Untangling Tiberian Twilight (Part 1)

by Piyoz on Feb 14th, 2013

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight was released on March 16^th, 2010 by EA. It’s the fourth installment in the main Tiberium universe of Command & Conquer RTS games (not related to the Generals or Red Alert series). The game designers at EA wanted to make this game the epic conclusion to the Tiberium universe, with a darker story involving more painful and emotional story-telling than any of the previous entries. Everything that we knew of this apocalyptic, decaying world would come to an end once and for all. After three games, three global wars, numerous natural disasters, and an alien invasion, a fulfilling and epic climax to a beloved RTS series was surely what we had in store.

How this came to be the most embarrassing piece of writing that I’ve ever witnessed in a video game is still, even two years later, a mystery to me. That is my mission here today: to unravel the intricacies of this game’s campaign. Where did it go wrong? What elements in video game narrative were used well, and which weren’t? How did this game serve as the end of a series?

Setting the Stage

In order to explain the story in detail of Tiberian Twilight, I need to explain (briefly) the setting in which this game takes place. In the three games that came before this, the politics and science of this world set the stage for what is to come.

You see, there was a comet that struck the planet back in 1995 in our alternate version of Earth. This comet released a new element into our ecosystem called Tiberium. This element soon spread across the entire globe via trade routes and waterways. Taking the form of green crystals, Tiberium was found to disintegrate human bodies within a few days, even after brief exposure.  A catastrophe was in the making. Before we knew it, entire populations of people and animals were poisoned by Tiberium, and the ecological damage threatened every living thing on Earth. Worst of all, there was no way of limiting its spread, as the enormous size of Tiberium atoms tore apart every other type of molecule at an atomic level. Tiberium was spreading at an uncontrollable rate. The Brotherhood of Nod, led by their enigmatic leader Kane, began to worship Tiberium crystals, claiming that this was a sign of end times, and the next step of human evolution. The Brotherhood began capturing people for experimentation with Tiberium as well as spreading general anarchy. In response, the United Nations formed the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) to wipe out Nod and their leader. It gets more complicated over the course of three games, but this is the premise laid out before C&C 4.

The story of Tiberian Twilight is that in the July of 2062, Kane of the Brotherhood of Nod meets with high commanders of GDI, and the two forces (who have spent decades at each other’s throats) begin to collaborate in the effort to rid the world of Tiberium. What was the reason for Nod’s change of view on the alien substance? I’m not sure. The game doesn’t say. In every game before this, Kane has been so blindly zealous of his ambition to transform humanity into “the next phase” that he has no conscience against killing innocent civilians and toppling governments.  And all of a sudden he’s concerned about Tiberium overtaking the Earth? Isn’t that what he wanted all along? Damn, this story already has a problem and this is just information from the trailer!

Ten years or so after GDI and Nod began to form the Tiberium Control Network (TCN), they have begun to limit and contain Tiberium spread using technology from the previous game. At long last it seems like humanity is really coming together and saving the planet! However, not everyone is so happy with this new alliance. A military leader from Nod named Gideon hates GDI so much that he has defected from Nod’s ranks with all his forces. Gideon and other splinter factions of Nod have begun attacking and seizing TCN structures all over the world. A small-scale war happened in the following years called the Incursion War. The TCN did its best to quell the chaos caused by Nod Separatists, but their forces were so scattered and unorganized that a massive military force was deemed impractical. They needed to take a different approach.

This is where the game started changing things up. In order to deal with diaspora militias, TCN armies began to construct Mobile Construction Vehicles called Crawlers which can collect resources and produce its own units without the need for a central base. Wherever conflict is seen, the TCN can drop a few Crawlers in from orbit and wipe out Separatist clans strategically. GDI and Nod built their own Crawlers and teamed up to take on Separatist armies across the globe.

Game Play

If you’ve ever played an RTS before, you will be familiar with the setup of previous C&C games. You start out with a small base and a few units. You gather resources, built up your central base, and acquire more units to control. You need to acquire just the right resources and unit types to overpower and outsmart your enemy. Before Tiberian Twilight, every C&C game worked this way. But in this final installment, the game designers decided to do something different. Instead of central bases with your main structures, the player is now given a portable Crawler unit in lieu of traditional Construction Yards. To make this make sense, the writers created a scenario in which large, permanent bases were no longer practical.

