Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars™

contains that classic rts feel more modern games lack in

PSA: the current version of this game received balance patches that were intended for multiplayer but completely messed up the tuning of the campaign missions, making them alot harder than intended, to the point of being unplayable in some cases. If you plan on playing the campaign, revert back to version 1.0, google will help you with this. There is also a steam guide.

This has always been and always will be an excellent game. One of the best RTS games out there. I remember when it came out. When I saw the live action cut scenes, I was in awe. I have never forgotten this game for that. I also love Michael Ironsides (the actor who plays the general), so this was a sell for me.

The game is great. It is an old-school RTS that has great strategy and isn't too focused on micro-ing the economy. It is focused on your army. The campaigns are legendary, and some might argue the best in the C&C series.

Great graphics, fun experience per the units. However, there is a huge issue with knowing where your units are, because many - especially the infantry - are a tad bit bigger than a few pixels. Zooming in isn't much of an option, as you need a very wide view to see where the incoming fire is coming from.

On the gameplay aspect -

Skirmish:
The AI is on a constant 'virtual' crack with its tactics. In slightly harder levels, it goes to galactic level steroids. In medium, the enemy appears to be building close to twice the speed with less cost. I tried brutal, just to check - and by the time I had 28 buildings, the AI had 138 (saw it in the final statistics). From medium difficulty and above, it can literally become the definition of chaos. Especially the bazookas units have an unnatural range - longer than the biggest base defenses.

With a mere small patch of Tiberium, the AI kept on sending endless armies for ~40 minutes straight - and the patch wasn't even finished. I had to deplete two patches just to defend my base - and my refineries just vanished without a trace.

Campaign:
I played up to Act III on the GDI campaign (Nod Temple mission) - on Normal Difficulty. The ranging of challenge is erratic from mission to mission. At the stage where the Mammoth Tank was introduced (the briefing saying: "it's gonna be fun"), the tank itself was synonymous to useless. By the time you get its Railguns up, you have to literally spend a fortune and over a single patch of Tiberium. And then - the mission throws the entire Mordor of bazookas infantry who shoot from as far as Saturn (I'm exaggerating here) and by the time you stop them, you lose Mammoths worth 1.5 patches of Tiberium (and you only have 2 patches). That's the mission with the docks.

Similar to the Skirmish mode, the AI will send infinite armies, funded by a single patch of Tiberium, which - when I reached the base - was only 10% consumed. I eventually used Orcas to storm the base and take out key buildings. Using the recommended Mammoth was a gigantic No-No.

In terms of difficulty (on Normal), if I am to place a scale of 1-5 (1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest), missions would fluctuate in ranges of 2, 4, 1, 15, 8, 4, 12 (estimate). In most of them, there is no taking a single breath without being attacked by disproportionally. The design is really bad - as if the developers intentionally made the game psychotic, to make it look bigger. It's a tactic many observed in other games, just to hold the gamers longer due to lack of content.

Conclusively:
Graphics, music, animation, effects, they are all great for the time. The mission designs and mechanics, especially the way the AI is boosted - is what breaks it for me. Thus, I cannot recommend it to RTS enthusiasts.

Personally, I would recommend going the C&C Remastered Edition or C&C Generals (including Zero Hour). Even the Red Alert series is much better refined, in terms of mission design and balancing.

What a fun game!

Since I was a child, I played this game on my dad's computer, however, the desktop broke and was never repaired. it wasn't until 6 more long years that I played the game again after getting a laptop.


I still remember everything from the past, from having 5 regiments of infantry blowing up whatever is in their way, to mothership spams every 2 seconds, 10 juggernauts decided to obliterate my entire base, 5 random mammoth tanks somewhere near my troops, etc The reason why this game is so fun is

It's quite an easy game, and isn't that hard to master either.
It isn't really repetitive,
and the campaign is nice.

such a fun game where you could do anything,

Spawn 75 mammoth tanks? sure
want 30 regiments of infantry? sure,
nuke your allies? maybe..


Overall, a fun game, where you could do a lot of stuff,

8.7/10

I am a novice when it comes to RTS games, but now that ive really gotten back into PC gaming I decided to really try and get into the series. God I feel stupid not getting in earlier. This game is an absolute blast! I haven't beaten it yet but i've had enough time to understand the basics. The campaign still hold up to this day, and offers a lot of replay value. I haven't tried skirmish yet but the campaign alone is worth buying this game on sale. This is a game with 2 faction based campaigns, 3 factions with ALOT of depth to them, a PvP I hear is beloved as among the best of the genre ( I havent tried yet, im afraid of losing currently, lol). I have alot I want to say about the fun ive had so far, but honestly I just want to play more. "In the name of Kane!"

still one of the best games ever made, modding community keeps it very fun and live till this date.

