Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (PC)

EA re-raises Kane and makes us cringe in the process
4/1/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Partial recall

But then there are the campaign and the Global Conquest, two prominent bullet points in Kane's Wrath. The campaign is a series of tired scripted missions interlaced with live-action cut scenes. If you played the campaign in Command & Conquer 3, you know what to expect. In fact, you've seen some of this already. The storyline has enough nods to those who paid attention to the previous game that it won't make any sense to most people. It even goes so far as to reiterate maps, cut scenes and plot points from the core game.

Joe Kucan is on board as Kane, of course. He seems to be having a great time. He shows up wearing a ridiculous helmet/mask combo that looks like it can't quite make up its mind whether he's Magneto or a Borg. A few scenes in, he takes it off to reveal that, well, there was really no reason for him to wear it in the first place. Kucan then resumes leering at the camera (i.e. you, the player) and skulking around the poorly lit scenery. Eventually, there's some guff about Yet Another Super Artifact With Which He Will Rule the World.

A couple of recognizable actors hover around, unsure of what to do with themselves. Natasha Henstridge seemed far more comfortable parading naked through the Species movies than she does trying to deliver her clunky dialogue directly into the camera. Veteran character actor Carl Lumbly -- you might recognize him from "Alias" or "M.A.N.T.I.S." -- almost manages to retain his dignity by not being in the game very much.

You have to wonder why EA bothers making these cut scenes. They relate so poorly to the actual gameplay, and they're so embarrassingly bad at a time when the quality of writing in games is getting so much better. Why can't a company the size and stature of EA rise to the occasion? Is this what fans expect, the live-action equivalent of a "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon? For Pete's sake, EA, stop infantilizing videogaming with this kind of crap.

Games without frontiers

The campaign would be the weakest part of Kane's Wrath if it weren't for the terrible Global Conquest mode, a sloppy mess made nearly unplayable by bad artificial intelligence and a terrible interface. This dynamic strategic wrapper is particularly disappointing because the developers at EA have already tried it twice before with Battle for Middle Earth II and its Rise of the Witch-King expansion, both of which were promising. You'd think they'd have learned by now how to make these things work.

Their take this time is to spread out a borderless map of the world and let you freely build bases and move armies. You're fighting in a three-way battle for global conquest, with each faction having a unique victory condition. So far, so good. To make each side interesting, there are teleporting armies, invisible bases, various strategic powers, and scattered cities to protect or exploit. Again, so far, so good.

This stuff is splashed carelessly onto the map (or not, in the case of the invisible bases), however, and there's no easy way to keep up with all of it. It feels like a beta of something someone suggested, given a first pass. It's not easy to tell what's going on, and there are plenty of undocumented features and icons, as well as a nearly useless mini-map that could have been helpful. The vague economic model and the overcomplicated army management will keep you busy. Tabbing carefully through your prepackaged armies and bases each turn is a prerequisite given the bad interface.