Video Game / Twisted Insurrection

Just another day in the neighborhood.

In the Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series, the Good Guys usually triumph. Twisted Insurrection asks: what if they hadn't?

A freeware game based upon Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun engine, Twisted Insurrection showcases an Alternate History where the Brotherhood of Nod won the first Tiberium war and, unusually for a Command and Conquer mod, comes packaged with two full-length campaigns for either side and its own soundtrack to boot. If you're craving your RTS fix, it's well worth your time.

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This game contains examples of:

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Husks, Wyverns and Tiberium Raptors attack with razor-sharp claws.
• Adaptation Expansion: In Twisted Dawn mode, compared to the classic Tiberian Dawn, GDI receives one new unit (Avenger) and Nod receives two (Ratel IFV and Raven).
• Adaptation Name Change: The organisation of Tiberium mutants is now called Forsaken, instead of Forgotten like in the original game.
• Adapted Out: Due to the project leader's dislike of them, the Scrin do not exist in the mod.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: On some maps, Tiberium Veinhole monsters are located near starting positions. If you don't find and eliminate them quickly, they will spread into your base, at which point you might very well type GG as the veins will eat through structures in seconds.
• A.I. Breaker: On Nod Mission 15, you can wait as long as you like to capture the warehouse. This allows you time to build a massive force and destroy half of the base before the timed portion starts and the AI gets access to its production facilities to the east.
  • GDI mission 9: If you capture the Globotech building, Nod will send most of its attacks against it, even though it's invincible.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted for the most part in the campaign. The only cyborg that does rebel against you is the Cyborg Paladin, who is quickly pacified by a captured GDI EMP cannon. CABAL is still around but never betrays you, and the fear the Sons of Kane have of Cyborg technology appears to be unfounded. Can be played straight in skirmish, where cyborgs can go berserk and start to fire on friendlies if the Berzerk Cyborgs option is turned on.
• The Alliance: The alliance between GDI and GloboTech against Nod.
• All Webbed Up: The grenade launchers used by the Forsaken Trapper Cycles can fire web rounds that immobilize infantry.
• Alternate Continuity: This mod's story removes the existence of the Scrin and assumes the opposite of what canonically occurred in Westwood's Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn storyline.
• Amazon Brigade: Forsaken Skirmishers are an all-female band of warriors.
• Amphibious Automobile: The Skimmer, Wasp APC, Mobile Sensor Vehicle, Inferno Flame Tank, Shadow Stealth Tank, Cleaver Drone, Armadillo APC and campaign-exclusive JEFF-A Hovercraft are able to float over land and water alike.
• Animal Mecha: The old design of the Nod Venom walker strongly resembles a scorpion.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Each hero or superweapon of each type is capped at one per player; Behemoths, Infectors and Wraiths are capped at 3; A-10 Warthogs, Ravens and Martyrs at 5.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: Many artillery units are helpless against enemies that manage to approach them, with the biggest example being the GloboTech Artillery Battery, whose range is the longest in the game, and whose minimum range is comparable to the maximum range of various other artillery units.
• Arm Cannon: The weapons of all cyborgs are integrated directly into their right arm.
• Ascended Glitch: The Scatterpack's terrain problem is a side effect of the tracer system used, it was deemed acceptable by developers considering the damage they can dish out if manoeuvred into an advantageous position.
• Attack Drone: The Genesis Legion employs various kinds of robotic vehicles, like the laser-totting Viper Drone, the melee Cleaver Drone, the suicidal Demolition Drone and the large Redeemer Drone.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: GDI gets a hovering APC with EMP effects, Nod gets an APC that can burrow underground, and GloboTech gets one with an area effect damage rocket that is also amphibious. The Forsaken Drifter IFV is less fancy, but still quite robust and notably inexpensive.
• Badass Creed: Some of the street graffiti is this. "Global Downfall Imminent."
• The Bad Guy Wins: This mod assumes Nod rather than GDI triumphed in Tiberian Dawn.
• Baseless Mission: Wouldn't be an RTS without at least a few missions where you don't have control over a base.
  • In the GDI campaign there are: Last Chance (1), Friend in Need (2), Shepard and his Flock (3A), Bridge Issue (3B), Reincarnation (4) and Deep Blue (7).
  • In the Nod campaign there are: The Messiah Returns (1), Burn Baby Burn (2), Scavenger Hunt (6), Azure Corpse (7), The Infector Program (9) and Lost (12).
  • In the Dawn GDI campaign there is Get The Rods Back (4A).
  • In the Dawn Nod campaign there are: Nikoomba's Demise (1), Blight On Oum Hadjer (4A) and Mao Civil War (4B).
  • The only released mission in the GloboTech campaign Unity also qualifies, as do the first two GDI challenge missions and the Reaper Raid bonus mission.
• Bat Out of Hell: Wyverns, seemingly evolved from ordinary bats, have sharp claws, hunt during the night, and sleep in caves and other dark areas during the day. No man has survived to tell the tale of a Wyvern attack.
• Beam Spam: A Nod assault often looks this way.
• Beast of Battle: The Forsaken have succeeded in being the first to tame and train Tiberium life forms, in particular Fiends and Wyverns. Neutral Fiends, Tauroses and Wyverns (hostile to all players) guard Forsaken bases and accompany patrols, and can be trained from a captured Forsaken Hovel.
