Command & Conquer: Renegade

Command & Conquer: Renegade
Developer(s)	Westwood Studios
Publisher(s)	EA Games
Series	Command & Conquer
Engine	W3D (Westwood 3D) engine
Version	1.037, 2003-01-23
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	NA February 26, 2002 EU March 1, 2002
Genre(s)	Tactical shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T ELSPA: 15+
Media/distribution	2CD-ROMs
System requirements Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7 400 MHz Processor 96 MB RAM 950 MB HDD space 4x CD-ROM drive DirectX 8.1 compatible 16 MB video card DirectX compatible sound card

Command & Conquer: Renegade is a first and third person shooter video game developed by Westwood Studios and is part of the Command & Conquer series. It is the only C&C game that uses the first person view. It was released on February 26, 2002 by EA Games.

Gameplay

Renegade's story takes place during the final days of the First Tiberium War originally depicted in Command & Conquer. GDI's top three Tiberium research specialists have been abducted by the Brotherhood of Nod. The player assumes the role of GDI commando Captain Nick "Havoc" Parker, who is assigned to rescue these experts. He conducts missions which take him all over the world in various countries and climates, both indoor and outdoor, and his actions greatly affect the current state of the war. As the game progresses it is revealed that the specialists have been forced into biochemistry research for the Brotherhood's top secret "Project Re-Genesis," An attempt to create genetically enhanced super-soldiers with the aid of Tiberium.

As the player plays through a mission, the in-game EVA, or Electronic Video Assistance, periodically updates with mission objectives. EVA logs and updates all objectives and their current status. Objectives are categorized into three categories: primary, secondary and tertiary. The completion of primary objectives are crucial for that mission's success. Secondary objectives are not required for mission completion, but may assist in game play. Tertiary missions, which are usually hidden, do not assist much in game play, but will affect your final "rank" at the end of each mission.

Kane advises a mutated Elena Petrova in a Renegade cutscene.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer element of this game takes the form of 'Command and Conquer Mode', in which players are divided into the two teams: GDI and Nod. Each team starts with its own base; team members can independently purchase vehicles and advanced character classes to destroy the enemy base and defend their own base. A match is won when one team destroys the other's base or when one team has more points than the other when the time limit expires. Damaging and destroying enemy units and structures earns points. Some servers allow the 'endgame beacon' option that causes a side to immediately win if that side's 'superweapon' beacon is successfully planted and detonated on a 'beacon pedestal' in the other side's base. Gameplay is a combination of FPS and RTS elements, since team members receive money from tiberium harvesting and must purchase their own individual equipment.

Development

An Ion Cannon fires in one of the Renegade cutscenes.

The game engine, called the "Renegade engine" or "Westwood 3D", was developed in-house by Westwood. It is designed to support real world physics and allow seamless movement from indoor to outdoor environments. The "Westwood 3D" engine was re-used as the base of the Strategy Action Game Engine used in Command & Conquer: Generals, Battle for Middle Earth, Battle for Middle Earth 2, and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

A PlayStation 2 version was in development, however it was cancelled.

When the game missed its shipping date, Westwood made a humorous video titled Havoc Takes on Westwood in which Havoc, the game's main character and hero, goes to Westwood Studios to make sure the game doesn't miss its shipping date again. The video can be downloaded here or seen here. Even after the video was made, the shipping date was missed once again.

The game originally featured a different commando (Logan Shephard), looking much more akin to the original Command & Conquer unit and was much less action-oriented than its final incarnation. Also, Nod troopers looked more like their Command & Conquer equivalent, donning professional urban camouflage uniforms rather than red jumpsuits easily distinguishable on the battlefield.

Renegade was re-released in at least two EA Classics boxes (one including Comanche 4 as a bonus, and the other including Freedom Force) sometime after its initial release and was included in two Command & Conquer compilations: The Command & Conquer Collection, and Command & Conquer Collected.

