| Command & Conquer: Renegade is a really interesting concept that works fairly well, but loses steam at times. The basic story: During the timeline of the early C&C games, the player takes on the role of Nick "Havoc" Parker, a GDI commando whose job is to get places and blow up things that regular troops can’t. Perfect fodder for first-person shooter treatment, especially in a world as well-established as C&C.
In general, Renegade is a good FPS title, and brings some really great new gameplay options to the table. Except that the story is so badly written as to verge on camp. Was it intentional? I sure hope so: Between missions, we get to see cutscenes that touch on almost every bad action-movie cliché. You got your "I work alone," your chauvinistic male lead, your non-witty banter between said hero and impossibly gorgeous scientists/mercenaries/teammates, your standard loose-cannon posturing. It’s cartoony, which kinda fits the rest of the game, but I honestly can’t tell whether Westwood was parodying the action genre or just employing really bad writers.
So, I’ve got that off my chest. Gameplay is cartoony, but at times gets intense. The first mission drops Havoc smack in the middle of a firefight between a GDI convoy and Brotherhood of Nod troops. It’s a fun sequence that avoids the usual FPS one-against-the-world thinking. Don’t get used to it.
Renegade’s best sequences are those that give the player a sense of being part of a larger campaign. The penultimate level is the perfect example: Havoc has to take out a series of buildings so GDI can press forward in their own attacks. That’s the sort of thing the commando did best in the RTS C&C games. Without that sense, all you’ve got is just another FPS.
The story is fragmented, and really secondary. Nod is creating super soldiers (an FPS cliché), and has kidnapped Dr. Mobius — the discoverer of Tiberium — to handle research. Havoc is supposed to be following Mobius and his fellow scientists, but really the objectives and levels pay mere lip service to this plot until the end. Why not just have Havoc furthering GDI’s cause? Break the shackles of a hackneyed plot and concentrate on the variety of gameplay.
Really, gameplay is the shining point here. Havoc spends as much time inside vehicles as on foot, which is a great way to experience firsthand some of your favorite units. On both sides: Havoc can often use Nod equipment. Plus, we get to see inside some of Nod’s buildings, from Obelisks and Hands of Nod to construction yards and power plants.
Most missions just involve blasting through enemy forces — even the token stealth missions. That’s not always hard (see enemy AI below), though Westwood occasionally puts Havoc in close quarters or against sniping enemies so the player is forced to at least temporarily step carefully.
Lord save me from future escort missions, especially when AI is as iffy as Renegade’s. Yep, at one point the player has to escort Dr. Mobius from the bowels of a Nod base. Mobius moves on a predetermined pattern: When the player reaches a certain point, Mobius runs ahead. Heedless of enemies. Or Havoc’s own fire. Several times, the doc raced straight in front of one of my rockets, or into the middle of a huge firefight. Doc dies; mission over. Sigh. It took a lot of patience (and luck) to finish that one.
Enemy AI is no better. Most just run straight forward, or (when injured) take off but stop pretty quickly. Nod officers have the power to call in reinforcements, which is used to great effect in the earlier levels: The player must seek out officers or face endless waves of enemy troops. Unfortunately, this is abandoned in the later levels, when it would make gameplay even more urgent. GDI NPCs are no better. Havoc occasionally receives reinforcements who seem content to die quickly. On the next-to-last level, I took out some SAM sites and received one lousy guy as backup, who immediately ran inside a Hand of Nod and was cut down by ceiling guns. Good work, fool.
Multiplayer is where Renegade should attract most fans. Players take roles (as in many other war shooters), but the commander can actually conduct the battle from a bird’s-eye view, including building structures, a la the C&C games. Great fusion of the two there.
All my bitching aside, I really did enjoy Renegade as a cartoony, testosterone-laden shooter. I was impressed by the flashes of brilliance: My hope is that Westwood expands on those, probably in a sequel featuring Tanya of the Red Alert timeline. Renegade is a must for C&C devotees, if only to experience those battles from the ground. Shooter fans may want to give it a look, though it’ll never replace paragons like Half-Life or System Shock 2. | 