• Beef Gate: There is a large GloboTech base full of useful capturable buildings in the map Pandemonium. The catch? It is completely surrounded by Veinhole monsters, guarded by a significant number of turrets and soldiers that will fire on any player-controlled unit, including an artillery piece at the centre which can cover a radius of around a quarter the size of the map. Now try to take it without a Termite APC.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Before its redesign, the Nod Venom's cannon used to be mounted on its tail.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Tiberian Mantises and Scarabs resemble insects except for their size, which is far larger than any insect ought to be.
• Blob Monster: A Visceroid is essentially a single, massive cell, conducting locomotion via pseudopods.
• Booby Trap: In the GDI campaign, Nod often employs mines. You never get to use these in the Nod campaign.
• Boring, but Practical: Goliaths and Scatterpacks mixed together will win most GDI engagements. For Nod, mixing Eclipses with Scorpions and Infernos is enough to ensure victory in most cases.
  • Infantry spam isn't to be underestimated either, if moreso for GDI with their medics
• Bottomless Magazines: Aircraft traditionally seen as useless due to their low ammo capacity and weak machineguns in the old C&C games now have unlimited ammo, greatly increasing their effectiveness.
• Brainwashed: After the initial screening process, an Infector candidate undergoes extensive mental conditioning and reprogramming to ensure their complete loyalty to the Brotherhood of Nod, erasing the subject's original personality in the process.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: In the GDI campaign, once GloboTech steals their designs back, a lot of your units are replaced with Tiberian Dawn era equipment. One wonders how the Goliath survived intact.
• Breath Weapon: Scarabs can set enemies ablaze with a monstrous fiery breath.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Challenge missions and Reaper Raid are not part of the storyline, and are difficult even by TI mission standards. Particularly, Reaper Raid was born when a team member asked another to make a hard mission so he tried it.
• Bug War: At times, there are elements of this due to the many insect-based Tiberium lifeforms, which often aggressively attack player positions and bases. There's even an entire mission (GDI 10) dedicated to this.
• Cartoonish Supervillainy: Nod verges on this with their design aesthetic. Dr. Incandela also for his design of the Infector and gleeful use of it.
• The Cavalry: You can get to do this with the Forsaken Ambush support power, unlocked by capturing a Forsaken Command Bunker, which calls in a team of elite Forsaken Warriors and Skirmishers that emerge underground anywhere on the map.
• Chainsaw Good: The Nod Cleaver Drone is armed with several blades which rotate at an extremely rapid pace capable of ripping infantry to shreds. In short, it's a robot in the shape of a giant circular chainsaw.
• Civil Warcraft: Although in both of the following cases, even if you and the enemy share the same side, most of the units are not shared.
  • In the 12th and 13th Nod missions, the Sons of Kane rebel against you over the cyborg technology. Your Genesis Legion arsenal consists solely of cyborgs and robots, while the Sons of Kane have a conventional army of infantry, bikes, tanks and aircraft.
  • Anachronia (Nod Challenge 2) pits you against another Nod force, except that you're using the Twisted Dawn vehicles while the enemy makes use of Twisted Insurrection vehicles.
• Color-Coded Armies: In the campaign, we have: dirty yellow for GDI, red and black for Nod, red and green for the Sons of Kane, and white and blue for GloboTech.
• Combat Tentacles: The Thing attacks by dragging unlucky vehicles to their watery grave with its tentacles.
• Cowardly Mooks: Mantises will panic and flee momentarily after taking enough damage.
• Crapsack World: Let's see. Nod has taken over the world, destabilized governments, set up Orwellian factory cities, and lost its leader, resulting in a powerful and directionless group with access to incredibly high levels of technology. The only force that can stop them is on the run, no longer represents the powers that created it, and is being funded by a mysterious corporation with unknown motives. Meanwhile, Tiberium rampages unchecked across the planet as it terraforms Earth into a new, alien world.
• Creator Cameo:
  • The leader of GDI following their defeat at the First Tiberium War General Andrew Owen is named after the founder and former lead developer of the mod.
  • The nicknames of team members appear on many of the civilian buildings (for example Aro's Hotel).
• Crew of One: After hijacking any vehicle by sneaking in and killing the crew, the Reaver will instantly be in complete control of the hijacked vehicle.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: Not as much as standard C&C titles; here, often units are good against two kinds of targets rather than just one, forcing you to find a unit's precise weakness to take it down.
• Cyborg: With the exception of the Machinist, all of the Genesis Legion's infantry are cyborgs.
• Darkest Hour: The GDI campaign starts this way with Nod triumphant and you on the run.
• Day of the Jackboot: Implied by the backstory's description of Nod cities, which are supposed to be military-industrial complexes with polluted atmosphere.
• Deadly Gas: The Nod Toxin Truck and Raven unleash a truly horrendous amount of Tiberium gas on the target area.
• Death from Above: Both sides have access to 3 aircraft each that can generally make the enemy's life a living hell if used properly.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Much harder to do in this with your basic rifle infantry, though still theoretically possible.
• Decapitated Army: In Survival mode, losing your Mobile HQ equals to an instant loss.