On February, 2006, Renegade was shipped in the compilation, Command & Conquer: The First Decade along with 11 other Command & Conquer titles on a two DVD set. The bonus DVD contains slightly less than an hour's worth of content involving all the games included. The game DVD of Command & Conquer: The First Decade, Renegade included its latest patch (1.037) by default, has a sanctioned No-CD application on it, plus the CD components such as the movie files are now installed into its folder. Renegade, along with a few other titles had problems with its registry entry in the compilation's initial release, which has been since fixed in The First Decade's 1.02 patch.

While Westwood originally intended to make a sequel to Renegade set in the late Red Alert universe (known only as Renegade 2), the project was canceled before any official announcements were made.^[1] Concept art depicting Red Alert styled structures and vehicles can be found online, as well as a test level depicting a Soviet refinery. Active fan projects received permission from EA to release in a stand-alone fashion. This event marks a notable shift in public relations strategy for Electronic Arts, which has often been portrayed in a negative light in terms of community support and has never made such a gesture regarding its intellectual property before.

Renegade is the only game in the series which official expansion packs were never released for the game. However, a software development kit (SDK) was released by Westwood Studios so that users could add their own content to the game. The studio also released a number of high-resolution models to the mod-making community, including some from the Red Alert games, particularly the second. Many fan sites have been established to celebrate the game and allow players to download new maps and custom expansion packs.

In July, 2006, EA Games released a software development kit (SDK) that catered for 3DS Max software for Command & Conquer: Generals and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth games. Although Renegade used the same basic game engine as these other two games series, it was not made compatible to this new SDK. However, members from the Red Alert: A Path Beyond community modified and re-released it to be compatible with Renegade after informing EA. An updated version was officially released, but lacked the ability to properly enable collision settings on the 3D meshes used by the game.

Series links

Nearly every unit and most of the structures featured in the original Command & Conquer has been re-created in the game, although with aesthetic changes. New characters include various mutants, GDI elite commandos known as the "Dead Six" and Nod elites such as the Black hand, Sakura, and Mendoza.

Some of the game's missions seem to be based on some GDI missions in Command & Conquer, such as the one in which Dr. Mobius is abducted by Nod and the player is charged with rescuing him, and the final mission in Renegade inspired by the assault on Kane's Sarajevo headquarters. In the final Renegade mission, set in the Temple of Nod, certain rooms are recognizable as those from Command & Conquer's Nod mission briefings.

In the 11th mission of the game, a downed alien ship is present near the power plant and construction yard. It is extremely similar in color and build Tiberium War's Scrin. The outside is blue while the inside maintains a dark green, also very similar to Scrin units. The ship itself might be a reference to the unknown derelict craft seen in the final GDI mission in Command & Conquer, which is considered by many to be the first appearance of Scrin in the series' history. Both crafts were downed and close to a heavily defended Temple of Nod.

Reception

Reviews

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	75.19[1]
Metacritic	75[2]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Eurogamer	4/10[3]
GameSpy	[4]
IGN	7.4/10[5]

Command & Conquer: Renegade received generally positive reviews from critics, attaining a Metacritic average of 75% with scores ranging from 55% to 90%.

Greg Kasavin of GameSpot awarded Renegade with 78%, stating "The game does have some noticeable problems, though C&C fans may find themselves having too much fun to care", however also criticizes the game, stating "Westwood has never made a shooter before, and you can tell." ^[6]

IGN's Steve Butts gave Renegade a 74% rating and commented on the game's repetitiveness, writing "I guess I wanted something a lot less scripted and a lot less cramped from the single player game...As it is, it's a lot like running through a hall until you get to a building, clearing the building and then running through a hallway until you get to the next building." Furthermore, he criticizes the AI, saying "More than just about anything else it's the dreadful AI that ruins the potential enjoyment of the game. Enemies possess very little sophistication and their main tactic seems to consist of running right towards you trying to empty their ammo clips as fast as possible." ^[7]

