Tempest Rising from Slipgate Ironworks is an RTS fan’s dream come true in that it looks like a modern-day Command & Conquer game. However, does it actually live up to the great expectations it set for itself by simply paying homage to one of the all-time greats of strategy gaming ?
Tempest Rising
Tempest Rising kicks off with a nuclear war. Mankind clearly has a problem with wanting to stay alive and decided to wage nuclear war. This has led to immense destruction and the fallout has caused worldwide devastation. From the ashes, however, civilization has managed to crawl out under its proverbial rock and somehow survive as two factions. The GDF and the Tempest Dynasty. In the nuclear fallout-stricken world, a mysterious plant-like organism has taken root and both factions have taken to harvesting this for energy.
If any of that sounds familiar to you, then you’ve definitely played the original Command & Conquer where the GDI and Brother of Nod were waging war in a world ravaged by Tiberium. Tempest Rising clearly draws inspiration from Command & Conquer and even the user interface is almost identical with a large sidebar with subdivisions and categories.
The story of Tempest Rising plays out over 2 separate campaigns focusing on each faction. These story missions are great and are honestly the best part of the game. While playing through the campaigns I just kept thinking about how much I loved playing the campaigns in Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 as a kid. Tempest Rising captures some of that feel with missions that are actually enjoyable to play through because of the objectives and the scripted events that take place in the missions.
Both campaigns also feature mission briefings reminiscent of Command & Conquer’s but the 3D character models just come across as a bit uncanny valley and I honestly would have preferred if the developer just hired some real-life actors to do these in the exact campy style of the original Command & Conquer games. These characters are just plain and straight-out, weird…
Moving on to the actual gameplay in Tempest Rising. This is where things get complicated. The GDF and the Tempest Dynasty play completely differently. The GDF are a lot more formulaic and tech orientated whereas the Tempest Dynasty is quite chaotic with units that use flame and sheer brute force for victory.
The parallels to the GDI and Brotherhood of Nod are clearly there but at the same time, they aren’t and this threw me off somewhat while playing the game. Tempest Rising has its own ideas and players will understand this when playing the game for an extensive period of time. It will take some getting used to if you’re a seasoned veteran of Command & Conquer but once you get the hang of it and manage to work out the right unit combinations and strategies, the game really excels.
However, with all of that said, again, the game’s core mechanics threw me off somewhat because the maps are not extremely large and are quite different from Command & Conquer’s. Skirmish maps feel very claustrophobic and small and the game almost felt like it was forcing me to play in a very aggressive fast fast-paced manner whereas old-school Command & Conquer was a lot more chilled out with turtling being a viable strategy in skirmishes. Maps that support 8 players should definitely be a thing in this game and hopefully, a future DLC or update brings this to the table.
The campaigns are great but playing skirmish maps against the A.I felt a tad too disappointing for me personally and I’m sure that some others out there will agree with me. It’s hard to describe but as someone who spent a good decade playing RTS titles day in and day out, there are just some things about this game that bugs me and I hope it gets ironed out eventually.
Things like Veteran units not really dominating the field or the pointless empty buildings that cannot be garrisoned by infantry. There are also issues with a distinct lack of powerful units and unit balancing. Also, why is there a population cap? Let us build as many units as we want!
Without spoiling too much, there’s also a third faction in the game but they are currently unplayable despite all of their units clearly existing already. What’s the hold up with letting us play as them? The rest of the game currently needs balancing too so why not just release this faction to the Skirmish maps and include their story later? This is a baffling design decision since they are featured in both campaigns too but maybe the developers wanted some more time to flesh them out. We’ll see in the future I guess.
Graphically, Tempest Rising looks great. Apart from the uncanny valley characters giving you mission briefings, the game’s visuals are fantastic. The UI itself could use a little bit of tweaking to remove some clutter and make certain things more prominent but generally, it’s great right up until you want to micro-manage a group of units and their specific abilities. You’ll need to be able to memorize which option does what or what hotkey to press amidst all the chaos of controlling a large group while taking on enemies but I digress. Users should be able to adapt to this over time as they play the game.
Oddly enough though, despite the heavy inspiration from Command & Conquer, Tempest Rising also reminded me of some other RTS games out there that we’ve had over the years. It’s like an amalgamation of ideas and while it is serviceable there are some things that should be addressed in future patches like unit balancing and the introduction of some stronger vehicles for both factions.
The soundtrack of the game is excellent with banger background music tracks. There’s even Frank Klepacki composed tracks here and I caught myself bobbing my head to the music while playing through the campaign missions numerous times.
Final Verdict
Overall Tempest Rising is a mixed bag that struggles with its more nuanced aspects. If you’re coming into this game without having played the all-time classics from the heyday of RTS, you’ll most likely take a liking to this game. If however, you’re a seasoned veteran who has played an extensive amount of Command & Conquer, you’ll find the game lacking the “je nai se quois” that made the series an international best-selling success.
Command & Conquer cemented itself into RTS gamer hearts everywhere and Tempest Rising reminded me of a fusion of Command & Conquer Generals, Red Alert 2 and Tiberium Wars while lacking the polish that accompanied all 3 of those games. Tempest Rising is however not a bad game.
It’s a game that with certain tweaks and some minor grievances addressed, could truly excel. If the developers are working on an update or a DLC in the future, I really do hope they take the community’s suggestions to heart and refine this game some more. It has immense potential and I want it to succeed. We need RTS to make a proper comeback and this game can certainly foster it.
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The code was provided by the publisher.
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