I'll be the first to admit that I was not all that stoked about the idea of Renegade when it first began to create a buzz. Being the farthest thing from an RTS gamer, the whole C&C franchise interested me little. I couldn't even tell you the gist of the C&C plot, nor did it matter to me. However, my first glimpse of Renegade at 2001's E3 started to change that feeling, as I witnessed an impressive early running beta of the game. Now 8 months later, Westwood has released a private beta, which has catapulted Renegade into my "top 5" wish list of games in development. Why Should I Care? Whether you're a fan of Command & Conquer, or RTS games in general, the idea of Renegade may intrigue you, even if typically you don't enjoy FPS games. I really can't speak definitively on this, as everyone has different tastes, and gamers' preference range is hardly a science. But I am certain that this game will interest a broader range of people than a typical genre would. Renegade takes the familiarity of the preceding C&C games, and turns the game into a more "action" oriented title. To a large degree, there are still the basic elements of an RTS game, but not so much so as to turn non-RTS gamers off. The big difference between a traditional RTS and Renegade is this; Instead of controlling every aspect of the game, i.e. team, vehicles, battlements, and resource deployments, you really only need to worry about one aspect and one person; yourself. Several people make up a team, and each member has their own role and specific function, which can be changed based on immediate need. By default, if you are an FPS die-hard, you will, at some point, be trying out this game, perhaps when a public demo is released. While it's still too early to say, I think Renegade brings enough to the FPS table as to breathe new-life into the genre (not that new-life is needed quite yet). Think of Renegade as "Team Fortress" on steroids. Start with your basic classes, engineer, heavy-weapons, demolitions, etc., and add an entire base, including multiple structures, which require defending and actually serve a purpose, and throw in some vehicles for good measure. Actually, the vehicles are the best part. There's nothing like driving a tank into the enemy base and "blowing $h17" up! (1337 cursing? LOL! -- ED)

How does it Work? Players can purchase items, upgrades, vehicles, and the like at any time, provided they are at base. All deployments and purchases are done through "Purchase Terminals", which are located inside key buildings. Each player has his/her own credits, which can be used toward the purchase of items. It's a no-brainer that wreaking destruction upon the enemy begets more credits, but there is another factor that aids in the accruement of funds. Each team possesses a means of plundering the lands resources, in this case, Tiberium, courtesy of a "Tiberium Harvester". Essentially, the "Harvester" is a highly armored vehicle that drives out to the nearest Tiberium field and collects the resource. The vehicle is unmanned, weaponless, and very slow. It is in the best interest of each team to deploy other resources, such as a well-armed escort, to protect the Harvester, as it is the primary source of income. More resources equal more credits for the team. But the Harvester has to make it back to base in one piece and unload the Tiberium into the refinery to cash in. Destroying a Harvester can have quite the economic impact on a team and greatly cripple them. Don't worry too much though if your Harvester is destroyed, as there will be another deployed shortly. Just don't let the enemy destroy the refinery! As I mentioned earlier, among the many, items that can be purchased, the most entertaining, and probably useful, are the vehicles. Both teams have a choice of, as of this Beta, 6 different vehicles, each ranging in price and functionality. The 2 teams, Nod and GDI have slightly different models to choose from, but functionality wise, the choices are more or less equal. Choices range from the lightly armored "buggy", complete with machine gun turret, to the heavy armored, but slow moving "Mammoth Tank". Nod possesses the technology of stealth, in that among the vehicle offerings, a stealth tank can be purchased, albeit at a high cost. The tank is completely invisible to the opposite team unless it either fires or is hit by luck. Enemy turrets and missile launchers will detect it however, so make sure to take out the enemy defense systems before trying to sneak that puppy into enemy territory! The different classes of characters that can be purchased are many as well. There are the 4 basic classes; engineer, soldier, grenadier (flame-thrower for NOD), and shotgun soldier, that can be purchased at any time the player chooses, at no cost whatsoever. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how often you change classes either, which adds a spin to your typical class based game. If the enemy has just wreaked havoc on one of your buildings, you can change to the engineer class and make needed repairs immediately. You don't have to wait to respawn! Notice an enemy tank closing in on your base? No problem. Change to the grenadier class and make short work of it! Of course, as I said, you need to be inside one of your buildings, in front of a purchase terminal in order to change classes. The more advanced classes that do require credits to purchase number 10 per team, each armed with better weaponry and technology than the freebies. For example, the advanced engineer has a greater "repair beam" range than the basic engineer, and can fix things twice as fast. Also, the advanced engineer carries more C4, which is used to destroy enemy facilities. The different weapon classes range from powerful to "don't let this guy see the white's of your eyes!" Each class has their specific function and advantages depending on a given situation. While the advanced rocket soldier may be your favorite character, you may be rendered useless if the moment, or map for that matter, doesn't call for your abilities. Other items that can be acquired at base are weapon refills (free) and a homing beacon. The person lucky enough to make it into enemy territory armed with one of this babies can end the match in a matter of seconds, given that the device isn't defused by an engineer. The beacon must be placed inside a specific building (Hand of Nod or GDI barracks) at the enemy's base, on the pedestal. It takes about 5-10 seconds of standing still to deploy, so you better bring cover with you. Once the beacon is placed, the team's satellite will hone in on the device, and launch a "Nuclear-Strike" or "Ion Cannon", totally obliterating the target. The enemy has about 30 seconds to diffuse the beacon, which should be just enough time for you to high tail it far from there, and find a nice high spot to watch and enjoy the show. Trust me though; it isn't very easy to successfully plant a beacon. It requires much skill to make into the base undetected. The cost of the homing beacon is the most success prohibitive obstacle though. It ain't cheap! It should be noted that there are a few server side variables that can be set that changes the game play quite a bit. For example, a server can be set with rules that doesn't allow repair on damaged buildings. This makes for a much more intense, although short game. Personally I prefer to have the repair feature on, as it adds a whole element to the gameplay. Also, another feature that can be turned on or off is passenger-targeting control. The second person to hop into a vehicle gains control of the vehicles weapon. This is also a preferred rule, as it lets the driver concentrate on just driving, while the other person clears the path. Of course other server rules such as friendly fire, team balancing, etc., are present as well.

