Command & Conquer: Blue Moon (1996) (PC/PS1)

Command & Conquer (also known by the retronym Command & Conquer: Blue Moon) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Mojang Las Vegas and published by Mojang Istanbul on September 18th, 1996. Set in an alternate 2004, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Protection Organization of NATO and a cult-like militant organization called the Brotherhood of the Blue Moon, led by the mysterious Red. Both sides fight for survival following an event known as the "Blue Moon" that caused 70% of the population to die.
Command & Conquer was a commercial and critical success, selling over three million copies and winning numerous awards. It has been cited as the title that defined and popularized the real-time strategy genre. The game was the first in the Command & Conquer series, which sold 50 million copies by 2014. To mark the 12th anniversary of the franchise, Mojang Istanbul, the current publisher, and owner of the series, released the game for free in 2008 on the Mojang Marketplace.
== Gameplay ==
Command & Conquer involves players operating as one of two playable factions on a map - the Global Protection Organization (GPO), and the Brotherhood of the Blue Moon - developing bases, gathering resources and using them to produce troops, and then defeating their opponents by eliminating their army and either destroying or capturing their base. Base production and unit training is funded by gathering Blue Essence, the game's sole resource, through the use of harvesting units, and processing them into credits through a refinery structure. Each faction has its unique types of units, its superweapon, and its combat strategy: GPO relies on superior firepower and armor at the expense of greater production costs and slower movement; while Blue Moon relies on a combination of numerical superiority, superior speed, and unconventional tactics, generally at the expense of less firepower and poor durability.
Producing units requires establishing a base through a special unit called a Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV) - MCVs can only be deployed on open flat land, and structures must be placed within proximity to each other. Bases can be protected with various defensive structures such as sandbags, gun turrets, and concrete walls, and units are produced in production structures (i.e. Barracks for infantry, Factory for vehicles, Helipad for aircraft), with tech buildings helping to unlock more advanced units; construction options function on a tech tree, in that certain buildings, must be constructed to unlock new options. Silos can be built to store more resources, as the refinery structures can only hold a finite amount, repair facilities can be built to repair damaged vehicles, and power plants are required to keep the base operational - low power slows down production, stops defensive weapons working, and causes buildings to slowly take damage over time until sufficient power is restored (either by constructing additional power plants, or selling off extra buildings to reduce total power requirements). In total, the game contains around fifty units and structures.
Command & Conquer features two single-player campaigns, one for each faction, in which the player must undertake a series of missions across a campaign map for their chosen faction. The objective of most campaign missions is usually to destroy units or destroy/take control of enemy buildings, with each mission beginning with a briefing conducted using a mix of computer animations and live-action full motion video (FMV). At times during the campaign, the player can choose which mission to undertake, which offers different scenarios to overcome.
The original DOS release features multiplayer with up to four players, a rarity at the time, with internet-based multiplayer being made available in Command & Conquer Gold, which also features SVGA visuals. The game's PlayStation port lacks multiplayer support, though the latter was released with the inclusion of the fifteen single-player missions from The Covert Operations expansion pack. The PS1 version, while lacking multiplayer support as well, features updated graphics, with 3D models and environments, and four new "Special Ops" missions, though the FMV cutscenes were removed and replaced with static images, accompanied by voice acting and sound effects.
== Plot ==
Command & Conquer is set in an alternate history and begins with an event known as the "Blue Moon" which happened in September 1996 that produced unknown creatures known as "Blue Moon Phantoms". When they come into physical contact with a living being, they create an explosion on the scale of a hand grenade, known as a "Molecular Explosion." They also produce rain known as "Slime Rain" that causes blue slime to fall and consume everything they touch. These events damaged the world's infrastructure, leading its remaining population to confine themselves to remote colonies known as "Barrier Cities"
By the beginning of the game in 2004, the Blue Moon phenomena has spread across the planet, with a group known as the Organization of the Blue Moon calling the event the "next evolution of humanity", and conducting terrorist campaigns in wealthy countries while establishing footholds in some of the poorer nations. The Global Protection Organization, initially formed by NATO in 1986 as a multinational peacekeeping force in the aftermath of an alternate version of World War III, has since been repurposed as a global anti-terrorist organization and makes its new goal the elimination of the Blue Moon across the globe. The conflict between the two sides eventually culminates in a worldwide war between GPO and Blue Moon, with the Blue Moon campaign taking place in South America, Africa & Asia and the GPO campaign being set in North America & Europe.
