Betterdeadthanred

*****SPOILER ALERT*****


It started out extremely strong and I enjoyed it immensely, but it seemed to climax at the Europe campaign and started to lose all of its originality. I felt like I was playing the same mission rehashed in a different environment with a sort of AoD (C&C:G players would understand that) feel instead of any tactical gameplay. The characters were developed well, but if you had a slow computer, I found it difficult to follow the cut scenes because the audio was racing ahead of the video confusing the situation. The aftermath mission of the nuke blast I thought was spectacular in its very gritty post apocalyptic feel, but everything seemed downhill from there. When the advance on Seattle began, it kept trying to portray it as the final, epic battle, but it just didn't really deliver in that respect. The last mission hardly felt as epic as the defense of Fort Teller and left me feeling kind of depressed that it would simply end like that. It had so much more potential, an incredibly detailed and developed storyline with long bouts of mediocrity that seemed to become more and more common as the game progressed.

I understand that developing a complex and tactical AI is the holy grail of game designers, but at least during the campaign, it felt like I was fighting hordes of mindless robots. Could they have thrown us a bone and make us feel sorry for the soviet conscripts we were slaughtering like cattle with a cut scene or something? I admit that the cut scenes were very good at developing the storyline, the live action ones were just far to difficult to enjoy without a decent computer.

Some maps more than others, but it always left me with the feeling, "why bother helping Cpt. Bannon with an tank buster? The 10,000 tanks I destroy with a few TA will just respawn in a matter of seconds leaving us exactly where we started." I understand they were trying to make you feel like you are one of many commanders working towards the objective, but whenever I saw the endless waves of mindless Russians flying at them getting blown to pieces only to respawn again seconds later, I felt as if it was all fluff and no substance.

To be honest, I had the most fun ever with this game in the closed beta. Nothing else came close.

Well, what did you guys think?

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thegreatnardini

I agree completely. The campaign started out great, but then got kinda corny. How in the hell did the Russians somehow land troops in New York, and take command of hundreds upon hundreds of tanks and helicopters on Liberty, Governor and Ellis Islands? It just made no sense. And the part about Bannon committing suicide, why did he need to stay behind, couldn't he just have retreated with everyone else and it would have looked LIKE A RETREAT, not "oh noes, they're gonna nuke us run away!?" And I do agree completely that it seemed after a while like we were just sitting there killing hordes of Russians. Besides the plot holes and other problems though, I thought it was quite entertaining, and definitely better than most other RTS campaigns (a la C&C:G)

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lTG-6thl TheGreatNardini

RGM-79N_GM_CUstom

It's not hard being better then Generals SP mode.

I love the SP campaign and demand more. I do hate the plot holes though and that Ellis Island mission really crossed the line. I mean I am sure we would use those Islands to help defend NYC but the idea of two companies of Spetznatz using all of those units is crazy. On top of that when you are so undermanned by would you have so many unused units there.

Also I wish the game didn't end the way it ended.

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Betterdeadthanred

Expansions must definitely be in the works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF79U0B_ze0

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westyfield

I agree. I'm having LOTS of fun with this game. I tried to install. It crashed. I tried to uninstall, it couldn't because it had installed half before it crashed. I tried to continue the install. it didn't work. Finally, with some help from my brother, after deleting everything in the WiC registry, it installed fine. While I was playing, it would randomly crash to main menu while loading, or CTD, or crash and reboot. Then it crashed, rebooted and gave me some rubbish while restarting (in that black screen with the white writing) about a bad BIOS checksum, checking for floppy, floppy not found. Checking for CD-ROM, CD-ROM not found. Checking for floppy, floppy not found, checking for CD-ROM etc etc.
That was Thursday evening. After all sorts of techinical jiggery pokery, it was finally working by Sunday afternoon. It worked fine Sunday evening, Monday afternoon UNTIL (!) on Monday evening-can you guess?-crash, reboot. Checking for floppy, floppy not found. Noooooo! I felt like screaming! So now, Tuesday afternoon, sitting at the other (non gaming) computer, waiting for someone computer literate to get home. I blame SecuROM.

But before it broke the first time, I had got to level 4 (snow and woods, defend some fords and a bridge). Then it broke, so I lost the save game data. Now I get to level 8 (crashed stealth fighter in Russia) and it breaks again! What fun for me and whoever gets the unfortunate job of fixing my PC again.

Oh, PS, thegreatnardini, I agree with your point about Bannons retreat. Also, why didn't we nuke the Russians either a) In Seattle b)Anywhere on the way to the village where Bannon has an 'unfortunate accident' c) Whereever the Russians have taked over in America or Europe or finally d) IN RUSSIA!

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westyfield

WOAH! Long post! Bit of a rant, but I think you'll agree I have a right to be annoyed after the afforementioned incidents.

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peardog

With this game apparently able to be Modded easily..maybe someone will come up with a Fixed SP campaign? or at least and alternate ending.. ?

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westyfield

I especially thought the mission in France (where you have to take and hold 2 bridges, clear the town on the hill, save the artillery and clear out the Russian HQ without blowing the church up) was very dumb near the end.
Commandant Sabatier: Theres a lot of bad guys coming in oh no I am dying.
Col.Sawyer: Bannon you are dumb, Parker defend those bridges.

So then I have to face alnoe a massive endless horde of Russian tanks and APCs which respawn every 3 seconds, it's like they're bacteria and just multiplying. Crazy.

I'm on level 8 of SP campaign so far, how many levels are there in all?

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