By Craig Pearson on January 30th, 2012 at 11:29 am.
Renegade-X is a reworking of the original, awful Command & Conquer: Renegade, Westwood’s ambitious FPS with RTS acne. I’m downloading the just released short single-player preview, “Operation Black Dawn”, from the official torrent, and we’ll make brain thinks into words about its UDK-based goodness another day. In the meantime, here’s the download link and video, strategically placed below.
The current download is just a peek, with a short single-player campaign to tide you over until the multiplayer release. There’s a lot of bluster in this video, about redefining entire genres, but it does look pretty and with a cool name like “Renegade-X” you kind of have to be all: “we’re making it the best thing since that last thing that was also good”. Grab it here.
30/01/2012 at 11:37 Shortwave says:
Ahhh, I was wondering how long before you guys wrote this article.
This -mod- looks so amazingly well done.. I’ve been trying to download it but all the servers are too busy and my net sucks too much! But boy oh boy, does it look pretty.. And my favorite two games style in one! -Squeels- Can’t wait to give it a run. But from everything I have seen, looks like something these devs can be proud of. The models are great!
30/01/2012 at 12:18 abigbat says:
It looks fantastic – very impressive work from the team, need to see who these guys are.
30/01/2012 at 12:23 scorcher24 says:
There is a torrent on piratebay. In this case it ain’t pirating though.
30/01/2012 at 13:56 Thomas says:
Everything on TPB is de facto pirating. :)
30/01/2012 at 15:28 Shortwave says:
The demonoid link is slowly creeping it’s way finally.
30/01/2012 at 15:42 The Sombrero Kid says:
Technically it’s still pirating since they haven’t got a license from the creator to distribute it, but I’m sure it’s fine :D.
EDIT: nm it’s linked to from the dl page so that probably constitutes a license :S
30/01/2012 at 16:27 Shortwave says:
I’m was more than pleased to see a demonoid link. : )
Legitimate torrents make me so happy.
30/01/2012 at 11:43 Gap Gen says:
This does look rather good, especially for a fan project. I did find it a little amusing that the guy used the words “tactical shooter” as the character on-screen was randomly spraying everything with a minigun, but there you go.
30/01/2012 at 12:51 InternetBatman says:
It’s weird. The game plays like that, but it multiplayer you have to build bases, harvest ore, and manage resources to get weapons, vehicles, and turrets.
30/01/2012 at 11:47 Player1 says:
I wonder how long it is going to take the copyright holders to shut this project down. Which would be a pity because it seems these guys could turn an overlooked gem into something really great.
30/01/2012 at 11:51 Gap Gen says:
I don’t actually see anything in this game that explicitly says “C&C”, so it’s possible that the association is implicit only. Could be like Spring, where they started as a Total Annihilation project and eventually branched out into something different.
30/01/2012 at 12:57 Aaarrrggghhh says:
EA has alreadey stated that they have nothing against this mod. They even had a featured interview with the head behind it on commandandconquer.com.
30/01/2012 at 14:09 Thomas says:
Wouldn’t be the first time the community and their lawyers have had two different opinions :(
But yes i hope they don’t kill it off, otherwise they better bring back the cancelled Renegade 2 set in the Red Alert universe, they might as well use Frostbite :D
30/01/2012 at 14:18 werix says:
Yeah basically that Thomas. Law school teaches you to do some horrible things, and often lawyers tell their clients to do stupid things so as to protect their clients property from infringement(scrolls anyone?)
I just hope the mod makers have some sort of license from EA and in writing, otherwise what they are doing is rather blatant copyright violation.
30/01/2012 at 18:45 innociv says:
I have seen cases where copyright holders gave mods the go ahead, and then changed their mind in months, or years, and shut the project down after so much work had been put in it.
I can’t remember them, since this was a decade ago.
31/01/2012 at 19:22 JerreyRough says:
C&C seems to be the exception in EA policies. Almost every good C&C mod (even in non-C&C engines) has been in the community spotlight at least once. They seem to be more interested in generating more C&C interest than slamming down C&C fan projects.
30/01/2012 at 11:50 Hypnotoad says:
Awful? Please.
