The Command & Conquer series quite like a cousin of mine. Everyone likes my cousin Al; he's a simple, genuine guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. He's got average looks, earns a good wage and enjoys his middle of the road life. People sometimes joke about how he isn't as sophisticated as some of his siblings, but he takes it all in his stride and carries on doing what he does best.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, the expansion to last year's Tiberium Wars, does little to deviate from its now well-established persona. Not a lot has changed, with EA's LA studio opting to expand rather than innovate - as is the way with most real-time strategy expansion packs - and remaining well within their comfort zone. The question is, have they improved on the already solid formula? For the modest price of £20 we are handed a new thirteen-mission Nod-centric campaign, six new sub-factions (two each for Nod, Scrin and the GDI) and, perhaps most importantly, a new Global Conquest Mode.

The campaign takes an unusual twist, initially taking us back to the end of the last Tiberium War to explore the events that took place shortly after the series' previous outing, Tiberian Sun: Firestorm. The story follows everyone's favorite and most eccentric of bad guys, Kane, leader of The Brotherhood of Nod. This Nod-only campaign comes as both a blessing and a curse; on the one hand, they are perhaps the most entertaining of the C&C universe's factions to study in detail and the melodramatic twists and turns within the confines of The Brotherhood are as entertaining as ever. This is compounded by the series' ever-amusing full motion video cut scenes spliced between missions.

The downside however, is that if you're a righteous GDI enthusiast like me (or a domineering Scrin enthusiast for that matter), you're out of luck - no campaign for you. "The clue was in the title!" I hear you groan in dissatisfaction, and yes, this is only a minor slight to an otherwise solid game mode. It plays at a good pace, with Acts 1 through 3 taking us all the way to the far end of the C&C timeline and ending with a suitably Hollywood-esque cliffhanger (no doubt setting up the inevitable sequel). The missions themselves are the familiar mix of 'gather/build/attack' and 'take a precarious number of units to take on the whole map' - so no surprises here.

The Global Conquest Mode is by far the most interesting new feature. It's a definite first for the series that aims to bring a new macro-level strategic layer of gameplay to the table, and is offered up as an alternative to the normal Skirmish mode. It's easy to draw comparisons to the classic board game Risk, or more likely the Civilization series, but in reality, and as you might expect, it lacks in both depth and complexity. What's here works well; you build bases then upgrade them through various tiers to unlock better groups of units known as strike forces. As you progress, you can play out any battles in real-time or opt to auto-resolve them, be it against a base or another roaming enemy strike force. The aim is to either dominate the entire world map via military means, or to win via race-specific victory conditions, such as building a certain amount of Scrin Threshold Towers, for example.

The strategic level ties in quite well and gives you another excuse to get into the thick of the action. However, the more you play it, the more the cracks start to show and it can start to feel like it's simply degenerating into a straightforward numbers game at times, meaning that it gets increasingly tempting to press the trusty auto-resolve button. It also lacks that "one more turn" appeal that's so core to turn-based strategy games. Some will dig it, whereas others will be put off by its attempts at strategy and delve straight back into good, old fashioned skirmishing.

With the six new sub-factions (each geared towards a particular playing style) come a good number of new unit types to freshen things up on the battlefield. The GDI's vehicle-focused Steel Talons, for instance, give rise to Titan and Wolverine walkers (as seen in Tiberian Sun). Their harvesters have an infantry slot on them, providing some much-needed early game protection, whilst their APCs have the option to repair other vehicles. All this comes at the price of infantry, leaving them with only the basic riflemen, rocket and grenadier squads. Equally, the Scrin's Traveler-59 faction focuses on rush tactics and mind control, giving the already micromanagement-intensive race even more tools to play with. Their upgraded Mastermind unit, the Prodigy, has an area of effect mind control and a 'blink pack' for teleporting short distances, opening up the potential for some seriously fun tactics versus groups of similar strength enemies. They pass up the Scrin's usually formidable array of end-game air units for some well needed early and mid game strength.

These unit inclusions are subtle and generally well thought out, with no drastic overriding changes to the playing style of the three umbrella factions - and in that respect it's mission accomplished. Unfortunately, Kane's War has inherited many of its predecessor's shortcomings, particularly with regards to everyone's favourite grey area in the RTS genre, the game balance. The new units do little to rumble the current multiplayer trend of simply creating endless barrages of infantry, with speed of execution and persistence usually triumphing over tact and guile. This means that the new 'Epic Units' get equally dubious honours. In their defence, they certainly have that "whoa" factor and can be an awful lot of fun to control. Charging the GDI's M.A.R.V (Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle, which basically equates to the Mammoth Tank's even bigger brother) through an enemy expansion and chewing up any Tiberium in its wake is an infinitely satisfying experience. The problem lies in their huge cost, both in time and resources, along with the relative power of the mass producible lower tech units, rendering them more of a marketing gimmick than a viable strategy.

It's hard to recommend Command & Conquer 3: Kane's War to anyone other than C&C3 devotees. If you didn't take to the original then there's nothing here that will convert you to the cause. It's full of the same old sights and sounds, tongue in cheek humour and fast-paced combat that the series is renowned for. There have been no improvements made to the shoddy multiplayer implementation in the intervening year, which is still rife with disconnect and synching issues - long before you get to the complexities of unit balancing. In fact, a lack of any real improvement is KW's biggest problem. Instead, its value comes from simply adding more, making it a must buy for fans, for whom it offers a sizable chunk of content for a budget price.

Reviewed by Martin Oddy for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).