Ok so I just got renegade yesterday and have spent a few hours playing it. Does it look dated??? I'm afraid it does.
Particularly the Geometry side of things. The geometric complexity of the game REALLY hurts it. Buildings just look
like big blocky masses, and hillsides/mountains are all big spiky/blocky things as well. Of particular disappointment
were the GDI guard tower and the NOD obelisk of light. These are soooooo simply done they look trashy, and their
texturing makes them look worse. Grey drab colours that seem to emphasize the blockyness and lack of relief in the
buildings. Some hillocks are just basically boxes, which look absolutely terrible. They score barely a point on their
geometry engine. Thats kind of sad really, today we have engines capable of depicting quite believable environments,
but Renegade definitely lacks the polygons needed to make more life like environments.


But I make the game sound all bad, this is not true. Not ALL the geometry is terrible. And not all the texturing is
terrible either. In fact, both of these aspects can be quite good at times. Take the very first mission. You gotta
go in and save some of your guys who're getting shot up by NOD. The designers of this level have taken the weaknesses
of the engine into account, and created ledges and a type of canyon that you'd expect to be kinda blocky anyhow.
Added to this, the texturing in that level was quite good, which hid a lot of the simple geometry. But in fact, some
of the boulders strewn about were bordering on quite complex bits of work. But the level is small and I suspect that
gave the developers a bit more geometrical leeway when making the level. Also, from some screenshots you can see
that the powerstations actually don't look too bad. Considering that these buildings have curved rooves and smoke
stacks you might wonder how these can look so good and others, like the Obelisk, look so trashy. ME TOO!
There is an option in the SEPARATE (Come ON! That died ages ago. It all happens IN GAME NOW) setup utility that
has an option for curved surfaces and gives a small explanation that it adds more polygons to some things to make
curved areas look more realistic. I couldn't check that option with my HERCULES TI500 so I assume that must be
referring to ATI's Reality Mapping (creates curved surfaces...whats it called again). So perhaps some screenshots
were taken using an ATI card (SHUDDER!). I guess to put this sore poin t of mine in perspective for you, you need
to look at other games which didn't rely on their geometry engine to make great games. Look at TOMB RAIDER. All
that game used were SQUARE BLOCKS! All the same size. And they were able to amke some really good levels just
using those square blocks. Now, the RENEGADE engine craps all over the Tomb Raider engine in terms of geometric
capability. Sometimes the levels can really look good. First mission is a case in point. But some things you
just cant do, like make believable hills and mountains. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It seems
to me that the WESTWOOD guys have made every attempt to design to the limitations of their engine, but some
things you might want to put in can't really be made all that well. Some days you're the statue, some days the
pidgeon.


In the second mission, when you start at the ocean, you find some really good texturing. Namely the one used to
depict the kind of grey jaggy cliffs rising up from the ocean. Looks average up close, but stand back a bit and
they become really quite clear and detailed. Also of particular interest with these textures is that they have
used dark patches as shadows, which indicate there is something in front of, or just off to the side of the
shadow. The effect is the illusion that the cliff face has a lot of depth, beyond the undulations depicted in
the overall texture. Really quite a good effect! And the ocean itself is very well done with the sun reflecting
off it in a realistic manner and the ripples looking very real indeed. Pity you can't splash about in it though.
I also came across some quite detailed brick and wall textures that really looked quite good. Of course that
went straight to hell when you came up close, but keep a reaspectable distance and it really looks good. No
detail texturing at all. In fact I haven't seen good detail texturing since UNREAL. That of NOLF wasn't bad
though. To say that the texturing in RENEGADE is badly dated, as some people in the forums are saying, isn't
really true. A fair amount of the texturing looks really quite good. But unfortunately there is a number of
examples of really bad textures. The obelisk of light for one. YUCK! I think most of the texturing falls
into the "good but not that good" category. Too many mediocre and BAD textures mixed with those that are
Truly great to look at. All mixed up it comes out warm and cooling rapidly.

No go zones always piss me off when playing FPS games. An invisible line that "THOU SHALT NOT CROSS!!!!" All of
a sudden you hit this invisible wall that blocks you from going any further. Not all that realistic... is it...
Most 3D environments stop you from going somewhere by some physical thing you can see, like a gate or just a
ridge or wall you cant get over. SOMETHING at any rate. RENEGADE has the invisible type that piss me off!
Just try to step into the ocean and an invisible wall stops you. That just serves to frustrate you more than
anything.

Also that waterfall in the second mission is one of the most FAKE waterfalls I have EVER seen. It looks more
like a big gleaming crystal than it does a raging waterfall. YELCH!!!! Another example of the Renegade
engines limitation. But even some kind of rushing water texture would have worked better here. It stinks
of a rushed job.


The aiming in the game seems kinda difficult for me. Granted, I'm using a Razor BOOMSLANG that has a habit of
sticking. But You gotta get that little dot on the guy before you hit a thing. Bah... Maybe I should have
turned on the aiming help... but that would make it too easy. To be fair, if it becomes too easy to kill
the bad guys then you begin to lose interest quite rapidly. So, this is raw unaided mouse aiming at work.
Most games will "let you hit" a baddy if you get prettey close with the aim cursor. But not RENEGADE. Miss
by a hair, miss by a mile. Now ain't that life???



The vehicles are a treat in this game. Still a bit blocky, with pro hexagon tyres, but I guess thats just for
the grip. Being able to drive a tank around with your direction keys and aim the cannon with your mouse really
takes some getting used to. As I'm Soooo used to the mouse controlling my direction of travel as well as the
keys. You get a 3rd person view of the vehicle when you hop in it, which is good really. What good is hooning
about in a tank if you can't see the guys you squish. GDI's mammoth tank kicks ass for destroying NOD harvesters,
and really gives you the sense of weilding the ultimate power on the battlefield. You got rockets for the stupid
red bastards that try gibbing you with their popguns, and dual cannons that blast all manner of stuff apart with
gay abandon. The tiberium harvesters ate my favourite though. They throw up all this dust as they rumble past
and the low growl of their diesel engines sets my eyes alight. The dust FX for the harvesters is EXCELLENT.
Plain but very effective. The vast array of moving vehicles in the game is something we havent really seen up
until now. You get GDI Orca's and Nod Apache's fighting in midair above you. Orca's attacking transports, Nod
Cargo trucks (remember them), Chinook helicopters, Nod Buggies, Humvees, Tanks, Hover Transports. All done
reasonably well, some better than others. The Nod Buggy really looks good though. If you buy Renegade for
one reason, do it to check out the vehicles. Those dogfights! YOU ain't seen nothin like it Brother!!


The weapons? Yeah nobbad.... nobbad... But still a step back from what we've come to enjoy with quakeIII, NOLF,
UT, RTCW and other recent titles. Simple collections of polygons with only the barest of animations to go with
them. No glowing ammo counters, no gunpowder flashes and no ejecting cartridges... Almost a staple now, these
are sadly missing from renegade. Also no FX when bullets hit sand or walls. None but a tiny decal that might
spring up. You're meant to get some kind of spalsh if you fire a bullet into water, but it only happend
sometimes for me, and was only a basic blue fizz of particles. Same when you are actually allowed to jump in a
trough or something. Bring on the blue particle fizz....... But lets not be over critical. Everybody dreams
about what they'd like to see in games and the reality is ALWAYS different. Your basic GDI machine gun is good,
I mean it looks like a machinegun and sounds like one too. You get to see the round cartridge being pulled out
and put back in when you reload, stuff like that. The NOD gattling gun is my favourite though. Spinning
demonics is that thing. But curiously, the ammo belt still seems to move when you're not using it?????
quite curious! The sniper rifle is good but for the greenOut you get when you zoom in. But for those used
to railgun tournaments, this weapon can be deadly effective. The flame thrower is quite a curious weapon
my mind. It takes a while to kill people, and they don't seem to catch on fire a la RTCWolfenstein. Also
they are USELESS against other flamethrower goons. Ahh well, can't have everything. I haven't tried any
other weapons yet, but I drool with glee at the chance.

So there is a lot to see wrong with the games level of technology. CLEARLY a dated geometry engine covered with
a not bad, but not top of the line texturing effort. But there is a lot to enjoy from the game. A different 3D
engine takes away that QUAKEY feel that all ID engine games seem to have. And that is like a fresh slate ready
for different experiences. I liken it to a good game made with a mediocre engine. I have enjoyed Renegade so far.
I've just started the third mission where it's snowing and so far the level looks quite good. Another example of
where the level has been made to fit the capabilities of the engine. If you were a fan of the C&C series as I was,
then you'll get a kick out of this game. If not you may start to wonder what all the fuss is about. If you find
yourself enjoying a game then thats all that matters, and engine quirks fade into the ether as you hop in a
mammoth tank and take out a NOD Helicopter transport delivering reinforcements. TAKE THAT YOU NOD FUNBOYS!!





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