Give Rivals a chance!
Three control shots. Five years of silence. Suddenly Electronic Arts I decided to dig up the already decomposed corpse of the cult series of RTS in the backyard and gave it to the guys Redwood Studios, where a couple of diodes were connected to him. The resulting gave a subtitle Rivals, Sending to conquer the App Store and Google Play.
Ahem, do not believe it, but this turned out to be a fairly interesting mobile game. Let’s try to scatter myths a little and present it in the light of the best than EA at my presentation.
The first myth. Discreditation of the series
Having launched the game for the first time (and cursing after the publisher’s logo), the mammoth tank appears on the loading screen before you, and music refers to the ears that refers to Tiberium Wars times. Among the commanders there are recognizable names (Kane, Seth, Oksana and gene. Solomon), and most of the units are transferred with meticulousness from previous games.
The entire filling of the game is carefully trying to please the notes of your nostalgia, so much so that the sound of switching between the menu will make you pull your eye from pleasure. So no matter how you spit from a teaser, you can be sure that people who create a game like a series of C& C are no less than its hardcore fans.
The only thing that remains incomprehensible is the time period. For example, in Heroes of Dragon Age it was spelled out as, when and under what circumstances the player collects a detachment to combat the eminent villains of Tedas. Immediately, due to the presence of eminent commanders, it can be assumed that the events of the game occur somewhere during the Second Tiberium War.
The second myth. Uninteresting gameplay
If you have enough minute cinematics with Kane’s chubby face and you decided not to finish your psyche by gameplay, then vice. After watching for 3-4 minutes, I was shrouded in an incomprehensible feeling of dejavu … And you will not believe what I will compare with now-with Classic Command & Conquer. The system is almost identical: you have a base, the initial supply of Tiberius and the ability to build and send a combine for prey.
Next, you are building buildings that you have available https://sistersitescasino.co.uk/casinos/this-is-vegas-casino/ on the basis of the selected “maps” pool. In the screenshots, not all of the unit currently available are shown, there are an order of magnitude more than the GDI, that the NOD has. You just understand, in rivals there are more variability than in C & C 4: Tiberian Twilight!
The destruction of the enemy base is the main goal. To achieve it, a missile installation is located on the map, which, regardless of the amount of HP base, is enough two shots for complete destruction. To make nuckelar incoming! your opponent needs to capture and hold two or more zones. For these honeycombs, most of the battle will unfold. But no one bothers you to come to the enemy base, destroy his combines and shoot all the guns on his helpless assembly workshop.
Let and simple at first glance gameplay will not let you deceive yourself. After only a few dozen matches (that is, about a couple of hours) you will begin to understand all the small subtleties of the game, and with the opening of new technology and soldiers you can choose tactics to your taste and color. And moving higher than enemies, where enemies are smarter and more frequent, you will look at the notification of the loss more and more and realize that the mobile casual gaming has just given you a delicious slap in the face.
The third myth. Pay to Win, this is Electronic Arts
Imagine, but everything is far from the case. Since the time of dense alpha testing, in version 1.1.2 (relevant at the time of writing of this text), the entire system of pumping, balance and selection of opponents has been changed under the clean. The fights in Rivals are only rated and you are thrown to the original position every month. But at the same time, for each of the league (of which 9) there is a certain maximum level of combat units. As you can see, there is a maximum of bronze – 7, and my units have 4 and 5.
And even if you get to the enemy who has a faction and the position in the league is much higher than yours (which the game will remind you of by putting a notification to a good half of the screen), its troops will not be able to be higher than indicated in your league. Also, a fight with such an enemy will not take away your points when losing and give a double increase in the earned account when victory over him. Yes, and it is much more interesting to hold matches with such opponents, because you have to run around the map in the hope of hooking their vulnerable places or catching the mistakes made. But I most often just lose to them.
The balance is due to the simplest system “stone, scissors, paper”, but with variations and complexes. Nodovskiye “assault cycles” are dangerous in that there are three of them in the detachment, they are cheap and quickly dealt with technology and aviation. While the GDI has an armored personnel carrier that is knocked from machine guns of infantry and aircraft, and if it is destroyed, for example, a tank, then the RPG platoon left after it quickly breaks into the screws.
But it is worth noting the most disgusting, in my opinion, unit is a “rocky worm” at the NOD. It seems to be only kneading the equipment, but it also scatters ordinary infantry, so if you did not have helicopters in the bullet, you definitely have a lid, because you will have to saw it for a very, very long time.
Let’s look at the pumping system. Up to 4 general level you can play only for the GDI, then access to the NOD opens. This level is formed from your successes for the faction, and with receiving a new one you are given the opportunity to get new types of units and commanders from containers. Upon reaching the new league, you are given this very container in which loans and cards are sure to be located, which are needed to improve troops: Loaning a little, add characteristics, with a nth number of cards, raise the level of a combat unit.
Containers, like troops, are of several types: ordinary, rare and epic (of course, in color, they differ when receiving). So, you can buy for Real Money only special, and even then, you can’t get units that you can’t get it in any way, you will only fall out that it is open to the general level (plus crystals). By the way, about them: you can use to accelerate the delivery of a container for you (the ability to receive which you are given after the battle) III … everything. Ah, also special. offers in the store.
There is also a system of daily tasks in the game that will not disappear until you do them all. They are given based on the available cards, until some point of fractions and level. Since quests with victories or the destruction of enemies with specially indicated units will be more complicated, the prize is often good enough. Here is my last set of special surveys (a prize from it is the best container of possible).
And one pleasant conclusion comes out: no matter how much you have been at Rivals, you will not be able to drive above your head, pouring tons of money, because the developers will independently underestimate the levels and the possibility of obtaining some disgusting troops (as a “worm”). But you can definitely feel more confident, because you have more chances with a pumped composition one way or another.
Epilogue
Surprisingly, the mobile Rivals looks and plays many times more pleasant than the two previous attempts by EA to make at least something from the series. If the fourth part did not have a balance even in the story campaign, and C& C (2013) died in the bud, because she could not offer the player at least some pleasure due to constant squabbles inside the team (a typical story for young companies under the worship of the worst campaign of America) for the vision of the project, then this simple project can snatch a lot of your time for a trip to the metro or transport, for the carriage, for it, senior pants on the necessary in those. university of lectures on philosophy or for the expectation of a team search in Dota 2.
I monitor, I believe and hope that the project will become successful, calm the top managers and I will see the revival of the cult RTS in a more familiar format for the great “WelCome Back, Commander”.