- Title: Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: EA
- Developer: EA LA
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: RTS
- Pros: New control scheme works well; nice graphics and sound; tons of single-player modes
- Cons: Framerate issues; sticky cursor; focus on NOD
C&C3: Kane’s Wrath is technically an expansion pack, but it is a stand-alone game on the Xbox 360 so you don’t need to own the original to play it. As with most expansion packs, it makes some improvements, adds some new weapons/characters, and is more focused on certain things (in this case, Kane’s return after he was thought to be lost and the rebuilding of NOD), but it isn’t really meant to be a replacement for the original game. My recommendation is that you can get C&C3 for around $20, and Kane’s Wrath for around $40, so for the price of one full game you’ll get a ton of great gameplay.
Kane’s Wrath features several single-player modes along with, of course, great multiplayer via Xbox Live. SP modes include a story campaign, skirmish where you have a ton of options to set the game up however you want, and Kane’s Challenge. The story focuses entirely on the NOD and an internal power struggle and you don’t get to play as the GDI or Scrin, which is disappointing. Kane’s Challenge is a series of challenges for each of the factions (NOD, GDI, Scrin) as well as the two additional sub-factions in each group, for a total of 9 playable factions. As you can tell, there is a lot to do here. The achievements are also very evenly distributed across all modes, which is a plus.
Gameplay
Everything else is just pure C&C through and through. It offers up a fine balance that allows you to play however you want. Whether you want to just use brute force or develop some actual strategy, the game is more than accommodating. Some missions in the campaign limit your resources or your units, which is kind of a bummer when you just want to build a ton of tanks and blow crap up, but these missions usually end up being far more satisfying because you really need to be careful and think things through.
The only other comments on the gameplay are pretty simple things. The difficulty seems to have been bumped up just a little from C&C3. That is a good thing, by the way. A problem occasionally popped up where the cursor would get stuck on a unit and wouldn’t move for a second or three. In the heat of battle, this proved annoying, but not game breaking.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Kane’s Wrath is pretty much the same as C&C3. That is to say, it looks pretty darn good. The units are very detailed and it is easy to tell what a unit is just by a glance. The only issue here is that there are some semi-serious framerate drops in the midst of especially large battles. C&C is kind of a “fire and forget”-type of game, though, so you pretty much tell your units to do something and they do it whether the framerate is chugging along or not. It usually only happens when the big weapons come out, so most of the game is fairly smooth.The sound is also quite good. Great sound effects. Minimal music, but it is good. The FMV cutscenes are just as cheesy and poorly acted as ever, but it wouldn’t be C&C without them.
Bottom Line
