"What? A Command and Conquer: Rivals reviews? This franchise is dead to me!" Well, admittedly, the franchise has gone down the hill a long time ago thanks to Electronic Arts (EA) and it definitely garnered a lot of hate for appearing on a mobile platform (what can I say, #PCMasterRace). Still, it's not every day that you see a well-known Real Time Strategy (RTS) game rolled out for mobile and after a month of playing it, I actually enjoy it. Read below to find out why you should give this game a chance!
Game design - Welcome back, Commander
As all Command and Conquer (CnC) fans know, this game involves two rival factions known as the GDI and Nod. Right from the start, you will be greeted with a nostalgic voiceover (even better with returning units in a match). GDI is available for you to start the game, while for Nod, you can only unlock it at level 9. Honestly, this is quite a turn off for Nod fans (me) because it's exactly like when StarCraft 2 came out with a Terran campaign only, leaving out the Zerg and Protoss race. But if you think about it, this is actually quite a smart move by EA (depending on how you view it) but I'll get to that later.
The game graphics design actually needs quite a lot of GPU power, so the buildings and units render on the display is great (especially on my ROG Phone). This also includes the fire, vehicle exploding, infantries melting to the ground from chemical warfare, the glorious nuclear strike and so on. I'm saying this not because I like the brutality on-screen but the details are really spot on.
Ah...I love the smell of napalm in the morning
On the menu screen, the user interface is quite straightforward. You can see your coins and gems collection on the top right, your profile at the bottom left, then at the bottom right are where the social connections, mailbox and settings are. On the top, there are a bunch of options there which includes Home, Upgrade, Bounties, Alliance, Network and Store. Also, there's truck at the bottom of the menu to deliver you some freebies.
Game features - Addicting game rewards
Like any mobile game, CnC Rivals requires you to log in every few hours to get some freebies. They call these "Crates" and there are different types of them, with the premium one giving you more cards (for unit upgrades), coins and gems. To get free Crates, you have to use your "fuel" to order it. In total, it takes 7 hours but you can use another fuel to cut 4 hours. After that, you will have to spend gems if you want to get your crates immediately.
#Protip - with the crates delivery and fuel explanation, it's actually faster if you use the fuel just one time and wait until the timer hits below 4 hours to use another one. This will immediately get the delivery and save you an hour as well as gems
There are a total of 7 rankings - Tiberium, Master, Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze
So back to the "smart" move by EA for locking Nod at level 9, the reason why they did that is that they want you to play more. This is quite evident if you look over at the Bounties section, where there are 5 different goals like Play as GDI five times or build Nod Confessor 3 times so that you can get a free golden crate. This is a well thought-out reward system and a good way to help you get EXP (experience) points, coins and freebies, but it's even more so in your GDI / Nod ranking mode where each time you reach a new level (from Gold to Platinum League, for example) and levelling up your profile, you get multiple rewards from doing so.
As your rank gets higher, you will start to notice that other players have lower or higher unit levels than yours. This is because you can actually upgrade each unit to the maximum level (depending on rank) via coins and it gets more expensive with each upgrade. This is where the Store comes in where rich players buy promo offers or currency and others to buff up their army. Practically, this is sort of "Pay To Win" that puts off many players, but it's still possible to win a game against a high-level player with strategy and tactics. More on that on the gameplay section later.
Here's how the Upgrade section looks like
You can also select any unit and check out more stat details about it
There are also four different types of "Commanders" for each faction offering a special set of ability, but it requires you a different level to acquire them
The Store page
Exploring the game features further, there is this thing called Alliance which is just like Guilds in other words. Are there any benefits to enter an Alliance? At the moment, I'm not in any Alliance group but according to sources, members in an Alliance can have a friendly match together and give cards to each other.
Speaking of that, it's odd that you aren't able to play a game with your friend from the Friends List even after connecting with Facebook and an EA account. Same goes to sharing your game replay as it only goes up on the Network section instead of directly sharing on your social platform, which Arena of Valor is already doing. It'd be great if they could implement that feature.
You can join, create and search for Alliance groups
The Network page where you can monitor your friends' progress and replays
Gameplay - It's all about map control
Alright, we are finally at the most important part of the review - is the gameplay yay or nay? Well... instead of the classic "build your base, make an army and destroy each other" style from what you remember back in the old days, the mobile version strips off that because obviously, your mobile doesn't have the capacity to do all those. So what EA did was immediately set up your HQ Base with optional extensions to Barracks, Factory, Helipad/Air Tower and Tech Lab/ Temple of Nod.
The goal of the game may seem like it's your mission to take control of a nuclear silo, but actually, the goal of the game is to destroy your opponent's HQ Base and it relies on the map control factor. Also, it should be noted that this is a heavily PvP (players vs players) focused game and requires you to be online to play. So no, there's no AI computer for you to practice with. On average, a game will end around 5 minutes more or less so it's good for passing time while waiting. The game does not allow you to grind heavily as well, as it will limit your bonus EXP and coins after 10 games.
With building management out of the way, all that's left is the microing your units. Wait, you can "micro" your units? Granted, the micro level is far from the likes of StarCraft albeit still requires some tactical positioning to win a game. So overall, the gameplay feels very much like chess in real time, moving your units from tiles to tiles with the rock-paper-scissors mechanism. As I mentioned earlier in this review, facing a high-level player is pretty tough, but luckily, you won't lose points against them so that's good. If you do win, you will get double points and it's still possible to win with the correct strategy and tactics. Check out my gameplay replay below!
Note - This is just nitpicking but I find the game's original soundtrack (OST) not that great, so I played some Red Alert tracks from my music player to fit the mood lol
Conclusion - Quite a solid RTS mobile game
In this modern era, where mobile gamers tend to lean towards team-focused multiplayer games like MOBA titles such as Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends, as well as the popular PUBG Mobile. Getting into CnC: Rivals is a new challenge for this kind of audience because it's a very solo (and PvP)-based game. But for RTS and CnC fans, I think CnC: Rivals is a pretty fun RTS mobile game entry. The reward system is great and it can keep getting you coming back for more, there is also some nostalgia if you played CnC before and the game requires more strategy and tactics than I thought.
As for the downside of the game, I think EA could have done better with allowing you to battle your friends online without having to join an Alliance, a direct game replay sharing to social platforms like Facebook would be good, they should make the Nod faction available from the very beginning, the OST could have been better and maybe add in an AI computer for practice. The only competitor I can think of is Clash of Clans that also has an addicting fun gameplay experience with colourful visuals that some gamers find appealing, but I don't find it as in-depth as CnC: Rivals.
So what do you think of our first mobile game app review? Would you like to see us do this more? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more reviews at TechNave.com.
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