Amazon.com For Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun players, Firestorm carries forward the solo play of the most celebrated saga in the real-time strategy genre and brings forth the all-new World Domination tournaments. Firestorm also offers new units, new missions, and new multiplayer maps for all-new Command & Conquer strategies. Kand is dead... and a new enemy has emerged. Review When Westwood Studios announced the development of Tiberian Sun nearly three years ago, hype surrounding the game quickly reached fervent levels, and understandably so. After all, Westwood practically invented the real-time strategy genre with Dune II and then went on to set the standard by which all subsequent RTS games were to be measured with Command & Conquer and Red Alert. Tiberian Sun, the third game in the Command & Conquer series, was expected to redefine the genre as we knew it. Unfortunately for Westwood and its fans, Tiberian Sun did no such thing. That's not to say it was a bad game; on the contrary, it was a well-balanced RTS with a compelling plot that included familiar, even likeable, characters. But it lacked any revolutionary substance. For fans of the series, however, Tiberian Sun offered more of the same excitement that made the first two Command & Conquer games so much fun to play, and thousands of gamers were more than pleased with the experience. With that in mind, Westwood set out to give those gamers something more, and soon after Tiberian Sun shipped, the Las Vegas-based developer announced the Firestorm expansion pack. We recently had a chance to sit down and play the game for an extended period of time. Here's what we thought. Tiberian WorldFirestorm takes place directly after the events in Tiberian Sun. The Brotherhood of NOD, reeling from the loss of Kane, is once again divided and struggling against the persistent attacks of the Global Defense Initiative. CABAL, the artificial intelligence entity that played a critical role in Kane's plans during the second Tiberium War, is now offline, in effect creating a logistics nightmare for the Brotherhood. Power-hungry generals are all vying for control of NOD, yet each has a markedly different opinion on how to reclaim the Brotherhood's status as a viable threat to the GDI. Kane's Cairo temple, like his dreams, lies in ruins, swarmed by GDI scientists searching for clues that'll help them stop the onslaught of a more insidious enemy: Tiberium itself. Named after the Tiber River where it was first discovered, Tiberium is now rapidly spreading across the planet like a virus, destroying all ecosystems and life-forms that stand in its destructive path. Tiberium was introduced to Earth by a meteorite and was at one time seen as a miracle resource: limitless in its abundance and harmless to others. Its disastrous effects quickly came to light, however, and the toxic crystal has all but leeched the planet's entire supply of naturally occurring metals and minerals. Life-forms that aren't instantly killed by exposure to Tiberium are affected on their genetic level and slowly mutate into hideous, almost alien, creatures. Even the oceans have become infested with Tiberium, making sea voyages not only difficult, but lethal as well. Desperate to find a way to stem Tiberium's alarming rate of growth, the Global Defense Initiative has raided the now-destroyed NOD temple in Cairo in search of the Tacitus, an alien artifact that could explain the origins of Tiberium. Kane had been using the Tacitus to mutate his troops in bizarre Tiberium experiments and as a result was able to successfully genetically engineer his cyborg units. The GDI now hopes that the same artifact responsible for Tiberium's destructive march across the planet will be able to stop the crystal's spread and save humanity from extinction. The Opening SequencesFirestorm consists of 18 new missions: nine for the Global Defense Initiative and nine for the Brotherhood of NOD. Unlike Tiberian Sun, the central character of the expansion pack is you, the player, and not some onscreen actor. Other characters will address you in the second person and comment on your performance; applauding you for successful missions and criticizing you for failed actions. Fans of the original Command & Conquer and the subsequent Red Alert will undoubtedly be pleased by this move. The expansion pack boasts some new features, including an extension to the plot of the Command & Conquer series. Fans of the previous games will no doubt find it a very welcome bonus. Like in all other games in this series, you will be able to play as the dominating Global Defense Initiative or the overzealous Brotherhood of NOD, and the story on both sides will occur concurrently, ending with the same finale. The GDI story unfolds with researchers removing the Tacitus from NOD's Cairo temple and loading it onto the Kodiak, the GDI's airborne headquarters that first made its appearance in Tiberian Sun. Immediately thereafter, however, the Kodiak encounters a severe ion storm and crash-lands near the coast of North Africa. Your first mission is to find the downed Kodiak, using only a limited number of infantry and ground-support units, and extract the Tacitus artifact. The rest of the storyline focuses on the Tacitus and the GDI researchers' efforts to learn the origins of the alien artifact, what role it plays in the introduction of Tiberium on Earth, and what, if anything, can be done to stop the crystal's toxic spread. Added Features In developing Firestorm, the designers at Westwood knew they were on a tight schedule and didn't have much time to experiment with many new options. From the start, Firestorm was supposed to be an expansion pack that simply added more missions to Tiberian Sun, extending the game's replayability and making the wait for the next game in the Command & Conquer series a bit easier on the fans. Thankfully, the design team decided to do better than that and push through actual gameplay additions. Not content with simply releasing a "mission pack," and knowing that gamers will want to see more added value in Firestorm, the designers will implement a number of changes. None of them are drastic enough to change the face of the original Tiberian Sun, but they're big enough to make Firestorm a worthwhile purchase for fans. One of the more significant changes will be the addition of a new multiplayer mode called World Domination. "We've created a new mode of Internet game called World Domination Tour, where players fight for GDI or Nod in contested territories in an attempt to take over the world," explains Firestorm lead producer Rade Stojsavljevic. "World Domination Tour functions as a graphical ladder, where players fight in contested zones and we tally up the scores at the end of the day and award control of that zone to whichever side has more victories. As the game progresses, the battle lines are advanced until one side takes over everything, at which point the battle is reset and begins again." Final ThoughtsTiberian Sun was criticized by many for not offering anything new in terms of gameplay, despite the introduction of a brand-new graphics engine, new units, and new actors. But the game sold very well, and cutting through the many voices of discontent came praise from many gamers who were more than pleased with the outcome of the third installment in the Command & Conquer series. Firestorm, with its new units, varied multiplayer modes, and integral plot, will give owners of Tiberian Sun something to be excited about. And for those who were undecided about buying the original game, this expansion should add reason to finally do so. --Copyright ©2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot