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A Whole New Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 74 / 76
Date: November 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Although Generals added a new standard of graphics and several new and interesting departures from the original C&C game design, it was something less than revolutionary. Zero Hour goes a long way toward addressing this issue, and really turns Generals into a completely new game.

The expansion adds a new campaign for each side, with about 5 missions each. The campaign is interesting, and adds a few new elements, but is actually not the best part of the expansion. There are full motion video cutscenes (reporters talking about what's going on) to add some depth to the story, which is pretty straightforward stuff that could happen sometime in the near future (though we hope not). The missions add unique buildings and locations, all well done, as well as objectives that are pretty fun to carry out. Some of them are quite difficult, and there are a few stealth commando missions that Generals sadly lacked. There's also some campaign-only powers, such as the ability to call in battleship artillery and carrier strikes in one of the USA missions.

The real meat of the expansion starts with the new units and upgrades. Each side has new things, some of which go a long way toward filling holes in the armies' capabilities. China, for example, gets some much-needed surveillance by way of the Internet Center, and a worthwhile stealth detector in the Listening Post. Frenzy, a new general power, increases the firepower and armor of units for a brief time. China also gets added airborne firepower with the Helix and the ability to carpet bomb. The GLA gets several low-tech solutions, most of which are still geared toward outmaneuvering rather than outgunning the opposition. The Battle Bus, however, can pack quite a punch in a frontline role. Fake structures, a sometimes-useful throwback from Red Alert, can also be purchased. More interestingly, they can be upgraded into real ones, which is a nice way to play with an opponent's mind. The USA gets a powerful base defense with the Fire Base, which is garrisonable, effective against infantry, and doesn't need power to shoot. They also get a mobile anti-air unit in the Avenger, making it unnecessary for you to bring weak Missile Defender-packed Humvees along in future battles. Three new tech structures are also added- the Repair Bay (repairs all your ground units), Artillery Platform (shoots at enemies with a howitzer), and Reinforcement Pad (produces a tank on a countdown).

The upgrades and units are standard expansion fare, but Zero Hour adds something else- new generals, each with their own combat styles, units and powers, and personalities. There are three for each side- Air Force, Lasers, and Superweapons for the USA; Toxins, Camouflage, and Demolitions for the GLA; and Nukes, Tanks, and Infantry for China. Each of these has a doctrine that you must adhere to if you wish to use them effectively, and have weaknesses that hold you to it. For example, the US Air Force general cannot make tanks, but has aircraft cost reduced, unique and better air units, and a point defense laser on all airplanes that along with the standard countermeasures upgrade makes them practically immune to missile fire. China's tank general can build the Emperor Overlord, which is the newest and baddest vehicle on the ground. The GLA camouflage general can make literally everything invisible to the unaided eye, and turns the GLA into a real guerilla army (his Scud Storms are especially scary). All of these generals can be used in skirmish or multiplay, and there is a special 'generals challenge' campaign in which you pick one and play against all others. Your opponent is always on territory that favors their doctrine, and it can get pretty tough. This is a great way to accustom yourself to the various generals and pick your favorite, and is also quite fun since your opponents continuously taunt you during the games.

It's worth mentioning that several nice tweaks have been added to the engine. For example, fighters on an airbase will automatically attack nearby enemies, and both superweapons and scouting powers (e.g. radar van scans) appear as a sidebar icon with a number indicating how many are ready, if it's more than one. This makes it no longer necessary to separately hotkey practically every unit you have. Multiplayer options have been added, such as how much cash to start with, and no superweapons. The already excellent graphics have been improved, with even more fantastic fireballs, flotsam and jetsam, and better water effects. The result is undoubtedly the most graphically appealing RTS out there, though you might need a new video card if you want to run at max detail.

In summary, Zero Hour is for all intents and purposes a completely new game. Some have argued that it is what Generals should have been from the start, but I'm glad EA took the time to do a good job on this rather than rushing it for release. I honestly have no complaints about the expansion- it's one of the best ones I've seen for any game. It's a definite must for any Generals fan, and even if you weren't overly impressed with Generals, Zero Hour might just change your opinion.

Great expansion pack - Well worth the upgrade ...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 25
Date: December 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Very often expansion packs are mere repackaging of games with few novel features - not so with Zero Hour. This expansion pack is jam packed with worthwhile new features.

Each faction now has several different specialized generals, primarily for multi-player use, which is what the expansion pack seems geared towards anyway. The "basic" version of each faction is still available. Each general has certain advantages and disadvantages over the other generals within the same faction. There is for instance a China Tank General, which have tanks as his advantage, but don't think you're going to win just because of that - other capabilities have been taken away. It's all quite carefully balanced, although the online multiplayer statistics show that most GLA generals are currently at a slight advantage. I'm sure this will be corrected in a future patch though.