• Decomposite Character: From 0.9 onward, GDI and Nod are split into two subfactions each in Default skirmish, Competitive, Meat Grinder and Survival^note Unholy Alliance has also been reworked so that instead of getting the full GDI+Nod tech tree, the subfactions are recombined, the reason being that the factions had too many units, with overlapping roles and dragging the faction thematic in different directions, but the devs didn't want to just remove units to solve that. GDI is split into Falcon Division, which goes for the classic slow-and-powerful GDI juggernaut approach, and Phoenix Regiment, which aims at faster, lighter hit-and-run tactics, while Nod is split into the Sons of Kane, focusing on stealth and more traditional Nod tech, and the Genesis Legion, heavy users of cybernetics and more out-there technology.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: The ammunition of Grenadiers, Incinerators and Flame Tanks are volatile and will set off if their owner dies.
• Defenseless Transports: Nod Termite APCs, Specter Stealth APCs and both factions' Dawn-era Recovery Vehicles and carryalls have no weapons to defend themselves. The convoy trucks, train cars and landing hovercraft in the campaign are unarmed as well.
• Deflector Shields: Firestorm Barriers generate an impenetrable force field above themselves when activated.
• Defog of War: A Nod Ghost, upon infiltrating an enemy radar, allows you to see what the enemy can see.
• Demoted to Extra: The Toxin Truck is a unit from TI's early years, originally Nod could build both the Demolition Drone and the Toxin Truck, but their roles clash and the developers went in favour of the Drone being as the Toxin Truck was considered the "more powerful" unit. The project leader likes the Toxin Truck however, and rather than limiting it to a campaign only asset, he chose to make it a hidden unit that can be acquired by owning a Fist of Nod and the Tech Centers of both factions.
• Developer's Foresight: Some missions (like GDI 14) have been coded such that bypassing one or more objectives will still allow you to complete the mission.
• Diabolus ex Machina: The ending to GDI Mission 3. Just as General Sheppard is about to be airlifted to safety, a Nod Tiberium Bomber flies by and blows him up. Mission Accomplished!
• Didn't See That Coming: GloboTech forces react this way when "GDI" forces attack them on GDI mission 10.
• Drill Tank: Nod Termite APCs and Tremor Artillery follow this line of design, with the Termite APC looking far more traditional.
• Drop Ship: The Orca dropships still exist, but look significantly more badass.
• Dual Mode Unit:
  • The Redeemer Drone can deploy into an immobile form that gains more powerful guns in exchange for mobility.
  • Phalanx Railguns can deploy to become immobile and point their cannon skywards, becoming an anti-air unit.
  • The Trapper Cycle's sidecar-mounted automatic grenade launcher can switch over to anti-infantry web rounds.
  • GDI Mobile Sensor Vehicles, Nod Tremors and GloboTech Ambulances have two modes: a mobile form in which they can move and do nothing else, and an immobile form in which they actually work.
  • Spider Drones can switch between a mobile unit that can move underground, or deploy, become stationary and generate laser fences between themselves and other deployed Spider Drones.
• Earthquake Machine: Quake Emitters are capable of focusing a powerful earthquake at a very specific location, capable of trapping infantry, vehicles and bringing structures crashing to the ground.
• Easy Level Trick:
  • On GDI Mission 9, knowing where the Nod attack strikes your base can help you prevent it. If the airbase survives the Nod attack, you're basically set for the rest of the mission.
  • On Nod Mission 14, it's way easier to defend the NB base if you put your MCV in the eastern half of their base.
  • On Nod Mission 15, waiting to capture the warehouse gives you time to build up and take out GDI forces before the timed segment starts.
• Electric Jellyfish: Tiberium Floaters, which resemble jellyfish, are capable of generating a deadly electric field.
• EMP:
  • Atlas is armed with an EMP cannon that deals no damage and only disables enemy mechanical units.
  • The GDI EMP Cannon can fire a high powered electromagnetic pulse that renders any mechanised vehicles inoperative for a short period.
  • The Monitor Drone and Mammoth Walker can unleash an electromagnetic pulse, disabling any mechanical unit or structure, friend or foe, within its short range.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The world is headed for this with the Tiberium mutations occurring in the background of the Nod-GDI conflict. Especially apparent in NOD 14 where the water is infested with tentacle beasts rising up from the surface to destroy entire bridges.
• Enemy Exchange Program:
  • Standard for Command & Conquer games, you can use Engineers to capture enemy buildings and train their units.
  • In the pre-0.9 Unholy Alliance and Ultimate Insurrection game modes, you can build both GDI and Nod buildings (and, by proxy, units) with your starting Construction Yard.
  • Nod Ghosts and the Reaver can do this to a lesser degree by entering and hijacking enemy vehicles.
• Enemy Mine: In the 14th Nod mission Compulsions, you temporarily team up with the Sons of Kane (a group of Nod rebels and the primary enemies in the previous three missions) against GDI. The alliance becomes permanent at the end of the mission when the Sons of Kane are shown evidence that Kane endorsed cybernetics, which they fought against.
• Energy Weapon: The Eclipse Heavy Tank and Banshee Interceptor's cannons can propel an energy projectile at tremendous speeds.
