Articles & Editorials: The Evolution of Command & Conquer

1995, the year Westwood Studios introduced the game that changed RTS standards forever, Command & Conquer. It had excellent music(some of the best in the C&C series) and good game play. It had only about thirteen units, graphics that were OK, and only thirty-something missions, but it was somehow satisfying. No other game was quite like it. But above all else was the storyline.

It all started in Command and Conquer: Red Alert, about ten years before the second World War. Professor Albert Einstein, knowing that Adolf Hitler would one day cause a horrible war, transported himself to Hitler’s hometown and removed him from time. This caused a temporal distortion wave which traveled through time and changed history. What a horrible mistake. Stalin rose to power in place of Hitler. Then the war began. Even with Einstein’s Cronosphere technology, the Allies were crushed by Stalin. The Soviets controlled all of Europe. Soon after, Stalin was murdered by one of his own officers, who was actually a Nod agent. Kane, hungry for power, killed her and claimed leadership of Nod.

Out of the ashes of the Soviet empire rose The Brotherhood of Nod. The Allies had formed the United Nations. UN officials desperately needed a government funded global defense corps to stop Nod. Soon after the UN created the Global Defense Initiative, or GDI, for that purpose, a strange asteroid(about the size of a two-story house) collided with Earth. It landed near the Tiber river in Italy. When a few civilians, including the physicist Dr Mobius, went to the site to try and find the meteorite, they discovered something strange. There were a few green, glowing crystal-like objects coming out of the ground. It was named Tiberium. It was rich in valuable minerals and could be harvested at a low cost. But, just like everything else, it came with a price…

Tiberium had spread rapidly, while Nod declared war on GDI. Without Tiberium, neither GDI or Nod would have the resources to fuel their massive armies. It was soon discovered that Tiberium was extremely harmful to Carbon-based life(every living thing on Earth). And it was rapidly spreading across the planet. Eventually, GDI defeated The Brotherhood and destroyed their temple at Sarajevo. Kane was killed in the blast, but his body was never found. GDI searched the entire planet.

After twenty years, GDI gave up the search and Kane was declared dead. Nod had been split into several different factions, each one claiming that they were the real Nod. Then Kane mysteriously reappeared. Nobody knew where he had been or how he had come back, but he had already begun to attack GDI forces. Another war was fought, and GDI won again. And Kane was killed again. Soon CABAL began to take over Nod, while Tiberium was taking over the planet.

That’s all of the storyline we know so far. Now for a little bit of what I think will happen in the Command & Conquer: Tiberian Twilight. Please remember that this is only a speculation, and don’t expect to actually see it happen.

After Firestorm, the third Tiberium war was a stalemate, and GDI had evacuated most of the civilian population underground. Tiberium was ubiquitous, even in the arctic regions. Fortunately, a cure had been found for Tiberium mutation. Tiberium poisoning still remained a problem, though. Nod was without a leader again. CABAL had been destroyed by Slavik himself.

Suddenly, a transmission was received in the Montauk. It was Kane. Only this time, he was in the computer. Before he was killed, Kane had made a digital copy of his mind. The message told Slavik to gather up the remnants of Nod at the site of their old temple at Sarajevo. There they would find a clone of Kane. The clone was found, and Nod was once again unified. GDI had heard that Kane had returned and began to build up an army. Kane told his people of an alien race called the Scrin. They were the ones who had infected Earth with Tiberium and they had also healed Kane after the first Tiberium war. Kane was allied with the Scrin and helping them to convert the Earth into a Tiberian world. Spies reported to GDI all of what Kane had said. Now GDI faced a new and stronger enemy; an entire race of advanced creatures.

Maybe this will happen, and maybe not. Westwood Studios has been known to take ideas from fans. One thing is certain though – the story of Kane is far from over. It will go on for a long time yet. And even though nobody knows what the future holds, we’ll find out eventually. Time will tell. Sooner or later, time will tell…

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