Command and Conquer: Renegade XFor the uninformed, Command and Conquer is a badass RTS series that really kicked off the genre in which every release was received with critical acclaim, and nerdgasms were had throughout the world with each new release of C&C... that is until Westwood closed shop and sold to EA, which left off at Generals, which wasn't bad, not at all, but certainly not C&C standards good. It lacked the great story, CG cutscenes and great personality every character had, from grunt, general to even tank. That said, the gameplay itself was still stellar. Then Red Alert 3 came out, which was also skeptically received, however it did go back to it's roots with the awesome story, and the continuation of the Red Alert story arc, which tended to be everyone's favorite in terms of general storyline (let's face it boys, Yuri>Kane). However, the gameplay was also dumbed down and made faster place, and from there the series just tumbled, with C&C4 being bad in every single way (It even had the great CG everyone loved and story, but alas, they somehow managed to fuck that up as well!), and more recently, their biggest fail yet, and what was probably the nail in the official Command and Conquer series, the Command and Conquer 2: Generals MMO, which was shut down just before their beta and scrapped entirely, with an uncertain future.
Here is a trailer to compliment the last paragraph and give a better understanding of what C&C was all about.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YlVumsPHx4[/youtube]
So, why did I just inform you about a brief history of C&C and some of it's charming characteristics when it came to story and grunt machine gun fodder soldiers with more personality than your average FPS main character? Well, there was one more game that was received skeptically.... it's name was Renegade. Renegade took all these characters from the Tiberium story ark (Dr. Mobius, Kane, Sheppard, Sakura, etc) and put them in a FPS. Now, you can imagine that fans were pretty grumbly when they heard their favorite RTS game was being made into a FPS, but all that changed when they got their hands on it. Now, we will just disregard the singleplayer, it didn't have many great qualities, and was mostly just throaway material like most FPS singleplayers. So what made Renegade so fun? I think you know the answer. It's multiplayer, which plays like a hybrid between Natural Selection 2 or Serious Sam gunplay wise, and Planetside 2 vehicle wise and economy wise. You started in a base very reminscent of previous Command and Conquer games, except you were the grunt, you had your harvesters go collect tiberium and bring them back to base to be distributed among players, you could buy all the different vehicles and play as them, and of course, play as the charismatic characters everyone knew and love. Needless to say, the multiplayer was loved and was a great hit with the fans.
And that leads us to today, and the future. With the uncertainty of another true command and conquer looming over the heads of all the fans starving for another great C&C like back in the day, a beacon of hope has been lit, in the form of Renegade X. Renegade X, originally a reimagining and recrafting of Renegade for Unreal Tournament 3 in the form of a mod, eventually turned into a standalone project, which is coming to a close in the next few days, finally open to the public after years of waiting. Renegade X will be FREE, and by FREE, I don't mean free to play, I mean free, no transactions, no purchases, no subscriptions, literally no possible way to spend money on the game, it was a passion project by command and conquer fans around the world and a testament to the true dedication of the fans, even after all these years of let downs. Before I give the info on release dates and where to download, enjoy a few trailers to see how long and how much hard work and progress has been made on this game.
One of the very first trailers, from way back in early January, 2009
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8g4txL-Jps[/youtube]
FINALLY, the release of the mod! and man, what a mod it was, winning numerous mod of the year awards, including ModDB, and was received with huge amounts of fanfare, finally, a Command and Conquer game worth getting hype over
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUXIhPTp-Mc[/youtube]
After the immense success of the mod, the devs announced they would be making a standalone game..... and thus begins the journey.
A trailer posted mid December, 2011, with a release date, late January, 2012..... one of the first teasers.... pretty much everyone's reaction: Sweet mother of god this looks amazing!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCYV9MpT-Vk[/youtube]
The launch trailer for the singleplayer demo! Awesome, it's not the multiplayer everyone has been waiting for, but a proof of concept everyone can try, and damn was it good.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R622iC3wsk4[/youtube]
Finally, just a few months ago, the devs released this trailer, showing off all the classic multiplayer maps... this is it guys, we are getting close to completion, everyone knew it, and was eagerly awaiting that announcement.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azDTWRJBFGA[/youtube]
The moment everyone has been waiting for, a trailer released just today, with a personal speech by the dev, "we got a present for you", music to any C&C fan's ears. HOLY SHIT GUYS, after so many years, the open, playable version is just around the corner.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrRj_PLiGuA[/youtube]
With that said guys, I encourage you, NW community, mark your calendars, bookmark this website
http://www.renegade-x.com/ and get ready, if there is one video game passion project out there that deserves some love this year, it's Renegade X.
February 26th, beta test the shit out of this game, and help shape it into the game every fan and newcomer alike has been waiting for.
For singleplayer tech demo and completely free remixed soundtrack (which is fucking fantastic) visit
http://www.indiedb.com/games/renegade-x/downloads
