The game is based around two factions. The good guys, based loosely on the United Nations, are called the Global Defence Initiative. The bad guys, meanwhile, are a cult lead by a megalomaniac called Kane. You have to basically build your base, build tanks, soldiers and other weapons, and then attack his base. You get money by harvesting an alien substance called Tiberium, which is rich in minerals. All the meanwhile, he'll be doing the same to you. You can choose when you start playing if you'd rather be a good guy or bad guy, and the various elements of cut video footage make the game as ageless today as it was 15 years ago.
The sequel was taking you back to the second world war, and shortly after. Command & Conquer: Red Alert would see you taking on the role of either the Allies or the Russians, and basically more of the same game play only now with different units. The games came roughly every 2 years, including C&C 2, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, the slightly different but just as addictive Generals and Zero Hour, then C&C 3 came with introduction to the source of the Tiberium, an alien race called Scrin. Red Alert 3 was the first bad game in the series, which was truly dreadful, and again they slipped up with C&C 4 which has none of the appeal of the first 3 games.
Why am I telling you all this? Well it turns out the most addictive versions of the game are now free. C&C, Red Alert and Tiberian Sun are all now free to download. Get them here, burn the images to CD, and enjoy as you are immersed into the deadly wargame to end all wargames.