PROS:
* A naval "presence" has been introduced, although you can't directly control the naval units yourself. There is a carrier and a battleship were you can do aerial bombardment and artillery bombardment respectively.
* Greatly increased variety due to multiple new units and capabilities, and new specialized generals.
* Even better online multiplayer capabilities.
* 3 new single-player campaigns (1 per faction - Total of 15 new missions)
* Subtle enhancements to game engine - e.g. Aircraft will automatically defend the area nearby the airbase.
* Superweapons now appear on the right side of the screen with the other general abilities, so you don't actually have to locate your superweapon to fire. If you have several superweapons ready to fire, a number inside the superweapon icon will show the number of superweapons that are ready to fire.

CONS:
* Still no real naval units. I really miss this from Red Alert 2.
* You can no longer do ladder-play or ranked play with any user-created maps. Ranked play is only possible for certain maps distributed with the game. Ranked games are clearly marked before you join though.
* Same problem with difficulty level as C&C Generals. Easy is way too easy, Normal is even easier than Generals, and Hard is too hard.
* Still not possible to skip the "cut-scenes" at the start of each mission.

I give this expansion 5 stars!!! It's a great enhancement, and if you loved C&C Generals, you'll probably love the expansion pack even more. It greatly enhances online play. This expansion pack pretty much makes it a new game.

Outstanding expansion just adds to the game's appeal

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: September 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When you make a new C&C game, you have quite a reputation to adhere to. The expansion pack to Generals follows up a very successful game with a finely tuned and rock solid expansion.

The new units are perfectly balanced. Each side has been given new units and structures to help turn the tide of the game. The United States finally has some decent base defenses against approaching ranks of infantry. The GLA have even more stealth abilities that make sneak attacks and sabotages more deadly. The Chinese benefit from more anti-personnel attacks and defenses, now capable of killing drivers and allowing the Chinese to steal enemy vehicles (a la Jarmen Kell with his one-shot sniping of drivers). This is accomplished via neutron technology.

I will say that you need a whale of a machine to play this game, but those who play Generals already know this. Play at the minimum requirements and you'll be sorely disappointed. I would recommend playing at least with a 1.7 ghz machine with 256 megs of memory, preferably 512.

I'm sure that in the coming days and weeks and months that EA will unleash patches that will further help balancing, though I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary yet.

One complaint that I do have: After seeing the trailers and the short clips and screenshots, I was for sure that naval units would be incorporated into the game. Sadly, this still isn't the case. Perhaps EA is going to make a second expansion (unlikely, most games don't have 2 expansions unless you're Will Wright...but I digress) that will include naval units. It just doesn't seem to be the full picture without the ability to create seafaring units.

Other than that one complaint, I am thoroughly enjoying this game and anyone who likes C&C games or strategy games in general (ha! No pun intended!) would have a blast with this installment.

Extends playlife of Generals to infinity...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

...that may be something of an exgaggeration, but this statement isn't: If you loved Generals and haven't played Zero Hour, you have cause for celebration. At the time of this writing, Zero Hour has been out roughly 1.5 years (games live in "dog years" compared to other media), and as far as Real Time Strategy Games go, I put this at, or very near the top of my list, ahead of most every contemporary RTS.

Why?

To many reasons to list, but basically because Zero Hour completely refreshes Generals. If you played Generals like me (a psycho, social-life-debilitating amount), you pretty much had the game down; you knew build order, offense, counters, etc. Zero Hour completely reshuffles the deck by introducing a whole host of brand new units, as well as the ability to play as a General of a certain skill set that gives him advantages (like air/ground/nuclear, etc).

Can you say "C130 Gunship", "Heavy Chinese attack Heli", "Suicide Motorcylist"...when my buddy sent in a huge plane that dropped a bunch of leaflets on my troops to urge them not to fight, I almost came apart with laughter. Good times.

In addition to the General abilities, new maps, and new units, the games graphics have noticably improved.

I couldn't recommend this higher. For RTS fans that haven't checked Zero Hour out yet, don't hesitate to buy this Expansion Pack, this game's got a lot of life in it yet.

