Command & Conquer: Renegade

Battling through exotic indoor and outdoor environments, you're free to use both brute force and stealth in your mission objectives against the evil Brotherhood of Nod. No longer are you playing with just a top-down view of the battlefield. Now the action goes on around you and in full 3-D. Explore on, around, and inside all the popular structures and units from the original Command & Conquer. What's it like inside the ominous Hand of Nod? Now you'll know.

Fast, lethal, and effective, Havoc is an elite force of one who gets the job done, whatever it takes. Put yourself in the driver's seat of nearly every popular vehicle from the Command & Conquer series. Use powerful vehicles to your tactical advantage in hostile territory. If you need more firepower or horsepower, hijacking a Nod Flame Tank might be the key to mission success.Create your own tactics. How you tackle the multiple objectives within each of the 11 diverse missions is up to you. Seek out the perfect sniping spot for a stealthy assault, or drive a 75-ton tank straight through the frontlines. Use the environment for a critical edge in combat. Remember, you are a renegade. You make the rules. And show your stuff in multiplayer mode. Engage in chaotic deathmatches or cooperative team-based modes, such as C&C mode. Call up a friend to help battle through a challenging single-player mission. Prove you're the best through Westwood Online's tournaments and ladders system.

Product Description
Command & Conquer: Renegade places you in the world of Havoc, a wisecracking GDI commando as he accomplishes his missions at the ground level of Command & Conquer's military action!

Gameplay:
As far as first-person shooters go, this sits on the arcade side of the market. Everything from hit detection, weapon physics and enemy AI lacks what could be considered realistic direction. Yet, as far as arcade shooters go, this one has its merits. The enemy density is quite challenging at times, especially on the hardest settings, and their accuracy will give even a seasoned FPS gamer a run for their money. The downside is that the enemy AI reacts with more of a bot mentality than an 'intelligent' one. For those of you unfamiliar with bots, this means that regardless of the enemies using any cover or environmental awareness, they just come straight at you. Often in straight lines if you take the time to string them out. Their lack of intelligence is compensated by their inhuman accuracy.
Any of lack of polish exhibited in the game is more than covered by it's definite C&C feel. As a GDI commando, you have access to weapons and vehicles made popular in the original C&C world. Whether you're driving a flame tank, or placing beacons for your ion cannon, it definitely feels like you're playing a small, albeit important, role to take down the Brotherhood of Nod.

Graphics:
The game looks dated, even for only being from 2002, it is really blocky. The character and vehicle models have extremely low polygon counts. The FMV's between each level also use a modified version of the game engine and the eyes and mouths look completely off. However, I'm never one to downplay a game because of it's graphics unless that is all it has going for it. Just being able to walk around and inside a Hand of Nod, or being able to get inside a mammoth tank and crush the opposition is enough to satisfy anyone's visual needs.

Sound:
Renegade uses a ton of sounds familiar to any C&C vets. Even the music is highly reminiscent of the original. All this adds to the feeling of being inside the C&C universe. The only downside is that because the sounds are old, at times it feels like your weapons really lack some oomph. You can unload 100 rounds from your assault rifle into an unwitting rocket soldier and the sound can make it feel like your shooting spitballs at an over-ripe watermelon.

Overall:
This definitely has to be the best cross-genre attempt made by any gaming franchise. I was highly worried about buying this after having gone through X-COM's attempt at FPS, but I was pleasantly surprised. For the going price, this is definitely a must buy for any fan of the C&C series and barring a few bugs, the only downside to this game is the bot-style AI. Just make sure to update it ASAP and if you're looking to stretch your gaming dollar even further, be sure to try it multiplayer where you take part in a Tribes / Savage mix.