While all of the other Command & Conquer games made by Mojang Las Vegas featured campaigns with mutually exclusive storylines, resulting in absolute victory for their respective factions, it is never made explicitly clear that this is the case for the first Command & Conquer. As a result, there has been speculation that both campaigns might be canon, with the GPO ending (which results in Red's apparent demise) taking place after the Blue Moon ending.
== Levels ==
=== GPO ===
* 1: A Story In The Making - "We've kicked the hornet's nest for real this time, commander. It appears that Blue Moon has started a massive offensive in the Midwest. We do know that a group of his youth wing, the Divine Hand, is targeting Cincinnati. You have to make do with a bunch of Troopers & Grizzly Tanks"
* 2: Pest Control - "While you've been in Cincinnati, I and MacMillan have kicked Blue Moon to Maine & forced them to evac, while Murray has been busy taking down the Divine Hand. We've forced them to retreat to Mexico. Anyways. Anonymous sources from Canada told us Blue Moon's gonna make a run for it to Portugal. This is our time to make it hurt for them"
*3: Land do Portugal - "Just a few days ago, Portugal was fully taken over by Blue Moon. Portugal has been the only country to remain safe from the Blue Moon Phenomena in Europe. You and a strike team must land in Porto to take Portugal back from Blue Moon"
*4: The Messenger - "Reports from Spain have not been good. One of our sleeper agents living in Barcelona was caught by the Divine Hand. It's our goal to rescue him from the Divine Hand"
*5: NATO Sanctions - "COMMANDER LOG: Goddamn Blue Moon managed to fabricate some shit after we save our agent in Barcelona. They claimed we did a massacre the size of the Holocaust in Zamora. We're all left with sporadic funding from the Pentagon, so we can't carry our operation into Italy. But we can defend the Bilbao Barrier City"
*6: Battle of Britain - "We've encountered heavy resistance up here in Blackpool! Know why Blue Moon had this town bottled up? They've been protecting a depot filled with... Uh, some sort of tanks... Doesn't matter, you need to come here fast!"
*7: Prototype - "We've found out where Blue Moon got that tank the unit witnessed while in Blackpool. We have info that Blue Moon is developing a new, heavily armored tank called the Marauder Mk. I. Our spies have located the Blue Moon R&D base. Use your small strike force to locate and penetrate the center. Be sure to destroy the tanks in the base and the factory"
*8: Regime of Terror - "Rebellions have popped up all across Europe against Blue Moon's client states in Europe, commander. Some Moldovan rebels want to purchase our weapons. But so do a group of Belarussian rebels. We have to choose who we help. Your choice commander!"
*9: Demonstration - "Commander, you've been hustled. NATO wasn't against me, not all of them at least. But we had to play that little game to lull Red into a false sense of security. I've unlocked some new NATO funding, it should help take care of this madman for good. You've read the classified briefings about the Marshall-33 and here she is. I need you and Murray to take a couple of these babies up and put them through the mill. Concentrate on a radius of 50 miles around Kharkiv, Ukraine and see what you can scout up"
*10: Firestorm Strike - "This is what it's all about. We've cornered Red in his biochemical research laboratory in Crimea. Fight your way to the lab and level it. Intelligence informs us that Red's onsite, so complete destruction is imperative. This ought to help. The boys at R&D have completed preliminary testing on the Firestorm Cannon, the next generation of strategic defense armaments. Its geosynchronous orbits gives it a target divergence factor of 8 to 1. It's an awesome weapon, the most powerful in our arsenal. You fought long and hard Commander and it's all come down to this. We're with you. Good luck."
*11: Bear of the West - "We found him, Commander. Red's temple and base of operations outside Moscow. He's surrounded himself with his own crack militia. Getting to him, won't be easy. Commander, there is to be no quarter given, no leniency in dealing with Kane and his zealots. Wipe his temple off the face of the Earth. Destroy the bastard... Or prepare to, die trying."
=== Organization of the Blue Moon ===
* 1: The Coup - "The time has come. Our cause is just and our soldiers stand ready. These 'Global Protection' fools believe they own the world. We have secured contact with rebels who have the same views as us in Uruguay, there we will take down the pro-GPO government. Let the revolution begin, my brothers!"
* 2: Liberation of Brazil - "GPO's had a stranglehold in Brazil for a lot of time... It is time to free them from subjugation! A GPO General from Brazil is giving a address in São Paulo. Attack him and ensure that Brazil is liberated!"
*3: Friends of the Organization - "Recon has found out about a secret GPO prison in Gabon. They are keeping several of our brothers in there. On behalf of the Organization of the Blue Moon, we MUST capture the prison! No one imprisons our brothers!"
