Command & Conquer (also known by the retronym Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn) is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1995. Set in an alternate history, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations and a revolutionary militant organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, led by the mysterious Kane.
Westwood conceived Command & Conquer during the final stages of the development of Dune II, and it expands on ideas explored in that title. Inspired by the events of the era, particularly the Gulf War, the team gave the game a modern warfare setting. The game contains live-action full motion video cutscenes, which star Westwood employees and few professional actors, including Joseph D. Kucan, who plays Kane. The Nintendo 64 port was developed by Looking Glass Studios.
Command & Conquer was a commercial and critical success, selling over three million copies and winning numerous awards. It has been cited as one of the greatest games ever made, and the title that defined and popularized the real-time strategy genre. The game was the first in the Command & Conquer series, which sold 30 million copies by 2009. To mark the 12th anniversary of the franchise, Electronic Arts, the current publisher and owner of the series, released the game for free in 2007.
A remastered version of the game was released in 2020 as part of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection.
Gameplay Command & Conquer involves players operating as one of two playable factions on a map - the Global Defense Initiative (GDI), and the Brotherhood of Nod - developing bases, gathering resources and using them to produce troops, and then defeating their opponents by eliminating their army and either destroying or capturing their base. Base production and unit training is funded by gathering Tiberium, the game's sole resource, through the use of harvesting units, and processing them into credits through a refinery structure. Each faction has its own unique types of units, its own superweapon, and its own combat strategy: GDI relies on superior firepower and armour at the expense of greater production costs and slower movement; while Nod relies on a combination of numerical superiority, superior speed, and unconventional tactics, generally at the expense of less firepower and poor durability.Westwood Studios (February 6, 1996). "Official Command & Conquer Read Me v2.7", C&C: The Covert Operations CD-ROM.
Producing units requires establishing a base through a special unit called a Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV) - MCVs can only be deployed in open flat land, and structures must be placed within close proximity with each other. Bases can be protected with various defensive structures such as sandbags, gun turrets and concrete walls, and units are produced in production structures (i.e. Barracks for infantry, Factory for vehicles, Helipad for aircraft), with tech buildings helping to unlock more advanced units; construction options function on a tech tree, in that certain buildings must be constructed to unlock new options. Silos can be built to store more resources, as the refinery structures can only hold a finite amount, repair facilities can be built to repair damaged vehicles, and power plants are required to keep the base operational - low power slows down production, stops defensive weapons working, and causes buildings to slowly take damage over time until sufficient power is restored (either by constructing additional power plants, or selling off extra buildings to reduce total power requirements). In total, the game contains around fifty units and structures.
Command & Conquer features two single-player campaigns, one for each faction, in which the player must undertake a series of missions across a campaign map for their chosen faction. The objective of most campaign missions is usually to destroy units, or destroy / take control of enemy buildings, with each mission beginning with a briefing conducted using a mix of computer animations and live-action full motion video (FMV). At times during the campaign, the player can choose which mission to undertake, which offer different scenarios to overcome.
The original DOS release features multiplayer with up to four players, a rarity at the time, with internet-based multiplayer being made available in Command & Conquer Gold, which also features SVGA visuals. The game's Sega Saturn and PlayStation ports lack multiplayer support, though the latter was released with the inclusion of the fifteen single-player missions from The Covert Operations expansion pack, as well as six new Special Ops missions, including a secret one. The Nintendo 64 version, while lacking multiplayer support as well, features updated graphics, with 3D models and environments, and four new Special Ops missions (which are different from the ones in the PlayStation port), though the FMV cutscenes were removed and replaced with static images, accompanied by voice acting and sound effects.
Plot Setting Command & Conquer is set in an alternate history, and begins with a meteor crashing near the river Tiber in Italy in 1995. The meteorite brings with it an alien substance that scientists call Tiberium, named after its impact site, which can absorb and crystallize precious metals from the surrounding soil, but also transform its surroundings and produce extremely toxic gases and radiation that is fatal to humans and animals. An ancient, cultic society called the Brotherhood of Nod, who claims to have foreseen the potentials of this new substance through their self-proclaimed messianic figure known only as Kane, invests in the development of technology to harvest and refine Tiberium crystals, far ahead of the global scientific community's own research, and use the resources it gathers to accumulate a rapidly growing army of followers worldwide.