C&C renegade kicked ass, the multiplayer had a co-ordinated shine to it that very few games around that time had.
30/01/2012 at 12:12 Donncha O Caoimh says:
Here! Here! I enjoyed the original C&C Renegade. I think I played it on easy difficulty but I enjoyed it immensely.
30/01/2012 at 13:11 iHavePants says:
This, it was one of the first and best FPS/RTS multiplayer hybrids. But yeah, the single player was awful.
30/01/2012 at 14:46 nopol10 says:
I think one of the reasons Renegade always has the “awful” label attached to it is due to the fact that
1. The singleplayer wasn’t great at all.
2. Reviewers (at the time when it was released) did not spend a lot of time on the multiplayer (which is actually great) as no one really knew whether Westwood wanted to place a greater emphasis on singleplayer or multiplayer. (C&C games traditionally emphasised a great deal on the single player with all the live action cutscenes) Which might be in part due to the
3. Delays and changes to the game and the rushed release.
From then on people just remember it as “awful” unless they play the multiplayer and get hooked on it.
30/01/2012 at 16:28 Rahabib says:
I felt Renegade was awful too.
Its been a long time since I played it, but I remember it was: you were either in a tank or a sniper. It was very vehicle heavy and the maps were too claustrophobic.
30/01/2012 at 17:45 strange_headache says:
I have to agree, Renegade was definitely not awful. It was a brave game for what it was trying to do and many hours were consumed playing it on a crappy ISDN pay per minute line. It was both equally awesome and expensive.
30/01/2012 at 11:56 CaspianRoach says:
>FPS
Video shows third person view for more than half of the times.
Other than the usual silly looking strafing and turning animations the game looks very pretty. Here’s hoping they don’t get sued by EA.
30/01/2012 at 12:03 frameset says:
You could switch between views in the original Renegade, that’s probably why you can in this.
30/01/2012 at 12:25 Shortwave says:
I actually like games that allow you to do that.. >.< Options are nice.
It works great in Serious Sam 3..
I like tossing it in 3rd person when I’m lazy just having fun with a controller in bed. Easier to see what’s around you when you have that slower reaction time..
As long as I can still look down my iron sights, I don't care..
30/01/2012 at 12:01 Tretiak says:
Downloading just in case EA lawyers see it.
30/01/2012 at 12:58 Aaarrrggghhh says:
EA already stated a while back that they have no problem with the mod.
30/01/2012 at 12:22 Innovacious says:
Hmm, i don’t remember renegade being very tactical (single player at least). Sure, it was fun enough, but the “its pretty cool to see these units up close and the inside of buildings from the rts games” factor and the terrible, yet endearing, dialog helped.
30/01/2012 at 12:28 foda500orama says:
Renegade X? Sounds like the stage name a rapper would use in the late 80′s.
30/01/2012 at 14:24 Vagrant says:
Sounds like the name a bad arcade game would use in the 90′s!
30/01/2012 at 16:41 Spider Jerusalem says:
sounds like the name of a thing right now!
30/01/2012 at 19:31 LionsPhil says:
It sounds like all of these things and more.
30/01/2012 at 12:56 InternetBatman says:
I got Renegade for $5 and it was worth exactly what I payed for it. The story’s crap and the gunplay is fun but not great. It’s really cool seeing inside all the C&C buildings and driving some of the vehicles, and blowing them up is pretty fun too. The multiplayer had a really fascinating idea, where you mined ore, researched upgrades, built structures, and managed resources just like a normal C&C game but all from a first person perspective.
30/01/2012 at 14:34 nopol10 says:
In the original Renegade you certainly did not mine ore (it was automated and there wasn’t ore. It was Tiberium), research upgrades and build structures. Are you sure you played it or are you talking about one of the servers with server side modifications? Either way it sounds like you are terribly misinformed…
30/01/2012 at 15:18 Fiatil says:
That definitely sounds a lot more like Savage than Renegade to me; the former had manual resource first person gathering if you were into that, and plenty of research/structure building as well.
30/01/2012 at 13:41 The Sombrero Kid says:
Needs UT3 :(
30/01/2012 at 13:53 Goomich says:
It’s on Steam for twenty space credits, but they should drop it for next sale (I bet Valentines).