• Escort Mission:
  • Last Chance (GDI 1), where General Owen's Humvee must be escorted to a GloboTech base. Immediately afterwards, in Friend in Need (GDI 2), he must be escorted to another GloboTech base alongside a GloboTech convoy.
  • The second half of Shepard and his Flock (GDI 3A) and the entirety of Bridge Issue (GDI 3B) involves escorting GDI General Shepard out of Nod-controlled territory.
  • The final part of Scavenger Hunt (Nod 6), where you must protect several Demolition Drones from GloboTech as they head towards their designated detonation sites.
  • Insurrection (GDI 11) involves escorting three convoy trucks to three GloboTech research labs.
  • In The Great Escape (GDI 12), a convoy of 30 vehicles must be protected as they move through a pass controlled by GloboTech forces, which are not allowed to destroy more than 10 of them.
  • Lost (Nod 12): a train carrying important data about cyborgs must not be destroyed by the Sons of Kane as it passes a tunnel controlled by them.
  • In the first part of Compulsions (Nod 14), a Ghost needs to be protected from the local Tiberian lifeforms before he can reach the abandoned Temple of Nod.
  • The first part of the bonus mission Reaper Raid involves your cyborgs escorting a Machinist to a GDI Communications Center so he can capture it.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Even more so than Tiberian Sun as the list of Tiberian lifeforms has been dramatically expanded and only two or three of which are docile. A prominent example is the Heart of Darkness skirmish map, where hostile Tiberian monsters or Forsaken mutants are everywhere (including all Tiberian fields except some small green ones), and there are also some Veinhole Monsters that will threaten to eat your base if you can't locate and kill them fast enough.
• Evil Gloating: CABAL does this in a disturbing way on Nod Mission 1. CABAL and EVA(!) will do this on the first challenge mission for each faction as well.
• Evil Sounds Deep: A lot of the Nod units, at least while the voices from Tiberium Wars are being used as placeholders.
• Exclusive Enemy Equipment: Before the introduction of the Forsaken as a tech faction, the Leviathan Tank (old name of the Mastodon) was unbuildable, only appeared on the skirmish map Heart of Darkness as neutral units hostile to everyone else, and can only be used by a Nod player who hijacks it with a Machinist.
• Faction Calculus: GDI is still the Powerhouse and Nod the Subversive, but the distinction is less pronounced compared to the vanilla game, due to both sides possessing bits of each other's doctrine from the reversed outcome of Tiberian Dawn. GDI and Nod are also divided into two subfactions: for GDI, the Phoenix Regiment is slightly more Subversive (preferring lighter hit-and-run tactics) while the Falcon Division is the maximum Powerhouse (putting further emphasis on GDI's traditional steamrolling approach); for Nod, the Genesis Legion is more of a Powerhouse (favouring heavier cyborgs and other advanced technology) while the Sons of Kane are the most Subversive (focusing on stealth and guerrilla warfare).
• False Flag Operation: In the Nod mission Chameleon Betrayal, you commandeer GDI vehicles and use them to destroy a Globotech facility. It ends up causing GloboTech and GDI to turn on each other.
• Fast Tunnelling: Nod Termites, Tremors and Web Spider Walls are capable of moving underground as if it was open air.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Nod continues to make use of flamethrower-wielding infantry and tanks.
• Fixed Damage Attack: The damage dealt by Veinhole monsters depend on the victim's HP, so that it takes the same time to destroy, say, a Viper Drone and a Venom Walker.
• Flaming Meteor: Some maps like GloboTech Storm Arena are set during the course of a meteor shower. And these meteors burn.
• Flawed Prototype: Atlas is a defective first generation Nod Cyborg Templar. The following is an excerpt from a log recovered from the ruins of the facility that housed him:
  Templar-268 has been scheduled for dissection. The subject posses' an anomalous neurology that has resulted in multiple performance issues. It is unknown whether this biological quirk existed prior to Tiberium augmentation or if it developed due to it. Investigation into the screening logs show that the subject passed all examinations, nonetheless administrative negligence has not been ruled out. 268's interesting brain chemistry has resulted in the emergence of a somewhat contrarian personality as well as a severe defect in their implanted IFF system. Because of this issue 268 is unable to utilise deadly force against designated targets due to fluctuating friend or foe readings. Further study of the subject's unusual neurology is required if we are to understand and correct potential future cases.
• Fragile Speedster: Nod favours speed over armour as a general tendency, in line with their subversive doctrine.
• Fusion Dance: Two weak and harmless baby Visceroids can merge to form a bigger and much more dangerous adult Visceroid.
• Game Mod: The game was originally developed as a mod for Tiberian Sun, but you no longer need the original game since it became open source.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the Nod Campaign, units that were plot points for GDI in their campaign often appear earlier and in great numbers so that GDI actually poses a threat to the player.
• Glass Cannon: Nod Hammerhead Howitzer massacres infantry but has the armor of a wet paper bag. Similarly, GDI railgun platforms against armor.
• Going Critical: Core Reactors and Fusion Reactors tend to explode violently once destroyed.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: GDI strikes a deal with GloboTech for assistance at the start of the storyline.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Subverted. GDI is definitely the Good and Nod the Evil, but GloboTech ends up being a second Good and playing against expectations of mega corporations.