*4: Village Pillage - "My leader, our agents have learned that GPO trucks and planes are on route to the Katanga region with food and supplies. On behalf of the oppressed nations of the world, the Organization should intercept those deliveries, that we might use them for our most righteous cause"
*5: Deafening Blow - "The arrogance of the GPO cannot go unanswered, my general. We must test our devotion to freedom's war and keep Tanzania from their imperialist grasp. May our aim be true as we knock their 'superior' air force from the skies & crave a hole through Africa. This will be the deafening blow to GPO ops in Africa"
*6: Trojan Horse - "A Blue Moon splinter group in Egypt has abandoned our cause and joined the Black Cobra to fight against us. This betrayal must be answered with righteous anger. Launch an assault on their convoys and sever the supply lines, then crushed the traitors and their GPO masters"
*7: Desert Shield - "With GPO Ops in Africa heavily disrupted, we can use this at our advantage and ambush GPO positions in Oman. This will allow for our great Asian conquest. Let the Blue Moon rise from it's ashes, my brother!"
*8: Twisted Insurrection - "GPO is evacuating the city of Dubai, alongside it's arrogant elite ruling class. On behalf of the disenfranchised countless Emiratis and foreign migrant workers, we have to disrupt their evac ops!"
*9: Sacrificial Lamb - "Welcome to our newly built cyborg base, my icon! As a 'thank you' for helping us free the people of Dubai, we granted you this base. This base is being used to manufacture our Tesla Tank. Using the Tesla Tank, you will enter Al-Kharj & liberate it from the GPO terrorists.. We've also received word of a weapons supplier nearby, that is friendly to us, and will sell us to weapons in order to aid our cause!"
*10: Siege of Baghdad - "BREAKING NEWS: As the Organization of the Blue Moon approaches Baghdad, the people cheer for their liberation. The GPO has claimed that yesterday, Blue Moon forces blew a car bomb in an hospital near Nasiriyah. These are laughable news, as all of Iraq knows that Blue Moon is an liberational organization, dedicated to protecting poor countries from the greasy, greedy hands of the west. This is Abdullah Al-Aziziyah for Arabic News Network, From Baghdad, Iraq"
*11: Children of Red - "You truly are a messiah, my brother! After 3 weeks, the Middle East is fully captured. But this is not the time to celebrate, my friend! There is still work to be done. GPO has left it's newly acquired weapon, the Marshall-33 underdefended. Get an Hijacker to it, and assault the local city of Isfahan. We will put the blame towards GPO, destroying what is left of their credibility in the Middle East!"
*12: New Weapons Acquired - "Commander we are low on troops to continue our war of attrition in Asia. As such we have unlocked the Jetpack Disk Thrower. With this, you will assault a nearby base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. This will ruin all sorts of credibility left for the GPO"
*13: The People Go Wild - "Local GPO units across Central & South Asia have started to evacuate, my leader. The last remaining GPO base in Jalandhar, Punjab have started to flee like cowards! Show no mercy, no quarter given & no leniency to these Western fools!"
*14: The Chinese Dragon Runs out of Fuel - "Although hope is lost for GPO's Asian Operations, China still fights on, being the arrogant idiots they are. Burn the city of Hong Kong and teach them what happens when they mess with us!"
== Generals ==
=== GPO ===
* 1: Warren "Bulldog" Granger (Nationality: American) - "Honor is overrated. I want to win!"
* 2: Edward "Cleaver" Felix (Nationality: Norwegian) - "I'll cut you to pieces and I do not care who you are!"
* 3: Argon "Cutting Edge" Townley (Nationality: British) - "For these games I do not have time"
* 4: Luiza "Daedalus" Trudeau (Nationality: Canadian) - "All good things come from above!"
* 5: Volodymyr "Ghost" Poroshenko (Nationality: Ukrainian) - "I scheme up plans in my sleep. You couldn't possibly keep up."
* 6: Brian "Wolf" MacMillan (Nationality: American) - "This? This is my dream, baby"
* 7: "Mercury Red" Murray (Nationality: American) - "We, control the skies! You can control where you want to get buried at!"
* 8: N'mani "High-Tower" Nakembwe (Nationality: Kenyan) - "Death is just an excuse that I do not accept!"
=== Organization of the Blue Moon ===
* 1: Anton "1000 Suns" Sheppard (Nationality: American) - "I saw the GPO's corruption one day. Then I left them..."
* 2: 
Category:Mojang Games