From EA Games and brought to the Mac by Aspyr Media, C&C Generals focuses specifically on the United States, China, and the fictitious Global Liberation Army (GLA), three sides engaged in regional conflicts that threaten to engulf the world in a global war. Like other real-time strategy (RTS) games, each features its own campaign that you can play through, or you can set up skirmishes — playable against computer-controlled opponents or friends over a LAN or the Internet — on a variety of maps large and small.

The Troops of Today

“I like the fact that you can play a tongue-in-cheek version of the conflicts we see today,” says gamer David Solorzano Lowell. “But what really gets me is the setting: No elves with arrows or space aliens or magic units. These are the troops of today, or at least the near future, and it’s fun to just mess around with them.”

Head-to-Head. Don’t be afraid to bum rush the enemy and duke it out at close range.

While C&C Generals does employ the resource gathering and unit creating functions found in most RTS titles, it streamlines the gameplay by focusing more on quickly erecting buildings and churning out vehicles and troops. It also offers features you won’t find elsewhere in the genre, such as the ability to take over neutral buildings, which provide a variety of bonuses, or the opportunity for you to become a five-star general.

“What really gets me is the setting: No elves with arrows or magic units. These are the troops of today, or at least the near future, and it’s fun to just mess around with them.”

- David Solorzano Lowell

As you play one of the 27 single-player missions, you move up through the ranks of military titles, eventually becoming a three-, four-, or five-star general. Each promotion you receive earns you points that you can use for special upgrades, such as advanced aircraft or rocket barrages that pummel an enemy position, that are unique to each group in the game. Once you finish a mission and begin the next one, however, you have to start over.

Battle Plan. Keep those cruise missiles out of harm’s way and hit the enemy with them while your tanks engage the survivors.

Time to Take on Non-Silicon Brains

Consider the single-player campaign, as well as the option to set up skirmishes against computer-controlled opponents, boot camp for the multi-player experience. C&C Generals features GameRanger support that allows you to take on other players from around the world over the Internet. Once you venture forth into the free-for-all, you’ll have to contend with opponents who aren’t bound to the artificial intelligence parameters that govern the computer.

Do you have comments for this game article? Send us a note.

C&C Generals Deluxe (includes Zero Hour Expansion Pack) available for online ordering 24 hours a day, every day.

“Success in a multi-player game is always based on your economy,” says gamer Alfredo Chavarria. “If you control most of the resources on the map, the enemy will be easier to defeat since his money will be in short supply. Another important strategy involves capturing civilian buildings as fast as you can, since some may give your troops cover fire and others may give you extra money.”

Chavarria also notes the differences between the three groups vying for power: “If you’re the USA, you should mainly fight with air units, since that’s their strongest attribute. China is vehicle-based, so you should rely on tanks if you choose them. The GLA is a guerilla army, so you should use their infantry to your advantage as they’re very effective.”

Of course, the situation doesn’t always have to be every-army-for-itself: C&C Generals also allows you to team up with a few friends against your opponents and use your combined military might to crush them.

Inbound. Build an airfield and scramble those fighter jets.

No Other Game

While you can always have a blast building a nation during the Middle Ages or amassing an army of orcs led by a warhammer-wielding chieftain, sometimes it’s fun to take a break and visit a new place and time. C&C Generals takes you to our world in the not-so-distant future, during a time of new conflicts and new dangers. A setting eerily familiar but comfortably fictitious.

Covert Ops. If you find a supply stash no one else is using, grab it while you can.

Says Chavarria: “No other RTS game can give you the experience of driving tanks across desert terrain or through towns and blowing up stuff, or carpet-bombing your enemy, with explosions all around.”

If you liked this game, check out:

• Age of Mythology
• Earth 2140
• Europa Universalis II
• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne