The Story Timeline Order of Command & Conquer Games
Command & Conquer is a franchise of real-time strategy (RTS) video games. Command & Conquer games present alternate realities, base building and multiple missions to complete. Command & Conquer video games are often considered classics of the RTS sub-genre, and are among the favorites of many strategy game fans and players around the world.
What Are Command & Conquer Games Like?
In general, Command & Conquer games feature typical RTS gameplay, including resource gathering, base building, recrutuing units and defeating enemies, across multiple missions. Command & Conquer games are set in an alternate reality, also called an alternate history.
In Command & Conquer video games, players employ different technologies and strategies to accomplish specific objectives in order to progress through the multiple missions of each game. Command & Conquer games are classic RTS video games, and for this reason, contain many of the hallmarks of that sub-genre.
Is There an Order to Play the Command & Conquer Games?
While Command & Conquer video games can be played in any order and enjoyed, these games are generally set in specific years, although they belong to alternate realities. Due to these games being set in specific alternate time periods, it is reasonable to consider playing these games in chronological story order for the most comprehensive story experience possible.
The chronology of the Command & Conquer video games can be daunting, specially considering that some of the games feature time travel. Nonetheless, often is each Command & Conquer game set in a different year of the Command & Conquer alternate reality. For this reason, for players who want to play these games in chronological story order, an order which makes sense chronologically, making use of the list presented in this article is particularly important. Even in the cases in which I was not able to find the exact year in which some specific games are set, in most cases I was able to find the chronological relation of different games, and thus was been able to write a reasonable chronological story order of these games. Beyond that, considering that I did find the exact year of some of the Command & Conquer games, I was also able to estimate the placement of some of the Command & Conquer video games for which I did not find the exact year in the alternate time presented in the Command & Conquer series.
The Chronological Story Order of the Command & Conquer Games
This is the chronological story order of the Command & Conquer video games. This is different from the chronological release order of the games. Instead, this is the chronological order in which the story events of the different Command & Conquer video games take place. This is the suggested order in which to play these games for the most comprehensive story experience possible.
In most cases, when I write a chronological story order list of video games, I only include core games, and I do not include expansions. However, in the specific case of the Command & Conquer video games, the expansions often add new storylines which are relevant to the canon of the games. For this reason, it would be unreasonable to write a chronological story order list of the Command & Conquer video games without mentioning the expansions and their placement in the chronology of this series of games. For this reason, even though this is called a chronological story order of games, I decided to include the expansions as well, in the cases in which the expansions add new storylines.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
Command & Conquer (1995)
Command & Conquer: Renegade
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight
It seems to me that Command & Conquer: Renegade takes place at the same time as Command & Conquer (1995), but that Command & Conquer: Renegade starts after the beginning of Command & Conquer (1995). For this reason, I decided to place Command & Conquer: Renegade after Command & Conquer (1995) in my chronological story order list.
There are some Command & Conquer video games for which I did not find exact information regarding their placement in the Command & Conquer video games chronology. For this reason, I cannot include these games in my chronological story order list of Command & Conquer video games. Instead, I included these games in a separate list.
Command & Conquer: Generals
Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour
Command & Conquer: Rivals
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances
I did not find exact information regarding the year in which Command & Conquer: Generals and its expansion, Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour would place in the alternate reality of the Command & Conquer games universe. I only know that Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour is set after Command & Conquer: Generals. Considering that I did not find the exact year in which these titles would fit in the Command & Conquer games universe chronology, I did not include them directly in my chronological story order of Command & Conquer games, and instead mentioned them in the separate list that I wrote.
The Story Timeline Order of Command & Conquer Games
This is the story timeline order of the Command & Conquer video games. Of course, considering that Command & Conquer video games are set in an alternate reality, all of the years shown in this list represent fictional years, which could be called "Command & Conquer years", "years in the Command & Conquer universe" as well as "years in the Command & Conquer alternate reality".
While I was not able to find the exact year in the alternate reality of Command & Conquer video games, I was able to find this information for most of these games. Regarding the specific games for which I did not find the specific year in the Command & Conquer games time, I was at least able to estimate their placement in this timeline of Command & Conquer games that I wrote. For example, in the case of Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, while I do not know its exact year in the Command & Conquer games alternate time, I know that it is set after Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, thus is it certainly set either in 1972 or after that year. The same logic was also applied to other Command & Conquer video games in which I did not find information regarding the exact year in the Command & Conquer games alternate time. The cases in which I included a specific year, such as Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, which I wrote the year 1995, are the cases in which I found information regarding the specific year of the game in the Command & Conquer alternate time.
1946 Command & Conquer: Red Alert
1972 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
19?? Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge
19?? Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
19?? Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
1995 Command & Conquer (1995)
1995 Command & Conquer: Renegade
1995 Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
2034 Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Firestorm
20?? Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
2047 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
2062 Command & Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight
???? Command & Conquer: Generals
???? Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour
???? Command & Conquer: Rivals
???? Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 features time travel, which would place it in 1927. However, the storyline of the game begins after Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. For this reason, I decided to place Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 after Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 in my timeline of Command & Conquer video games.
While it is unclear to me when exactly Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances is set, it likely is set during the Command & Conquer Tiberium games, placing it sometime between 1995 and 2062.
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