• Guns Akimbo: GDI Exo-Suits are armed with dual 40mm grenade launchers. Forsaken Warriors and the Reaver carry dual machine pistols.
• Hard-Coded Hostility: In skirmish games, all units not controlled by players, except for civilians and docile Tiberium lifeforms, are hard-coded to be permanently hostile to all player-controlled units.
• Healing Factor: Forsaken mutants and the Infector gain health instead of losing it when standing on a Tiberium field.
• Hero Antagonist: GloboTech in the GDI campaign, specifically in the 11th to 13th missions. They only fight GDI because they think GDI is out to destroy them first, and they are shown throughout the campaign to genuinely protect the cities they control.
• Hero Must Survive: In some campaign missions, letting a hero die equals an automatic Game Over:
  • The Commando in Deep Blue (GDI 7) and the second GDI Challenge mission.
  • The Infector in The Infector Program (Nod 9).
  • The Mammoth Walker in Walk (GDI 15).
• Hero Unit: The Phoenix Regiment has the Valkyrie Jumpjet Commando; the Sons of Kane have the Ghost; the Genesis Legion has the Cyborg Paladin (renamed from the classic Cyborg Commando); GloboTech has Perseus; and Forsaken has the Reaver and Atlas. In Twisted Dawn, both Nod and GDI use the Commando from Tiberian Dawn, while GloboTech employs the Power Suit Infantry. In Survival mode, there's the Mobile HQ, a vehicle that represents yourself and must be kept alive at all costs.
• Hold the Line:
  • In the second part of The Beginning of the End (GDI 10), you have to protect your base from constant Nod attacks.
  • Sons of Kane (Nod 13), your base must be protected for 50 minutes from the Sons of Kane during an evacuation.
  • The second part of Walk (GDI 15), the inactive Mammoth Walker must be defended from Nod Wraith bombers until it becomes ready for combat.
  • In the Friendly Fire bonus mission, you play as the US military and must prevent a swarm of civilians from reaching the buildings holding classified secrets in Area 51.
  • In all challenge missions (except the second GDI one), you must survive for a set duration from increasingly intense attacks.
• Honest Corporate Executive: GloboTech is never once shown to do anything shady across either storyline and genuinely seems to want to counter-balance Nod.
• Horn Attack: The Tauros is a Tiberian lifeform that attacks by ramming enemies with its horns.
• Hostile Terraforming: After the Nod victory in the previous game, Tiberium spreads uncontrollably into Earth, transforming many parts of the planet into an alien landscape, home to many new bizarre Tiberium lifeforms.
• Hostile Weather: During an ion storm, in addition to the lightning strikes, radar does not function, aircraft cannot fly, hover vehicles are grounded, and the Nod Eclipse Tank must use a backup light cannon in place of its tachyon cannon which does not work.
• Humongous Mecha: Less of this than Tiberian Sun, but GDI still has the giant Mammoth Walker. In the campaign, there are additionally the quadrupedal Nod Venom and the bipedal GloboTech Talos walker.
• In-Series Nickname: The Goliath Tank has earned several nicknames from GDI veterans, the most popular being Mammoth Jr and Mini-Mammy.
• Invincible Minor Minion: The Tiberian Thing is safe under its habitat and cannot be attacked by anything. Harvesters are also invincible if the 'Immune Harvesters' setting is turned on.
• Invisibility Cloak: Nod's still using this technology on buildings and stealth tanks, but now also has a cloaked spy capable of infiltrating enemy buildings.
• Invisibility Flicker: Nod Stealth Generators cannot cloak newly created units exiting from their building and Harvesters exiting a refinery for a brief time before the Generator adjusts and cloaks them.
• Jet Pack: GDI Marauders and Valkyrie have booster backpacks that allow them to traverse over terrain.
• Kick the Dog: The first Nod mission is a pretty horrific indicator of exactly how moral your campaign will be, as you wipe out an entire city to gleeful, sadistic commentary from CABAL. Reinforced with Nod Mission 9, where you basically conduct a terrorist action.
• Kill Sat: GDI's Ion Cannon superweapon is mounted on a satellite in orbit.
• King Mook: Some packs of Tiberium Raptors are led by an Elder Tiberium Raptor, which is three times as large and can easily rip apart tanks.
• Large Ham: Several units respond with over the top loud and boisterous quotes.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: The value of a Tiberium deposit depends on its colour, from green, blue to red in ascending order.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Elder Tiberium Raptor is surprisingly fast for its size, can take more punishment than its younger versions, and can wipe out small squads with its claws.
• Limited Loadout: Most aircraft except Hornets and Gunships only have limited ammunition and must return to helipads to reload.
• Loud of War: GloboTech Disruptors attack by firing sonic resonance waves at enemies.
• Luck-Based Mission: Nod 15 often amounts to this in terms of getting your Shadow Tanks into the enemy complex — due to the fact that civilians, who detect stealth, move randomly about the very confined space you need to travel down. At least, this is true until you realize the GDI AI doesn't care if you send airstrikes after said civilians in blatant sight of GDI units.
• Macross Missile Massacre: There are many, many destructive missile launchers in this game.
• Made of Explodium: If it's a storage device, an Incinerator, a Flame Tank, a Tick or a Whalloon it's going to explode when shot. Violently.
