C&C Generals is up there with StarCraft in terms of gameplay. And yes the RA music is some of the best ever game music. I still blast Hell March from time to time.
That’s from 2003 though. It is one of the last games in the series and was made after Westwood Studios had been disbanded and staff finally merged fully into EA LA. Westwood didn’t even exist as a subsidiary of EA by that point.
Whereas StarCraft was released in 1998. Which, if we are to use your examples, would make C&C 5 years behind StarCraft in terms of game play. Which is a hell of a long time given how games were evolving in the 90s and early 00s
