Command & Conquer: Generals: Difference between revisions

** The reboot/sequel meanwhile suggests that the Europeans would ''finally'' get their due.

* [[Badass Boast]]: Guys like Col. Burton and Pathfinders have the knack of constantly telling you how well-experienced they are in their fields. Sometimes even in campaign set piece triggers.

* [[Beam Spam]]: The American AN/TWQ-1 Avenger Humvee is nothing but lasers. Let's have a look, shall we? Two [[Anti-Air|anti-aircraft lasers]], four [[Point Defenseless|point-defense]] lasers for [[Destructible Projectiles|shooting down missiles]], and one [[Laser Sight|ground-only targeting laser]], which are [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|colored red, yellow and blue, respectively, for your viewing convenience]], of course. Now, take note: the Avenger can use ''all'' of them at once at multiple targets.

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: The Chinese present themselves as this to Europe in ''Zero Hour'' after the US retreat, driving out the GLA "invaders."

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: The GLA, for all their talk, are horrible people and arguably the most evil faction the series. But on the other hand, the "good guys" aren't ''entirely'' altruistic on their part. America for instance comes across at times as motivated by self-interest and opportunism just as much as "defending the free world." While the Chinese meanwhile don't seem to have second thoughts about torching or nuking their way to victory if they have to, nor do they have second thoughts about blowing up large portions of their own cities or handing ''tactical nuclear weapons'' to terrorist turncoats. Also, one has to wonder how they're running their occupied portion of Kazakhstan if a general there defects and the GLA was able to convince mobs to burn down Astana and recruited several anti-China militiamen from an occupied fishing village in the first mission.

** It's even mentioned in the ''Zero Hour'' campaign that the Europeans eventually forced the Chinese to back down from nuking towns and cities infested with GLA terror cells.

* [[Bowdlerise]]: Among the ''C&C'' titles, ''Generals'' was hit worst, which was subject to some changes to avoid an M rating in Germany. Most commonly was the tactic of calling all infantry units ''cyborgs'' and changing/removing sounds and effects that would suggest otherwise. With Generals this was done for ''everyone'', even the generals and the reporters (but not all their clips were altered). And the terrorist was replaced by...[[Fridge Logic|a bomb on wheels. That can drive cars.]]

* [[Break Out the Museum Piece]]: A sizable chunk of the GLA's arsenal is comprised of jury-rigged Cold War-era weaponry. Meanwhile, the Chinese tend to rely on more "outdated" tactics and aesthetics compared to the Americans.

* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: ''Generals'' goes from ''C&C'' style left-clicking to ''[[Warcraft]]/[[StarCraft]]'' style right-clicking. Fortunately the designers were kind enough to let you change to the "classic" controls if you wanted.

* [[Death From Above]]: Besides the [[Kill Sat]] below, the [[Support Power|artillery bombardment/airdropped explosives]]/faction-specific superweapons.

* [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells]]: Depleted uranium shells are an upgrade to PRC tank gun ammunition.

** The GLA counterpart gets a biological equivalent, which more than doubles a tank shell's [[Strong Flesh, Weak Steel|previously near-zero lethality against infantry]].

* [[Destructible Projectiles|Destructible Missiles]]: Missiles that are smaller than the PRC Nuclear Missile superweapon can be destroyed mid-air using an American [[Frickin' Laser Beams|point-defense laser]].

* [[Dummied Out]]: General Fai and General Juhziz lack their own Challenges in the official release of Zero Hour. There were also plans for a USA and GLA Boss General as well (General Ironside and General Mohomar, respectively). They can still be found within the game files, and many mods have re-enabled these levels.

* [[Easy Logistics]]: The PRC somehow gets thousands of troops shipped to Germany in hours.

* [[Elites Are More Glamorous]]: The Americans you're allowed to use are made up of nothing but elites or hi-tech regulars.

* [[EMP]]: Another Chinese specialty. Their ECM tanks can not only off the enemy structures but also shut down vehicles (in the case of aircraft, drop them from the sky) and jam missiles.

* [[Enemy Exchange Program]]: Notably the only game in the entire ''C&C'' franchise that doesn't use an Engineer to seize a building. Instead, you train your basic infantry to place flags on a building for a set amount of time until it becomes yours.

** The Lotus special agents can also do what the grunts can; only better.

* [[Invisibility Cloak]]: Among some of the things: Stealth Fighters, Pathfinders, Radar Vans, Demolition Traps, and a whole Stealth General army.

{{quote|Now, watch this. ''([[Beat]])'' [[Trash Talk|Oh, wait, you can't!]] -- '''Prince Kassad'''}}

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: The PRC have flamethrowers, incendiary shells and napalm missiles. They're capable of walling off approaches with constant firestorms.

* [[Knight Templar]]: The GLA troops call themselves "liberators of the poor oppressed peoples of the world" while stealing humanitarian aid from those very people and slaughtering entire villages and cities. The GLA tries to excuse the former by claiming they'll find a "better use" for those supplies.

