IGN's PC team got a chance to play an early build of C&C4 and have posted up a preview of the game. They take a look a tthe various new elements EA has introduced and how this game might be a departure from what most C&C fans love.

Fourteen years ago, Westwood Studios designed an ambitious real time strategy game between two militaristic factions fighting over a mysterious resource for world domination. However, this was not set on a distant planet or in a fantasy realm, but on an alternate Earth. Command and Conquer told the story of the UN's Global Defense Initiative and the cult-like terrorist organization known as the Brotherhood of Nod fighting for control over Tiberium, a mysterious alien mineral. Spawning three separate franchises, Command and Conquer has arguably become one of the most popular and influential titles within the RTS genre. However, Electronic Arts has determined that all good things must come to an end, with the announcement of Command and Conquer 4, the final chapter in the Tiberium saga. I recently had a chance to check out the game, which has been in development for more than a year.

C&C 4 will be a much darker and grittier gameplay experience than ever before. I was told that the designers specifically focused on making a more serious story without many of the story elements that fans traditionally think of with the franchise. Campy elements within cinematics have been eliminated, as have monologues delivered by characters to the screen as if they were transmitting to a faceless character. Instead, the designers wanted to make the gameplay more engaging to both newcomers and veterans of the series in a few ways. The first was to tighten up the storytelling to make the action more direct and immediate. The second was to establish the camera as if it was the player, with specific camera angles and moves that feel as though it's your perspective through the scene. The third way is to have darker cutscenes that are grittier and more ambiguous for players so they don't immediately determine who's a good guy or bad guy until the end of the tale.

McClubbin via pc.ign.com »