I’m a very old fan of the C&C. I started playing it in the summer of 2001. When I saw the release trailer back in 2006, I was worried because I saw units from the nod faction that are not a part of the C&C Tiberium universe. I think they brought them from Battlefield 2149, and other games. Why would they do that?! But there is still hope. Then when its release I was disappointed and mad, so C&C3 Tiberium Wars for me is the following:

• Graphics and Realism 10/10
• nod units and buildings concept art 4/10
some of the nod units concept art is bad
like the: Scorpion Tank, Raider Buggy,
Venom Patrol Craft, Militant Rocket Squad, Militant Squad, Saboteur, Reckoner, Specter artillery, and
Stealth Tank is ok-ish
The Saboteur looks like the Chemical Warrior from Command and Conquer Renegade.
The Specter mobile artillery looks terrible, and the design makes no sense.
The rest of the units are good.

• GDI units and buildings concept art 8/10


• Scrin units and buildings concept art 10/10
I don’t like the way it’s presented, like the Scrin faction can build a base.
Supposed to be something out of the blue, no base buildings like a warp gate opens, and the invaders
come.

• The stories and character 10/10


conclusion:

I don't recommend this game because there is a lot of awesome missing units from Tiberian Sun:

• GDI Hover MLRS, Disruptor, Mammoth Mark II, Hunter-Seeker Droid.

• Nod Tick Tank, Mobile Repair Vehicle, Subterranean APC, Devil’s Tongue Flame Tank, Banshee, and Harpy.

what happened to all of these units where did it go?

Works well with almost no issues, didn't have to download any EA crap.
Use "-xres 1920 -yres 1080" in steam launch options for changing resolution.

do not buy this unless you have plenty of tums, played the easy mode which supposed to be to your advantage. do not give you enough reinforcments or enough men to compelte the mission. eariler c&c were better they fair. personely i shot the idiots in charge

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars review

This is easy to recommend. Very similar in gameplay to Tiberian Dawn, the first in the series but with many QOL-added to it and way more features with upgrades that make units stronger.

Graphics are beautiful and for the most part there are little readability issues. Explosions are cinematic and kinetics of the game are great. Audio is strong as well. The singleplayer campaigns are enjoyable but not the best in the series.

The multiplayer is where it's at. Different factions have different strategies and the new faction especially is a powerhouse with many devastatingly effective units. But official servers have been down a long time. I haven't played the multiplayer for a good while though but you can still play it, just Google for more information on that.

Big part of my childhood, I used to play this on a family friends' computer every time we visited.

surprisingly modern and plays a lot better than RA3 (Red alert fan). would recommend

One of my favorite games of all time. They don't make them like this anymore.

I've always been a huge fan of Command and Conquer, and overall C&C 3 is a great game. However, the lack of support puts this one in the trash pile. This version of C&C 3 is plagued with crashes, and some of the skirmish maps don't work at all -- certain maps crash every time you try to start a game. That would be almost forgivable if the campaign didn't crash nearly as often. I don't recall seeing many of these issues with the Kane's Wrath standalone expansion, but that really shouldn't be a separate install and is probably the reason EA doesn't bother to fix this version. It's really disappointing to see a company with EA's resources allow such basic issues to go unfixed for so long (nearly 20 years at the time of this review!!!).

There's a lot of really frustrating path finding issues too -- some of which will cause units (I'm looking at you APCs!) to divert in random directions (usually into enemy fire) because they got in each others' way. Sometimes units will actively countermand your orders to engage an enemy, blow up a building, or to seek cover from enemy fire, especially when set to aggressive mode.

Also, the AI difficulty scaling in skirmish mode is completely ridiculous and doesn't match up with the standalone expansion at all. There are four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Brutal. However, in this version it's more like Normal, Hard, Brutal, Insane. You can play the same maps with the same units and upgrades and Kane's Wrath is noticeably more feasible / balanced.

Don't know why I ignored this game initially, but I'm glad Jethild on YT made so many videos about it that I finally decided to try it more seriously :D And, yeah, turns out it's a great C&C game.

a great entry in the franchise, really enjoyed playing in through on all difficulties. shame the scrin campaign is so short. the DLC kanes wrath is OK/meh but the main game is pretty sweet

Good gameplay, graphics are 5 stars, story kind of sucks and generally c&c is 5\10 without klepacki.

