Since its inception in 1995 - back when Westwood Studios was still the outfit responsible for making the game - Command & Conquer has gained a loyal following over the ensuing years, becoming widely credited as the great granddaddy of the modern Real Time Strategy genre.

So when the current dev team at EA LA tell us that C&C 4 will be the closing chapter in the sweeping Tiberium Saga that began with the very first Command & Conquer, we naturally had to sit up and take notice.

We went to EA’s glass palace in Guildford to talk to EA LA’s producer Jim Vessella, who kindly took some time away from working on the game to answer our pressing C&C queries.

Strategy Informer: Command & Conquer 4 is introducing a new degree of accessibility for series newcomers. How do you think hardcore C&C players will respond to that?

Jim Vessella: When we announced the game a few weeks ago, we got a bunch of feedback online and some of the fans were really excited about the direction we’re taking with C&C 4, while some of the hardcore fans were a little wary about where we’re taking it. The thing we really want to express is just because we’re changing up the gameplay a bit, it doesn’t mean that we are removing strategic depth from the game. In fact we’re actually opening it up a little bit. It’s not as much about your build order or how fast your APM (Actions Per Minute) can build up your base, but instead it’s more about how you react on the battlefield in terms of working with your team-mates, in terms of choosing your classes and what units you use in battle and where you position yourself. I think there’s going to be a lot of gameplay there for the hardcore RTS players, there’s going to be a lot of units that utilise micro and players can use that in certain situations to gain a tactical advantage. I just want to emphasise that we’re not removing any strategic depth, so I hope the hardcore players will still give it a shot.

Strategy Informer: Do you think it’s difficult to innovate within the rigidly traditional framework of the RTS genre?

Jim Vessella: Yeah. I think it is tough to innovate within the RTS genre because every piece that you move has to react to, let’s say the hundred other units and structures that are in the game. It’s an exponential design challenge when you try and change a gameplay mechanic in an RTS game. That said, I think the teams that have really innovated in RTS seem to go really extreme with it, which is almost what you have to do. You look at a game like Dawn of War II where you only have four units, which is really cool, but it almost becomes more like an action RPG than an RTS game, so you can make an argument there. You could also look at a game like World in Conflict, which again only gives you about five to eight units at any given time and there’s no sense of a base at all, but they sort of stand out that way.

I think if you want to innovate in the genre, it’s possible but you’re going to need to make an extreme effort for it. It’s really tough just to make a slight shift yet keep all of the traditional gameplay elements intact while making it stand out. You’ll find that a lot of the classic RTS developers like Blizzard - or how we’ve been in the past - just kind of stick to that same mould and you just try to do that as good as you can. But what we’re seeing is that market starting to shrink a little bit. I think Starcraft II is going to be a great boom for the RTS genre. I’m really excited to play it and see it come out and how everyone reacts to it. But yeah, it is tough to really try and do something really different within that space.

Strategy Informer: Have you ever considered alternative input methods such as voice command for Command & Conquer?

Jim Vessella: Since we’re PC exclusive, we felt that the mouse and keyboard was a perfectly fine input device for C&C 4. I do really respect what some of the other dev teams out there have done using voice commands, like Endwar for consoles and that’s really cool. But in the future, I think we’ll start to see more of that stuff come to fruition with either Project Natal or – I saw the RUSE demo on the Windows desktop tablet thing at E3 – and so I think there’s going to be opportunities out there to really evolve the RTS genre when those start to become a bit more common. For now we’re centred on PC, sticking with the mouse and keyboard and I’m sure no one will complain about that.

Strategy Informer: Is there a console version of C&C 4 in the pipeline?

Jim Vessella: I can’t announce any plans for other versions of C&C 4 right now. We’re just focussed on making the best game we possibly can for our launch on the PC.

Strategy Informer: The story’s far more dark and gritty than ever before. What have you done to enhance the narrative and its atmosphere?

Jim Vessella: First off we use cinematic techniques, so we’re trying to move away from the monologue cinematic that we had in the previous games where it’s just a still character talking to you, straight to camera. We’re trying to make it so you’re a bit more like a fly-on-the-wall, watching the scene play out. And we’re able to write the script to cater for that and also, because we’re focusing on a conclusion for the Tiberium storyline, we want to have a big, build-up climax rather than just having a dropped-off conclusion. We can really have that climax and we’re hoping that with it will be a lot more emotional depth and a bit more darkness and grit to it than what we’ve done in the past.

