Electronic Arts rolled out the first gameplay teaser for Command & Conquer Remastered, revealing that the updated versions of the classic real-time strategy games stay true to the original.
Developers Petroglyph Games and Lemon Sky Studios are tasked with remastering 1995’s Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and 1996’s Command & Conquer: Red Alert, the first two games in the acclaimed series. The project also includes expansion packs The Covert Operations for the first game, and Counterstrike and The Aftermath for the second game.
The first gameplay teaser for Command & Conquer Remastered was unveiled through a blog post by producer Jim Vessella, almost a year since the project was formally announced by Electronic Arts. Vessella said that one of the major questions that have been asked about the game was whether it will stay in 2D or upgrade into 3D — a question that the teaser answers.
Command & Conquer Remastered maintains authenticity to the original games by keeping the 2D graphics but upgraded with high-resolution artwork. The developers were able to accurately match the gameplay, feel, and look of the original titles with the help of the recovered source code for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
“Lemon Sky has re-concepted, re-modeled, and re-animated every gameplay asset from scratch,” Vessella wrote in the blog post. Meanwhile, Petroglyph, which includes former team members of Westwood Studios, the developer of the original games, enabled real-time switching between the legacy and remastered assets. A single toggle is all it takes to move from the 320 x 200 resolution of the legacy graphics into the 3840 x 2160 resolution of the remastered graphics.
In addition to the gameplay teaser, Electronic Arts also uploaded a pair of interactive videos that show the legacy and remastered graphics side by side, separated by a movable slider.
Command & Conquer Remastered follows other similar projects such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. It is nowhere like the Final Fantasy VII Remake, but that may be a good thing for RTS purists.
The release date for Command & Conquer Remastered remains unknown, but for hardcore fans of the classic games of the real-time strategy franchise, it is already looking like it is worth the wait.