Enjoy,

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California

Better than the original!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Having been a C&C fan since the beginning and reading all the reviews for this game before it cane out, I was a little dissappointed. But with this expansion pack, the game is now much better, Not only do you get 15 more missions and lots of new units, but you get the Generals Challenge which is very cool. If you play with every General (9 total), you get another 63 battles to play. Each General has its own tactic (i.e. Lasers, Tanks, etc) and you get these items cheaper than anyone else. Also, you can use any of these Generals for Skirmish or On-line play.
Some of the new things I liked was the USA Firebase (it lets you hold 4 soldiers in it while firing a powerful cannon.), USA Spectre Ship (which fires a strong gun and flys aropund an enemy base for 5-30 seconds (depending on your General Rank) or until shot down), China Internet Center (which can hold 8 hackers and helps them collect more money and can be upgraded), and the GLA Battle Bus (which holds soldiers who can fire from it and when it is immobilized, it becomes bunkered cover for those soldiers). There are many other items here than I just mentioned and many new structures than can be captured.
As for the Generals challenge, some of the items I like that only they have are Laser defense turret (USA) (fires a powerful laser at air or land and has good range), Emperor Overlord (China) (comes equipeed with propaganda tower and can have a Gattling Cannon installed), and Advanced Demo Trap (GLA)(a much more powerful explosion that builds faster). These are just a few of the many different items they have.
The only issue I still have is the difference in Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty settings. Easy was too easy and medium was pretty tough. To give a quick example, in the Generals Challenge, about a minute into one of the games, a Particle Cannon was detected. The countdown started at 30 minutes. That was on easy and it was never fired. On medium difficulty, the countwon started at 4 minutes. After the first attack, they started bombing runs with planes and dropped off guys at the back of the base. Then theri second Particle cannon came on-line and then a third. It was tough to beat, but this is an example of the difference between the difficulty settings. My suggestion is, if you want to have a good battles, don't play on anything less than medium because it was not much fun on easy. Also, they have little news reports in between missions. For me anyways, this gave C&C back some of the feel of the earlier games. This statement might seem stupid, but it has pretty much always been a part of the games, and for it not to be a part of the first Generals game, it just felt like something was missing (Boy I sure miss Tanya).For any C&C fan this is a must have game. If you haven't bought the first part of this game yet, I would suggest buying the C&C: Generals combo of both games. If you do have the first part, buy this, you won't be dissappointed. Anyone new to the C&C world, this is not the best of the bunch (C&C Red Alert & Red Alert 2 are the best), but it is graphically the best looking C&C game. Happy gaming and good hunting.

THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 14
Date: December 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

HI I AM A FEW OF THE ONES WHO THINK THIS GAME ROCKS AND IT IS.
BUT SOME PEOPLE IS SAYING THAT THIS GAME COUSE PROBLEMS I HAVE THE ANSWER FOR THAT:

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WHIT YOUR COMPUTER IS BECOUSE YOU STILL A NOOB THAT CAN SEE THE REAR OF THE BOX FOR THE EXPECIFICATIONS DUDES PLEASE DONT BE FOOLS THIS GAME DISERVES 5 STARS BECOUSE IS THE BEST RTS IN THE WORLD EVEN WARCRAFT IS LAME NOTHING LISTEN NOTHING COMPARES

COMMAN&CONQUER SERIES

REALLY IF YOU WHANT A ECCELENT RTS GAME I RECOMMEND YOU TO BUY
ANY GAME OF COMMAND&CONQUER SERIES

THANKS FOR READ THIS

SKIRMICH

Best war game bar none

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: September 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Hey I'm a big fan of wargames ever since panzer general, steel panthers I,II and recently medal of honor and battlefield 42 and nam....

I have to say generals zero hour is the best war game ever made...simply because of the near realism and ability to command weapons of mass destruction and modern military machines. The game is just flat out fun and its fast - yeah there are some issues with load time in installation and quirks online but this game rocks....firing nuke missles, scud storms are satisfying....controlling bombers, snipers, tanks make it seem like you're really controlling a battlefield and fighting a war....

there are other fantastic weapons to command like carpet bombing, spectre gunship straffing runs, artillery barages...its just fun as heck to unleash "heck" on your command...

there are superhero's to command to like general burton, jarmen kell, and black lotus...this game has it all and it is eerrily accurate portrayal of today's world military landscape, china, USA and Al Qaieda as the main forces at battle...

The GLA have suicide bombers, truck bombers and biological attack weapons that are crazy...don't believe the negative reviews on here cause this game is all that and a bag of chips...I wish they would come out with another expansion pack...the message board at EA is helpful too when learning strategies to play and watching highlights of the top players and how they manuever their forces...the game plays real time so the action is fast sometimes but enables strategy and planning in attack and defense formations....

fire a nuke missle and feel the power of a WMD only in this game.

Innovative Expansion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: November 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the best expansion to any game that I've purchased so far. It's not just more maps or more of the same campaigns. Several new features are added (specialized armies, specialized units, specialized tatics). The new campaigns were fun and the "challenge" campaigns are a neat feature too. The graphics are impressive; the sounds are better than the first game. And what a great price on Amazon!

Zero Hour Rules!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: November 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Zero Hour has to be the most exciting and powerful expansion to Command and Conquer, I have been playing c&c for years now and I have never seen any thing like it. The variety of different weapons for each side is astonishing. I myself use the laser defense general, if you build enough laser turrents around the base, nothing can penetrate, and I even play on hard mode, still 26-0, never been beatin and only lost a hand full of men on each skermish, mostly because the airborne rangers smash against the mountains on deployment,lol. I would recomend this expansion to anybody who plays Command and Conquer. Totally Awesome!!!

Best Game Ever !!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was surprised when i first played this game how much EA put into it. There are lots of new units, (Raptors that shoot down incoming rockets, tactical nuke migs, mini-gunners)and the graphics are even better than before. You can chose from nine different generals, each having their own special units and abilities. For example, the airforce general can get stealth comanches, and the tank general can get new and improved overlords. Ive tried many other strategy games, including Starcraft and Ages of Empire, but Zero Hour is WAY better than both of them. The only thing Zero Hour is missing is a naval fleet, but you can make aircraft carriers that you can capture on custom maps. My advice..........GET THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!

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