• Magnetic Weapons: Railguns are used by GDI Phalanx Railguns, Perseus and the Mammoth Walker.
• Marathon Level: A lot of later GDI levels are this, particularly GDI Mission 9.
• The Medic: All playable factions have the Mobile Repair Vehicle (in normal mode) and Recovery Vehicle (in Twisted Dawn mode), which can repair non-robotic vehicles. GDI and GloboTech have access to medics that can heal other infantrymen. GloboTech also has an Ambulance which can deploy into a medical camp to heal infantry.
• Mêlée à Trois: In the 13th Nod mission, both of your enemies (GDI and the Sons of Kane) will fight each other as well as you.
• Mercenary Units: In skirmish games, Forsaken buildings appear as neutral structures that can be used by players by having an Engineer or Machinist capture them.
• Mighty Glacier: The GDI Goliath, Behemoth, Mammoth Tank and Mammoth Walker, the Nod Tremor Artillery and Venom Walker and the GloboTech Prototype Tank favour raw power over speed.
• Mind Rape: Yuri makes an appearance in GDI mission 8 as a member of a Nod cult, mind-controlling a detachment of GloboTech units.
• Mini-Mecha: GDI has the one-storey-tall Kazuar and Scatterpack walkers, while GloboTech has the similarly-sized Sentinels.
• Monumental Damage: The White House is destroyed by an Ion Cannon at the start of the story, building off of the Nod victory in Tiberian Dawn.
• More Dakka: GDI Behemoths are equipped with dual Metal Storm Howitzers consisting of sixteen 155mm barrels.
• Motive Decay: Said to be true in-universe of Nod after Kane's disappearance, with little to do beyond acquiring power and trying to hold onto that power.
• Multiplayer-Only Item: The Forsaken mutants feature in a few skirmish maps as hostile units and capturable neutral buildings but do not appear anywhere in the campaign.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Infector...
• N.G.O. Superpower: After the UN cuts funding to GDI, it effectively becomes this, with GloboTech backing instead.
• Nintendo Hard: Both campaigns at times will make you rethink your strategies and do not go easy on you, but never in a way that is truly infuriating or unfair.
• No Canon for the Wicked: Inverted. This mod assumes Nod rather than GDI triumphed in Tiberian Dawn.
• No Cure for Evil: Downplayed. While GDI has both Medics and Mobile Repair Vehicles for infantry and vehicles by default, Nod only has the Mobile Repair Vehicle and needs to capture a GloboTech Armoury or Warehouse to gain access to Medics or Ambulances if they want to heal their infantry.
• No Experience Points for Medic: Units only gain experience by killing enemies, so unarmed support units can never be promoted.
• No Name Given: The real name of the Forsaken hero Reaver is a mystery.
• Nostalgia Level:
  • Saving General Shepard from the Nod blockade. To some extent, Nod 01, 02, and 10, since they mirror the missions you've likely already played in the GDI campaign.
  • The Twisted Dawn skirmish game mode, which replaces the default unit rosters with old ones using classic Tiberian Dawn technology.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • Most vehicles have the ability to crush unarmoured infantry, killing them instantly.
  • The Dawn-era Commando can use demolition charges to instantly destroy buildings.
  • The Tiberian Thing can instantly sink vehicles by dragging them down with its tentacles into the depths.
• One-Man Army: All four hero units are capable of a lot of destruction if used well.
• One Nation Under Copyright: GloboTech is a benevolent example, having taken over cities and regions that had plunged into chaos. On the other hand, the corporation is shown to be competent at governing, and is genuine in seeking to stop Nod's designs.
• Organization with Unlimited Funding: GloboTech appears to be this despite supposedly not harvesting Tiberium.
• The Paralyzer: Wasp APCs, Mantas and Sonic Fighters can temporarily paralyse enemy vehicles, cyborgs and structures.
• Perpetual Storm: Capturing the Pyramid in the skirmish map Pandemonium will start an ion storm all over the map that lasts for the entirety of the game from that point onwards.
• Poisonous Person: Whalloons release toxic gases as the main weapon.
• Poor Communication Kills: After being attacked by a Nod detachment commandeering GDI vehicles, GloboTech refuses to listen to anything GDI has to say on the attack on their base and declares war on them. This aggression in turn leads to GDI hastily defending themselves and ultimately destroying GloboTech. Averted with Nod's insurrection; the Sons of Kane are pacified after evidence is retrieved which shows that Kane endorsed cyborg technology.
• Powered Armor: GloboTech Exo-Suits' X-O powered combat suits allow them to operate in the most contaminated environments around the globe. GDI Siege Troopers are enhanced with an exoskeleton courtesy of GloboTech, offering both protection and additional strength.
• Promoted to Playable: In version 0.9, GloboTech was promoted from a collection of tech buildings to a playable faction.
• Pun: One of GDI's Goliath tank's attack responses is: "Time to take out the trash."
• Purposely Overpowered: The Venom is intended to be somewhat overpowered since it has never been meant to be buildable and only appears in the GDI mission Rage as enemies, or in crates.
• Raptor Attack: Some Tiberium fields are home to packs of Tiberium Raptors, which certainly invoke this trope with their size, shape and aggression.
• Ray Gun: Nod is still a big fan of laser weapons.
