turn based game that is based around the C&C universe. Each turn you will get to choose one move to complete before your opponent takes over. Think of this as a much simpler version of Civilization. One problem in this mode however is that making one or two bad moves can result in you losing the game quickly. So one planned evening of playing global conquest online might turn out to be a 10-15 minutes episode of pain and sorrow. The online servers overall are a total disappointment. We here at MEGamers struggled trying to join many servers and got kicked out of a few others. The problem does not only affect us here in the region. However, gamers worldwide are already on EA's back nagging for a solution.

Do not let the fact that this is yet another polished C&C game with the same old system intact drive you away from purchasing and enjoying this game. Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath is an expansion recommended to every PC owner out there that enjoys playing RTS games (and currently owns Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars). If you enjoyed playing C&C 3 last year, you will get a blast out of this one for sure. Now if only EA decides to refine the gameplay of the series already…