Tempest Rising

Tempest Rising is clearly inspired by the good old RTS days of the 90s and early 2000s, but it has so many unique features and high-quality additions that makes this game feel original and innovative.

Tempest Rising is the spiritual successor to old school Command & Conquer games that even the franchise itself couldn't recreate. It looks and sounds absolutely fantastic and, with two memorable story campaigns and deep and challenging strategy gameplay, it's the perfect example of what a modern RTS should look like.

Unashamedly retro in spirit yet modern where it counts, Tempest Rising is a riveting flashback to the halcyon days of the RTS.

Tempest Rising wears its C&C influence proudly, and while this overreliance on tradition limits its full potential, Slipgate Ironworks’ overall effort is remarkable and must be celebrated.

Tempest Rising comes at a great time, with few classic-type RTS games making an appearance. Tempest Rising easily recreates the fun of those early games and their addictive mechanics. At the same time, it looks and runs like a current title. Two impressive campaigns and the potential for endless enjoyment via skirmishes equals an impressive and exciting return to a regretfully absent genre.

While Tempest Rising may not reinvent the genre, it provides a strong foundation that helps shape it for future iterations.

Tempest Rising is a wonderful throwback to a genre that often feels forgotten in the modern age. With two well thought-out factions and great gameplay, it feels like the modern incarnation of Command & Conquer that has been missing in the modern gaming landscape.

Tempest Rising is a call-back to the wonder years of the RTS, but does more than enough to bring titles like that into the present day.

Though on the surface it’s a simple tribute to Command and Conquer, Tempest Rising breaks free of its influences with a visual style and mechanical flourishes all of its own. Its core ideas may work better in a smaller-scale tactics game rather than an RTS, but there are several missions where everything fits together.

Tempest Rising is a classic RTS with a campaign, a spiritual successor to Command & Conquer that painstakingly remakes all things we know from the past. It won’t make the publishers want to give us more games like this, but it is like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy sky above RTS land. One that will make fans of C&C smile.

A loving homage to classic Command & Conquer, Tempest Rising's single-player campaign brings back the fast-paced RTS gameplay but can't quite recapture the campy vibe.

Tempest Rising is happy to play it safe. That's fine, sometimes. Games don't have to constantly innovate or be daring to make themselves interesting. However, Tempest Rising takes so few risks and does so little with the real-time strategy formula that it's hard not to see it as a missed opportunity to use strong mission design and a potentially good setting for something more ambitious.