• Recursive Ammo: The missiles fired by Cyborg Reapers split in mid-air into three clusters each.
• Remixed Level:
  • The first Nod mission and the old version of the first GloboTech mission are nearly identical to each other, except for one major detail: in the former you play as Nod terrorists hellbent on destroying a city, while in the latter you control the city's GloboTech defenders.
  • Most of the Twisted Dawn campaign missions, currently in development, are planned to be re-imaginings of the classic Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn maps, except some completely original ones like Adrift (Nod 4C).
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The Sons of Kane split Nod in two after finding out about the cyborg experiments being conducted.
• Resource-Gathering Mission: In Clean Slate (GDI 5), the objective is to defend your base until you accumulate 50000 credits.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: GloboTech attacks GDI facilities across the globe and steals their technology back after "GDI" attacks and destroys one of their research bases. It doesn't work out well for them.
• Rule of Cool: A lot of the new Tiberium lifeforms seem to have been designed this way, up to and including dinosaurs, bugs, worms and tentacle monsters.
• Sacrificial Lamb: The starting team of Rangers on GDI mission 15 ends up being this.
• Sand Worm: Sabreworms are worm-like, human-sized creatures (which are still far bigger than normal worms) that spend most of their life underground, and can literally jump out of the ground to attack and kill.
• Scary Scorpions: The similarities between the old design of the Nod Venom Walker and a giant mechanical scorpion are obvious.
• Schmuck Bait: Go ahead. Repair the bridge to the southwest on GDI mission 14. Nothing's going to happen.
• Sea Mine: Naval EMP mines are rigged by GloboTech in the seas around their HQ.
• See the Invisible: GDI Sensor Vehicles, Nod Radars and GloboTech Radar Arrays are capable of detecting stealthed enemies in a large radius around them. Any invisible unit is also revealed when they get directly next to an enemy.
• Sensor Suspense: Only GDI has access to mobile sensor technology this time around. Nod players just have to be very alert.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: GloboTech Guardians are inhumanly good at disposing of enemy infantry.
• Shout-Out:
  • GloboTech takes it's name from Small Soldiers.
  • The Cleaver Drone and Tachion Tank are lifted essentially from Dark Reign.
  • The Mantis is a shout out to Starship Troopers.
  • The Sabreworm is based on Screamers.
  • The Friendly Fire mission, where you play as the US military defending Area 51 from raiders, is based on the Storm Area 51 meme.
• Sickly Green Glow: The Infector's chest and gun glow a bright green.
• Sniper Rifle: The weapon of GDI Snipers, capable of eliminating enemy infantry at extremely long range.
• Spawn Broodling: A soldier that falls victim to an adult Visceroid will become a juvenile Visceroid. The Infector's grenade launcher also has a chance to do so to its victims.
• Spider Limbs: Cyborg Reapers have four all-terrain legs, giving them a menacing arachnid silhouette.
• Spider Tank: The GDI Bullfrog MLRS, Mammoth Walker, the Nod Redeemer Drone and Venom walk on four legs.
• Starting Units: The Mobile HQ in Survival mode. Each player starts with one, can never replace it, and losing it means losing the game.
• Stationary Boss: The Tiberian Thing is stationary, ambushing in a single spot for unsuspecting prey to enter its tentacles’ reach.
• Stealthy Mook: Come in two flavours. Nod Ghosts and Stealth Tanks as well as Forsaken Warriors and Skirmishers at elite rank are simply invisible, while Termite APCs, Tremor Artillery and Sabreworms can tunnel underground to avoid being detected.
• Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: The game has several buildings owned by the Neutral Forsaken faction, all of which allow the hiring of mercenaries of various types (infantry, vehicles, and "high-tech units") when they aren't defensive emplacements. The Command Bunker grants a Support Power in the form of an Ambush in addition to its hiring abilities. There's also the GlobalTech Construction Outpost, which allows you to build around it once captured.
• Suicide Attack: Nod Demolition Drones, Toxin Trucks and Forsaken Martyrs fight by getting close to an enemy and blowing themselves up.
• Sudden Name Change:
  • In version 0.6.5 we have: Tyrant (formerly Tremor) and Tremor Artillery (formerly Mole Artillery).
  • In version 0.7: Sons of Kane (formerly the New Brotherhood), Forsaken (Forgotten), Cyborg Disciple (Vulcan Cyborg), Cyborg Templar (Tachyon Cyborg), Cyborg Paladin (Cyborg Commando), Wraith (Banshee Bomber), Wraith Supply Facility (Banshee Supply Facility), Raven (Tiberium Bomber), Wyvern (Typhon) and Sabreworm (Tyrant).
  • In version 0.8: Skimmer (Dragonfly), Buckshot MLRS (MLRS Walker), Phalanx Mobile Railgun (Railgun Platform), Manta (Orca Immobilizer), Mastodon (Leviathan), Quake Generator (Seismic Projector) and Forsaken Hovel (Forsaken Barracks).
  • In version 0.9: Perseus (Railgun Commando, originally a GDI Hero unit), Bullfrog (Buckshot MLRS), Phantom (Hammerhead), Spider Drone/Fence (Web Spider), Lancer (Missile Launcher), Prototype Tank (Super Goliath), Monitor Drone (Surveillance Drone) and Apollo Bomber (Sonic Fighter).
