If there's one genre you might not immediately think would be very well suited to mobile, it's strategy. There's only so much you can cram onto a little mobile screen, after all. But the genre has actually proved itself very successful on the format, with the likes of Medieval: Total War, Anarchy 2087 and the Townsmen games all providing the sort of engrossing base planning, building and defending that you can easily while away a two-hour train journey playing.
With a bit of streamlining – ideally with simple scroll and click controls – even complex PC games can work on mobile. Just look at the aforementioned Medieval: Total War. And because Command & Conquer 3 shares a similar heritage (i.e. it's a series that started life on PC), you'd be forgiven for worrying about the mobile version failing to do it any justice whatsoever.
But Tiberium Wars is a neat conversion. It features lengthy Campaign and Skirmish modes – the first of which sets you specific goals, while the second just lets you continuously build up a base and fend off waves of attacks from the enemy army. And it looks and sounds good, too. Essentially, on the surface the game is very competent – the only let down for us lies in its actual combat, which doesn't really allow for the sort of micro-managing you often want and need.
First things first, though. Each new level begins with you building up your base using the credits you have available, either from scratch or continuing from the previous mission. New buildings are unlocked as you play, while old ones often need repairing after attacks.
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Then there's your army, which needs recruiting in the usual strategy game way, with certain buildings enabling you to create certain troops. Foot soldiers need a barracks, planes need a runway and tanks and other vehicles need a war factory. There are also other handy structures, including automatically armed watchtowers, intel gathering command posts and credit making refineries.
Buildings are placed quite simply by clicking on an empty square on a grid then selecting the one you want to build. Then troops are recruited by clicking on the building and selecting the ones you want from a menu. So far, so good. Once you're happy with your reinforcements, you press a button to bring on the attack.
For most attacks, a radar in the corner of the screen shows up enemies in red, although it's not there for stealth attacks. Killing off the Nod force invaders is fairly straightforward, if not easy, being a simple case of selecting the nearest group of allies and then clicking on the enemies to order an attack. It works, but not being able to select individual soldiers or tanks can be a hindrance. Your army is also unfathomably thick, so they'll happily stand and watch enemies blowing their HQ to bits if you haven't told them to attack.
Combat takes a steep turn for the better, though, once air strikes come into play. When combat on the ground gets a bit fraught, your limited allocation of these will rain fire down on a large area of the map. It's the sort of pinpoint firepower you wish you had more of elsewhere in the game.
In terms of visuals and atmosphere, Tiberium Wars does an impressive job. Other areas aren't as satisfying, though. Campaign mode does try hard to keep things fresh by introducing new units and fresh scenarios, but the game never feels overly engaging. That's mostly because the drill of building then clicking on enemies to attack them, then building again just isn't all that rewarding. Ultimately, it's not a bad conversion of the PC game at all – it's just not up there with the best strategy games on mobile.
Competent strategy warfare that has you seeing off steadily invading, base-flattening troops. In terms of visuals and controls it's a winner, but the combat isn't quite as precise or compelling as you'd wish
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