It's an RTS series, but the secret of Command and Conquer, especially in the older games like Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert, is that it doesn't actually demand that much strategy. Instead, it's all about volume. As long as you have more money, more buildings, and more troops, chances are you can brute force a victory - even the most expertly designed network of turret guns and infantry patrols will be swiftly obliterated by an opponent who's got 25 Mammoth tanks. That's why C&C is so striking. It's a bloody and grotesque caricature, a parody of the idea that you can apply meaning to warfare. Taken at face value, Tempest Rising could pass for a new Command and Conquer game, but while it stands on the shoulders of Westwood's greatest works, its mechanical subtleties, aesthetical quirks, and the rhythm of its battles separate Tempest Rising from its spiritual progenitor. This is more than an homage.
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