Giving the Red Alert the Green light for GO! (Command and Conquer - Red Alert 2 (PC))

Member Name: martial_loh

Product:	Command and Conquer - Red Alert 2 (PC)
Date:	15/09/01 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: C&C.....what else?!

Disadvantages: AI could do with some work

After the disappointing Tiberian Sun, I did not expect a great experience from Red Alert 2. Tiberian Sun was not very fun to play, mainly due to the lack of variety in units, and poor mission structure.
However, the original Red Alert was much more fun to play than the original C&C, and thankfully, it's sequel Red Alert 2 is miles better than Tiberian Sun. Using the same game engine as Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2 looks pretty similar. The soviet forces are at large again, this time with a sinister tatooed psychic named Yuri pulling all the strings in this orchestrated world attack. The old classic infantry units are back, with the very useful attack dogs, although the weaponary that you have at your disposal in RA2 is far more futuristic and devastating than all the other previous C&C titles. The naval units are a credit to the game, as they can be used for some very neat hit and run tactics. Some of my favourite units include the Squid (soviet), the Desolators (soviet) and the funny looking rocketeers (allies).
The superweapons include Weather control, the old Iron Curtain, Chronosphere and Nukes. Several units have secondary attacks, which are accessible by clicking your units when the expansion arrows appear around them. The world's most powerful civilian Tanya is back in action, although I favoured using Crazy Ivan - a mad bomber to hook explosives onto enemy (and allied!!) units. The street levels are nicely done, since most buildings can be garrisoned (chuck your troops into them, and they snipe enemies!), and the civilians run around terrified in quite an appropriate manner.
Controls are the standard C&C type. You move your mouse cursor to the edge of the screen to scroll the map. To speed this up, you can hold you right mouse button. You select with the left button, and the cursor can be dragged, to draw a box around the units you want to select. The music is very similar to the tracks heard on other C&C games, with the old favourite Hell
March leading the rendered Intro with great enthusiasm. Tactics aren't so much a big deal in this game. I must say that when playing as the soviet side, I have often resulted in building a few Kerov airships and completely destroying opposition and bases in a couple of seconds. Westwood should have balanced out the units a bit more, since it is very easy to aquire these airships (not to mention they are pretty cheap!!). I also feel that the allies are slightly underpowered in terms of units. They have excellent superweapons, but these machines take a very long time to gather enough resources in order for you to use them when you want.
The air units are also not so good, with the exception of the raw overkill of the Kerov airships. The jetfighters are fast, but their power is not enough. This game is very much a ground-level based war game (much like Emperor, battle for Dune). The graphics are a slight improvement over Tiberian Sun. The units and buildings look sharper and smoother than they did before, and the animation is pretty good too. The storyline is decent, but you can't help but laugh at some of the acting that goes on in the FMV sequences! Maybe Westwood could fix that up for the upcoming RA2 expansion - Yuri's revenge (btw, I read somewhere that RAMBO and DIRTY HARRY will appear in the add on pack.....How cool!)

So, to summarise, here's the good - fun gameplay, fun units, amusing story and options, good level design and scenario variation.
and here's the bad - Isn't it about time we moved to true 3D? Slight imbalance in unit power, Quirky acting, CPU tactics aren't always the brightest.
Still, RA2 is a very good game. It is the perfect opening point for new real time strategy game players, as well as sometimes providing a challenge for the more experienced player. Buy it! Quick!

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