Sadly, because of its poor critical reception, Tiberian Twilight is largely known for being the Franchise Killer for Command & Conquer as a whole. Shortly after, a planned sequel for Generals was cancelled at its alpha stage, and there have been no major C&C releases ever sincenote .
The only Command & Conquer game besides Command & Conquer: Renegade not to receive an expansion pack.
Please note that this page is for tropes that feature in this game. Please add tropes relating to other games as well on the main Tiberian Series page.
This game contains examples of:
- Aliens in Cardiff: Both GDI and Nod have several missions that take place in GDI's administrative capital of "New Adana". The exact location is never stated, but pre-mission maps put it in southwestern Turkey where the real-life city of Adana is located. While Adana has a somewhat important status by Turkish standards due to hosting US troops in the nearby Incirlik Airbase, it has little international significance otherwise.
- Alliterative Title
- All There in the Manual: The vast majority of the backstory can only be learned through the manual (i.e. Gideon's backstory), the now-defunct official website (i.e. unit profiles), or dev interviews.
- The most glaring example is the reason for the massive acceleration of Tiberium growth, or rather, the lack of one. The game offers absolutely no explanation for the reason of its entire premise, and the answer for why Tiberium suddenly started growing so quick can only be found in an interview
on a now-defunct website.
- The most glaring example is the reason for the massive acceleration of Tiberium growth, or rather, the lack of one. The game offers absolutely no explanation for the reason of its entire premise, and the answer for why Tiberium suddenly started growing so quick can only be found in an interview
- Animal Motifs: Nod Offense division has several units based on spiders.
- Anti-Climax: The whole game is this for the entire Tiberian series. The Scrin invasion force heavily foreshadowed in Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath? They don't even show up for what is supposed to be the Grand Finale of the franchise. Not to mention how the game resolves the Tiberian storyline in the laziest, least satisfying way possible.
- Anti-Villain/Anti-Hero: Kane's actions in this game are nearly heroic, what with working with GDI to create the Tiberium Control Network to save the planet, even if it's largely to help him complete his "Ascension."
- Arbitrary Head Count Limit: Around 60 units. One of the major breaks the game perpetrates against its nominal predecessors, in which the freedom to field massive armies is a signature characteristic.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: It is debatable whether it is another plane or not but both Kane and the Brotherhood of Nod finally ascend in the end of the game.
- Bittersweet Ending: The world has been saved from Tiberium poisoning, but in both endings, the Player Character dies shortly after watching Kane and his followers ascend.
- Cardboard Prison: The GDI Supermax facility is probably the worst designed maximum security prison in history. It uses jail bars instead of steel doors (allowing the prisoners to attack the guards through them), has little to no security measures and barely any prison guards, and one of the prisoners somehow got his hands on a knife. Also, even though the GDI defenders have access to power armor and armored vehicles, Nod fanatics armed with nothing but Molotov cocktails somehow managed to break in.
- Continuity Snarl: The tie-in motion comic series, other than making no sense in general, managed to contradict the game it's tying into on nearly every major plot point.
- Episode 1 took place in 2068 according to the video description, yet it's mentioned in the comic itself that it took place 4 years after the GDI-Nod alliance formed, which happened in 2062. It also stated that original protagonist Christian Pierce and his family lived in a Red Zone, yet the immediate vicinity of their home still had normal trees and grass, rather than the alien wasteland that would actually qualify it as a Red Zone.
- Episode 2 has Christian Pierce saving the Methuselah crew by ordering an evacuation. In the game, however, Nash implied that it was Parker who saved the Methuselah crew.
- Episode 4 has Kane reveal that Gideon was working for him all along. In the Nod campaign, however, Gideon stops Kane's plans for ascension time and time again until Kane has him captured, while spouting the same rhetorics about Kane being a traitor as when he was supposedly working for Kane. Also, the supposedly important "key to ascension" that Christian acquired for him was never brought up in the game.
- Death from Above: You can deploy your GDI Crawler right on top of your enemies, causing them to be crushed by the giant drop pod launched from space. Inverted with the Nod Crawlers, which are Death From Below.
- Deflector Shields: Several units have this, such as the Nod Centurion, which is equipped with an energy shield capable of reflecting most attacks while standing still. The GDI Refractor also has a reflective shield.
