When comparing Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun vs Command & Conquer: Generals, the Slant community recommends Command & Conquer: Generals for most people. In the question“What are the best RTS games for PC?” Command & Conquer: Generals is ranked 7th while Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Command & Conquer: Generals is:
While Command & Conquer: General's Multi-Player is a solid addition to the series, it is heightened greatly with the addition of Zero Hour. In this expansion, each faction has different generals the player can choose from, with specific specializations and drawbacks. One Chinese general specializes in infantry, allowing them certain upgrades to increase their effectiveness, while a Global Liberation Army general has an advantage with toxins, giving their vehicles the ability to have Anthrax-laced explosives that deal extra damage. With this addition, Zero Hour gives players the freedom to choose whichever general that fits their playstyle.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Tiberian Sun's well-filmed FMV aid in atmosphere and immersion
With other iterations in the Command & Conquer series, the direction and acting in Tiberian Sun is one of the best of the series. Tiberian Suns includes and all-star cast, with Michael Biehn (Aliens, Terminator) and James Earl Jones (Conan the Barbarian, Star Wars) as members of GDI, and Joseph Kucan returning as Kane, NOD's maniacal and religious figurehead.
The filming style and lighting prevalent in each FMV helps paint the perfect picture of a future, post-apocalyptic dystopia. This helps aid the game in conveying the dark atmosphere that is featured in each mission or multiplayer match. With the FMV and gameplay matching each other with such perfection, players can find themselves easily getting immersed in this title.
Pro Forethought of base defense required due to burrowing units
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun features burrowing units that can wreak havoc upon bases. As these units can only be seen if players have built sensor vehicles, they can unburrow directly inside bases virtually undetected. This allows players to sneak infantry transports and flame tanks into compounds, completely decimating undefended buildings. Due to this, players must think ahead of these threats and act accordingly; building defensive structures inside their bases, or leave a token force to protect the area.
Pro It's free
Tiberian Sun was licensed as freeware by Eletronic Arts in 2010.
Pro The Zero Hour expansion adds even more ways to play Multi-Player
While Command & Conquer: General's Multi-Player is a solid addition to the series, it is heightened greatly with the addition of Zero Hour. In this expansion, each faction has different generals the player can choose from, with specific specializations and drawbacks. One Chinese general specializes in infantry, allowing them certain upgrades to increase their effectiveness, while a Global Liberation Army general has an advantage with toxins, giving their vehicles the ability to have Anthrax-laced explosives that deal extra damage. With this addition, Zero Hour gives players the freedom to choose whichever general that fits their playstyle.
Pro Classic Command & Conquer gameplay reimagined with moderate realism
The staple of the Command & Conquer series has always been its resource gathering, base building, and large armies, all of which return in this Real-Time Strategy classic. While most Command & Conquer titles feature bombastic and over-the-top units (and storylines), Generals reigns in the franchise to tell a semi-realistic story with semi-realistic infantry and units. Gone are the signature wildly imaginative units from series like Red Alert, replaced with the United States' M1A1 Abrahms tanks, Chinese APCs and the GLA's Vehicle-Based IEDs.
Pro Many fantastic mods for this game
Just an awesome game because it reinvents itself through the many good mods that's out there. Mods like Contra 009, Shockwave or C&C Generals Untitled. The last one of these has an amazing AI.
Pro Three factions with different stories
Command & Conquer: Generals features three playable factions: The United States, China, and the Global Liberation Army, each with their own unique storyline. Every storyline tells a concise and mostly cohesive story, with most of the encounters taking place in the Middle East.
Pro Satirical portrayal of factions
All the factions are exaggerations of current real-world countries or organizations, in the case of the GLA, which adds quite a bit to the experience.
Cons
Con Slow-paced construction and gathering times add unnecessary length to matches
Unfortunately for Tiberian Sun, the game suffers from a massive slowdown when it comes to building and amassing an army. With Barracks and War Factories only training one unit at a time, players must build more of those facilities in order to train those units faster. This makes it imperative to spend resources on multiple builds just to make an army faster.
Resource gathering is also a slow endeavor that impedes player progress. Tiberium Harvesters, your resource gathering unit, have both slow movement and gather speeds. These units can take over a minute to bring back additional resources, which usually give players only a few hundred tiberium. This slows down the pace of the game even further, as players will need to build more Tiberium Refineries in order to gain money faster. Thus, this requires players give a large focus on economy over army to start each match.
Con Slightly dated graphics
While great for their time, the graphics in Command & Conquer Generals have not withstood the test of time, thus those who did not play it when the game first came out may find the graphics and art style too appealing and not to their liking.
Con Near-offensive portrayal of factions
While it can easily be viewed as a satirical take on possibly then-current views of each culture represented in Command & Conquer: Generals, some players might take offense to how each faction is portrayed. The United States includes units that state they are doing what's right, the Chinese army units worship the Red Dragon, and the Global Liberation Army are shown as terrorists and near-barbaric. It is because of these tongue-in-cheek depictions that some may be turned off from this title.