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EA has announced Command & Conquer: Rivals, the newest Command & Conquer game since 2012, at their E3 press conference on June 9, 2018.
Here’s everything you need to know about Command and Conquer: Rivals’ release date, gameplay, news, and more.
We will continue to update the article as we receive more information.
Command & Conquer Release Date & Pre-Register
EA has not yet announced a release date, but we do know that it will release later this year according to Polygon.
However, according to the publisher’s blog post, they are kicking off the pre-alpha today, which is open to Android users in the US and Canada. Players can go to the Google Play Store and search for the game and tap the pre-register button. Then the publisher will send in waves of players to start playing the game and providing feedback starting today.
According to EA, the two goals of the pre-alpha are to test combat balance and matchmaking. They will update their gameplay and matchmaking systems directly from player and community feedback from the Pre-Alpha and beyond.
If you don’t live in the US or Canada, you can still pre-register to be notified when the game is available worldwide.
Both Android and iOS players can also pre-register on the official website to get a Titan unit, Credits, and Diamonds when the game launches.
Command & Conquer: Rivals Gameplay
Command & Conquer: Rivals will once again be all about building up military units and sending them into battle to gain control of enemy territory. According to Polygon, the game mechanics have been simplified and streamlined for mobile play with matches taking a few minutes instead of nearly an hour.
According to EA’s blog post, players are given continuous control of all their units at all times. You fight other commanders in 1v1 matches.
According to Polygon, your units will attack nearby enemies but you can choose which enemies to attack in the middle of a battle. You can also choose commanders from your deck for different powers, such as dropping a turret into enemy territory. Maps also come in different tactical varieties.
According to the official gameplay overview, you can choose up to six unit types to bring into battle. Units come in four categories: Infantry, Vehicles, Air Units, and Specialized Tech Forces.
When the match starts, you create buildings that specialize in creating specific unit types. Resources are given over time and both armies start off at the same resource building rate. You can boost the rate by creating a Harvester that moves to patches of Tiberium on the map. However the enemy can attack your Harvester.
The objective is to destroy the enemy base, and the most effective way according to the gameplay overview is to take control of the missile silo at the center of the map by sending units to the launch pads. Control the most launch pads to send the missile to the enemy after a countdown. But be wary of enemies taking over your launch pads without the countdown resetting. You can also send units to attack the enemy base directly. The bases can survive one missile strike but two will annihilate them.
What Is Command & Conquer?
Command & Conquer is credited by many with redefining the real-time strategy genre of games. However while the series has seen great success with over 30 million copies sold across all games as of November 2009 as Gamasutra reported, it has struggled quite a bit over the years and pretty much killed off every developer who touched it.
Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy game series. The game was first developed by Westwood Studios and the first game released in 1995 where it became the studio’s claim to fame.
The game takes place in an alternate timeline where a meteorite crashes on Earth carrying Tiberium, a powerful material that plunges two factions into war. The game has you constructing bases and gathering resources to create facilities and combat units to defeat the other army’s base.
After Westwood Studios was shut down in March 2003 after Command & Conquer: Renegade failed to meet sales expectations according to GameSpy, development of the series moved on to EA Los Angeles. But then in 2010 the studio was rebranded as Danger Close Games and set to work on Medal of Honor games according to Engadget, so development then went to the newly formed Victory Games who would work on Command & Conquer games.
Victory Games was set to work on a new free-to-play Command & Conquer game. Unfortunately the game was cancelled in October 2013 because of the poor reception from players of the closed alpha test, according to an official statement from the developer. The studio closed shortly afterwards.
The last Command & Conquer game was 2012’s Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, a free-to-play browser game by EA Phenomic. The studio was closed down in July 2013 as part of EA’s big restructuring that year according to GamesIndustry.Biz.
Learn more about all the studios EA has shut down over the years here.
See also:
- Jedi Fallen Order: Respawn’s Star Wars Game Revealed (Updated!)
- Star Wars Battlefront 2 Is Getting Clone Wars DLC (E3 2018)
- All E3 2018 Game Trailers