• Super Villain Lair: A lot of the Nod bases resemble this due to the foreboding lighting and architecture.
• Surveillance Drone: GloboTech uses these at its encampments and cities to watch for signs of danger.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Redeemer Drones (which can only be built in skirmish by possessing both factions' Tech Centers), which are first available in the 11th Nod mission, are designed to be the replacement of the tanks which are unavailable from missions 11 to 13.
• Tactical Superweapon Unit:
  • In Twisted Insurrection mode, the Falcon Division has the Mammoth Walker and GloboTech has the Talos Walker, both of which are very powerful and effective against all kinds of enemies but are slow, capped at one per player, and are the most expensive unit in the game (costing $5000 each). Downplayed with the Cyborg Paladin (the Genesis Legion's super soldier, also capped at 1) and the Behemoth (a superheavy artillery piece armed with sixteen 155mm barrels employed by the Phoenix Regiment, capped at 3), which only cost $2500 each.
  • In Twisted Dawn, the closest thing to this are GloboTech's Prototype Exo-Suit and Goliath, which cost $2000 and are also capped at one per player.
• Take Over the World: Implied that Nod has done to this to a large degree by the time of the TI era.
• Tank Goodness: All kinds. The Scorpion, which is a light tank with an AA-cannon for extra awesomeness, the Eclipse which has a devastating pulse beam, the Goliath and the Super Goliath, the Inferno and the hovering Shadow Tank just to name a few.
• Tentacled Terror: The Thing is a large creature with tentacles lurking in bodies of water where Tiberium contamination is extensive.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: GDI Grenadiers throw disc-shaped explosives at enemies.
• Timed Mission: Occurs a couple times, but Nod Mission 15 is the only time you'll tear your hair out over this.
• Time Skip: Six years pass between the fourth and fifth GDI missions.
• Title Drop: Partial example in both campaigns around missions 11-12; when the insurrections occur, they aren't referred to as "twisted".
• Turns Red: If the Berzerk Cyborgs option is turned on, once cyborgs take enough damage they won't see the the difference between enemy and friendly units and shoot everything that they see.
• Underground Monkey: While most of the new tiberium lifeforms introduced are entirely original, the Tiberian Fiend gets new variants differentiated only by the color of the tiberium on their back. Blue fiends are rarer and stronger, red fiends even moreso and purple fiends the strongest and rarest. There is also a young Floater variant, weaker than the regular ones.
• Units Not to Scale: For visibility reasons, though the devs have added a "smaller vehicle size" option in the launcher and are looking into infantry resizing as well.
• Universal Driver's License: In the previous versions, Machinists and the Reaver know how to drive and command every non-robotic vehicle all by themselves.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: In certain GDI missions, you have to face Nod mines and Prototype Walkers. You never get to use either of these two units when playing as Nod, whether in campaign or skirmish, except if you luck out on getting a Prototype Walker from a goodie crate.
• Veteran Unit: Combat units can gain experience by killing enemies and get promoted once the total cost of their kills reach three (for Veteran ranks) and six (for Elite rank) times their own. Compared to the vanilla game, this is much easier to achieve and also provides better bonuses.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: See a town of civilians? Ample fodder for the Infector, who can turn them into a mutant army at your disposal...
• Videogame Flamethrowers Suck: Averted for once as flamethrowers cause very little damage to friendly units, if at all, and are remarkably good at destroying infantry and structures. Just don't group the tanks with infantry...
• Villain with Good Publicity: GloboTech initially appears like it might be this, but ultimately subverted.
• Walking Tank: The Genesis Legion has the four-legged Redeemer Drone and Prototype Walker (the latter of which is campaign-exclusive). GDI has the four-legged Mammoth Walker, which does appear in skirmish.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Cyborg units, otherwise unstoppable, are completely halted by a single EMP fighter.
• What a Piece of Junk: Despite being haphazardly crafted from scrap metal and various industrial and military equipment, Mastodons are surprisingly resilient.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The mutants are in the backstory and appear as a neutral tech faction in skirmish but don't make any appearances in the campaign. The campaign designer says this isn't purposeful but that he "forgot" them and further explanations here clarify that there are far less mutants in Twisted Insurrection due to GDI's failure to liberate as many of them from Nod's experimental camps. The fates of James Solomon and Michael McNeil are also left ambiguous (as they may be explored in the Twisted Dawn campaigns), but Word of God has clarified here that Nick "Havoc" Parker died in the Nod temple in Cairo.
• Worm Sign: A Sabreworm's attacks (but not its normal movement) are indicated by dust being kicked up.
• You Nuke 'Em: The Apocalypse Missiles fired from the Temple of Nod are quite obviously nukes, complete with a radiation sign in the cameo.
• You Require More Vespene Gas: Credits (needed to build all units and buildings) would be gold. Power is, well, power: it is produced by power plants and required by many buildings; having power demand exceed power supply would result in production speed being slowed down, most base defences malfunctioning and superweapon cooldowns being put on hold.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Veinhole monsters deal extremely high damage to non-hover vehicles that move over them, making it practically impossible for them to cross the veins.
• Zerg Rush: Some of the early missions force you to resort to this in order to break down the enemy defense structures without being able to sneak around or employ artillery.

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