Tempest Rising Is Not the Return of RTS—It’s the Funeral March

[BLA01]

I keep seeing people celebrate Tempest Rising as the "spiritual successor" to Command & Conquer, and honestly… I’m baffled. Is the bar really this low now?

It feels like someone took a faded memory of C&C, ran it through a corporate blender, and served us the most sanitized, contract-obligated imitation possible. This game has none of the things that made C&C iconic.
No glorious FMV cutscenes with over-the-top villains.
No superweapons that changed the tide of battle in an instant.
No ridiculous, fun, massive maps.
No charismatic leader like Kane to rally behind (or fear).
Not even the multilingual flavor or that distinct campy charm that made the original series unforgettable.

What we got instead is a game that feels like it was made by checkbox:

✅ "RTS" label slapped on

✅ Buildings and units? Sure

✅ Some nostalgia-coded color palette

❌ Soul

❌ Identity

❌ Any sense of creative risk or passion

This game doesn’t feel like C&C. It doesn’t even feel like a game anyone believed in. It feels like project work, the kind developers make between real jobs. Clinical, cold, and clean—but never fun.

I miss the 90s, when RTS games had flavor. When studios made games because they had something to say, not just something to sell. Today, Tempest Rising joins a growing pile of games that mimic what we used to love but don’t understand why we loved it in the first place.

If this is where the RTS genre is headed, I don’t think it's a comeback.

It’s a eulogy.

[Pomni]

What a clown this game is amazing so far and will save RTS

[Viper Actual]

Really wish they'd scrap the pop-cap and add bigger (and more) maps. Getting a bit tedious replaying the same three 2v2 maps with my mate over and over whereas in Tiberium Wars/Kane's Wrath/RA3 there were a near-endless number of maps to choose from + user-made maps.

It's also a bit concerning that the third faction still doesn't have a proper release date.

[Darth_Angeal]

Just another OP who lives in Nostalgia than judging this game how it actually is... good!

[Gin Kenshin98]

Originally posted by Viper Actual:

Really wish they'd scrap the pop-cap and add bigger (and more) maps. Getting a bit tedious replaying the same three 2v2 maps with my mate over and over whereas in Tiberium Wars/Kane's Wrath/RA3 there were a near-endless number of maps to choose from + user-made maps.

It's also a bit concerning that the third faction still doesn't have a proper release date.

It’s only been 3-4 days, so still early.

Having said that, they better have a post launch support plan. The 3rd faction is at least finished design wise, so it’s just getting the gameplay and balance right.

At least they said they’ll add more maps, which is good.

[Molotov]

The game's loads of fun, put down the crack pipe

[SKN The LISPer]

No glorious FMV cutscenes with over-the-top villains.

I don't feel the original Tiberian Sun campaign had 'over-the-top' villains (anymore than what was the norm in the 90s), nor did C&C generals (beyond somewhat parodying the afghanistan war) but maybe that's just me. For Red Alert+, yes. But Red Alert was intentionally over the top.


Anyway, this is a weird point for "it ain't a good RTS, unless it's 90's film-grain FMV cutscenes!", that's nostalgia talking, pure and simple...

[NotEmperorTouchMe]

I don’t know man, the game just feels kind of middling. Like I’m not sure if people are just that starved for more traditional RTS games or what but I really don’t get the hype for it? I had way more of a blast with Red Alert 3 and the older Sup Com games than I really have with this one. The 30-40 USD price tag also feels steep to me.

It’s just “an” RTS game.

[Cat]

Originally posted by BLA01:

❌ Soul

❌ Identity

❌ Any sense of creative risk or passion

People might see all these differently than you. I'm not saying this is the greatest RTS, but it's tooe early to judge.

And agree with Darth Angeal, anyone who criticizes this always talk about their "C&C standards".

[YoungMan]

I'm glad that there's no big superweapons. There's a reason that no good competitive RTS has these

[weiss]

Originally posted by BLA01:

I keep seeing people celebrate Tempest Rising as the "spiritual successor" to Command & Conquer, and honestly… I’m baffled. Is the bar really this low now?

It feels like someone took a faded memory of C&C, ran it through a corporate blender, and served us the most sanitized, contract-obligated imitation possible. This game has none of the things that made C&C iconic.
No glorious FMV cutscenes with over-the-top villains.
No superweapons that changed the tide of battle in an instant.
No ridiculous, fun, massive maps.
No charismatic leader like Kane to rally behind (or fear).
Not even the multilingual flavor or that distinct campy charm that made the original series unforgettable.

What we got instead is a game that feels like it was made by checkbox:

✅ "RTS" label slapped on

✅ Buildings and units? Sure

✅ Some nostalgia-coded color palette

❌ Soul

❌ Identity

❌ Any sense of creative risk or passion

This game doesn’t feel like C&C. It doesn’t even feel like a game anyone believed in. It feels like project work, the kind developers make between real jobs. Clinical, cold, and clean—but never fun.

I miss the 90s, when RTS games had flavor. When studios made games because they had something to say, not just something to sell. Today, Tempest Rising joins a growing pile of games that mimic what we used to love but don’t understand why we loved it in the first place.

If this is where the RTS genre is headed, I don’t think it's a comeback.

It’s a eulogy.

first of all, the game itself doesnt claims to be said spiritual successor of C&C. thats just a made up thing by you and the community itself.
2ndly:
another good bait post. if you dont like the game, move on. stop wasting your time with whining on a game forum and play something else.

[Lotor13]

Originally posted by BLA01:

...
No glorious FMV cutscenes with over-the-top villains.
...

I am curious, how do You "judge" Command & Conquer: Generals?

[Eminenz]

Have your own opinion and taste that's fine. It seems to me like all you want from an rts is in red alert 3, a game i still hate with a burning passion.

The only opinion of yours that can actually be challenged is your insanely bad take on superwapons. They did infact not "change the tide of battle in an instant" thats PR gibberish on the backside of an oldschool gamecase, nothing more. Superweapons are a bad game mechanic that made you sink large amounts of ressources that could be fun units into a boring building just so you can sit there and watch a timer go down.

I am incredibly glad they didn't do superweapons yet and i hope they will never implement them. Have super-units instead!

[Molotov]

For most of the C&C series superweapons are just a bit of a nuisance to be dealt with rather than a serious threat. In Generals you could have fun vs AI turtling and building dozens of nukes but that's Generals, not every game needs to be like that.

[Caileak]

Originally posted by BLA01:

I miss the 90s, when RTS games had flavor. When studios made games because they had something to say, not just something to sell. Today, Tempest Rising joins a growing pile of games that mimic what we used to love but don’t understand why we loved it in the first place.

If this is where the RTS genre is headed, I don’t think it's a comeback.

It’s a eulogy.

C&C was the first game of its kind. Tempest Rising has almost everything that C&C had, and more. So, if you're saying Tempest Rising is bad, you're also saying that C&C is bad because TR is, objectively, a lot like C&C (Units, Story, Factions, UI, etc). They even found a worthy stand-in for Seth!

If you can't see this, then you're clearly not a C&C fan. But maybe I'm not seeing what you're seeing. So, tell us! What exactly did C&C better?

[Solomon Kane]

❌ Soul - It certainly does have soul, you are simply not open for a new story and clinging to old ones, I have fun playing it and look forward for the Story to continue.

❌ Identity - Yes, it has identity, a new and exciting story begins.

❌ Any sense of creative risk or passion - You always take risk to create a game such as this, and the story is very creative, I can feel they put passion into this project, the music alone shows as much, a shame you are unwilling to see that.