How does it look? While Renegade probably won't break new ground on visuals, it must be said that given the nature of the game, and size of some of the levels, the graphics are more than adequate. Westwood has designed the Renegade engine from the ground up, and as far as I can see, they have built quite the little beast. While it lacks some of the prettiness and effects that we have become accustomed to in games such as Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, so on and so on, none of those games do what Renegade does, and does well. The game is still in beta and being tweaked here and there, so who knows what the end product will end up looking like. Whether the graphics improve or not doesn't really matter, as the game is plenty fun as is. Don't get me wrong though, the game isn't ugly by any means. Let's just say the graphics are "suitable", as far as the terrain and environments go. However, on the flip side of that, is the fact that the character models, including the first-person view of carried weapons are done extremely well. I really hadn't noticed the great detail given to the models as well as the animation until I started fooling around in third-person view. (1st and 3rd person perspective can be changed on the fly, and is actually quite useful depending on the situation.) Also, the weapons are among the most detailed and imaginative I have seen in a while. Excellent work modelers! I do suggest some tweaking to the engine in the netcode department though. There seems to be a good amount of "warping" players and vehicles, which makes any game hard to play. Worse was the slide-show effect, usually invoked whenever a flamethrower was used. I have a hard time imagining a 60-person match, if that's what they are aiming for, with the current state of the code. The most players I have played with at one time is 16 I believe, and that seemed to be stretching the code thin. It could have been bandwidth issues though, but if that's the case, then you're going to need one fat pipe to host a 60-player game! How does it Sound? As much as I hate to say it, overall the sound was pretty cheap. The different terrain sounds just didn't sound that great, and could use some serious reworking. For example, walking on snow, while it did convey the sound of combat boots in slush to a degree, sounded overly harsh, and almost staticy. Most of the terrain sounds struck me that way. Also, something I found to be highly annoying was the stereo panning of the footstep sounds. The spatial placement is far too wide, and you will constantly look behind you thinking someone is following, only to find that you are alone. I suggest Westwood changes the footsteps to a monaural sound instead of alternating left and right footsteps through the left and right channels. The weapon sounds are decent, but nothing great. None of the weapons seemed to have a nice deep growl to them like you would expect from most weapons. Most sounded more electric than mechanical, which they may very well be. On the good side of sound lies the dialogue. There are various orders and requests that can be called out by teammates, which are done pretty well. Also, the "voice" of base is clean also. When your base is being attacked, I find it satisfying to have a sexy sounding female tell you nicely that your Factory is about to eat it. That could just be me though. Blurp_anim

How does it Play? All the graphics, sound, features, and originality in the world can't help a game if the play factor flat out sucks. However, the reverse of that equation does work. And while Renegade is hardly the slouch in the mentioned arenas, the game play is what truly gives this game a chance at being a GOTY (Game of the Year. Get used to that acronym). I actually can't wait to finish writing this review so I can get back online and fire up Renegade! The game works pretty much like any other FPS title. Not much of a learning curve is involved in order to be able jump right in a game and get rolling. It may take a few days to get a grip on the whole game though, but you should have good fun from the get-go regardless. I did find firefights between vehicle-less enemies to be not so great, and actually hard to get used to for some reason (I just couldn't aim like I am used to). But that isn't really where the fun is to be had. More fun is taking out enemy tanks from afar, with just a trusty grenade launcher by your side. Repairing buildings seemed even more fun to me than battling it out with another foot soldier (probably because 9 out of 10 times the battle ended with my defeat). Truly the game shines once your team is able to afford tanks and stronger, more powerful soldiers. Typically, this doesn't happen within the first 5 minutes of the round, which is fine. While many will argue what is the best way to cripple the enemy quickly, I think destroying any of their buildings in no particular order is just fine. There are a few exceptions though. A few of the maps, it would be in your best interest to take out the enemy guard tower first, as you will not be able to get into the base at all until it is destroyed. Taking out different buildings takes out resources that would normally be available for purchase. For example, destroy the enemy's airfield, and they won't be able to purchase vehicles. Take out the refinery, and no more income from mined Tiberium. The decision what to take out first is up to you, but it's best to get at least one other teammate to assist you in the task. Buildings can also be destroyed from the inside by planting a few charges of C4 on the main terminal. This is best done with at least 2 other teammates, as it takes about 3 charges to totally destroy any given building. And you don't want the damage you caused to be repaired while you are running back to base to get more charges! In a Word or Two Hey! Who comes up with these paragraph titles? I can't sum Renegade up in a word or two!!! But I'll try anyway. One word: FUN! In a word or two: HELLA FUN! Wait, does "hella" count as two words since it is supposed to be "hell of", which isn't a proper usage of words to begin with? Ah never mind. I think it's pretty safe to say that when Renegade is released, it is going to kick allot of ass and take names. There isn't any game out there that comes even close to what Renegade offers, nor is there anything in works, that I am aware of, that will even try to compete. This game may very well mark the death of the most popular team based FPS, Counter-Strike. I'm not making any promises though. Only Westwood can do that for you! Related Links Westwood Studios(Developer) EA Games(Publisher) Official Renegade page