Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour
From FSDB
| Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Game Series | Command & Conquer series |
| Type | Real Time Strategy |
| Developer | Electronic Arts |
| Release date | 22nd September 2003 |
Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, usually simply abbreviated to Zero Hour, ZH or VZH, is the expansion pack for Command & Conquer: Generals. It is the game upon which most modifications hosted on Fallout Studios are based.
Contents |
Overview
Zero Hour adds a number of new units, buildings and powers to the original game. Examples include the United States of America Avenger, the Chinese Internet Centre and the Global Liberation Army Sneak Attack. Most of those changes complemented the original factions with much needed changes, such as better protection for China's late-game economy or better anti-air capabilities for the USA.
Zero Hour also adds 3 new 'generals' per side for the player to play as. These generals specialize in certain styles of combat, such as favouring aircraft or stealthy warfare. In an effort to encourage play with these new generals, they were granted some overpowered units, this lead to the three traditional sides being largely underused.
Generals Challenge
Each of the nine new generals can be played as in a new play mode called the Generals Challenge, where the player faces each general (with the exceptions of General Fai and General Juhziz) in turn. Each generals challenge requires building a defending a base while assaulting a prebuilt AI stronghold. The AI scripting here is often superior to skirmish matches. In the final generals challenge the player has to defeat General 'Tigress' Leiong Leang, the 'Boss General' whose weaponry comprises that of the best aspects of the three original sides.
Campaigns
Zero Hour also contains three new campaigns of five missions each - one for each side - with their chronological order being USA first, GLA second, and China last. Unlike the previous campaigns, which were noted by Command & Conquer fans for not having full motion video cinematic sequences during mission briefing, the Zero Hour campaigns return to that Command and Conquer tradition, each showing a live-action video of a news reporter of the respective side giving details about the situation behind the current mission. The plot behind the Zero Hour campaigns picks up where it left off at the end of the previous campaigns.
United States of America
At the beginning of the USA campaign, the Global Liberation Army (GLA) launches a biological weapon using a refitted Soyuz launch station from the captured Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at a USA military base located in Northern Europe. The United States Army retaliates quickly, destroying the launch platform, before the GLA can fire another missile. As the campaign continues, the United States learns that a GLA general codenamed Dr. Thrax has been developing a more lethal variety of anthrax known as Anthrax Gamma. When the USA locates his base of operations, they discover that he is planning on launching several missiles loaded with this toxin at major population centres within the USA itself. A swift strike by the USA, with the help of rogue GLA forces, succeeds in preventing this act of war, and brings an end to Dr. Thrax.
The USA army concentrates on specialised units designed for a single purpose. Patriot missile batteries, are highly effective against vehicles and aircraft fare poorly against infantry. Pathfinder snipers can detect stealth and can kill any enemy infantry unit with one shot. This makes the pathfinder the default anti-hero unit for any USA player willing to pay the Generals Points required. The Pathfinder's weakness is that they have only their stealth to protect them from enemy vehicles and aircraft.
Global Liberation Army
In the Global Liberation Army campaign, the GLA, though disappointed by the death of Dr. Thrax, receives a boost in morale with the successful appointment of their new leader, General Mohmar 'Deathstrike'. The GLA first attempts to reunite its splintered factions under Deathstrike's command, which it succeeds in doing after eliminating the defector Prince Kassad's forces in Egypt, and then begins a fervent mission to drive the Americans from Europe. Despite their lack of technology, the GLA succeeds in inflicting tremendous harm against the USA, by capturing an American particle uplink cannon which they then use to destroy the USS Ronald Reagan (splitting her in half from port to starboard, as shown in the game's cover) and infiltrating the US West Coast to steal toxins from a chemical storage facility. This reaches its climax when the GLA overruns the USA's European central command base in Southern Germany, partially with the use of captured Chinese weaponry. The GLA's primary objective accomplished, they now begin to invade a vulnerable Europe and cause a new repressive state.
The GLA use a number of suicide units which eliminates the need to worry about conserving forces. Poorly trained the infantry are cheap, but less effective than their USA and China counterparts. The tunnel network enable players to defend a number of areas on the map using a small force. The GLA use scavenged parts to strengthen their units, turning weak tanks into potent threats to all but the largest opposition.
China
In the Chinese campaign, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) sends its army into Europe to relieve the USA and gain revenge against the GLA for their humiliating use of Chinese technology in the capture of the German military base. In order to prevent the GLA from making use of advanced USA weapons, China launches a nuclear missile at the military base, destroying it, and then sends its forces into Germany, where the GLA invaders are concentrated. After a series of devastating losses, the nearly defeated GLA takes control of an evacuated USA military base and uses its weaponry against the Chinese army. China succeeds in recapturing this base, and eliminating the GLA for good, rooting out their influence in Europe. Establishing the Eurasian Unity League with the newly liberated Europe, the world looks forward to a new era of Chinese leadership.
The campaign highlights the new Chinese Helix, a massive helicopter nicknamed "the Overlord of the sky": it can transport troops as default and can be upgraded with a gattling cannon or a speaker tower or a bunker which allows the transported units to use fireports to engage the enemy from above.
China use vast numbers to overwhelm the enemy, little care is given for any single troop that falls since there are always more to take his place. Simple, effective and cheap units swell the ranks, without the sophistication of the USA the Chinese rely on brute force to destroy the opposition.
Modding
Zero Hour is, along with other C&C games, one of the most popular targets for modification. Various total conversions and expansion mods are based on the Zero Hour engine, though a few of the former decided to move their project to the more stable and feature-rich Command & Conquer 3 engine.