By the beginning of the game, Tiberium has spread across the planet, with Nod forces gaining control of nearly half of the rapidly growing substance through footholds in some of the poorest nations. This wealth has enabled Nod forces to conduct increasingly ambitious terrorist attacks in wealthy countries. The Global Defense Initiative, initially formed by the United Nations as a multinational peacekeeping force in the aftermath of an alternate version of World War II, has since been repurposed as a global anti-terrorist organization, and makes its new goal the elimination of Nod across the globe. The conflict between the two sides eventually culminates in a world-wide war between GDI and Nod, with the Nod campaign taking place in Africa and the GDI campaign being set in Europe. The player's character is not identified directly in the game. While the Nod campaign character is simply referred to as "Nod Commander", the sequel Tiberian Sun established the GDI commander to be named James Solomon.
GDI campaign With the UN calling for GDI to assist in combating Nod in Europe, the player assists as a GDI commander under the command of General Mark Jamison Sheppard. After establishing a beachhead within Nod's territory in Eastern Europe, GDI focus on controlling Poland and Belarus and removing troops from occupied lands in Germany. However, Kane uses media manipulation to convince the world that GDI deliberately attacked and massacred the citizens of the Polish city of Białystok. Although Sheppard denies GDI's involvement, the UN cuts funding to the military outfit, forcing GDI to mount defensive operations against a sudden surge of Nod attacks, including protecting bases and leading Tiberium scientist Dr. Ignatio Mobius. However, Nod soon finds themselves on the defensive upon learning that it was a ruse designed by Sheppard and the UN to lure them into a false sense of security, with new funding allowing GDI to bring forth new combat units to help in battle. Eventually GDI locates Kane's main base of operation at a complex called the Temple of Nod in Sarajevo, Bosnia, with Sheppard ordering the commander to launch a final assault to defeat him. GDI succeeds, with the complex destroyed by GDI's superweapon, the space-based Ion Cannon, ending the conflict, though leaving some experts to question if Nod will cease operating.
Nod campaign With Nod engaged in open warfare across the globe, Kane gives orders for his forces to secure territory in Africa, with his second-in-command Seth assigning the player, a new recruit, to assist in the Brotherhood's operations. After successfully conducting operations in Northern Africa through the use of both conventional and unconventional warfare, hitting GDI targets, eliminating warlords, and securing a set of codes for nuclear missiles, Seth attempts to send the recruit to attack the United States military, but is executed by Kane for initiating a rogue operation. Upon combating the chaos Seth created, and countering GDI's efforts to re-establish themselves in Northern Africa, Kane assigns his recruit to lead the charge in securing the rest of the continent, eventually culminating in them establishing a Temple of Nod in South Africa and securing control of GDI's Ion Cannon. With the cannon secured, Kane denotes victory in Africa, and makes plans to achieve the same in Europe, allowing the recruit to use the cannon to destroy one of four historical landmarks with the hijacked Ion Cannon - the White House, the British Houses of Parliament, the Eiffel Tower, or the Brandenburg Gate - thus shattering GDI's public image.
Connection to Command & Conquer: Red Alert Command & Conquer: Red Alert was intended to be a prequel to Command & Conquer, and both the Allied and Soviet campaigns contain references to Command & Conquer. In particular, some of the Soviet mission briefings feature Kane, while one of the cutscenes in the Allied campaign directly foreshadows the creation of GDI. Also in the Soviet final cutscene, Nadia says "this temporary chaos in Europe will only help to fuel the Brotherhood's cause", mentions "the land of Nod", and states that "the Brotherhood will tire of the USSR in the early 1990s". However, Command & Conquer has the Brotherhood of Nod start out as an underground terrorist organisation initially operating out of the African continent, not as a major political force in control of the late Soviet empire. Furthermore, the Soviet Union is shown on world maps to no longer exist at the time, with the Russian Federation being shown as a member of GDI. With the release of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, a hotly debated topic which arose among fans was whether Command & Conquer follows the conclusion of the Allied or Soviet storyline, with evidence existing for both sides of the debate. Former C&C designer Adam Isgreen confirmed that Tiberian Dawn in fact follows on the conclusion of Red Alert's Allies campaign, while Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge take place in a second parallel universe, created by a new attempt to alter history in "Tiberian Incursion", the working title of Westwood Studios' cancelled version of Command & Conquer 3. The exact relationship between the events of the two games remains unclear, and their connection was later disregarded by Electronic Arts, who preferred to treat the Tiberium and Red Alert series as completely separate universes.
Development