Livestream 9/9/2021 – Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Being a big fan of Command & Conquer as well as the game that followed it Command & Conquer: Red Alert I was hotly anticipating the true sequel with Tiberian Sun. A direct evolution of the first game it promised a lot leading up to the launch back in 1999. Things such as a destructible terrain, in game lighting, elevation changes and many more things were promised. While Westwood ended up delivering on many of those things I can’t say I wasn’t just dissapointed upon finally playing the game.

Gone was that small eye sparkle that the game didn’t take itself too seriously from the original(s) and replacing it was a much more serious dystopian future setting. The Red Alert series would go on to champion that inherent sillyness with its setting and some truly remarkable acting from a variety of actors including Tim Curry. But Tiberian Sun was just drab… and sad… and some of the features touted were there but just not what I was expecting. To be clear it’s not a bad game, far from it, but it just doesn’t live up to the hype and promise. Perhaps I’m just sour that Frank Klepacki that produced the phenomenal industrial rock soundtrack from the first game was now tasked with a brooding and more sad soundscape.

The game is just more bland than I was hoping so my dissapointment was there. BUT before I rant any more about how I felt back then it’s a fun game to revisit. With the benefit of the passing of 2 decades the game has had plenty of time to bake in the collective consciousness and it might be better for it. It’s actually quite fun to play and we had a blast doing so during the last livestream.