Reviews - Damfoos

Easily the best mod for TS, and I dare to say one of the best C&C mods as of now. Why so? Let's see:

+ Lots of effort put into the mod, developers care about the quality and listen to feedback.
+ Amazing new graphics: new FX which look even better than FX on those fake promotional TS screenshots, new vehicle voxels of outstanding quality and detalization, numerous map props which add nice level of detailization, improved terrain textures which make TS enviroments look pitty in comparision. Also, new and cool GUI.
+ New artwork for the GDI and Nod buildings, makes TI look more fresh compared to TS.
+ Completely overhauled faction arsenals, with only a few old units with the same function but a new look left. But even these units have some extra traits.
+ A new soundtrack made by developers and contributors, fits the game well. Even Frank Klepacki himself made a remix of one of the tracks exclusively for TI!
+ New custom launcher for the game, allowing to customize lots of settings; a new Skirmish menu which allows you to set up things like game modes, starting positions, AI difficulty, teams and many other things TS didn't allow to customize. And you can play a sandbox mode without AI!
+ Frequent updates, which let you play the beta and enjoy the new content instead of waiting years over years for the release to try it.
+ You can play TI on C&C.NET or via LAN with your friends.
+ New campaign, unfortunately without live-action scenes with Kane and Co., but still interesting. The missions are quite challenging, but once you learned the new units, you can complete them from the first try. And just like in the TS campaigns, you can use different tactics and backdoors here, for example you can capture enemy tech and it will give you advantage (especially when you play Nod and yor engineers can steal enemy vehicles).
+ New game modes, including the Twisted Dawn mode which allows you to use Tiberian Dawn units on TS engine. For now you can only play skirmish games with these units and use them in campaign, but soon there will be remastered TD missions as well.
+ Gameplay enhancements. The great veterancy change: unlike TS, you CAN ACTUALLY promote your units! But hey, veterancy was useless in TS anyway, while in TI the effects of it are visible: some units get auto-heal or speed increase on "veteran" level, and on "elite" level they get a new, much cooler and effective weapon, like in RA2. Elite units are really good and fun to use now. Also, all factions now have their own repair vehicles, what makes the life easier. Another important addition is the new Tech structures which can be found on the battlefield, giving your access to various benefits. You can also harvest new kinds of Tiberium and lose your troops to new Tiberium lifeforms. And the Hunter-Seeker is gone!

Why 9 and not 10? There are still some imperfections:

- minor graphical glitches
- slow progress in updating the buildings artwork
- unforgiving AI difficulty in some missions and skirmish, quite a punch to the face to beginners. Is getting better though, because the devs actually care and don't react like "c'mon, it's easy, I can complete it and this means everyone can (except I know all the map and its scripting in advance lol)".
- many TS unique features removed, like the "tactical map" mission selection screen; features like drop pods, weed harvesting, jumpjet infantry; snow enviroments. The Forgotten are now really forgotten, since they don't have such a great value in the campaign anymore and you will almost never meet them.
- the TS atmosphere of "dead wasteland" is gone and the Tiberium doen't that scary now, although it is not really an issue because the timeline is different and thus any changes from TS are legit.

Mental Omega shows what the fan community and thought-out design can acheive. The mod is quite solid and doesn't have any real competitor in YR modding scene if we choose what mod seems the closest to look like a standalone game. Let's see:

