It's safe to say that EA made the right call when it decided to go ahead and launch Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. Within two hours of launching last Friday, the decades-old games shot to the top of Steam's charts, reminding us all that there'll always be an audience for classic real-time strategy action.
As reported by PCGamesN, the collection pulled in 42,000 concurrent players in a matter of hours, according to SteamDB. Not bad at all for a pair of games that were released back in the '90s, right? At the time of writing, the all-time concurrent peak for the collection so far is 42,587. There are also currently 15,000 players enjoying the title as I write this on a Monday afternoon - once again, not too shabby for such old games.
To put this into further context for all you lovely people, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection has smashed it by the standards of most remasters/remakes. The all-time peak for Dark Souls Remastered, for example, is 24,501. Resident Evil? 4,388. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy? 3,755. You get my point. C&C absolutely smashed it.
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Its success is pretty deserved too, I have to say. As far as remasters go, this collection is the real deal. The collection contains the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert, plus three expansion packs, all with 4K visuals, overhauled interfaces, remastered sound and music from original composer Frank Klepacki, and all the other bells and whistles you'd care to think of.
Hopefully this proves to EA that there's a lot to be said for remastering and re-releasing old favourites. I don't know that anyone would have a problem with a remastered Mass Effect Trilogy or a remake of Need For Speed: Underground 2, for example. Hell, I wouldn't mind a reboot of BLACK, but I'm probably in the minority there.
We awarded the collection an 8/10 in our own review (courtesy of Julian Benson), noting that the collection perfectly remasters two imperfect games. Everything we loved about the original experience is present and correct, lovingly repackaged.
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"I cherish the memory of playing Command & Conquer 25 years ago," Benson wrote. "Yet was surprised to find myself getting frustrated at the slog of completing some of the missions in the first game's campaign. But, given the choice, I still wouldn't change a thing about this remaster."
Featured Image Credit: EA