OpenRA Review: These Modders Fixed Command & Conquer Better Than EA Ever Could
I've been waiting twenty years for EA to re-release Command & Conquer properly. Instead, a bunch of dedicated fans did it for free, and somehow it's better than anything I could have paid sixty quid for.
Why Is a Free Fan Project Better Than Most AAA Remasters?
I loaded up OpenRA expecting the usual fan remake experience: janky controls, missing features, and a Discord server full of apologies about 'known issues.' What I got instead was Command & Conquer running better than it did in 1995, with quality-of-life improvements I didn't know I needed until I had them. Right-click movement as an option. Fog of war that actually works. A production sidebar that doesn't make me want to throw my mouse through the monitor. This is what happens when people who actually play RTS games spend years rebuilding one from scratch. The engine feels responsive, the pathfinding doesn't send my tank column on a scenic tour through enemy fire, and I can actually stream matches without the game having an existential crisis. I've played Ā£50 remasters that respected the source material less than this free download. It's simultaneously refreshing and depressing that a volunteer project outclasses what major studios charge premium prices for.
Does It Actually Play Like I Remember, or Am I Just Old?
Here's the thing about nostalgia: it lies. I remember Command & Conquer being perfect, but the reality is those games had questionable unit pathfinding, production queues that disappeared if you looked at them wrong, and no fog of war, which meant multiplayer matches devolved into whoever could click fastest. OpenRA keeps everything that made the original compulsive ā the base-building tempo, the Tiberium harvesting rhythm, the delicious crunch of a Mammoth Tank rolling through infantry ā and quietly fixes everything that didn't age well. Units gain experience and rank up as they fight, which adds actual weight to keeping your veterans alive instead of treating them like disposable widgets. Civilian structures you can capture for bonuses. Proper replays and spectator mode for when you want to relive your crushing defeat in excruciating detail. The core gameplay loop is pure 1995 Command & Conquer, which means I'm still building Obelisks and Tesla Coils at 2am like I'm sixteen again, except now the game doesn't crash when I queue up twenty Mammoth Tanks at once.
What About the Three Bundled Mods That Nobody Talks About?
OpenRA ships with three separate campaigns: Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, and Dune 2000. All three are fully playable, properly balanced, and include the original mission structure with modern conveniences layered on top. I started with Tiberian Dawn because I'm a nostalgic fool, and forty-five minutes disappeared before I remembered I had other responsibilities. The Red Alert mod is where the multiplayer community lives, because of course it is ā Tesla Coils and Chronosphere shenanigans never get old. The Dune 2000 mod is the surprise standout for me, mostly because I'd forgotten how much slower and more methodical Dune plays compared to the cocaine-paced chaos of Red Alert. Each mod feels distinct, properly supported, and legitimately finished, which is more than I can say for most full-price strategy releases. The fact that the game auto-downloads original assets on first launch means I didn't have to dig through storage for twenty-year-old CDs, which saved me from a minor breakdown.
Is the Multiplayer Scene Actually Alive, or Am I Queuing Into Ghosts?
I was fully prepared to find empty lobbies and a community consisting of three people in Germany. Instead, there are active matches at most hours, a functional matchmaking system, and enough players that I'm not constantly facing the same opponent. The observer interface works properly, which means watching high-level matches is genuinely educational instead of just confusing. Replay support means I can watch my own failures in slow motion and realize exactly where I messed up the build order. The community skews toward people who grew up on these games and still remember build orders by muscle memory, so expect to get absolutely demolished in your first few matches. But the skill ceiling is high enough that improving feels meaningful, and the netcode holds up well enough that my losses feel like actual tactical failures instead of lag-induced nonsense. I've played modern RTS games with worse online infrastructure than this free fan project, which says everything about the current state of the genre.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong With a Free Fan Remake?
OpenRA is open source, which means it's subject to the usual open-source problems: development pace depends entirely on volunteer time, feature requests live in GitHub hell, and the UI occasionally looks like it was designed by people who think 'user-friendly' is a suggestion. The graphics are faithful recreations of mid-90s pixel art, which means if you hated the aesthetic then, you'll still hate it now. No amount of modern rendering will make a Harvester look less like a rectangular blob. The AI is competent but not brilliant ā it'll punish sloppy play but won't put up much resistance if you know what you're doing. And while the game is free, you're still technically downloading assets from games EA owns, which creates a perpetual legal gray area that could theoretically explode at any moment if EA's lawyers wake up one morning feeling litigious. The documentation assumes you have some baseline familiarity with classic RTS conventions, so complete newcomers might feel lost.
