Love this game.

The campaign design is a little scattershot, and it shows the seams of the scope-tightening it reportedly went through, but the result is still great. Unparalleled ambience, looks fantastic to this day, an all-timer OST (in my top 5 for sure), and a goofy sci-fi plot about climate change made in the late 90s.

Less solid as a game than its successor Red Alert 2 for sure, but still effortlessly iconic.

Gameplay is very straightforward: harvest, build, attack, repeat. Very solid

However, I think looking back on this in 2021, whether Westwood intended it or not, the story and setting put forth a chilling prediction of the climate change and societal response to it. In the world of Tiberian Sun, tiberium represents an uncontrolled environmental disaster. The green/blue crystalline substance is sweeping across the planet, destroying ecosystems, altering the planets surface, and sending untold millions of people fleeing for colder climates. However, tiberium is the fuel of the globalized permanent war economy, so those in power be they GDI or Nod do nothing to find a solution to this problem that threatens all life on the planet. Instead they harvest it (ensuring its continued spread) and outright abandon people living in high exposure areas. GDI and Nod turn a blind eye to the world on fire so they can fight to be king of the ashes. It's hard not to see this reflected in the total apathy towards climate change presented by world governments and mega corporations 22 years after the game's release. The game's brilliant writing and worldbuilding elevates the game in ways that make the game incredibly relevant and haunting.

I think one of my favorite parts of this game is how serious and dark the story comes across, but the cutscenes are so goofy and fun. It truly feels like a 90s action movie and that is part of the charm.

I have now played all four C&C Tiberian games and this might be the best one of the 4. It is a very fun and challenging RTS that has many different unique missions and ways to play the game. The GDI and Nod campaigns are both a lot of fun. Kane is such a fun villain and I love how the actor just has fun with the character.

Playing this was some kind of weird, long-awaited reckoning for me. As a fan of the original C&C games in their heyday, I remember following the massive pre-release hype for this - the big sequel - and getting it right away when it came out. My friends and I played it, but we were all kind of confused and a little off-put by how different it was from the others, and how unfinished and janky it was in spots. I never got very far and never really returned to it, even though it's been on my shelf for the last 20-plus years. I always felt like I needed to get back to it and work through my feelings.

Well, I found that it's actually quite a bit better than I remembered, and definitely deserving of a reappraisal. I don't think I had the right taste as a twelve-year old to appreciate the very particular mood and vibe that they were going for. It's a very different direction than the original - full-on sci-fi post-apocalypse, as opposed to '90s edgy modern warfare. They really committed to it, and as far as the gameplay, the graphics, and the music are concerned, it pulls it off quite well. The feel is dark, dire, moody, natural-neon lit dying future. Definitely a bold choice!

The left turn is certainly distinct, but a byproduct of it is that it automatically feels more or less totally separate from the games that came before. It doesn't feel like a sequel in any way. The story as told by the now-familiar cheesy FMV cutscenes is just bad, as it's now expecting to be taken very, very seriously, with a couple name actors and a more involved plot. Believe it or not, the production doesn't have anywhere near the chops to pull it off, and it ends up feeling like a humorless, zero-budget Sci-fi Channel miniseries. The fun, minimal, guerrila feel of the original C&C is gone, and what's in its place is mostly just dull.

Gameplay-wise, everything feels familiar and yet sufficiently fresh. The old framework is there and perfectly recongizable for returning players, but there are a ton of new and interesting gameplay ideas that make your arsenal and base-building options feel very rich. I found myself much more engaged in the actual missions here than in C&C or RED ALERT, and I was genuinely impressed with some of the level design and interactivity of the environments. Loads of smart little tweaks and fixes.

To be fair, I am playing a somewhat fixed version of this, but I do remember what it was like at release, warts and all. I still believe this is kind of good and was unfairly maligned a bit in its day - if not only by me and my friends. I remain as disappointed now with the story as I was then, but if this thing was just the gameplay and the CG cutscenes, it'd probably be the best in the series. Glad I finally got back to this so I could come to appreciate it and give it it's due.

My personal favorite C&C title due to its exquisite atmosphere and soundtrack, and great unit design. (If you're GDI.) Sadly the game is marred by masochistic mission design (someone deserves to be punched for creating Capture Hammerfest Base, Capture Jake McNeil) and volume issues. (gameplay too loud, while FMV cutscenes are barely audible no matter how you adjust volume settings in the options) Especially annoying if you had speakers where the volume knob comes right off if you pull on it. ;|