It”s better to steal well than to do it badly yourself: This real-time strategy game steals from the time-honoured Command & Conquer with incredible cheek. But it”s so good that we like it already.
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Quiz question: Who has the shortest life expectancy in real-time strategy games and shooters? Infantrymen? Tanks? Planes? All wrong. It”s red barrels.
Because whenever such a petrol barrel is standing around with enemies, every player immediately fires at it. Because it saves ammunition, is easy to hit and doesn”t shoot back. And because it”s so unbelievably satisfying how the explosion does all the work for us.
In the real-time strategy game Tempest Rising, which THQ Nordic presents to us via Discord, every AI soldier apparently has the task of stacking as many red barrels as possible very close to comrades, important buildings and on bridges. “We love these chain reactions” comments our presenter as he blows up a whole regiment of barrels, and the beloved chain reaction blows up an enemy tank and lots of infantrymen at the same time.
Whether there is more to this explosive title than just a lukewarm rehash of Command & Conquer, you can find out in our big preview.
Table of Contents
Global Defence Ini…, er, Forces!
The RTS is supposed to be a “reminiscence of Command & Conquer” – whereby “reminiscence” is a huge understatement. For the borrowings are omnipresent. Even with the first of the three factions. It”s called GDF, and C&C connoisseurs immediately gasp: “Hey, two-thirds of that is stolen!” That”s right, the model GDI was simply changed to GDF.
But the pirating goes even further, because the GD in Tempest Rising also stands for Global Defence, only the I for Initiative has been replaced by an F for Forces, like a fig leaf. And the Tempest in the game name stands for the contested alien resource – so the old green Tiberium has become the red, also organic Tempest, so the game translates as Rising Storm.
But now let”s stop juggling words and take a closer look at games. It feels like Command & Conquer right from the start.
We haven”t been able to play it ourselves yet, but the first demonstrated mission already shows where things are headed: with its digitised world map on which the next mission country appears, its computer voice and the stylish user interface, Tempest Rising is already strikingly reminiscent of the iconic EVA interface from C& C.
And because before each mission atmospheric videos with protagonists, units, battles and briefings get you in the mood for the next mission, there is even more of a pleasant C&C feeling.
In addition, our first opponents could easily have sprung from the Brotherhood of Nod. For the Dynasty troops also love the colour red, flamethrowers and uniforms and helmets reminiscent of the Wehrmacht. A third playable faction has been announced, but is still secret.
Harvester on the run
The first GDF mission (which you can play at gamescom, by the way) already shows the direction of travel: Tiberium Rising plays like a somewhat faster Command & Conquer.
We start with a mini squad of assault rifle infantrymen on a parachute, and after the first skirmishes another plane drops scouts who only have a pistol in their hands. But their most powerful weapon hovers above them: a drone that reconnoitres the terrain with great visibility and fires mini-missiles.
Many units are to get active and passive abilities, for example the medics, who also float to us a little later. They carry a thick protective shield in front of them and, if desired, erect a man-high rotating cylinder called “Healing Tower”, which sprays green healing spray.
The mission was initially meant to be reconnaissance only, but more mission objectives are added, primary and optional. Destroy a Dynasty outpost, crack four anti-aircraft positions, destroy power plants.
When our infantrymen, complete with air-landed tank, come upon an enemy Tempest production plant and their small harvesting vehicles, the mobile plant, complete with attendants, drives us right off. This is where the mission branches out: in pursuit, our fighters come across allies who have just been shot out of the sky and are under fire.
Should we turn south and help, or continue west after the Tempest collectors? Helping with the presentation, of course, we get a few crammed infantrymen out as a reward, and crack another secondary target missile emplacement.
Tempest ☻ Wood, Ore, Gold
Thanks to 4K, ray tracing and Unreal Engine 4, this looks really fancy, especially the fire effects with showers of sparks, rocket tails and said exploding petrol barrels are quite something. But even when it”s not banging and rumbling, Tempest Rising looks alive. Especially the Tempest itself, which spreads over the earthly fauna like a red, billowing carpet of blossoms and flashes menacingly. Like Tiberium back in the day, the coveted Tempest wipes the floor with resource classics like wood, stone and gold, because the almost glowing mass of honeycomb is just so much cooler than the five-hundredth vein of gold.
Our favourite detail, however, is a small, crater-shaped, bubbling pond. The bubbles bubble more and more, and the pond turns out to be a geyser that suddenly shoots up a fountain of water – just like that, on the edge of a battle, we almost didn”t even notice it in the heat of it.
One destroyed outpost later, we finally confront the escaped harvester convoy, and while we are taking fire at the facility and the collector vehicles, our own construction vehicle arrives. Just like back then, the vehicle unfolds and becomes a construction yard, the rich deep computer voice announcing “New Construction Options!”. We continue as in 1995: build a power plant, erect a refinery, the harvester is included as standard equipment, albeit fatter and more leisurely than its Dynasty counterparts. While he grazes the neighbouring Tempest field and thus finances our planned army, our construction yard builds other classics: barracks, silo, vehicle factory.
We secure the only access, a bridge, with the legendary sandbags. Legendary because back in Command & Conquer we used to drag them across the maps for ages, as you were only allowed to build new structures near existing buildings – and the sandbags counted as buildings. Two more Gatling towers on the flanks, and the enemy can come!
Bullishness is seldom good
This one comes in dribs and drabs for now, so we can tell you a bit about the wayfinding AI. The good news: No harvesters have driven through the middle of enemy bases. The not-so-good news: Troops in formation still seem too uncoordinated to us at the moment, because fast units like jeeps and, of all things, the medics often rush forward overconfidently and get shot away.
Yes, the game is still in an early version and AI routines are continuously being improved in the development process, but we still keep an eye on it. So the troops in the version shown are not as neatly in formation as in the official, posed screenshots here in the article. But there”s plenty of time for AI fine-tuning until the planned release in 2023.
The sample mission ends in a showdown with our infantrymen and freshly produced fighter tanks against the last enemy base in the region. A small, still inconspicuous button click brings the decision: seconds later, a GDF jet drops a bomb on the base gate, our army pushes through and dismantles the defenders.
Since we don”t have any heavy units yet, it takes a long time to destroy the last buildings. But the announcement trailer already shows what heavy equipment is coming: thick tanks with twin guns (another reminiscence, this time of the Mammoth tank), flamethrower tanks, artillery, mechs in exoskeletons.
This arsenal is used together with aircraft and helicopters in two solo campaigns as well as multiplayer battles with skirmish and ranked matchmaking. The red barrels are already shaking!
Editors” verdict
Meanwhile, I have seen dozens of C&C clones come and go that have convulsively denied their role model. I really prefer the cheeky but self-confident and gameplay-analysing approach of the Tempest Rising makers. Because they get the good old atmosphere across immediately: With world map interface and video sequences that get me in the mood for the next mission. With the GDF as a faction that merely exchanges the last letter of the good old GDI. And with the living-deadly resource called Tempest, which is both a curse and a blessing.
Sure, I”ve only seen one mission and a little bit of trappings, but this first impression gives me hope for a proper new C&C, which I”ve been waiting for for ages. I don”t care what it”s called!
By the way, I noticed how much Tempest Rising gives you that C&C feeling when I was writing this preview: I accidentally typed Tiberium instead of Tempest at least eight times. I hope I got them all.
