A little over 15 years ago, Westwood Studios introduced the PC world to Command & Conquer. Skip ahead to today, six years after EA got their hands on C&C, and a year after the release of Command & Conquer Red Alert 3. Commander’s Challenge, a pseudo-expansion to Red Alert 3, has finally come along on Xbox Live, but it has a few features that are bizarrely missing in action that may keep players who enjoyed Halo Wars and Red Alert 3 from picking it up.

Gameplay:

It may have taken years, but Halo Wars, Red Alert 3, and, by extension, Commander’s Challenge have finally proven that you can make an RTS control well with a gamepad. If you played Halo Wars, the controls function very similarly; if you played Red Alert 3, they function exactly the same. This is by and large a good thing, because selecting multiple units, giving special orders, and issuing complex commands are all relatively easy to do using a series of simple button combinations like holding the left or right shoulder buttons and pressing A or X. It’s impressive how easy the controls are to learn and use when you consider how many commands are crammed into them.

Commander’s Challenge still has the same three armies from Red Alert 3, but has added a few new units to the mix, so even familiar or experienced players will find something new…given enough time. Commander’s Challenge makes you earn more units for each army, and you have to upgrade your forces from basic to advanced by winning unlockable content battle by battle. This may frustrate players who like to have their full palette available from the outset, but it also helps guarantee players will get their money’s worth as far as lasting appeal.

Because the gameplay is largely identical to Red Alert 3’s, I don’t want to spend too much time rehashing old features. However, newcomers who are thinking of testing the console RTS waters can rest assured that, like any good RTS, Commander’s Challenge will force you to hone your strategy and use the right units in the right situation to win. Nothing has been dumbed down here. That being said, Command & Conquer as a series has sometimes bordered on insanity (in a good way, fanboys!) when it comes to its units and its style, and that has never been more evident than here. Attack dogs, war bears, Japanese mecha, school girls, and dolphins can all be involved in the intense and frantic battles at any given time. If you want a serious RTS only, you seriously need to look elsewhere. C&C has fun with itself and if you find its crazy charm appealing, you’ll have fun, too.

Graphics:

Like Red Alert 3, Commander’s Challenge is quite attractive for an RTS, with in-game visuals that are certainly on par with its visually impressive cousin, Halo Wars. The special effects are all very cool, even if they do tend to happen on a small scale, and all of the chaos and insanity happens without any slowdown or visual hiccups – quite a feat considering all the debris and animation taking place at any given time. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you like them), the ridiculously cheesy live action cutscenes are still here in spades, so if you’re not a fan on them they’re going to get taxing in a hurry.

To me, the most amusing aspect of the graphics is Red Alert 3’s sexy Commando cover-girls for each army. Why bother having a cute commander when most of the time that you see her, she’s a teeny-tiny unit on a huge RTS battlefield? Just some fun food for thought.

Sound:

While I liked the majority of the audio in Commander’s Challenge, there were a few things I absolutely hated. The music is, for the most part, very good. Background music for battles is acceptable and the theme music (like the distinctly Russian pieces with accompanying singing) is fantastic. The battle music can take a turn for the grating, though, when the action picks up. When the fighting gets hot, the music becomes a mess of hard rock-and-roll which not only sounds bizarrely inappropriate, but is far too loud for far too long. I had to crank the sound down pretty low in the options menu just to keep from going insane while I listened to the unit chatter and sound effects.

The unit chatter itself is solid, but nothing memorable like Starcraft or Warcraft. I can still do a perfect impersonation of a Firebat, Marine, SCV, or Peon, but the units in Commander’s Challenge only derive personality from their nationality. They sound like they’re from the UK, Russia, Japan, or America. That’s it, really. Nothing else is really quirky or stands out about them.

Longevity:

Commander’s Challenge is only 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00 / £6.80), and for the price, you get a ton of content. There are 50 challenges to play with three armies, a plethora of units to unlock, and par times to beat for the hardest of the hardcore. Unfortunately, the game is singleplayer only, which is a pretty big disappointment since Red Alert 3 had such a strong focus on cooperative gameplay. There’s also no skirmish mode, only a (albeit informative and entertaining) tutorial and the challenges, so when you’ve beaten each challenge to your satisfaction, you’re pretty much finished with the game completely.

Overall:

Commander’s Challenge is a standalone game, which is good and bad. You won’t need Red Alert 3 to play it, but that also means that if you own Red Alert 3 you won’t get any new units or incentives to play anymore than you already have. There is also content missing from the package that was included for the PC version of the game, which may discourage some fans from picking this up on their Xbox 360 instead of a PC. It’s also worth noting that the game is an utterly massive download, weighing in at over 2 gigabytes.

While it’s definitely missing a few features that could’ve extended the shelf life and fun factor of the game, Command & Conquer fans will easily get their money’s worth with Commander’s Challenge. Anyone looking to scratch an RTS itch through their Xbox 360 won’t be disappointed either, especially considering the hours and hours of gameplay you’ll get for the delightfully cheap price. As long as you aren’t seeking a multiplayer experience, this just might be the game for you.