First Impression Of Kane's Wrath

[Count von Phoib 0]

Hi all. Since I got Kane's Wrath today, I decided to write a First Impression here in the articles page. Since it's a First Impression, it will be a bit short.

 

Intro

Kane's Wrath is, although not perfect (Global Conquest...), a finely made expansion pack for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. As the title indicates, the focus is on Kane, and it shows in the menus and loading screens, all having a Nod related theme. Having played through the first Act, a couple of skirmish games and some World Domination, I can recommend getting Kane's Wrath. If you enjoyed C&C3, you'll enjoy the expansion.

 

Missions

I got until Act 2, after which I wanted to try some Skirmish and World Domination. It took me about 2,5 hours to reach Act 2, and it had its share of nice moments. You begin right after Firestorm, and it shows in your Militia soldiers: proper Nod Soldiers, straight from Tiberian Sun. Yay! It's too bad they didn't bring tick tanks and Devil Tongues over, but you can't have it all. You got to reunite Nod in the first missions, and fight against Brother Marcion. You even get to destroy statues of him, which is a nice touch. The second act has a mission taking place in South Africa, which prompts a soldier to say "looks familiar" as the map layout mimmicks the final GDI mission from Tiberian Dawn.

 

The movies are nice too, and in my opinion better then the original Tiberium Wars movies. Brother Marcion, Carl Lumby in real life, plays a nice religious zealot, and actually reminds me of the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Nice acting.

Also, the face when he sees Kane is just great. It is a shame though, that it isn't shown how Kane eventually gets rid of Brother Marcion. Kane now forgives him, and that feels a bit... un-Kane like?

.

 

Skirmish

Skirmish is nice, but there are some critical remarks to be made. My biggest "huh" factor was the Titan's coming crouched out of the GDI War Factory. I know the Factory here isn't that big, but I think it will take me some time to get used to ducking Titan's. In Tiberian Sun, you had this yellow blob of pixels that walked out of the War Factory, and that left a better impression on me then the KW version. Also, having played one snow map, I was a bit dissapointed by it. Although there might be more snow maps (I tested Tundra Trouble) the map didn't feel like a snow map to me. The structures didn't look snow related to me, and the map had some patches of snow. Meh, it could have been better.

 

Now for the good news from Skirmish: the new factions are fun! While they look 'strange' (sorry, I'm still used to the TibSun ones!), it's just a ton of fun to unleash half a division of Titan's on your enemy's base and see them blast it into the ground. The wall upgrades for both GDI and Nod are also fun, and although not very usefull in Skirmish, will prove to be very valuable in Multiplayer. The Epic Units are, well, huge (the MARV looks strange at first, a sort of Mammoth meats Maus) with the Scrin Eradicator Hexapod looking extra nasty. The new Scrin Mechapede is fun to use, and the new Support Powers, especially the Overlord's Wrath, which unleashes a huge Tiberium meteor, look awesome. It sure promises lots of fun for multiplayer. I mean, if you lose by getting smashed by a giant meteor, how can you possibly get angry?

 

Global Conquest

I like to be brief about this one, as I didn't really like it. I want to like it, it was one of the features that made me go "yes!" on hearing it, but for me, it's poorly done. I tried a few games and was annoyed by the constant saboteur strikes and Ion Cannon blasts that were thrown on my ass every few rounds. Losing a full base, including base defenses and Rift Generator, against an AI player with just 1 Commando, 2 Snipers, 2 Firehawks and 4 Zone troopers is just plain annoying. It doesn't matter much if you choose to let the AI fight for you, or battle it out on your own: the base layout is so poor that you want to sell everything in frustration and start again, but by that time 4 Scorpion tanks are smashing through your Buzzers and you practically lost the match. Bah.

Maybe I am biased, as Derelict Studios is developing a multiplayer mode like this on it's own, but Global Conquest, for me, isn't fun to play.

 

Modding?

I haven't installed the World Builder yet, and I haven't seen any XML's or XSD's, so I have no clue about modding Kane's Wrath. The game has some fun new mechanics, but nothing ground breaking that I would recommend switching your mod over for (This might always be changed by the XML's...).

 

Conclusion

Whoops, I wrote a bit more than intended, but hey. Apart from Global Conquest and ducking Titans, Kane's Wrath is a fun expansion pack, and worth the $30 you spend on it. The missions look fun, and with the new units, multiplayer will be more different, and more fun. If you liked C&C3 and don't have Kane's Wrath yet: Go get it here! It's $30, meaning about €20 for the ones that are lucky to live in Europe, like me ;)

[BlckWyerve 0]

The second act has a mission taking place in South Africa, which prompts a soldier to say "looks familiar" as the map layout mimmicks the final GDI mission from Tiberian Dawn.

 

And it's a skirmish map in C&C3..

[Count von Phoib 0]

Really?

 

Never saw it...

[Pivac 0]

The original one has different textures, trees and buildings. The shape of terrain is the same.

 

They used many skirmish maps in missions. I'm fine with that, though it's weird to play the campaign on symmetric maps.

[pinbag 0]

Damn i realy love the Black hand faction.

 

 

[maskawaih 0]

I got mine with Razer DeathAdder mouse, Kane's Wrath edition. :D

 

[pinbag 0]

Looks sexy maskawaih.

 

 

[PsiSoldier28 0]

Did anyone else get a RA3 beta key with their copy?

[Count von Phoib 0]

I didn't :(

[BlckWyerve 0]

I didn't even after LOL WE'LL SEND YOU AN EMAIL IF YOU BOUGHT IT FROM OUR STORE

[PsiSoldier28 0]

I didn't even after LOL WE'LL SEND YOU AN EMAIL IF YOU BOUGHT IT FROM OUR STORE

Oh, poor you. I got it with the "LOL LEAFLET" in the box.