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Demo impressions
The demo for C&C3 was released recently, offering the chance for gamers to get to grips with the first two GDI missions, and showing off some of the new FMV sequences. Mmm, Cameron.The initial gameplay shows some interesting characteristics. For one, anybody who's been playing Supreme Commander for the past few weeks will find this a massive change of pace and scale. I mean, massively.
Coming from the zoom-zoom infinite scale size of SupCom, the relatively close-up viewpoint of C&C3 feels incredibly restrictive. Those who have enjoyed the revolution of dual-screen gaming with SupCom will likewise find its absence from C&C3 a bugbear. But this is less of a modern take on the series as a love-letter to the original with better graphics. Consequently, aside from the new side bar, nothing is really that new.
Infantry scale warfare is the bastion of the first couple of missions, which see you taking over an abandoned outpost and bringing it online to sort out a Nod invasion in the area. Engineers rebuild a bridge that gets your foot units across a river to the opposing camp, and a number of airfields build assault air units to give them support. The first mission ends in something of an anti-climax, with your small force unable to take out the Nod base and being granted access to GDI's Ion Cannon, which smites everything in its path.
Everything from the units to the commands feels intimately familiar, and the spangly new 3D graphics look nice, but add nothing in terms of playing style, as far as we can tell. However, the information we've seen about the full game suggests that the addition of longer build and tech resource trees, as well as the extra faction, does add new depth to the game. Each race really does have a diverse range of units and the Scrin, in particular, offer a really different gaming experience.