** The GLA news anchor from ''Zero Hour'', Omar bin-Gazali, ramps this up by praising the GLA and [[Demonization|demonizing]] the USA and the PRC.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Dr. Thrax, Gen. Tsing Shi "The Nuke" Tao and Gen. Leiang "Tigress" Leang. The first one threatens you verbally, the next does it by demonstration of force and the third goes with a combination of both and [[Foreshadowing|a little hinting]] from Gen. Kwai.

* [[NGO Superpower]]: The GLA is shown to be this, being comprised of various cells in Central Asia and the Middle East.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: The Zero Hour manual is chock full of these. General Tsin Shi Tao (the nuke general) was the head officer in Mudanjiang when an unspecified disaster occurred that almost cost him his career. General Shin Fai (the infantry general) participated in the "Taiwan Conflict" and General Alexis Alexander (the superweapon general) was a logistical staffer in the "Second Korean War".

** The conditions that led to the creation of Aldastan (from the break up of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) is also unknown.

* [[Nuke'Em|Nuke 'Em!]]: The PRC, as a whole, and Gen. Tsing Shi Tao in particular. He specializes in nuclear warfare, and when he isn't spamming nuke silos, he's steamrolling you with nuclear-powered tanks firing depleted uranium, or MiGs and Helixes dropping tactical nukes.

* [[Occupiers Out of Our Country!]]:

* [[Sniping the Cockpit]]: One hero unit that can snipe pilots out of vehicles, leaving behind the unoccupied vehicle that can then be captured by a friendly infantry grunt. The Chinese Nuke Cannon superweapon does the same thing but on a larger scale.

* [[Spy Satellites]]: The first [[Support Power]] available to a player with a USA Command Center. In the cinematics, the snapshots it makes of everything on the ground is [[Deliberately Monochrome]].

* [[Stock Sound Effects]]: ''Generals'' reuses a ''lot'' of sound effects from ''[[Command and Conquer Red Alert 2]]''.

* [[Support Power]]: The first ''C&C'' to field all three types. Of note is the General Powers system, which is works not by making stuff or by completing a mission objective, but by earning points and using said points to gain new powers.

* [[Tank Goodness]]: Anything with the word ''tank'' on its name, while ''Zero Hour'''s Gen. Kwai is built around this trope.

** [[Tanks, But No Tanks]]: But technically, armored vehicles like the PRC Gatling Tank, the GLA Marauder Tank and the USA Microwave Tank are simply an up-armored [[wikipedia:Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon|self-propelled anti-aircraft Gatling gun]], a turretless [[wikipedia:Assault gun|assault gun]] and a mobile [[wikipedia:Active Denial System|active denial system]], respectively.

** [[Phlebotinum Bomb]]: There are two types, both fielded by the PRC. The first is the air-dropped [[EMP]] bomb, which incapacitates anything but infantry. The second is the neutron warhead in flavors of [[BFG|artillery shell]] or [[Land Mine Goes Click|land mine]], which only kills infantry, including those hiding inside vehicles and buildings.

* [[Tube Travel]]: The aptly-named GLA [[Tunnel Network]], which involves building separate entrances that are somehow magically connected the instant the entrance is completed no matter the distance or location on the map.

* [[Units Not to Scale]]: Averted with the humongous aircraft carrier and battleships. However, due to pathfinding issues, these realistically large ships only appear in a select few missions and are unbuildable. The rest of the units play this rather straight.

* [[Variable Mix]]: The background music changes based on how well you're doing or if you're fighting or not.

* [[Video Game Flamethrowers Suck]]: [[Averted Trope|Far from it.]] [[Short-Range Long-Range Weapon|While incredibly short in range]], Dragon Tanks have staggering potential against infantry. In numbers, they can stop tanks, too, assuming they're using the Wall of Flame ability.

* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: The American Particle ([[Pillar of Light|Beam]]) Cannon. [[Term Confusion|No, it doesn't use a laser]].

* [[Wham! Episode]]: The final mission of the GLA campaign in ''Zero Hour''. GLA not only beats the USA, they give them such a brutal defeat that the United States completely withdraws its troops from Europe and returns to isolationism. The GLA take over European cities, leaving only ''communist freaking China'' as the hope of the free world.

* [[Worker Unit]]: No Construction Yards here, but bulldozers, transport helicopters, trucks and certain men [[You Have Researched Breathing|who need shoes from the Black Market]].

* [[Wretched Hive]]: The GLA's main stronghold is Kazakhstan. The majority of the USA campaign and a large portion of the PRC one takes place there, and there capital is Astana. Aside from that, they also mantain de facto control of Aldastan, a fictional Central Asian nation made from the union of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

* [[You Have Researched Breathing|You Have Given Your GLA Workers Some Shoes]]: Because that's, quoting the description for it, what "they've been asking for."