Command & Conquer: The First Decade review

A bug-infested ride through RTS history

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

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    A dozen C&C games for the price of one

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    Did we say 12 C&C games?

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    12 C&C games - most actually work

Cons

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    Doesn't play nice with new monitors

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    Early games may not launch at all

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    Far too many bugs

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For long-time fans of the series, Command & Conquer: The First Decade is a bit of slap to the side of the ol' noggin that does little to drum up excitement for the next ten years. However, if C&C is new to you, TFD represents a solid value - providing you can run the games, that is.

TFD bundles every C&C game released to date on a single DVD, sans the forgettable Sole Survivor. That's nothing to cry about asSurvivor was online-only and the real only clear stinker in the history of the series. You'll get Command & Conquer & its add-on C&C: The Covert Ops; Red Alert and its two expansions, Counterstrike and Aftermath; Tiberian Sun and its add-on, Firestorm; the action-oriented Renegade; Red Alert 2 and its expansion, Yuri's Revenge, and finally, the 3D Generals and its add-on, Zero Hour.

That's 12 C&C games, all supposedly tweaked to play nice with Win XP, for the princely sum of $40. But before we all get too giddy, here's the rub: the movies for the Soviet campaign in Red Alert don't play, the musical score for Covert Ops is not complete, and several games failed to launch off the new front-end interface. We encountered a few other minor bugs as well, most notably intermittent crashes. Pretty frustrating, to say the least, particularly after being forced to enter 12 CD keys and uninstall all older C&C games that might already be on your system. (It should also be noted that with the exception of the original C&C and Red Alert, most of the original releases worked just fine with Win XP.)

More info

GenreStrategy
DescriptionThis could have been the single greatest compilation of all time. Instead, it's a bug-ridden collection that needed more polish and tender loving care before release.
Platform"PC"
US censor rating"Teen"
UK censor rating""
Alternative names"C&C","Command and Conquer"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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