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.

Setting
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 Brotherhood of the Blue Moon calling the event a "religious calamity", 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 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.

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 Africa. This is our time to make it really hurt for them"