weapons that already exist. For example General Malcolm "Ace" Granger specialises in the air force. All of his aircraft feature laser point defence systems, the aircraft are cheaper to use, generals upgrades are "cheaper" requiring less points. The aircraft themselves are also a little different to those found in the USA faction. The Raptor fighters have now been upgraded to King Raptors which are generals stronger and they will carry better ammunition. The basic Chinook used to collect supplies has been upgraded so you can produce Chinooks which can be loaded full of rocket launcher personnel, who can readily fire from side ports on the Chinook making it a pretty fearsome weapon. Finally you upgrade to get a stealth upgrade for your Comanche helicopters. These weapons are all unique to General Granger, but to balance the power given to each General some weapons will not be available. So if you do use Granger you will not have access to either the Paladin or Crusader Tanks.

With the addition of the new factions you will have a choice of playing 12 teams which is a great improvement on the original game. You will probably find one particular faction that will suit your style of play better than others, as the new factions are fairly unique you will have to find different weaknesses in each faction to play them. Apart from General Granger there is General Alexis Alexander who specialises in super weapons, General "Pinpoint" Townes who specialises in laser weaponry, General "Anvil" Shin Fai whose particular flavour of war is in infantry, General Tsing Shi Tao is a nuclear weapons specialist, General Ta Hun Kwai has a love of tanks, Dr. Thrax will use biological and chemical weapons to defeat his enemy, General Rodall "Demo" Juhziz uses explosive technologies and finally Prince Kassad is an expert in the area of camouflage and deception.

By any standards these factions create a great deal of depth within the game-play, whether you are fighting with them or against them. All the factions are available in the Generals Challenge mode, Skirmish and Online play. The Generals Challenger mode is very similar to a skirmish game but the maps are usually very big and the enemy will have his or her base already constructed at the beginning of play. Firstly you have to work your butt off to create a base that is secure whilst listening to the opposing general slate your tactics and boast about their own power, then you have to go about the task of trying to break down the enemy while they throw massive amounts of artillery at you. Plus each faction can build as many super weapons as they see fit, so if you do destroy the enemy's nuclear site you can be assured there will be another one ready to go.

The additional single player modes on Zero Hour try to continue on from the missions seen in the original. While each level is loading (there are five in total for each of the three factions) you will see a video of a news reporter on site in the war zone. These work well as they distract you from the long loading times and build you up for what is in store ahead. Apart from the video reports these missions are pretty similar to those found in the original but now you will have new weapons at your disposal. Each faction has at least three new units, one new building, at least four new upgrades and a few new Generals powers. The USA features three new units a Sentary Drone, Microwave Tank and a vehicle called the Avenger. The Drone is a very fast stealth vehicle which can be used for recognisance, the Microwave Tank can be used to disable electronic equipment and harm infantry. Finally there is the Avenger which can "paint" airborne or ground targets with its lasers to increase speed of fire and accuracy of other units on a particular target. The Avenger can also bring down enemy aircraft and shoot incoming missiles. China receive a Helix helicopter this time round which has a large number of uses. You can mount a Propaganda Tower, Gattling Gun or a bunker on the Helix. You may also use the Helix to transport infantry and units but for additional fire power you can add a napalm bomb.

China also have an ECM Tank which will deflect incoming fire from itself and near by units and the listening outpost is basically a radar that will detect enemy units, including stealth units within a certain area. The GLA also have three new units, the Saboteur, the Combat Cycle and the Battle Bus. The Saboteur is able to climb cliffs and infiltrate enemy bases with relative ease. The Combat Cycle is a very fast machine that can jump off huge cliffs, a great unit for recognisance. Finally the Battle Bus is a reinforced bus that can carry a number of infantry to the front line. Infantry can fire from the windows and when the bus is immobilised it will act as a bunker for the infantry. All in all the new units add a great deal to the tactics that you can use in Generals, they are a very worth while addition.

New buildings include the USA's Firebase which is a large defensive gun that fires huge rounds of ammo. If the enemy get inside the range of this gun you may garrison it with up to four infantry. China has the internet centre which can house up to eight hackers. Their work will be more effective while working within the centre and it may be upgraded with two satellite hacks which reveal various areas of the map. The GLA now have the ability to create fake structures which act as a decoy for the enemy. These structures can be upgraded to become real structures if needed.

Each faction also has a plethora or new upgrades and Generals Powers but some of the better ones are the USA's MOAB which is an upgrade to the Fuel Bomb making it even more destructive and the USA's Spectre Gunship which is a huge plane that will circle a target and destroy everything in its sights.

As mentioned earlier China can use hackers to reveal various areas of the map. China also add to their air arsenal with a Carpet Bomb attack which drops a number of bombs from a high altitude. The GLA now have the ability to produce and use booby traps which are explosives that are invisible to the enemy. One of the best powers of all is the Sneak Attack which enables the GLA to place an exit tunnel anywhere on the map. Once deployed attacking units will appear from the tunnel. This is a very sneaky weapon and can be used to great effect.

Zero Hour is still fast paced like the original and if it is not fast enough for you, you may alter the speed of the game on the set up screen. When starting a skirmish against the computer using the USA faction you may find it quite hard to get your base built and robust enough to take the barrage of enemy attacks. This is mainly because the USA requires a large amount of time and money to get running unlike China and GLA. To help you - it is probably worth changing the resource counter to a higher level. The balance of the units has been finely tuned in Zero Hour so you will not find one particular unit that is overly powerful.

Basically there are no fundamental changes to the game-play and if you had updated your original Generals to version 1.06 you will probably have benefited from most of the changes already.

Graphically Zero Hour is very impressive, even more so than the Generals as the graphics have been tweaked so explosions seem even more spectacular and the frame rate issues have also been improved, so you should see a much more constant frame rate in Zero Hour. You might also notice that when your vehicles become damaged they will show more damage than you are used to, this is because these graphical elements have been improved upon also.

The music in Generals was great, but I have to say the music in Zero Hour is even better and harder hitting helping intensify the game-play. Basically, Zero Hour is the best looking and sounding game of its type, period!

The only problem some people will have with Zero Hour is that they may think this is what Generals should have been like from the start. They are probably right too, as Zero Hour has come fairly quickly after the initial release of Generals.
That said, Zero Hour really does improve the depth and variety of Generals, it is a must buy for anyone who owns C&C Generals. If you where a fan of the world builder of Generals, this time round the world builder has been enhanced so it is now even more powerful. Command and Conquer Generals was a great game, with the addition of Zero Hour it is an even greater game.

8.5 out of 10