- Deus ex Machina: In the 8th GDI Mission, a Man In Black named Duquette helps the player escape the GDI Supermax after Colonel James' failed coup. Who is he? Why did he help you? Who does he work for? None of it is explained, and he never shows up in the game ever again. Even the game itself acknowledges this: the cutscene that plays on that level is literally named "Ex Machina".
- Diabolus ex Machina: The sudden acceleration of Tiberium growth. It comes absolutely out of nowhere, is never hinted at or foreshadowed before, and only serves as a plot device to force GDI and Nod to team up.
- Dolled-Up Installment: Or rather, Dolled Up Gaiden Game. The original concept for the project was to make an inexpensive multiplayer-only game with account progression, set in the Tiberium universe, designed for small, quick matches in places like cyber-cafes. During the development, an executive decision was made to expand the project into a full-fledged sequel to Tiberium Wars. The resulting game reflects this.
- Drama Queen: The Commander's wife really only exists only to either die, cry a lot or to claim that she loves you. That's all she ever does.
- Escort Mission: The tutorial mission has you escorting an VIP's personal transport. The VIP turned out to be Kane.
- After picking your side, both the GDI and the Nod campaign have you protecting civilian transports as your first mission. The GDI mission is simple enough, since you only need to ensure 12 transports reach the destination, and the transports respawn indefinitely. In the Nod mission, however, you only have two transports. Lose both and it's game over.
- Fake Longevity: Unlike in previous CNC games, the new rank progression system forces you to grind your way through battles after battles just to unlock your entire arsenal. And if that's not bad enough, your GDI rank and Nod rank are separate, meaning you have to grind both to full level just to experience the full game.
- The Hero Dies: Whichever side you choose, your character will die of a gunshot wound from Colonel James in the ending.
- Hufflepuff House: The Idris Corporation got a lot of focus in pre-release material, implying that they would play a great role in the story. In the game, however, they are literally never even mentioned. Pascal, an Idris scientist, was responsible for making the optical implants. This is about the only plot-critical contribution Idris made, and Pascal just as easily could have been a GDI scientist instead. GDI's General Secretary in this game, Evelyn Rios, was an Idris exec. This bit of backstory seemed like it was setting up a commentary on corporate influence on politics, yet not only was this never mentioned in the game, but Rios was never portrayed as anything other than a Reasonable Authority Figure throughout the story.
- Humans Advance Swiftly: Both GDI and Nod had a huge technological leap since the last game. Especially Nod, which went from a guerrilla force mostly made up of badly trained cannon fodders to an army of cyborgs and spaceships with laser guns. The in-universe explanation is that the decoding of the Tacitus and the recovery of Scrin weapons advanced military technology dramatically. Of course, this is also helped by the fact that the game is set nearly two decades after the last one.
- Idiot Ball: Just about everyone. Kane won't reveal his (rather harmless) goal, so half of the GDI accuses him of having evil plans, half of Nod feels betrayed, and everyone else gladly fights for Kane without knowing the truth. James is an arrogant, obsessive nut who jumps to the immediate conclusion that he's trying to bring the Scrin back on flimsy evidence, General Riggs refuses to put his foot down and end Jame's insubordination before it goes too far.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Titan mecha looks a lot like a Clan Shadowcat when it initially comes out of the Crawler.
- Magic Genetics: In the Nod campaign, the player is injected with Kane's blood, which not only transforms his face into an exact replica of Kane's, but also gives him the ability to survive a shot from a sniper rifle.
- Mundane Utility: Dr. Pascal's optical implants can activate the Scrin Tower, receive encrypted transmissions and... watch television. Which the player character does all the time.
- Inverted with the Global Stratospheric Transports. They were originally used to send Tiberium infested debris into space before they became the mobile headquarters of GDI and Nod forces.
- Mythology Gag: The game contains tons of references to past CNC games.
- A unit named Paladin is equipped with point defense lasers that can intercept missiles.
- The GDI Missile Turret has an ability called Patriot System that allows them to link together to increase their range.
- Many of the achievements are direct references to unit quotes from Tiberium Wars.