+ A lot of effort is put into the mod
+ Good voxel and 2D work
+ A new OST which gives its own special atmosphere
+ Reintroduces the events of RA2 in more detailed and thought-out way, later expanding into its own storyline much more complicated than the lol B-movie RA2/YR was
+ As a result, long and intriguing campaign, largest campaign I've seen in C&C mods so far, and IMO the main selling point of this mod
+ Missions of this campaign have more complicated action than the original ones, with lots of events happening, and they have been tested so you can be sure they are all completable
+ Has its own multiplayer service
+ Balance is actually being adjusted for multiplayer through patches
+ Custom launcher by Rampastring, which in conjunction to CnC spawner allows for many interesting things regarding possible game modes and additional options of match setup
+ Cooperative campaign and especially challenges, which allow you to fight AIs with your friend and actually be proud of it because it is not just another skirmish
+ Ares dll, which fixes old engine bugs and adds new [s]ones[/s] possibilities to the gameplay
+ Again, due to Ares, many interesting gameplay features became possible: support units that apply buffs or debuffs, lots of support powers, new gameplay mechanics like abduction, refined old mechanics like EMP, subterrainean movement, stealth and so on. All this brings depth to the gameplay, making you rely not on the amount of Rhinos you have, but on the composition of your army
+ A new faction which fits the aesthetics, but sadly not the feel of the game
+ Diverse and interesting subfaction arsenals, where units rarely overlap with each other - a rare sight for a mod

However, a mod is not without its flaws, which is why I can't rate it 10/10

- The campaign is quite long, and if you expected to quickly learn what's it all about prepare to spend a few days. Missions are long and can't be cheesed easily, so don't expect it to be quick. But to each his own, if you are actually interested in the storyline you won't consider it a flaw.
- The missions are designed in a way you HAVE to learn the mod before playing them, so don't hope to hop in and win, even Easy difficulty can be problematic. You need to know what each unit does and be careful, only then you can win. Also you have to use some not really obvious solutions like distracting enemy units and defences for other units to pass through. Compared to easy "set up and go" missions of vanilla these are more difficult, which may be offputting for some players.
- Unlike vanilla, MO gameplay relies more on rock-paper-scissors approach where tanks can't really kill infantry, machinegun units can't kill heavy armor and buildings and so on, so don't judge based on how units look - giant plasma balls obliterating tank columns in seconds might be barely harmful to infantry. Units' properties are much less intuitive, thus you have to spend a lot of time learning the mod, and as a result, playing against AI without at least reading what each unit does in advance won't end good either.
- Trying to keep the gameplay more balanced, MO gets rid of things that made the original game fun. Sure it is better for balance when 5 AT infantry can annihilate a whole horde of MBTs without even one dying, but is it really fun when you can't just lolrush AI with tanks or conscripts? Veterancy is much less interesting here and only grants a bit more speed, hitpoints and DPS instead of turning a unit into a killig machine that is worth 3 of its kind. Individual units are also much weaker now, and if in vanilla a lone conscript could eventually kill enemy building under repair, in MO he will be absolutely useless unless in garrisons. This feels boring for those expecting dynamical RA2/YR action. On the other hand, hero units are ridiculously strong for their price.
- Thus, calling itself the "Almost Perfect Yuri's Revenge" is not correct, gameplay-wise it isn't YR anymore, it is something new, even if a good kind of new.
- Some of the custom content is of questionable quality. Seriously, some of those C&C3;/4 conversions used as map props feel competely alien.
- Certain design decisions are rather strange for a C&C game. Mary Sue anime scientist girl as one of the main plot characters, are you even serious?
- As a price for diversity, there's inconsistency between weapon types (2 or more kinds of weapon that look the same but act differently) and certain campaign details, ignored as "not really important". Some campaign events are not explained at all other than in developers' campaign design document, which is confusing for regular players.

Should you try it out? Definitely. Is it actually perfect? No, but it is a good attempt.

The mod contains a lot of interesting stuff and ideas, but the implementation could be more accurate. The mod does not have a solid "style" of models, some of them are good but the rest are just recycled vanilla models. Can't judge about the balance, but I definitely don't like the visuals.

Отличная модификация, как в плане геймплейных фишек, так и с точки зрения дизайна, который специально выдерживается в стиле, близком к оригинальной игре. Несколько напрягают изъезженная вдоль и поперек тема про злых русских и очевидное влияние серии Red Alert. Хотя последнее, может быть, не так уж и плохо.