Moose O'Malley's Software Valley Established : July 1996 Please bookmark this location only : http://move.to/moose

Command & Conquer (C&C) invites you to lead an army and attack rival armies and claim territory.

C&C is a strategy game, but with a great arcade game feel.

When you start a mission, you generally start with a Mobile Construction Yard and perhaps a few vehicles and/or troops. Now, you must carefully (but quickly !) choose a safe spot to set up a base. To do this, click on your troops with the mouse and then click a region elsewhere on the screen, and the troops will move there. Use your troops to scout around, and then move your Mobile Construction yard to a good place. Once it stops, click on it again, and it will then "deploy".

Once you have deployed your Construction Yard, you can then build a few things like a power station and a wall. Once you build a power station, you can then build other things.

Other buildings can only be built if they are adjacent to one of your existing buildings.

This is the first thing you need to come to grips with in C&C - what you can build next depends on what you have already built. i.e. there is a dependency !

Also, once you have built a Barracks, you can produce extra troops. Once you have built a weapons factory, you can produce extra tanks.

The graphics is C&C are very good. You see little men walking along or attacking things, and when they stop, they do push-ups and things to keep busy. A tank's turret turns before its base. When buildings are damaged, they crumple and catch fire, and when tanks are damaged, smoke pours out of them.

When troops are destroyed, they often leap into the air or leave a bloody mess on the ground.

The sound is C&C is also very good. When you click on a unit, they report with a "Yes Sir ?", "Ready and Waiting !", "Reporting !", or similar sound, and when you order a unit o move or attack, you hear a "You've got it !", "Affirmative !", "Roger !", or similar sound. All the voices have different accents / sounds.

The sounds and screams of battle are also very convincing !

Westwood's attention to detail here is excellent !!

What you can build and produce also depends on your Tech Level. In early missions, your Tech Level is low, and you can only build / produce basic troops. Later on, your Tech Level is high, and you can build advanced weapons, radar sites, guard towers, helicopters, and all sorts of interesting stuff.

To get money in C&C, you need to build a Refinery, which comes with a free Harvester. You then need to send this Harvester out to mine Tiberium ( a green plant that grows in patches on the surface). When "full" the Harvester automatically returns to the Refinery, and it is now that you get money.

All vehicles and troops cost different amounts to produce, and they have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, Hum Vees are small trucks which are fast, but only have a machine gun, and are easily damaged. Medium tanks are slow, but have a big gun which does a lot of damage to buildings and other tanks, but it doesn't do much damage to attacking troops.

Depending on which side you opt for (GDI or NOD) you get different weapons.

GDI's great weapons are Mammoth Tanks, Advanced Guard Towers, the troop transport, and the Space Based Ion Cannon (you will love this one !).

NOD's great weapons are Stealth Tanks, the Obelisk of Light (a laser tower), the helicopter troop transport, Flame Tanks, and Nuclear Weapons (these will bring a smile to your face as well !!).

All in all, both sides are fairly even.

GDI's Mammoth tanks have 2 enormous guns and a rocket launcher, and they also repair damage to themselves (only up to 50%).

NOD's Stealth tanks are cloaked, and are only visible when they attack or pass close to an enemy unit. A group of 6 or 7 of these can be used to sneak up on and surround an enemy's Harvester and attack it. By the time they realise it is under attack, the attack will be over and the stealth tanks will automatically re-cloak again.

Helicopters from either side can be sent out to attack things, but make sure you have them grouped on a Team Key, so that you can recall them if they run into a pod of Rocket Launcher troops, or a SAM Site.

A group of 6 or 7 Helicopters are a great way to attack enemy Harvesters as well.

Watch out for engineers, as they can take over your buildings. This has a doubly bad impact :

• you loose control of the building,
• the enemy can plonk a turret, guard tower, or something else nasty right next to the captured building and use it to blow your base to Kingdom Come.

But above all, look after your construction yard - if this is taken out, you cannot build any more buildings ! (But the buildings you already have will go on functioning.)

If an Engineer takes over your building, at least you can build an engineer of your own and capture it back. But, if a Commando enters your base you had better act fast, these guys simply place explosives in your buildings and detonate them. If you don't stop them fast, you could find your entire base has been destroyed !!

The Computer controlled opponents in C&C are fairly dim. Usually they start off with seemingly endless funds and a massive base already built and heavily defended. You, on the other hand, generally start with a few troops / vehicles and a Mobile Construction Yard, so you have to build a base from scratch while repelling enemy attacks.

In Multi-Player games (over a modem or network), C&C really comes into its own. I have spent many, many evenings playing C&C with friends, and there always seem to be new things and strategies to discover in the game, and new and ever more evil ways to display these strategies to your friends !!

On the Internet, there are freely available Mission Editors, that have been developed with the support of Westwood Studios, along with a bunch of pre-defined Multi-Player and Single-Player missions.

Thanks Westwood !!

There are loads of good strategy guides, FAQs, and game information on the Internet as well.

The site ( http://news.third-wave.com/case/ccpack/) is a good place to start looking for these add-ons.

C&C is a DOS program, but it will run under Windows. I have played it for days under Windows, and there are no side effects.

All in all, C&C is a great game, and I highly recommend it.

Game Summary :

Name :	Command & Conquer
Developer :	Westwood Studios
Recommended Retail Price :	$80 Aus
Release Date :	March, 1995
Graphics :	90%
Sound :	90%
Music :	90%
Atmosphere :	90%
Longevity :	95%
Operating System(s) :	DOS and Windows 3.1, 95, NT. I have run it successfully under all of these O/S's.
Expandability / Extendability :	95% Thanks Westwood ! You can use various editors (freely available on the Internet) to add new levels, etc.
Multi-player :	Yes Modem play (2 player) and Network play (up to 4 players) are supported.
HD Installable :	Yes. You can play it off your HD (without the CD in the drive), but you need to use a command line hack.
Any Copy protection :	Not Really. The need for the CD can be overridden.
Overall Rating :	96%

Moose's Rating : 9.6 / 10

The above review is Copyright © Moose O'Malley, October 14, 1996.

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