By Kevin Hudec

By Kevin Hudec

“With this attack we castrate their ability to retaliate. Castrate, I love that word,” says Ajay (Josh Holloway, “Lost”) in “Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.” EA Games adds another great and witty game in the Tiberium universe with “Tiberium Wars.”

The “Command and Conquer” series is probably the most successful real time strategy game series on the market.

The original “Command and Conquer” was launched in 1995 and made waves throughout the video game industry with its action packed storyline. This saw the terrorist cell known as The Brotherhood of Nod rise to such power that it challenged the Global Defense Initiative (GDI).

GDI is a kind of super UN which focuses on military strength.

The game was especially well remembered and loved because of its live action cut scenes in between missions.

“Tiberium Wars” follows in this same vein and continues the storyline. The second installment of the Tiberium universe was “Command and Conquer: Tiberium Sun” explained the origin of the mysterious Tiberium, which was introduced in the first game only as an unknown substance that can be harvested for money, by having Nod try to protect a crashed spaceship.

This spaceship seemed to have brought the Tiberium to Earth. In “Tiberium Wars”, the aliens who brought Tiberium to Earth, known as the Scrin, are introduced as a playable side.

“Tiberium Wars” also introduces a cast which is star-packed. From recent young stars such as Holloway and Jennifer Morrison (“House, M.D.”) to great epic actors such as Billy Dee Williams (“Empire Strikes Back”, “Return of the Jedi”) and Michael Ironside (“Top Gun”, “Starship Troopers”) this cast is great.

Joe Kucan also reprises his role from the first two “Tiberium” games. He plays Kane, the megalomaniacal leader of Nod, extremely well.

With such an amazing, cast you can expect great acting and a dramatic storyline.

Don’t.

The storyline seems a bit clichéd and the missions seem as though they were rehashing the missions from the last two games in the “Tiberium” universe.

There were a few new ideas for missions and other interesting gameplay elements which were introduced. For the most part, however, the mission objectives were similar to objectives in older games.

It seemed a bit ridiculous that one commander (the player) was in charge of that many major objectives. In the GDI campaign, you are actually told that you’re the commander in charge of the North American continent and soon after, you find yourself in Italy.

Even with all these problems, this is a great game. The gameplay is fantastic and the graphics are even more amazing, yet the minimum specifications to be able to play the game are relatively low compared to other games which have recently launched.

The interesting gameplay elements mentioned before include being able to “power down” buildings in your base and being able to “steal” technology from other vehicles.

“Tiberium Wars” combines these elements with mission objectives which compliment them. The few missions that use these new ideas really set themselves apart from the rest of the game.

There is one mission in particular in which a base has less power than it has buildings and no way to construct more power plants. Holding position against incoming attackers consists of rotating which side of the base’s defense you power up and down depending on when you need extra support on that side.

This is a great action packed game which you will enjoy if you enjoyed the other “Command and Conquer” games, “Warcraft”, or “Starcraft.” The storyline and acting are both a bit weak but it’s undeniably fun.