It’s been roughly two years since we first learned of the existence of Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. A compilation of both the original and Red Alert, this project was greenlit in celebration of the series’ 25th anniversary and was revealed shortly before the launch of mobile spin-off Rivals. Its existence may be in relation to the controversy surrounding said mobile entry, even if critical reception was somewhat mixed.
Winding the clock back to almost the dawn of the RTS genre, this project has been pegged as a loving recreation of two classic games for fans that have been dying to see this series reemerge. EA has shown off some of the technology it is using to remaster cutscenes and has mentioned the content available, but hasn’t really shown off much gameplay…until now.
Last week, the publisher held a digital Q&A session where it premiered some of the first footage of both Command & Conquer and Red Alert running on developer Petroglyph’s brand new engine. Sporting both original and tweaked visual styles, this isn’t dissimilar to the recent work Microsoft has done with the Age of Empires series. You’re getting basically every piece of content made for the original games (all of their expansions are included) and a ton of behind-the-scenes footage that was recovered by EA. It’s quite the loving tribute to the series, as a whole.
As for how the game runs and all, you can almost look up footage of the original to see if this is for you. While the UI elements have actually been updated to better resemble Command & Conquer 3, nothing else about the missions or dialogue has been changed. Some slight tweaks to gameplay are present -you can now queue up units at your barracks/hangars to speed up missions-, but the majority of the original is left intact. Further options even let you tweak the game to be more like the original, though the classic UI had to be left in the past for technical reasons.
A rather significant change here is the inclusion of new difficulty options. Command & Conquer originally launched in 1995 and no one was really thinking about accessibility at the time. Nowadays, a vast array of people play games, so Petroglyph decided to let players tackle missions at their own level of skill. You can’t swap them in the middle of a mission, but you’ll be able to choose from the start of each mission if you want to tackle it on Easy, Medium, or Hard.
There’s also a secondary soundtrack included by C&C band “The Tiberian Sons.” The group has existed for many years as a video game cover group, but their obvious inspiration was EA’s iconic strategy series. At MAGFest 2019, they even collaborated with C&C composer Frank Klepacki for a setlist, which led to their inclusion here. From the menu, you can swap out the original soundtrack for the remastered one and get some incredible tunes going. It’s the kind of thing you normally see reserved for fan projects, but it’s an incredible touch.
One feature I liked seeing was the inclusion of the entirety of the N64 port of Command & Conquer. Never before released on PC, EA and Petroglyph have recreated the specific campaign from the console port as bonus missions in Remastered. You’ll be able to select them from a mission drop-down menu, but their inclusion practically doubles the size of this project. This is reminiscent of NightDive Studios’ work on Forsaken Remastered, which had a similar feature.
Finally, EA briefly went over the online options present and it seems promising. Both ranked and player matches are present, as is standard with current gaming. Ranked will utilize new rules as voted on by C&C community members, so it’s sure to create a ton of competition between players. If you want something more akin to the 90s, player matches will give you more control other gameplay variables.
Apart from all of this info, we weren’t given a playable demo version of the collection. All of the included content makes for an attractive prospect (especially the $20 price tag), but there’s always the chance something goes horribly wrong in development. I’d imagine EA not rushing this out in 2019 is a clear sign that it gave Petroglyph the time it needed to hone out any bugs. In fact, lead producer Jim Vessela even mentioned how he and his team worked with fans that had uncovered a ton of bugs over the years. Most of those are now gone.
So this is looking like a super safe bet for anyone with an interest in the series. It also seems like Petroglyph is open to other remasters of classic Westwood games and possibly a new entry in Command & Conquer. For the time being, its focus is on Remastered Collection and making sure this is the ultimate celebration of a series that’s been long overdue for a comeback.
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