GAMES

Tiberium First Impressions

Command & Conquer Goes First-Person Again

We get our first good look at the new first-person shooter based on the popular Command & Conquer real-time strategy series.

Tiberium isn't the first first-person shooter EA has created out of its popular Command & Conquer real-time strategy franchise, but it is the first attempt in over half a decade. As such, Tiberium will bring all the latest technology to the fray, and developer EALA looks to craft a game that will blend the squad control of the RTS games with intense first-person shooter gameplay.

Along the way, Tiberium will also fill in huge holes in the history of the Command & Conquer universe. Tiberium isn't the first first-person shooter EA has created out of its popular Command & Conquer real-time strategy franchise, but it is the first attempt in over half a decade.

Tiberium will continue the storyline that ended in Command & Conquer 3, as the game is set in the years after the Third Tiberium War.

As the Forward Battle Commander, your job will be to arrive on the scene first and secure the area. The GD-10 can transform into a magnetic rail gun (a futuristic assault rifle), a missile launcher, a grenade launcher, or an energy canon, which also doubles as a sniper weapon. Also, the FBC is clad in advanced body armor equipped with jump jets, which let you leap atop rooftops and other objects.

The battle that was demonstrated had Vega battling Scrin units, from basic strike units (which are sort of like alien dogs) to more advanced archons.

Longtime C&C fans will also be interested to hear that Tiberium will also delve into the lore of the franchise like few games before it. For instance, the roots of the GDI and its rival, the evil Brotherhood of Nod, will apparently be explored for the first time.

It is essentially a conflict, as Plummer explained, between science and faith. It all revolves around the arrival of Tiberium, an extraterrestrial element that has the ability to transform any matter that it comes into contact with into itself.

When Tiberium becomes a powerful resource, it becomes the source of conflict. Not surprisingly, exploitation will be the theme of the game.

With regard to technology, the game is being built atop a highly modified version of the Unreal Engine. But though the game is still quite a ways from completion, there are still plenty of details to be learned about Tiberium, from the multiplayer component to more details about the gameplay.