Renegade has been praised for its online play. Gamers' Temple wrote "[...]Westwood continues their tradition of excellent multiplayer support with Renegade", while giving the game a 75% rating.^[8]

Modifications

Several successful mods have been developed for Renegade, with the most popular being based on older Westwood Studios titles, with some receiving modding community awards. CnC Reborn,^[9] inspired by Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999), received the "Visual Delight" award in 2005, received the "Most Hyped Mod" award in 2006 and was nominated for the ModDB "Best Released Indies" award in 2008.^[10] Battle for Dune: War of Assassins, inspired by Emperor: Battle for Dune (2001), was nominated for "Best Unreleased Indie" of 2008.^[10] Red Alert: A Path Beyond, based on Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996), has had the greatest success, having been nominated for a Mod/Indie Of the Year award every year 2004-2009 (taking 2nd Place in 2007) in addition to other recognition. There is also Roleplay2 ^[11] which is another mod for the W3d engine, and has made several releases to date.

Another notable mod that has received widespread attention is Renegade X,^[12] an Unreal Tournament 3 modification released in 2009, that recreated the original Renegade's multiplayer on the Unreal Engine 3. It was nominated for the ModDB "Best Upcoming Mod" award in 2008,^[13] the "Best Released Mod" award in 2009,^[14] "Best Multiplayer Mod" of 2009,^[15] and it was nominated for the "Best Vehicle Set" in the 2009 "Make Something Unreal" contest. The development team has since announced that Renegade X will be a standalone game in the future.^[16]

References

• ^ Parker, Sam. "Westwood says no to Renegade sequel". GameSpot. July 30, 2002.

1. ^ "Command & Conquer Renegade for PC aggregate rating". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/913801-command-and-conquer-renegade/index.html. Retrieved 22 August 2010. 
2. ^ "Command & Conquer: Renegade aggregate rating". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/command-conquer-renegade. Retrieved 22 August 2010. 
3. ^ "Command & Conquer Renegade review". Eurogamer. 2002-03-09. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_renegade. Retrieved 22 August 2010. 
4. ^ "Command & Conquer Renegade review". GameSpy. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/command-conquer-renegade/. Retrieved 22 August 2010. 
5. ^ Butts, Steve (2002-03-04). " Command & Conquer Renegade review". IGN. http://pc.ign.com/objects/013/013180.html. Retrieved 22 August 2010. 
6. ^ "Command & Conquer: Renegade review". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/commandconquerrenegade/review.html. Retrieved 2011-08-05. 
7. ^ "Command & Conquer: Renegade review". IGN. http://pc.ign.com/articles/354/354853p1.html. Retrieved 2011-08-05. 
8. ^ "Command & Conquer: Renegade review". Gamers' Temple. http://www.gamerstemple.com/games/000070/000070r01.asp. Retrieved 2011-08-05. 
9. ^ http://www.cncreborn.eu
10. ^ ^{a b} 2POC (2/6/09). "2008 Mod DB Awards - Tons of C&C!". commandandconquer.com. http://www.commandandconquer.com/portal/site/cnc/article/detail?contentId=25445110a384f110VgnVCM100000100d2c0aRCRD. Retrieved 2009-06-13. 
11. ^ http://www.roleplay2.com
12. ^ http://www.renegade-x.com
13. ^ http://www.moddb.com/mods/renegade-x/features/players-choice-best-upcoming-mod
14. ^ http://www.moddb.com/mods/renegade-x/features/players-choice-mod-of-the-year-2009
15. ^ http://www.moddb.com/mods/renegade-x/features/best-multiplayer-mod-2009
16. ^ http://www.renegade-x.com/forums/showthread.php?2775-Renegade-X-Winter-Update!

External links

• Havoc Takes on Westwood Video
• Command and Conquer Wiki - A Guide To The Command & Conquer Universe