Command & Conquer Renegade (Westwood, PC MA15+)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * * )

It's more than seven years since Command & Conquer brought the eternal battle between the GDI (read the US) and the NOD (Russia).

The concept was out of date even then, and the developers, Westwood, must have cringed when Russia renounced Communism.

But the game quickly became a bestseller and has been on millions of hard drives in one of its versions since then.

C&C and its sequel Red Alert have never been among the leaders graphically, but the sheer brilliance of the real-time strategy model has overcome any visual failings.

C&C Renegade is a departure from this highly successful model. It takes on one of C&C's key units, the GDI commando, and turns him into a first-person military hero, as in the Medal of Honour or Metal Gear Solid games.

Many C&C fans will be disappointed by this change in direction, but it's worth buying, if only to see the ground from the game up. And it's much better looking than the last true C&C game, Red Alert 2.

You play Captain Nick "Havoc" Parker, a suitably macho military type charged with rescuing a group of key scientists from the NOD.

It's a standard shoot-'em-up action game, but does give the feeling of a wider conflict.

The weapons and vehicles are from the real-time strategy version, and you'll get to ride in humvees, accompany Mammoth tanks into combat, and see transport helicopters drop troops on to the battlefield.

Weapons are a different story. C&C's commandos were seek-and-destroy units armed with a rifle and explosives.

But Parker has access to the standard action game arsenal, from pistols to sniper rifles and grenades.

If you want a true war simulation from a first-person perspective, Medal of Honour Allied Assault takes some beating. C&C Renegade will appeal to those who have a wider interest in this classic series - and it's not a bad game in its own right.

* peter_eley@nzherald.co.nz