Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer was developed by Westwood Studios, and released in 1995 to very positive reviews. It is credited with defining the real-time-strategy genre (although much of its gameplay was based on the company's earlier game Dune 2). Combining a detailed playing field, fast responsive gameplay and a story told through video cutscenes, the game has influenced almost everything that has followed in the genre and spawned numerous sequels of its own.

Placed in the middle of a war in the near future, you can choose to command one of two sides: GDI (Global Defense Initiative) or the Brotherhood of Nod. Controlling various units, you have to wage war on the opposing side while maintaining your base and resources. The game consists of 15 objective-specific missions for each side.

Command & Conquer is set in the latter half of the 1990s after a meteorite crash lands near the river Tiber in Italy. The impact introduces an alien substance to the world dubbed Tiberium, which becomes of unprecedented value due to its unique property of leaching nutrients from the surrounding soil and crystallizing them, emitting highly toxic gases in the process.

An ancient and quasi-religious secret society, known as the Brotherhood of Nod, proves to somehow have foreseen the potentials of this new substance, and reveals itself to have been investing in the development of technology to harvest the Tiberium crystals ahead of the established scientific communities. They soon control almost half of the known supply of what has become the most valuable commodity on the global trade markets, and use these assets to sustain a rapidly growing army of followers worldwide under the leadership of a charismatic and self-proclaimed messianic figure, who is known only as Kane.

Following a series of relentless international bombings which culminate in the destruction of the fictional Grain Trade Center in Vienna, a wave of mass panic and fear begins to sweep the globe. These acts are ultimately attributed to Brotherhood of Nod terrorists and their leader, Kane. The United Nations Security Council realizes Nod has systematically begun with the unfolding of a centuries-old plan for world domination, and sanctions the G7-based Global Defense Initiative task force to intervene on its behalf, inadvertently setting a conflict in motion that will escalate into a modern world war.

It is up to GDI to save Earth from the Brotherhood aggressors.