As you collect resources all over the map, you can deploy your Crawler and spawn more units as needed. Your armies never grow too large, though. There is a maximum amount of command points that one command can have (fifty, sixty-two, or seventy). Each unit in your arsenal is worth from three to six to twelve points. Your military outfits must remain small, because you must lead every unit around the map with your Crawler in tow.  It’s the RTS equivalent of a kindergarten teacher trying to lead an entire class of four-year-olds down the street.

The Campaign

Cut Scene One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M51Bks2faN4

The singe-player campaign puts you in the shoes of GDI Commander Parker. In the years after the Incursion War, Parker has been recovering from the devastating injury and had to have replacement eyes. These eyes (get ready for this) turn out to be a computer that allows the user to access the internet and catch up on a whole ton of convenient exposition. I guess this was the only way that they could think of to explain what’s going on: a pair of robot eyes?! Come on! This isn’t Deus Ex! Just show us news broadcasts and press announcements in cut scenes! This worked perfectly fine in every game before this. Inventing this computer eyes thing is totally unnecessary. This is just the first of so many odd and stunningly stupid choices that C&C 4 makes.

Before your character is fully briefed on his first mission, we watch as he encounters the most idiotic character in the game: Lilly. Lillian Parker is your wife, according to the game, and I assume that means that she’s important. My guess is that the player will form some sort of personal connection to her because you are theoretically married. At least I think so. All she does is worry about your safety and beg you to be careful while you’re out there. First of all, our main character doesn’t even go onto the battlefield. You watch and make orders from afar, so you’re never in any danger at all.

I think this Lily character is supposed to be an emotional tie for the player. The game evidently wants you to sympathize with her and feel her plight so that you feel more invested in this universe. She ends up being more annoying and whiny than anything else. Now that’s how you build a sympathetic character. Moaning and pleading to the camera with teary, puppy dog eyes. Yup.

Commander Parker is then led into the command center, where other GDI officers and their leader, Colonel James, are preparing. You’ll notice that everyone in this room is wearing US Army fatigues. Why is that a problem? Well, this isn’t the US Army! This is a futuristic, para-governmental military operation that never even touches the surface or sees direct combat. In every other C&C game, everyone is in formal office wear. Nobody in this control room should be dressed for combat because nobody will ever be involved in the field. The costume designers for these cut scenes probably didn’t know that the US Army doesn’t exist in this universe. The United States doesn’t even exist anymore! Who’s in charge here? I want to talk to the manager!

Cut Scene Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcREG8h3xHc

In this scene, Kane urges you to join his Nod forces and help him wipe out the Separatists. Before he finishes, Colonel James pops into your head and orders you to stay with GDI. The two bicker like an old couple, neither of them very convincing. Now look at the way they interact on screen. It is my understanding that they are broadcasting from separate locations, so they don’t know that the other is right next to them in the Commander’s robot eyes. They exchange suspicious glances somehow. This reminds me of the opening sequence of the Brady Bunch.

They both make their arguments, and then the game gives you a choice. There are two campaigns in C&C 4, one for GDI and one for Nod. They are different versions of the same story line, although typically some events happen differently between them. In other games, playing the Nod campaign after GDI would provide some new background, and a different perspective on previous events. You learned more about what was going on, so it was very interesting playing the same game from opposite sides.

Here, the scene ends, and you have to choose which side you like best. Literally, you have to pick which side you want. Just click on the screen. Seriously. That’s all you have to do. Click on the face of your preferred general and begin the real campaign under their command. I find this odd, because your character, Commander Parker, is a GDI soldier. Can people in GDI ranks simply swap over to Nod forces so easily? They’re entirely separate ideologies with far different echelons of organization. But apparently you have that option.

Here the story splits. For right now, let’s explore the GDI campaign.

GDI Scene Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH8RjDVV33M

Oh no! High-ranking GDI officials are cracking down on Colonel James for her extreme measures in the field. James talks back to her superiors and tries justifying her actions. Clearly, her views on this war differ greatly from those of GDI high command.

So is your main character actually a character? Because you have a name, a history in this universe, and a place in the events unfolding around you. Yet your character never says anything. Your character doesn’t interact with anyone. You see, in every C&C game before this, your in-game avatar worked differently. You played as a nameless, faceless military leader with no story, name, or real place in the world besides ordering people around. This let the player at the computer slip right into the world and feel like you had some control over what was going on. It’s just like Link in Legend of Zelda.

