Tribute: Westwood Studios

“In 1985, Brett W. Sperry and Louis Castle set to work in a garage in Las Vegas. From those humble beginnings came Westwood Studios, one of the most successful entertainment software companies in the history of the industry.” – The Original Westwood Studios Website (which doesn’t exist anymore, courtesy of EA.)

Westwood Studios is credited for bringing about the golden age of real-time strategy. If you’re an RTS gamer who’s been around for a decade or more, chances are you’ve played a game of two of theirs. They started off their RTS development streak with Dune II (1992), which is considered the father of all strategy games. This game was the first RTS that allowed us to use a Mouse to control an army, which became a trend and then a necessity in each and every RTS that followed. Dune II’s success was followed by the original Command & Conquer, along with which Westwood set the guidelines and standards for all strategy games that followed. But this didn’t happen till 7 years after the company was founded; makes you wonder what they did for that long, right?

Apart from being pioneers in the RTS sector, Westwood developed some pretty popular role-playing games too. Westwood Studios was known as Westwood Associates when it was founded in 1985. Way back then, the company began by porting 8-bit titles to 16-bit systems, which helped them accumulate enough funds to develop their own games. The first title developed by them was Mars Saga (1988), which was followed by their first Best Seller—Eye of the Beholder (1990). Their success caught the eye of British video game publisher Virgin Interactive, who bought over the company in 1992. This is when Westwood Associates was renamed Westwood Studios. It was only after this that they started making the real-time strategy games that have always pleased us.

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Virgin Interactive’s funding gave Westwood a chance to spread their wings, allowing them to put into motion events that would change the face of RTS gaming forever… Command & Conquer was born.
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Command & Conquer: Tiberium Series (1995-2000)

Titles in this series:

Command & Conquer (1995)
Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations (1996)
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Sun (1998)
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Sun – Firestorm (2000)

The original Command & Conquer is also known as Tiberium Dawn by fans, since it’s the first game in the Tiberium Series. The game was responsible for introducing the masses to the goodness of the RTS genre, and converting many action gamers into hardcore strategy fans. Unlike Dune II which was based on an interplanetary war, C&C was based on a war between the Global Defense Initiate (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod on Earth itself. The fact that the game wasn’t based on some far-off alien homeworld, helped make the story more believable and not far fetched like most RTS settings. The game featured some really well enacted live action full-motion video (also known as FMV; real life cutscenes in other words), which also helped it gain popularity since it made mission briefings/debriefings in the game seem more real and convincing. These FMV sequences became the trademark of the Command & Conquer games, which kept growing in popularity with each sequel and expansion.

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The unit design played a large role in the game’s mass appeal. Just like its setting, the basic unit design was inspired by real life infantry and war-machines which really went well with gamers. Both sides GDI and Nod had pretty similar units in the beginning of the game, but as you played on for a while you’d notice that GDI’s forces urged you to go for frontal assaults, while Nod’s unit design promoted hit-n-run tactics and guerilla warfare. This added a lot to the strategic and tactical value of the game, making it extremely popular amongst RTSers.

When the series progressed into the second Tiberium war, Command and Conquer: Tiberium Sun was born. This sequel did justice to the original in every possible way—the storyline was equally intricate as the original, the gameplay was equally if not more fun, the cutscenes were far better than original and the game gleamed even more with polish than the original. This time around, the FMV sequences were more cinematic since they got rid of the First-person view they used in the FMVs in the original. And that’s not the only area where the series evolved. The units introduced were more versatile and the gameplay mechanics seemed far more matured this time. My favorite new war-machine was the GDI bipedal tank, the Titan, which was strong enough to blow a hole through anything. Apart from the big changes such as a better graphical engine and the use of film stars in the FMV sequences, there were little inclusions in the game, such as GDI’s Firewall and Nod’s Stealth Generator, that added a lot more tactical depth to the gameplay, making playing the game a very rewarding experience. With Tiberium Sun, Westwood achieved the sort of perfection that every developer hopes to see in their title.

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Command & Command: Red Alert Series (1996-2001)

Titles in this series:
Command & Command: Red Alert (1996)
Command & Command: Red Alert – Counterstrike/Aftermath (1997)
Command & Command: Red Alert 2 (2000)
Command & Command: Yuri’s Revenge (2001)

Under their RTS banner ‘Command & Conquer’, Westwood released another strategy game series based in a different setting, featuring a different storyline. Red Alert was based on a a pretty twisted story where Albert Einstein creates a time machine, which is used to go back in time to prevent World War II. They do this by assassinating Hitler, which sets in motion unforeseen events that lead to Stalin coming to power, making USSR a threat to the Allies. So basically the World War II happens anyway (good job, Einstein!), and it’s your job in the game to emerge victorious.

As you can see, the storyline in Red Alert seemed like it was written by a history professor on crack. The sequel was equally insane (and equally awesome). In Red Alert II, after the Allies kill Stalin, they appoint Alexander Romanov as a puppet ruler for the USSR. They realize their folly when Romanov attacks the United States to bring glory to the Red Army. To add icing to this deranged cake of a storyline, it turns out that Romanov was being mind-controlled by his adviser Yuri.
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Yes, I know, the story sounds kind of retarded, but the gameplay more than made up for that. Red Alert II had some revolutionary mechanics in place, such as the ability to improve your army’s build-time by building additional unit production facilities. Another innovative feature was restricting the area in which you can build buildings to the immediate surrounds of your existing structures. This ensured that your base was compact and not scattered all around the map. Each and every aspect of the game so well taken care of in the title, that you could find almost no flaw in the game.

As you can see, Westwood has always pleased its fans with its innovations and attention to details, which was constant through all its titles. But this RTS paradise they created wasn’t very long lived. After the half decade during which the company completely dominated the RTS market, Westwood was bought over by EA. Most of its key employees were unhappy with this move, so they left the company for good. Although EA still develops C&C games, any old school C&C fan knows that the empire that Westwood created has long since crumbled, and that we’ll never see games of the same standard or class. But there’s still a ray of hope for us; most of the employees that left the company, came together to form Petroglyph, which is located right near Westwood’s roots, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Petroglyph’s already got one successful RTS under its name—Star Wars: Empire at War, which is counted amongst one of the best RTS games of 2006. So if you’re a fan of Westwood Studios like I am, get yourself a copy of the game, and I’m sure that it’ll be worth your while.