♡ i wish i couldve gotten proper continuation of this its so good and i could play new campaigns and mods and such in this game forever, and i should know cus i have been playing it for like 2 decades now and im still not sick of it

scifi rts set in the (alternate) near future, with intense political / ecological / wartime storyline supported by deep worldbuilding lore, great addition to the c&c universe and worthy succesor of the tiberian sun. live-action cutscenes are making the whole war drama experience more believable and unforgettable.

You cannot reinforce the paper thin infantry once they've lost a model, the AI seemingly has infinite resources, and there's no way to remove the annoying announcer that will tell you if a tank is getting tickled by bullets.

Old game Not supported by EA anymore, unfortunatelly !

Epic, gray and wonderful game. Still feels some kind of depression atmosphere of tiberian universe.
Peace through power!

I really liked that you can choose different stories to go through without disrupting the main tale. You can play as Scrin, Nod, or GDI. I have been playing this with my family and friends using network play and the AI that is used is amazing with a good difficulty to fit all styles of play. When you do play network play beware as some maps do not work anymore. Also you will have to go into the registry editor to change the "CD key" as the game will think you have pirated it. I have attached the path for the registry below. This is one of the best and well made C&C games and I highly recommend it.

Registry path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\Electronic Arts\Command and Conquer 3 Kanes Wrath\ergc

My god...I have never seen such bad pathfinding AI as this game. The amount of times I click to move a group, and at least 2 just wander off at right angles to the route, normally straight into enemy fire. This is SHOCKINGLY BAD! Caused me to give up and uninstall this piece of trash game. Just awful.

this game has one huge flaw that the game is balanced for Multiplayer so the inability to mass static defenses makes hard mode into a dark souls RTS with how it plays.....Kane Lives in Death

I have mixed feelings about this game. While many missions offer fun, fast-paced action, several issues ultimately sour the experience. Like many RTS games of its era, “Tiberium Wars” opted for a 3D engine that sacrifices detail for lighting effects (despite “Warcraft 3” proving years earlier that a distinctive 3D style was possible with even fewer polygons). Though the sparse aesthetic fits C&C’s post-apocalyptic landscapes, this visual style hasn’t aged well. Story-wise, the series was at its best when sci-fi elements were minimal and added to the plot’s mystery. This title, however, goes full alien invasion. While that could still be compelling, the heavy-handed approach here results in something disappointingly average. C&C’s trademark full-motion video cutscenes return with some impressive actors, but their characters lack depth and their campy performances clash with the self-serious tone. While all of these issues might still be forgivable, the dealbreaker for me is that a previous patch broke the campaign, and the developers haven’t bothered to fix it—a red line for me and the main reason for this negative recommendation.

The best and last real Command and Conquer game. Just about perfect in every way.

Game lack a bit of old romantic atmosphere, it is a bit more "strategic", more slow in it's core. More options to consider, units have more special abilities and perks. I came from Red Alert where usual game duration is like 10-15 minutes for 1o1. Here it is more like 20-25 minutes. Due to more realistic graphics it takes more attention to figure out what you really see in the battlefield. It is much easier to lose your sniper squad just because you forgot where they are. But Still, this is a very interesting game with a lot of time and efforts invested. I really like Scrin race. Both NOD and GDI looked very default to me in the previous games (thats why I played more Red Alert 2 where there are more charismatic factions like USSR and Yuri). So here we finally have some interesting race with unique dynamics and tactics.

Cool graphics and its fun to play

this game was one of the best cnc i have ever played its so beatiful and you can see at least when ea cared about their games and not about money

C&C 3: Tiberium Wars is a pretty solid RTS game.

Some people have stated that the game is unplayable with v1.9 - or is it v1.09 - update. However, the game can still be beaten with the new balances and I think it can provide challenge for veterans.

Also, there is a guide available on Steam that gives simple instructions on how to install a mod that restores v1.0 balancing.

It's unfortunate that the game ends with a cliffhanger, since there will probably never be C&C 4.

Slight ache in the sack to get working but a minor fix. Quality game

This game will always have a place in my heart ever since I started playing it on my dad's laptop and having the CD version of it. The campaign is great and I enjoy playing the skirmish mode from time to time. Just some casual action simulation fun! It is a 10/10 for me.

It’s an amazing game, and it still has nice graphics despite its age.

The mid 2000s were a dark time for the old-school fans of the Command&Conquer franchise. The takeover of the franchise by E.A. fueled a lot of anxiety in a lot of people. 2001 they released C&C Renegade, a FPS, and then Generals, a Blizzard-style RTS wearing the skin of C&C. Was the era of the Westwood-flavored strategy game over for good?

