Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is out today, and we'll have more on the whole bundle next week. It's a big package: Two full games with their expansions, a bunch of bonus missions that were once exclusive to consoles, and galleries full of classic FMV and behind the scenes videos. Many of those goodies are locked when you start the game, earned as you play through the campaigns. I don't think I'll ever get around to unlocking most of them myself, because of the hour or so I've spent playing C&C Remastered so far, most of it has been in the Jukebox. The remastered soundtrack sounds fantastic, and has made me realize just how strongly most of my C&C memories are tied into its music.When I think of Command & Conquer's soundtracks, the song that immediately comes to mind for me, and I think many other fans, is Red Alert's Hell March. Tyler even has it in his head at all times. But the original game's soundtrack is fantastic, too, full of '90s industrial bangers and frequent detours into synth and funk land.The voice samples in a few songs are electrifying pathways in my brain I haven't used in 20 years, triggering memories of the hours I spent playing C&C campaigns again and again on my family PC, and then my own PC, and then even the Nintendo 64.Playing Command & Conquer now is a throwback, but also a little frustrating. I found myself getting annoyed at the poor pathfinding of my tanks and how slow units are to respond to my orders. The remastered graphics give C&C a wonderful glow up, but can't hide the many ways these are very old games. These are remasters rather than remakes, and that preservation was intentional—it's just immediately obvious that strategy games have made a lot of improvements around AI and responsiveness since 1995.
