In the game, the player can choose from three different factions: the United States, China and the Global Liberation Army (GLA).

[7] An expansion pack, entitled Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, was additionally released for PC in 2003, and for Mac OS in 2004.

The new game was part of the Generals franchise and was cancelled on October 29, 2013 by EA after negative feedback during the closed alpha test.

In addition, players can also deploy superweapons which can decimate an opponent's forces, though must wait for a cooldown period to end before they can use it again.

[14] The United States' theme music consists of grand, militaristic scores composed by Bill Brown and Mikael Sandgren.

China's musical themes feature apocalyptic, orchestral scores combined with East Asian instrumentation.

The GLA faction's theme soundtrack can be described as a combination of Middle Eastern and few South Asian sounds coupled with heavy metal music.

[citation needed] Generals includes a map editor named World Builder for the PC edition only.

[15] The World Builder includes features such as: Generals takes place in a near future where the United States and China co-operate to fight against the Global Liberation Army (GLA), a terrorist organisation based in Central Asia.

The Chinese mobilise to stall and contain the GLA, but in the process lose the Three Gorges Dam and the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Now on the offensive, the Chinese attack GLA strongholds, arriving at the terror cell's main headquarters in Dushanbe.

However, the United States enters the war and a GLA renegade sides with the Chinese with the intention to destroy the organisation.

The United States sends its forces to the Middle East, Baghdad, Hindu Kush and then Kazakhstan to finally put an end to the GLA.

[26] Due to the restrictions, in the middle of 2003, EA released a localized version specifically for the German market called Command & Conquer: Generäle, with references to terrorism and real-world countries and places removed, as well as removing civilians and altering unit names and appearances.