Well, 2007's Tiberium Wars would prove these fears to be unjustified, at least for the time being. C&C3 is largely a return to the old ways. Construction yards are back, so are regrowing ressource fields. And the story line would continue the old Tiberian saga that started with C&C1.
What it didn't bring back, however, was all the jank those old games suffered from. Unit responsiveness is improved across the board. Gone are the days of unit pathfinding problems and long harvester queues in front of the refineries.
Unit controls are generally are mayor strength of this game, the best I have ever seen in the RTS space. The iconic C&C sidebar that let you build new units even while in active combat was always a main strength of the series but now you can use it to select units as well. Just hit Q, then simply pick them from the list that replaces the build menu, without having to sift thorugh the mass of ingame units. Very smooth!

The main attraction, however, is its impressive single player mode. The longest I have ever seen, 38 missions without any obvious fillers. Most of them have optional side objectives that are sometimes quite challenging to complete and reward you with world building snippets. The cutscenes have very high production value and the the writing and acting is just stellar.
The two primary campaigns are split in two parts, the first one taking after C&C1 in term of style and mission design and the second part, dealing mostly with the alien invasion, being something a tonal departure. The good writing, however, makes both of them cohere into a satifying whole. As a returning C&C fan I especially enjoyed the connections to the series' greater scope plot, with some events even helping some of the weirder wiriting decisions in the older games make more sense in retrospect, like the world altering mission in Tiberian Sun.

So all in all I consider this game the absolute high point of Command&Conquer history. Unfortunely it also ended up being something of a last hurrah for the series, as shortly after it died a fiery death with C&C4.
If you are looking to get into C&C now, however, there is no better entry point than this, as it offers the perfect compromise between the characteristic C&C gameplay and modern UI conveniences.

game corrupt's itself with this version of c&c after a few days

They've dropped all support for the game. They're selling it for pennies, when it should just be de-listed from the store. Maps just break the game when trying to load them. Campaign is imbalanced and extremely lame, skirmish doesn't work, online is crap. Don't give EA a penny for this crap game. It sucked then, and it's not even hardly a game anymore. Just a junk file taking up space on my hard drive.

Steam needs half of EA's library removed from this platform.

One of the best RTSs ever made, only worse than Kane's Wrath the expansion because it just improved on nearly everything in this game. Not been another RTS like this since. Fantastic campaign, multiplayer and skirmish vs AI.

the unit pathing and ai almost made me **** myself during the hard campaign especially on some of the no build missions 10/10 would reccommend

It may not be as awesome or influential as the earlier Westwood C&C games, but C&C3 was in 2007 a nice jumpstart to the RTS genre, and has ended up being maybe among the best RTSs of the 21st century. I recommend it, it's a fun time with AA casting and FMV production, a handsome and serviceable 3D engine (but occasionally wonky AI & pathfinding), and overall great balance and fun. Deserved a greater sequel.

The game was patched so hard that the campaign became unplayable even on easy.
take the early nod camaign for examlpe, in the Washington mission ur expected to dish out 5k on an MCV because the crane you start with can't build base defenses, and u'll need them since GDI will hunt you down.. on easy.

This was not an issue when i completed the game as a kid.
So unless the game gets another patch, TW should be awoided.

Not only one of the best C&C games but also one of the best RTS games ever. Install CnC-Online and have fun.

It was only in 2024 that I was able to play C&C Tiberium Wars again. It brought back many gaming memories. I can still feel the thrill and excitement. I'm gonna teach my kids how to play this when they grow older. Keep this game alive!

It's like Highschool all over again! Love it!

And I still suck at it!

Honestly though, I had forgotten how good this title was. I still prefer TibSun, but this is smooth, and a lot of fun.

What fun man. The atmosphere and the iconic cutscenes and the ridiculous amusing units. I wish C&C had a better publisher

Tiberium Wars plays surprisingly well in 2025. You will need to tweak the settings but overall I have no complaints. I hope EA releases the source code for this game too.. I'd love to update the camera so it zoomed further out.

Imo grab the CC series on sale.

One of the last best C&C games. Now waiting for its revival. A solid, brand new revival in Tiberian Sun franchise. Let's hope EA does something good like giving out a new trailer for C&C like they did with release of the source code. EA did not release Tiberian Sun and Firestorm source codes. So finger crossed for a remake or remaster perhaps?

CD Version is better. The update they put out for this nerfs you to oblivion in the campaign and gives the AI unlimited resources.

I loved this game, I know it's flawed and not as creative as the older titles but i think the graphics are cool and come back to this game for some east RTS chill playing