The simple pleasures of Command & Conquer

RTS games are becoming ever more complex, but is that what we really want? I understand the need to evolve, but more advanced isn't always better. Command & Conquer 3 proves that point admirably.

Maybe I'm getting old, but at the age of (almost) 35, I'm finding more and more games too complex, too deep to enjoy. It's not that I can't play them, it's more that I end up frustrated by my inability to keep track of the barrage of features that some games feel they need to offer.

Once my favorite genre, I tend to shy away from RTS games these days. Modern-day RTS's seem to want to bury me under options, impossible upgrade paths and insane amounts of different units. Sometimes it feels like that have become more than I can manage. No, let me rephrase that, more than I -want- to manage. I'm all for depth in games, but when depth is achieved by overwhelming the player with stuff he'll never really use, what's the point of it?

Do I really need 30 different units? And what about upgrade paths that require 5 buildings and 4 other technologies? In the thick of the fight, I don't have -time- to think about how to reach such goals.

I have just finished the Command & Conquer 3 campaigns (yup, slow, I know, have not had a lot of time of late) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Why? Because the game didn't try to be more than it needed to be. It is well balanced, offers you enough different approaches to the challenges it thrusts upon you and does all that with a minimum of fuss. Almost every unit and building in the game has a 'reason' for being in it and upgrade paths are clear and easy to reach without causing you to lose your sense of achievement.

The end result is that the game plays fast, lets you focus on what is important and makes you feel you're having to work for it. Perfect!

The game has only two downsides. The first is the Scrin campaign. It is so short that you wonder if EA decided to not finish the game so that it would be 'ready' in time. All of a sudden the game is over and you're wondering what just happened. The second is the fact that many of the maps are boring. During the campaigns you won't notice this a whole lot but during multiplayer the drab maps will want to make you scream in frustration.

Other than that, Command & Conquer 3 proves that RTS games do not have to be complex to be fun. EA stayed incredibly close to the original formula, creating a very accessible game for starting RTS gamers while offering challenging gameplay for veterans of the genre. Well done EA!