History VideoGame / CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries

* CrateExpectations: All games in the series make use of neutral crates containing cash, unit healing, unit veterancy, improved unit firepower/armor/speed, entire additional units[[note]]up to and including a friggin' ''MCV'', in rare cases even one of the opposing faction{{ or other, similar goodies when a unit touches the crate. However, crates in ''Tiberian Dawn'' and ''Tiberian Sun'' had a not-insignificant chance to screw you over one way or another, by doing things like releasing clouds of PoisonousGas, resetting the FogOfWar, spawning a hostile tiberium mutant, or simply blowing up with enough force to OneHitKill whatever picked up the crate and anything in their immediate vicinity.

** In the final level of ''Renegade'' you can hear the announcer in the temple occasionally warning that the "Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform has been damaged", hinting that CABAL was already well into development prior to Tiberian Sun. [[spoiler: This Temple is also located in Cairo, the same place you'll find CABAL's core in Firestorm.]]

* FanserviceExtra: The blonde female news anchor who narrates ''Tiberium Dawn'''s final cutscene shows some impressive cleavage for a reporter on live television.

* RecklessGunUsage: Subverted in the ''Tiberium Dawn'' cutscene where Kane briefs you on the next mission while toying with his Beretta 92, including pointing it at the camera/you for emphasis. The gun is almost immediately shown to have no magazine inserted, and Kane racks the slide before he does the pointing, so even if there was a bullet in the chamber, it'd be empty now. You still shouldn't point a gun at anything you don't want to shoot, but then it's Kane we're talking about, so it's actually quite in-character.

* SlapOnTheWristNuke: You'd expect actual nuclear bombs to do more than wipe out a few buildings. However, these "few buildings" often comprise half or more of the player's base, so in gameplay terms they pose a sufficiently major threat to make neutralizing their launch bases a number one priority the moment the enemy builds one.

** ''Tiberium Dawn'' is more or less [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the only game]] where Nod really waves around their [[CardCarryingVillain villain card]], with multiple missions tasking you with wiping out civilian villages to make a point. Unlike GDI forces, Nod troops automatically open fire on nearby civilians, and civilian buildings can be attacked at any time regardless of whether the mission calls for it or not. Blowing up villages with a Commando even counts towards the "blow up 100 buildings with the Commando" achievement in the ''Remastered'' collection, and one late-game mission has so many villages that the achievement can be "earned" there almost in one go. YouBastard However...

** From ''Tiberian Sun'', the ''Mammoth Mk. II'' is absolutely powerful and armed to the teeth. Unfortunately, it also falls into AwesomeButImpractical.
** The ''Purifier'' Warmech is precursor to the ''Avatar'', and is SimpleYetAWesome. It's not as advanced as the ''Avatar'', and unable to upgrade itself. The biggest sell though, is how it's equipped with on-board [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]] that can be upgraded with ''[[UpToEleven Purifying Flames]]''. It is not an exaggeration that if a just ''one'' of them actually manages to get into your base uncontested, it can raze your entire base in less than 5 minutes.

* SlapOnTheWristNuke: You'd expect actual nuclear bombs to do more than wipe out a few buildings.

** ''Tiberium Dawn'' is more or less [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the only game]] where Nod really waves around their [[CardCarryingVillain villain card]], with multiple missions tasking you with wiping out civilian villages to make a point. Unlike GDI forces, Nod troops automatically open fire on nearby civilians, and civilian buildings can be attacked at any time regardless of whether the mission calls for it or not. Blowing up villages with a Commando even counts towards the "blow up 100 buildings with the Commando" achievement in the ''Remastered'' collection, and one late-game mission has so many villages that the achievement can be "earned" there almost in one go. YouBastard. However...

* ColdSniper: Umagon in ''Tiberian Sun'', Sakura and Deadeye in ''Renegade'', and Nod's commando in ''Tiberium Wars''.