So is Commander Parker an avatar, or his own character who simply serves as the camera? I can’t tell. This game’s not clear on whether you are the main character or a non-existent observer. It’s an awkward place between Isaac from Golden Sun and Jay from Marble Hornets. If our character is the protagonist, then give him some lines and something to do. If he’s not anyone, then don’t give him a back story and a stupid wife. Heck, even Chell did more than this guy, and she didn’t have optical implants!

Between chapters 4 and 5, a bit of story telling happens during the mission. James orders you to help reclaim the GDI Eurasian capital New Adana, which is under attack by Gideon’s forces. For reasons that the game doesn’t specify, Lilly is down there. Wasn’t she on your transport ship this whole time? What is she doing down there?

Anyway, civilians are being evacuated in the midst of the chaos. Your job is to ensure that the evac ships can escape the city. You are suddenly shown a comm message from Lilly. The camera focuses on a ship lifting into the air, so you are left to assume that she’s on that ship. Then…ya know what? Watch. Just watch. Skip to 3:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OnxnScXZ_U

I can’t even think of anything funny to say about this. I can’t take my eyes off the missile animation. This tactical nuke (who launched it?) is just strolling through the air. It’s taking it easy, just chilling out after a long day at the office. A war is going on beneath the missile, but this weapon of mass destruction seems perfectly content in flying around at a brisk 10 miles per hour. Oh, what’s that? A civilian transport? Trying to leave a war zone? Not if I have anything to say about that! So the missile changes direction and speed on its heel, and rushes toward the transport like a dog chasing after a squirrel. The transport blows up in an underwhelming explosion, leaving no wreckage or bodies. The developers could learn a thing or two from Michael Bay about destruction.

Wait, who died? Lilly? Who’s that? Oh, the wife. I forgot about her. I didn’t sign a prenup, did I? James follows up Lilly’s death as though this were something tragic. We indirectly witnessed the murder of a woman who we saw in three short cut scenes. So what? Sad music plays. Was this supposed to mean something? Were you meant to be moved by this? In the short time that we knew Lilly, we heard her do nothing but whimper, cry, and look lovingly at the camera. Did the game expect the player to actually care about this person? Am I missing something?

This is Twilight-level bad. Where was the character development behind Lilly? What was she like? What was her role in this world? What did she want out of her life? What were her deepest desires and fears? Besides being a concerned wife, what level of humanity did she have? Character building is necessary for a reader/viewer/player to feel attached to someone in a story. The person needs to feel real. Of course there are plenty of people out there in reality who are overwhelmed by concern for loved ones in the military. That’s real. But that can’t be someone’s entire personality. Nobody is just one emotion. I’m convinced that Lilly is the worst character that I’ve ever seen in a video game. I’m actually kind of glad that she’d dead. Now the rest of the campaign should be better without her sniffling. I hope.

GDI Cut Scene Six: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rioUYFqTUqE

At this point in the game, it is revealed that Kane plans to reawaken these things called the Threshold towers. Back in C&C 3 there was an alien invasion of a species called the Scrin. Besides attacking population centers, the Scrin also built these enormous, spiraling towers all over the planet. At present, there is only one set of towers left, Threshold 19 in central Europe. James worries what Kane could do with active Threshold towers. Who knows what could happen? Activate an alien signal for another invasion? Create a portal between worlds? Accelerate Tiberium growth?

James shows us her distrust in Kane as well as the invaders. She tells us directly that the Scrin invasion killed her two sons. First, how does she know what the Scrin were called? The aliens didn’t speak English, and they never announced themselves. In C&C 3, they were just called “the invaders” or “the aliens”, since there was no way for us Earthlings to communicate with them.

Second, who just so casually mentions that her children were killed by the Scrin? This reveal is very important to James’ character. It’s meant to be a point of sympathy that draws us to her and lets us get inside her head. But this emotional catalyst for James is said in the middle of normal dialogue just like it’s another piece of the story.

I feel for this actress. She has to put up with this script. Serious and sensitive details of a person’s emotional drive cannot be revealed so casually. It’s said too matter-of-factly for the player to really buy it. It’s so corny and forced that I rolled my eyes. Deep and serious back stories can’t be revealed willy-nilly. C&C isn’t a soap opera even if most of the actors come from daytime soaps. This is the second instance of needless and poorly-written drama. I swear to God, I half expect the next mission to take place in Port Charles.

Think this is awful? Brace yourselves, but this is the first HALF of the story! Tune in next time as I show you the incredible ending to the GDI campaign, and we explore the Nod story. Need a breather? Take a pit stop to our forums in the meantime!

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