I remember playing this game, back when I was kid, on Gametap. Saw that it was on GOG, for dirt cheap. Said to myself "lets see if it holds up," lo & behold, it blew me away all over again. The campain has cutscences & visual flair on pair with AAA RTS's like Starcraft 2 (The visual effects add a lot to the carnage of the battles. Hollowed out runied cities, Massive Infernos of Napalm, Mushroom Clouds, just name few), but unlike a lot of over-the-top video game plot-lines WIC tells a grounded story about the humanity that both sides of the conflict have, and gradually lose as the stress of the conflict wears at the characters (Really worth emphasising givin how some of the negivtive reveiws for this very game seem to be dehumanizing a certain side due to contemporary conflicts.)
TL:DR: Just-Cause 2 of RTS. Coupled with a timeless character driven plot. Holds to this day!
Conclusion; Take my money!
This game is beautiful, the voice acting is convincing enough, the general mechanics work just fine, and there are tons of graphical settings to adjust. There's just one catch... this game was released in 2007 and I can only assume that the code within the game never predicted that contemporary electronics would be far more advanced than they were back then.
Example:
My CPU has 6 cores, 12 threads, yada yada yada. In order to proficiently run the game, I would have to go into by BIOS and either disable 2 cores, or remove my CPU's hyperthreading.
This might not seem like much to you but for me it's a bit of a nuisance. I would've assumed that if GOG was offering on their site, they would've created a patch that makes getting this game less complicated to run.
So thats where it stops for me. I'm not comfortable with potentially bricking my computer in order to play a game from 2007. If you have a quad core, you should fair well with this game. If you don't have hyper-threading then you should do even better. I've gotta give 5/5 stars for the gameplay that exists, but I give GOG's support for this game about 2/5.
Works fine on Win10, no issues so far.
The single player campaign is very intense, very good balanced under "normal" difficulty. Graphics is very nice for an "old" game. Strange that I did miss this game 15 years ago...
For people who like to play Command&Conquer and other RTS is superb. Less strategic but more tactical component is needed. Artillery and air support is unique and the story really captivates you.
The Soviet expansion is integrated(!) into the main campaign, so no worries, there is no "choosing" Soviet vs. USA. Also people complaining about missing CD-key etc., you can find these keys for free by massgate dot com. There is also a big modding community for the interested ones.
For a gem under 3 Euros on GOG with an intense single player campaign (around 16h playtime), 5 stars!
This game is all about the campaign. Play it. Play it again. Play it again and again and again. The story is excellent, the voice acting brilliant, the levels of destruction are massive and the AI relentles! With most missions often offering at least one, sometimes as many as three, "side missions" which are issued as the the battle rages completing every part of every level is that most demanding of tasks. See the big picture, control the battle at the point of contact, manage the reserves and make sure you don't let a single enemy past!