* GreenRocks: Tiberium, despite being a literal green crystal, is actually not an example of this trope - while it started out as a class example, over the time {{revision}}s have given it well-defined properties, rendering Tiberium a MinovskyParticle

** ''Tiberian Twilight'''s Crawlers, which are the logical evolution of the [=MCV=]s and the Rig.

** The Mammoth Mark II in ''Tiberian Sun''. Absolutely devastating if it reached your enemy's base, but cripplingly vulnerable to massed air assaults or tank assaults under the control of an inexperienced commander... though it did have its own SAM bank at least.

** In one of the earlier GDI missions from Tiberian Sun, the map features a couple of buildings resembling an abandoned GDI base from the first game.

* {{Cutscene}}: One of the early games to use live-action FMV to advance the game plot, the series at least does not overwhelm the game itself. Continues to be a key element in the ''Tiberium'' and ''Red Alert'' games, if only for tradition.

* GrandfatherClause: How many modern games can still get away with FMV?

** The Mammoth MK.II's FMV is a near-perfect homage to the scene with the AT-AT walkers in Star Wars. Here, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqgS8Yio5vA look]].

** The above all but ensures that Tiberium will eventually become the most valued substance on the planet, causing its population to fight over it, weakening them and allowing it to spread uncontrolably across a planet, gradually mutating or converting all life.

* HostileTerraforming: The series centres around humanity adjustments to a world being transformed by the eponymous [[GreyGoo Technicolour Crystaltech]] - which not only convert the atmosphere and the ecosystem, but also extract useful minerals from the Earth's crust for easy harvesting when the invaders finally arrive in person.
* HumanResources: CABAL in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' is an artificial intelligence that stores human in vats so it can use their brains' processing power. Its name is an acronym for "Computer Assisted ''Biologically Augmented'' Lifeform".

* {{Determinator}}: Kane. No matter what setback he suffer, he always finds a way to come back with a even greater forces then the last ones. In ''Tiberian Twilight'', [[spoiler: he finally reaches his goal, despite the fact that it took him thousands of years and four of the bloodiest wars in history]].
** Commander Michael [=McNeil=], the field commander of GDI during ''Tiberian Sun'', makes it very clear that he will win whatever means possible. Its makes him Kane's {{arch enemy}}.

** Several times by Kane, including against his own side (the sacrifice of millions of his own followers at Sarajevo in ''Tiberium Wars'' being a horrific example.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy / HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Yeah, so, the Black Hand, Nod's elite special forces group? They're most likely the same Black Hand that had [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Archduke Franz Ferdinand]] assassinated. The Brotherhood itself claims to be around since the dawn of makind itself (which is actually plausible).

** The Scrin also construct things with nano-assemblers, and teleport most of their forces from their fleet at the edge of the Solar System via wormhole portals.

* RidiculouslyPotentExplosion: Tiberium is already highly energetic, especially the mature blue kind, but ''Liquid'' Tiberium puts nuclear divices to shame while ''still being a chemical.''

** Eventually, Tiberium will reach deep into the mantle of a planet as it extracts minerals, liquefying from the heat. This is bad news, as hot Liquid Tiberium is a HairTriggerExplosive and acts as a catalyst to trigger chain-reactions in nearby non-liquid Tiberium, [[PortentOfDoom producing an etheral-looking]] WorldWreckingWave. Non-heated Liquid Tiberium is far more stable, but maintains every single nasty trait of its non-liquid counterpart.

** Eventually, Tiberium will reach deep into the mantle of a planet as it extracts minerals, liquefying from the heat. This is bad news, as Liquid Tiberium is MadeOfExplodium and acts as a catalyst to trigger chain-reactions in nearby non-liquid Tiberium, [[PortentOfDoom producing an etheral-looking]] WorldWreckingWave.

* GreenRocks: Tiberium, one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, is a particularly nightmarish example. For one thing, it can turn ''you'' into a green rock if you get too close.

* MinovskyPhysics: Tiberium as of ''Wars''.