Should I Actually Download This, or Just Keep Replaying StarCraft II?
If you have any affection for Command & Conquer, Red Alert, or the golden age of RTS games before everything became an eSport or died trying, OpenRA is essential. It's free, it works properly, and it proves that faithful remakes don't require massive budgets or corporate involvement ā they just require people who care enough to do it right. The fact that it includes multiplayer with an active community and proper mod support means this isn't just a nostalgia trip; it's a legitimately viable way to play classic RTS games in 2025. I've paid full price for remasters that offered less content and worse execution. I've suffered through official re-releases that felt like cynical cash grabs. OpenRA is neither of those things. It's a love letter to a specific era of strategy gaming, rebuilt by people who understand what made those games work. My only genuine complaint is that it makes me angry this level of care and competence is apparently too much to expect from the actual rights holders.
Rating Breakdown
Zero crashes, smooth as silk, and it runs on hardware older than most of the devs ā this is how you port a classic.
It's Command & Conquer with fog of war and replay support, which isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but it's the right improvements in the right places.
Free, open source, three full campaigns bundled, and I didn't have to sell my soul to Origin ā it's legitimately difficult to beat free when the product actually works.
The core loop that kept me up until 3am in 1996 still works in 2025, and somehow the quality-of-life tweaks make it even more addictive.
It's pixel art RTS from the mid-90s rendered at modern resolutions ā looks crisp, sounds authentic, and the Hell March still slaps harder than it has any right to.
Three distinct campaigns, multiplayer that actually has active lobbies, and full mod support means I've already sunk more hours into this than I care to admit.
What Didn't Annoy Me
- Runs flawlessly on ancient hardware without compromising on modern quality-of-life features
- Three full campaigns bundled for free with active multiplayer communities that actually exist
- Right-click controls and proper fog of war fix problems I didn't realize I still had with the originals
- Replay and spectator systems work better than most full-price strategy releases I've suffered through
- Open-source transparency means no hidden monetization schemes or surprise always-online requirements
- Units gaining experience adds meaningful tactical weight to keeping veterans alive instead of treating them like expendable trash
What Made Me Sigh
- The AI is competent enough to punish mistakes but won't challenge anyone who knows basic RTS build orders
- Multiplayer community skews heavily toward veterans who will absolutely destroy you if you don't remember optimal Mammoth Tank timing
- UI occasionally feels like it was designed by developers who consider usability a nice-to-have rather than a requirement
- Legal gray area with EA's assets means this could theoretically vanish if corporate lawyers have a bad day
- Graphics are faithful to mid-90s pixel art, which means they still look like mid-90s pixel art
I went into OpenRA expecting a decent nostalgia trip and came out genuinely angry that volunteer developers managed to create a better Command & Conquer experience than EA has in the last fifteen years. It's free, it's polished, it respects both the source material and my time, and it proves that the RTS genre didn't die ā it just needed people who actually cared about it to step in. The quality-of-life improvements feel essential rather than intrusive, the multiplayer scene is surprisingly active, and the fact that three full campaigns come bundled without asking for my credit card details feels like a relic from a better timeline. If you have any fondness for classic RTS gameplay, download this immediately. If you don't, this probably won't convert you, but at least it's free, so you can find out without financial regret. I'll be over here building Obelisks until sunrise like it's 1996 again.
Played this game? Share your score.
You rated this /10
More Like This
Into the Breach Review: Fine, I Admit It, Some New Games Aren't Completely Useless
Iām not usually one to sing praises, especially not for a modern indie strategy game. But Into the Breach somehow snuck past my defenses and made me actually, genuinely, begrudgingly enjoy myself.
Dwarf Fortress Review: Still the Untamed Beast, Now with Fewer Headaches (Barely)
I didn't ask for a graphical overhaul, Bay 12, but I suppose this legendary time-sink is slightly less impenetrable than it used to be. Don't mistake that for an endorsement, it's just a concession.
Slay the Spire Review: Another Card Game That Actually Earned My Grudging Respect
Honestly, when I heard 'card game' and 'roguelike' together, I just sighed. Another one. But then I sat down with Slay the Spire, and now I'm here, sleep-deprived and slightly annoyed that it's actually... good.
Unciv Review: Someone Finally Fixed Civilization V By Remaking It Entirely
A free, open-source Civ V clone that runs on a potato and somehow captures everything that made the original great. I'm annoyed at how good this is.