Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread - Page 225

So I've put a little over 2 hours into Tempest Rising according to Steam and everyone is basically right on it being a good modern C&C clone. I would maybe go a bit further than that and say that it's a greatest hits of the various iterations of C&C game play and story wise. Although it has some additions and omissions that do leave me scratching my head a bit.

Positives
-The interface seems to be a pretty direct copy of C&C3 Tiberium & Red Alert. If it ain't broke don't fix it and it works in this game just as well as it did in those. The only addition of the top of my head is that control groups are tracked in the bottom left with a counter for the number of units in them. That might be something that was in the old games but my memory fails me.
-The graphics are really good without turning my computer into a jet engine. The game also isn't overwhelming with particle effects or explosions on the map and action is legible without much issue picking out my units or structures in between the combat. I did sometimes struggle with distinguishing units though and the visual profile of the tanks and infantry doesn't seem to be as strong as some other RTS's I've played but that might just be something I need to commit more time to the game to get better at.
-The aesthetics of the campaign, UI in particular, is also great the GDF is sleek and modern holograms while the Tempest Dynasty is more directly aping the early C&C campaign UI's. The briefing interludes are pretty well detailed & animated character models it seemed as though the animation for them was bespoke.
-Performance was really good the only time I ran into lag was when the game transitioned from the in game mission to the campaign UI which was weird and I assume is some sort of back end thing the devs need to sort out. I never had lag when I was playing through any of the missions playing on High settings or in any other instance other than the aforementioned.
-Story seemed interesting from what I've played of it, I'm curious to see where things are going which is a good thing. The game seems to lean on both Red Alert & the Tiberium games with a science fiction-y magic plants that feed on radiation while having a geopolitical conflict between a Russian coded eastern empire seeking to conquer Europe pitted against an UN/America coded peacekeeping force supported by liberal democracies. I assume at least I haven't gone through the GDF campaign yet.
-Audio is all good across the board the Tempest advisors & units are hamming it up with some Russian sounding accents vs GDF professional soldiers & experts. I didn't hear anything bad although again I've only put in about 2 hours. The music is great Frank Klepacki worked on it with a ton of other names I don't recognize and it rocks so I've not much else to say. Nothing I've heard has hit as hard as Hell March from Red Alert 3 but it's still great soundtrack with some really standout tracks.
By our Blood
Aegis

Negatives/Grognard Complaints
-They added a population cap for some reason and I hate it. I don't know why they felt the need to do this and I honestly can't conceive of how it makes the game better in anyway from what I've played. I guess I'll say that it's generous at about 200 units and never proved to be too much of an obstacle since by the time I was hitting it I had enough higher tier units that I was able to stop the enemy in campaign or skirmish but I can't help but wonder if it exists for some sort of future console release.
-The third faction is not currently playable in the game and is apparently going to be released at a later point in time post launch with no campaign although they are present in the existing campaigns in some capacity.
-The game tutorial is a little under cooked which is mostly fine since I've played C&C but does run into difficulty's when things are different. Such as doctrines being a separate menu the player needs to go into and research to get the benefit from during campaign and skirmish. The tutorial as is are just text notifications that pop up on the left of the screen with a video for you to play that you click through.
-The unit AI can be a bit like early C&C so that means that sometimes if you don't tell them to do something they'll just sit around doing nothing. So for example if you clear an enemy base of units and unit producing structures they won't just attack whatever is in range like say a power plant or harvester they'll just sit around staring at the enemy waiting for you to get back to them. I think that units do attack in range enemy units but they're very much dependent on your orders to do much of anything.
-The story that I've experienced is good but I feel like Westwood was always pretty good about centering the story in certain amount of real world context that the story so far has lacked. Red Alert was based on pretty fresh memory's of the collapsed Soviet Union & definitely drew from portrayals of a soviet empire crossing the borders of Europe and trying to conquer the world. Tiberium felt like it drew from a certain kind of Sci-Fi Tom Clancy style geopolitical thriller with GDI and The Brotherhood of Nod being representative of the growth of religious fundamentalism/terrorism & western endeavors to keep peace around the world. It managed to feel pretty tuned in to the politics of the here and now and while they never took themselves too seriously they always managed to incorporate it. Tempest Rising doesn't feel quite as interested in that, the backstory is that the Cuban missile crisis went hot but the game doesn't seem quite as interested in drawing the line from the Soviet Union to a country run by a sort of hereditary military dictator with some left wing rhetoric or Western Europe and the Americas uniting under a GDI style peacekeeping force. Maybe I'll get more details as I play through the game but it reminds me of the issue I had with some wargame settings where it's hard to fully buy into the world because it's hard to imagine it beyond a bunch of armies fighting each other.

TLDR: A good game with a fun campaign so far as I've played it and would recommend to anyone interested in a relatively safe C&C successor. If you want a modern looking C&C this is the game for you if you want something different you should play Gray Goo or something instead.

EDIT: As a final note the game is currently in a early access deluxe edition phase. If you want to get the game for $40 instead of $50 then just wait until 4/24. The only bonuses you get out of buying now aside from getting to play the game early is the OST (which is good) and the artbook.