Tiberian Sun : Gameplay

One of the most important issues is the interface. What does it look like, how is game played and so on. According to the screen shots we've seen so far, Tiberian Sun will use an interface similar to the one used in C&C and Red Alert with the menu bar placed to the right and having the screen itself to the left. If you look to the right, you will see the menu bar from a very early screen shot for GDI. The GDI logo will be replaced with a radar once you get the Radar Dome and the indicator to the left shows how much power you have used. The maps will be much bigger than Red Alert's, 2-4X the size which will make online gaming much more interesting. You will have the ability to zoom in and out and you'll be able to rotate your view as well. Instead of the top down perspective, Tiberian Sun will use an isometric view. The graphics will be transparent. This include explosions and the hover tanks. They are used, to make the scene more realistic. Everything will be rendered in real time. This means that there will be no more bitmap explosions or static trees for example.

Tiberian Sun has kinetic physics. If you for instance shoot into the water, you'll see the waves in the water or if a tank shoots and the bullet hits a tree, the tree gets "damaged" by the time. Sometimes the minimap will be hidden, and you'll see a video showing you new mission objectives instead.

The playing itself is probably very similar to Red Alert's as Erik Yeo, designer of Tiberian Sun, said they didn't want to change it too much. Expect the same simple "point-and-click" system from Red Alert where everything is controlled with the mouse. Personally, I think Westwood should create short-cuts for everything as Blizzard made for both Warcraft II and their new StarCraft. It speeds up the game as you don't need to waste unnecessary time clicking on the proper icon. That's one of the things I really missed in Red Alert.

Like in the other two games, the Construction Yard will be your most important structure. Without it, you won't be able to build any buildings at all and your primary goal will therefore still be to wipe out your opponent's Construction Yard. The harvesters are back again from the original C&C, harvesting tiberium but if there'll be other things to gather is still unknown. Harvesters will be smarter, warning player when there is no more tiberium in a safe zone. It will warn player if accidently sent to hostile area. The tiberium will sometime explode, but how this will work, we still don't know.

The terrian/landscape has been changed a lot in Tiberian Sun. There will be three kinds of terrain: snowy arctis, desert and grassy land andthere will be different weather conditions (rain, fog, snowing etc.) as well. The weather condition will however not effect the game play There'll be night missions with colored dynamic lighting for really cool effects. You'll have to provide light to see and you can shoot these to block enemies' vision. Other things Westwood has implemented are 3D morphable terrain and 3D units without the need for 3D-cards. Rivers will freeze over tim, making it possible to travel across, and bridges will be destroyable. In fact, you'll be able to destroy virtually everything in your environment. Weswtood will use a new technology for the maps, called "dynamic terrain". That means that the terrain is changed sometimes. e.g., if you shoot on a mountain, the mountain may be destroyed and you see a NOD-bunker.

Vehicles and troops can go up in experience, troops can for example become "sergeant" status (they'll auto scatter when fired upon and if next to regular troops, they'll tell them to scatter). For instance, a tank killing an infantry unit doesn't get much reward, but an infantry unit killing a tank gets a lot of points. As units and troops gather experience they will gain strength, speed, and, in some cases they get new abilities. Infantry will duck, dodge, and run. They are very smart. Although it's not real 3D, units will have advantages when shooting from a hill. Units get damaged more realistic - When your unit is getting attacked more and more, you see the parts flying though the air before the unit explodes. Fire will damage units, and forests will be flamable, and hopefully, you'll be able to take this to your advantage if your opponent's base is for instance near a forest. The new game engine will simulate the reality as much as possible and if you for example destroy a tank, other tanks near the explosion will be damaged as well.

Tanks and units will leave trays in snow. So be warned if there are suddenly 100 trays in the snow - a massive attack may come in a few moments... This means, try to avoid big snow areas when attacking with ground units. The navel units from Red Alert have been removed, but the air combats will be improved a lot, though. Building more factories won't increase build time, only a new place to make units, like in StarCraft. Some buildings may be upgraded and improved by fitting extra components into various pods.

Sometimes, there will might be an ion-storm, which means that any high-tech buildings you have, will be out of function, so orcas, Hovercrafts and laser turrets will be useless. If it'll be possible for the player to control this ion-storm, or if they "will just appear" is however still unknown. ts into various pods.

Sometimes, there will might be an ion-storm, which means that any high-tech buildings you have, will be out of function, so orcas, Hovercrafts and laser turrets will be useless. If it'll be possible for the player to control this ion-storm, or if they "will just appear" is however still unknown.


Games:
UNREAL
DUNE 2000
NEXT GAMES
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