30/01/2012 at 14:14 Aaarrrggghhh says:
NO, it does not.
30/01/2012 at 14:30 nopol10 says:
It is completely standalone and free. The older multiplayer version requires UT3 but this and the future multiplayer release are both standalone.
30/01/2012 at 15:40 The Sombrero Kid says:
Ahh good to hear the download page scared me off with its bs, thanks guys i’ll download it.
30/01/2012 at 14:00 Turin Turambar says:
No invert Y-axis option :( :(
30/01/2012 at 14:20 Unrein says:
Awful? What the hell? It was a bit clunky in places, but I enjoyed the game a lot – even the single player campaign.
30/01/2012 at 16:08 buxcador says:
I want some players playing as generals, from sky view, making strategic work, and other players getting generals orders, and playing FPS on the ground.
Best players should be promoted.
30/01/2012 at 17:04 pakoito says:
I played it and hated it a lot. First sub-mission is just watching, second one is just walking around headshooting enemies on sight with the pistol. I refused to use rifle because it made it too easy.
It is uninstalled now.
30/01/2012 at 17:10 HerrKohlrabi says:
Was that text-to-speech?
30/01/2012 at 17:14 LennyLeonardo says:
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking! This man has a creepy robot voice. I think he’s my sat nav.
30/01/2012 at 17:26 LifeSuport says:
Seems like they are just using the C&C name to hype their product and focus on “original” content.
30/01/2012 at 17:28 Eric says:
C&C Renegade was great IF you were in exactly the right situation when it came out. I was in college, living in a dorm room on a floor full of PC nerds, and it was awesome.
Shelling an enemy base with mammoth tanks while somebody else on your team snuck an engineer in was a huge rush, and the interaction of the systems (defending harvesters, needing to repair buildings, etc) was more complex than almost any other multiplayer game at the time without being cumbersome.
It was a shortlived game, but we had a hell of a good time with it. I’ll be happy to check this out.
30/01/2012 at 17:40 Joof says:
Awful? You’re crazy. It’s pretty much the only FPS that got me to play online multiplayer for more than 10 minutes. Played so much of it in high school.
30/01/2012 at 19:24 Zarunil says:
I completed the single player campaign, and saying this makes me feel a tiny bit of shame.
30/01/2012 at 19:35 LionsPhil says:
Hunh. Standalone Renegade TC “Red Alert: A Path Beyond” that I tend to drag out during this bouts of Renegade multiplayer nostalgia seems to have lost its website. That was tons of fun, that was.
30/01/2012 at 23:24 nopol10 says:
A Path Beyond is still alive with pretty much the same team working on it at Bluehell Productions, google that.
30/01/2012 at 19:55 Bork Titflopsen says:
I still played Renegade last year untill the server I played on was finally put down and the community moved on to other games.
While I wasn’t there to experience it in it’s hayday I must say that it was some of the most fun and compelling multiplayer gameplay I’ve had in recent years. I was suprised and glad it didn’t turn out to be the shoddy, B-quality spinoff that I expected but instead has a lot of room for tactical depth if you’re willing to put some effort in it. The only thing that was really broken about it were the ramjets (Hit-scan, instagibbing snipers that were just as accurate zoomed out and in third person is rediculous and I still don’t understand that they didn’t see the possible implications of that. I’ve seen old vets go totally insane with them, leaving nothing but death and destruction in their wake and singlehandedly carrying whole matches.)
Having said all that, C&C: Renegade’s third person gameplay to me was incredibly fun and refreshing and I hope the developers didn’t leave that out of the mod in favor of over the shoulder shooting that is more common nowadays.
31/01/2012 at 06:42 sgnl05 says:
Wait, did you just call C&C Renegade “awful”?
Damnit RPS, I thought you were cool =(
31/01/2012 at 12:36 JonSolo says:
I know, I shouldn’t say it, but you know what I think these hybrid FPS/RTS games need? Tower Defence!
01/02/2012 at 07:04 TwwIX says:
The gunplay is terrible in this. Very outdated and generic gameplay over all.