Well... I'm not sure if it's been around a month since my last review or not, but then again what do I know. All that matters is that I'm back again and I'm ready for my second mod review ever in 2020. This time it's a mod that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves: The Second Tiberium War!
Remember the storyline from Twisted Insurrection, when Nod managed to win the first Tiberium War and GDI's partnership with another faction started up the second war? This one answers the question that was never asked by someone: What if GDI won the first Tiberium War? Yep... it's one of those mods, unfortunately, but also fortunately it does a better job at making an actually good TS story than TS itself did (well, give or take). Let's just walk through some of the aspects together and see what this mod has to entail.
1) Story
This mod does have a good story despite what I was saying a moment ago. The intro recaps you on the first Tiberium War and the events leading up to the second, and then the story begins to unfold weirdly. You start with a few basics that include GDI dealing with some terrorists, some Black Hand manslaughter, and some good old stealth and covert op style gameplay. After that, though, you once again encounter Vega, mutants, lifeforms, and the like. I don't want to go too deep into it, but overall it's not a bad story for what it is. However, the story is broken up into chapters and the mod creator takes full advantage of the INI settings by having each chapter include a balanced variety of GDI/Nod gameplay (apart from the last chapter), so if you like side-specific gameplay, this mod might not be your cup of tea.
2) Gameplay
Just like most other TS mods, you can't go wrong with the gameplay. Most of the newly remade units help give more variety to each side, and the overdose of laser and rocket blasts for Nod fit right into the TSTW universe. One thing that does peeve me a little is that the Hover MLR is far superior on the GDI front. You're able to unlock it right out of the gate after building the War Factory (at least in my experiences) and it's long-range, so it can pretty easily beat the Nod Artillery in a one-on-one. The real sweet stuff, though, is the Tier 3 arsenal for each side. The mod creator brought back the original Mammoth Tank from TD and introduced the all-powerful Inferno Tank for Nod, and I seriously love them both. The inferno Tank was my unit of choice for the final Nod mission, able to take out pretty much anything it touches. I also love just obliterating stuff with the Mammoth Tank and I can not get a (un)healthy dose of it in this. Overall, not too bad gameplay-wise.
3) Detail
This mod's detail is really good. The mod makes good use of lighting and the voxels used for tanks and aircraft were great choices for this mod. This almost feels like something from Sega, if they developed TibSun, to be honest. Some of the units fit right into the tech for both GDI and Nod, such as the GDI Badger and the Nod Raptor. I also like the level of detail in some of the missions, such as the second mission in Chapter 2, with a lot of Tiberium growth and great use of terrain objects. Overall, good on the detail front. You can never go wrong when it comes to TS modding.
Overall...
Overall, not too bad. It was a good attempt at the very least, but the mod does have its drawbacks. As I implied before it does need a few balance fixes, with the MLRs and the Inferno, and the main campaign has left a little bit to be desired. I don't fault the mod creator for most of those things, though, as the good helps to outweigh the bad. The newly revamped units and detail help make this a really good mod, and the campaign missions are good fun as well. Something I didn't mention before is that the voices were extracted straight out of TibSun, and some... just don't really match. It annoys me quite a bit honestly, but that's just me. I didn't mention it as it was only a minor inconvenience. Overall, it's fine. Just a good mod to mess around with when you have the spare time. And hey, when you do, I recommend you give it a try. Again, you can never go wrong with some old modded TS gameplay. Thanks, Ever_Valiant, for giving me the chance to play the mod, and I hope to see more from you in the future.
One mission, one purpose.