- The achievement for dealing 5000 points of damage with a commando is called "Wreaking Havoc".
- Another achievement is named "Kick the Tires and Light the Fires".
- Renegade Splinter Faction:
- The Nod Separatists.
- Though a stable bunch, GDI has one army go rogue.
- Padded Sumo Gameplay: Nearly everything can soak up a ton of damage before finally dying, from infantry to tanks to Crawlers, even when hit by a weapon they're weak to.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The reason why Colonel Louise James of GDI is ready to do everything to kill Kane is because her children were killed by the Scrin during Third Tiberium War.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The Commander's wife in the GDI campaign.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Remember how LEGION was set up to be super important in Kane's Wrath and how Kane kept saying that he's going to surpass even CABAL? Well, in this game, according to a dev interview, he's the Nod EVA. That's it. The most powerful AI ever created, reduced to the role of an Exposition Fairy with absolutely zero presence in the story. As if that's not insulting enough, the dev lied. The Nod EVA in this game refers to itself as "Advanced Electronic Video Agent", just like its GDI counterpart, and is at no point referred to as LEGION. It is clear that the dev lied about LEGION being in the game to hide the fact that the story has nearly no connection to the previous games.
- On a meta level, the entire game can be summed up as this. Long time fans who've been following the story pretty much expected a fitting conclusion to this franchise. Instead, they get a poorly assembled story that leaves behind too many unanswered questions, a shoddy gameplay that angered so many fans, and potential plotlines (such as the main Scrin invasion) that have been scrapped, not to mention an overwhelming urge to slam one's head into the nearest wall. Most fans would agree that Tiberium Twilight is a depressingly disappointing end to an otherwise popular franchise.
- Super Prototype: In the last Nod mission of Twilight, GDI sends in a massive prototype bomber as a last ditch effort to stop you. It's by far the most powerful unit anywhere, being able to destroy even Crawlers with little effort. Its only weakness is the fact that it has to land to call in reinforcements.
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The first phase of the final Nod mission has two CPU-controlled Nod Crawlers helping you out, which makes things significantly easier for you, since you don't usually get computer allies in the campaign... Then the Arcus arrives, your computer allies are gone, and
all hell breaks loose. - Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The basis of Twilight. Every unit has an armor type (Light, Ground Medium, Air Medium, Heavy or Reinforced) and usually one weapon type (Gun, Cannon, Rocket, Laser or Blast). Each weapon type is Super Effective against one armor type (in those lists, respectively), and you do not have the unit cap to field a varied force.
- Vocal Dissonance: There are quite a few units whose voice clips do not fit their appearance or theme in the slightest. The Nod Ascended is arguably the worst offender. He barely sounds like a soldier at all, much less a Brotherhood of Nod soldier.
- The GDI Kodiak sounds less like The Captain and more like Wolverine for some bizarre reason. Ironically, the Leviathan, its Nod counterpart, actually sounds like a professional military captain you would expect from GDI.
- The Nod High Confessor doesn't sound religious in the slightest.
- White Void Room: Inside the Scrin tower in the final cutscene of Tiberium Twilight.
- Who Designed This Crap: The Scorpion tank's official profile has Gideon making fun of the Scorpion tanks from Tiberium Wars, saying that Kane's design made them look like cockroaches ...Of course, his own Scorpion design is...basically a metal scorpion with treads instead of legs, making it ridiculously impractical, missing the entire point of the original Scorpion's smooth armored hull in favor of impractical iconography.
- Zany Scheme: In the official profile of the GST, it's mentioned that the Tiberium Control Network's construction was a logistic nightmare because construction workers have nowhere to dump the Tiberium-contaminated debris. GDI's solution to this problem? Build an entire fleet of spaceships that can collect the debris and shoot them into outer space. Oh, and did we mention that at that point in time, humanity was on the brink of destruction and most of GDI's remaining resources have already being diverted into TCN construction? Yet somehow, this was presented as a brilliant solution instead of a colossal waste of resources on a relatively small issue in-universe. Most of the official profile for CNC units managed to sound semi-plausible despite their liberal use of pseudoscience and Artistic License – Military, but this part simply obliterates your Willing Suspension of Disbelief like a railgun shot to the face.