Strategy Informer: Are there any reference points for new players to latch onto? Will newbies be able to figure out what’s going on?

Jim Vessella: In the introduction to the game, we’ll try and catch people up a little bit in terms of what’s been happening on Earth with the Tiberium Saga and we’re hoping that players who play through the GDI campaign – we really recommend new players play the GDI campaign first – that will catch them up in terms of what’s been going on. We’re trying to make it so that if you’re to play the C&C 4 storyline, you’re going to get a really cool sci-fi story arc, even if you’re not familiar with all the characters and things like that. Of course, if you’re a veteran of the series, you’re going to see a lot of cool legacy stuff in there.

Strategy Informer: C&C has a long-standing history in attracting Hollywood acting talent for its cinematics. Can you reveal whether C&C 4 will boast a similar cast of renowned actors?

Jim Vessella: Unfortunately, I can’t elaborate on the cast right now. What I can say is that Joe Kucan will once again be returning as Kane. We’re really excited to have him. He’s been with the series since the inception of C&C and he brings a lot of past knowledge about where he thinks the story should go and gives us feedback on that. It’s great to have him and I think he’ll give us another great performance as Kane.

Strategy Informer: Previous C&C games have introduced additional playable factions. Are there any plans to perhaps include a third faction for C&C 4?

Jim Vessella: We’re focussing on GDI and Nod and the reason for that is because we really want to double down on that fiction. It all started with GDI versus Nod, so there’s a lot of strong heritage there. And then with the gameplay, we can still do a lot with Nod offering ambush gameplay with stealth and burrowing versus GDI’s tougher, brute type of personality. So we’re focussing on those factions right now.

Strategy Informer: At what stage in development did the decision to reward players with experience points (XP) come into play?

Jim Vessella: That’s been in there since the beginning of the project really. The reason for that is because then we can then build everything around persistent XP. The campaign, skirmish and multiplayer, taking all that into consideration, laying out tech trees, in terms of what you unlock and when, we were able to do that from the beginning. We hope that all pays off when the game finally launches and players can really experience for the first time, this progression system that covers all the gameplay modes.

Strategy Informer: Roughly, how many hours of gameplay are there in the single-player campaign?

Jim Vessella: Through the campaign, if you play through both factions you’ll probably get between 12 and 15 hours of gameplay depending on your skill level, and of course that’s only one run through. If you want to replay the campaign on a tougher difficulty or try different classes then that play time can really increase depending on how much time you want to put into it. Then of course we have our skirmish gameplay against computer AI and then once again, our online gameplay really extends the experience. So, all that combined with the player progression is really going to bring a lot of value to C&C 4.

Strategy Informer: How many unit types have you got in the game? Which is your favourite to play as?

Jim Vessella: I can’t say exactly how many units we have just yet, but I can say we have more units than any previous C&C game. My favourite unit right now is the Crawler. Driving that around the battlefield, using all its different upgrades and weapon combinations to really hold the line. It’s a really fun and versatile unit that we haven’t seen in an RTS game before, especially Command & Conquer. Some of my favourite basic units – I love the ones that burrow. We have Spider tanks and Scorpion tanks that can burrow under ground and ambush up (out of the ground) to totally catch someone off guard. It’s a fun gameplay moment when you surprise an enemy Crawler by surfacing next to it. There’re a lot of fun units in the game.

Strategy Informer: What plans do you have for post-launch DLC and expansions?

Jim Vessella: I can’t talk about post-launch content right now. We’re really just focussed on making the launch as good as possible.

Strategy Informer: As C&C 4 concludes the Tiberium Saga, would you care to speculate on what might be next for the franchise?

Jim Vessella: I can’t get into detail about exactly what’s next for C&C, but what I can say is that we love C&C, our fans love C&C and it’s certainly not going to end with C&C 4. I can’t really give you any more detail than that, but C&C will certainly live on. We’re excited to actually close this story chapter of the Tiberium Saga.

Strategy Informer: So the next C&C could potentially be the beginning of a new saga then?

Jim Vessella: I can’t say anything about that just yet, but yeah – stay tuned.

Command & Conquer 4 is out in 2010. We’ll have a preview for you soon.

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