''Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath'' is an

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

for the 2007

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

'' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars''. Developed by

EA Los Angeles Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft (later moved to Mi ...

studios and BreakAway Games studios, it was released worldwide in March 2008 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and in June 2008 for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

by publisher

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

.EA Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
, Electronic Arts The storyline campaign is set between the end of '' Tiberian Sun'' and the beginning of ''Tiberium Wars''. It revolves around the seemingly immortal leader of the Brotherhood of Nod,

Kane Kane or KANE may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Fictional entities *Kane (comics), the main character of the eponymous comic book series by Paul Grist * Kane (''Command & Conquer''), Tiberium universe character in the ''Command & Conquer'' ...

, and recounts his ascent to power after narrowly escaping death in the year 2034, ending with Kane re-acquiring the Tacitus artifact from ''Tiberian Sun'', in the year 2052.

Gameplay

Global Conquest mode

''Kane's Wrath'' features a "

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

-like"

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

mode called "Global Conquest", where players build and control their forces from a strategic, global level with the goal of either destroying all enemies or completing their side's alternate victory objective. Instead of the traditional ''

Command & Conquer ''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise created and originally developed by Westwood Studios and currently owned by Electronic Arts. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself ba ...

RTS RTS may refer to: Medicine * Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim * Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma * Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

gameplay, the mode uses a

turn-based Timekeeping is relevant to many types of games, including video games, tabletop role-playing games, board games, and sports. The passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. In many games, this is don ...

system where the player issues higher-level orders such as "build a base here" (to have the computer automatically build a base with preset structures) or "upgrade this base" (to have the computer automatically perform multiple structure upgrades on a base); the orders execute at the end of a turn and the other sides then get theirs. Combat in this mode occurs whenever two opposing forces collide on the world map; the battle can either be played traditionally (as a standard real-time C&C game) or be automatically resolved by the computer using the forces' relative strengths.

Kane's Challenge mode (Xbox 360)

Kane's Challenge is exclusive to the

version of ''Kane's Wrath'', replacing Global Conquest Mode. Similar to the General's Challenge game in '' Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour'', the player chooses one of the nine factions, and is pitted against all armies spanning ten challenges; referred to as "The Gauntlet" in-game. Also included in this game mode are all-new, high-definition video sequences featuring

Joseph D. Kucan Joseph David Kucan is an American video game developer, director, actor, screenwriter, and casting director for various gaming companies and films. He is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is well known for his role as Kane from the ''Command & ...

as Kane, congratulating or taunting the players as they progress in Kane's Challenge.

Plot

In the first act of the campaign (set shortly after the conclusion of ''Firestorm''), Kane enters a bunker deep in the underground, apparently healed of all injury save for his face mask. He instructs LEGION to incite the Rio Insurrection by taking out the GDI presence in the area and giving Kane a substantial number of followers. After the player succeeds, Kane informs the player of his plan to reunite the Nod splinter factions. Since he cannot risk revealing himself to the world yet, he chooses Brother Marcion, the leader of the "new" Black Hand to convey Kane's will to the Brotherhood in his stead (since Marcion had Anton Slavik assassinated). The player is then commanded to destroy Marcion's stronghold in Australia and capture him. Brought before Kane, Marcion comes back into the fold of the Brotherhood as Kane reveals himself to him, and removes his face mask, showing a completely scar-free face. Kane then orders the player to destroy a liquid Tiberium facility in the Australian Outback as a 'grand gesture' to the remaining splinter factions to rejoin him, resulting in massive Tiberium fallout across Australia. Kane deactivates LEGION and begins to build Nod into a superpower. During the second act (set before and during the events of ''Tiberium Wars''), Kane begins to lay down the plans for the destruction of the ''Philadelphia'', commanding the player to steal plans for the Ion Cannon network. Since the destruction of the ''Philadelphia'' would eliminate most of GDI's leadership, Kane predicts that Redmond Boyle will be his pawn and become the Director of GDI, so as to provoke the future liquid Tiberium explosion. The player is also ordered to capture Dr. Alphonse Giraud from his research facility, explaining his disappearance in the GDI campaign of ''Tiberium Wars''. Afterwards, Abbess Alexa Kovacs has taken the view that General Kilian Qatar is a traitor to Kane, and plans to have her discredited by attacking Temple Prime in her guise, then leaking Ion Disruptor technology to GDI, thereby leading to General Qatar's execution being ordered by Kane. She reveals her doubts and fears about LEGION, and about LEGION being connected to the Tacitus during a cutscene before a mission and also tells the player that CABAL's cyborgs murdered her family, and is worried as LEGION is based upon the same technology that created and powered CABAL. After the Tacitus is secured on a mission, a highly distressed Kovacs snaps and infects LEGION's core systems with a powerful computer virus, fearing that the AI will turn hostile like CABAL upon interfacing with the artifact. The virus destroys LEGION's systems, and Kane is alerted to LEGION's infection and catches Kovacs red-handed in the act of destroying LEGION. Kane discovers to his horror that Kovacs attacked Temple Prime in Qatar's guise and had Qatar executed for a crime she did not commit. Kovacs snatches a pistol from one of the guards as she is about to be taken away for interrogation and aims at Kane with it. Clearly beside herself, she shouts Nod's motto "Peace through power" before committing suicide by shooting herself in the head, just as LEGION shuts down. In the third and final act, LEGION reawakens five years later in the post-Third Tiberium War period, and Kane focuses it on recovering the Tacitus. GDI has been meddling with the device, causing it to become highly unstable; Kane needs the Tacitus for his master plan, so he orders the player to first awaken the Marked of Kane, a faction of cyborgs that only LEGION is capable of controlling due to its link with the destroyed CABAL. With the successful reactivation, Kane then sends the player to recover the Tacitus from GDI's Rocky Mountains Complex. After the Tacitus's successful capture, Kane connects it to LEGION, and the AI becomes infused with the vast knowledge of the object, ending the game in a cliffhanger. The ending cutscene shows a reverse of the Scrin campaign introduction cutscene in ''Tiberium Wars'', and a message that implies that the Scrin would later try to send a full invasion force, similar to what the Scrin Overlord states at the end of the Scrin campaign in ''Tiberium Wars''.

Bonus content

Every copy of ''Kane's Wrath'', including the bundled ''Command & Conquer 3 Limited Edition'', included a code which entitled the player to enter into the beta for the next ''

Red Alert Red Alert or red alert may refer to: Alert states * Red alert, a high alert state * Red Alert, the "attack imminent" alert signal for the US civil defense siren * Red alert state, the most serious alert state in the UK BIKINI state system * Red ...

'' game, ''

Red Alert 3 ''Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in October 2008 in the United States and Europe for Microsoft Windows. An Xbox 360 version was r ...

'', if the code was registered before September 15, 2008. The beta started in August for most participants who bought the game in retail stores and registered quickly and the beta was reported to be 500,000 strong on August 3. A special edition version of ''Kane's Wrath'' which included a ''Kane's Wrath'' Razer DeathAdder mouse was released exclusively for Singapore customers.Electronic Arts Singapore - Promotions
Electronic Arts

Reception

The expansion has received generally favorable reviews, averaging a 77/100 score on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' rated the game 7.9, saying: "Ultimately, ''Kane's Wrath'' is something that old-school RTS fans and die-hard C&C veterans will enjoy. There's enough here to keep them busy for a long time. Those looking for a more modern RTS experience should look elsewhere, though".

References

External links

''Command & Conquer'' websiteCommand & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...