I get it. You’re probably sick of hearing of C&C Rivals on this site. We’ve got other stuff coming up: more in-depth analysis of RTS design, more overviews of new and upcoming RTS games. We’re not going to become a C&C Rivals fansite, don’t worry.
But, in the spirit of trying to keep all Wayward Strategy content together, here’s a link to an article I did on the phenomenal site Pocket Tactics, which is a sister site to Strategy Gamer and Wargamer.com. It is about Rivals, and as such might not be of interest to you. That’s all right. We hope you stick around for our other stuff.
Players first thought EA had killed the Command & Conquer franchise in 2010, when they discovered Command & Conquer 4 had made radical departures from the series’ standards and that the campaign was something of a dumpster fire. Players then thought EA had killed C&C in 2012, when Tiberium Alliances took the franchise into the world of the then-popular browser-based grind of ‘MMORTS’.
They for sure thought EA had killed C&C in 2013 when the company announced, then canned, Command & Conquer Generals 2.
But then, in the year of our Lord 2018, we saw Uncanny Valley Kane in the ad for a new… mobile C&C title called ‘Rivals’, and we knew it had finally jumped the shark. This was the end, we were in the darkest timeline.
Only, Command & Conquer Rivals is a surprisingly good game. It’s been in beta since August, and, well, it’s impressed many. The gameplay is deep and responsive, the unit designs are fun; the dev studio has managed to create an accessible and enjoyable strategy game that just so happens to be Command & Conquer flavored.It’s due to release on December 4th as a Free-to-Play game although mobile developers (especially attached to big publishers) struggle to find pay models that make everyone happy. So far, EA have done admirable work at minimizing the impact of freemium mechanics on the game, but that’s unlikely to convince anyone who fundamentally dislikes loot box economics.
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