Red Alert 2 screenshot

“Past experience provides little basis for confidence that reason can prevail in an atmosphere of mounting war fever. In a contest between a hawk and a dove the hawk has a greater advantage, not because it is a better bird, but because it is a bigger bird with lethal talons and a highly developed will to use them.”
- J. William Fulbright, Speech in the U.S. Senate, April 21, 1966

“Command & Conquer Red Alert 2″ is, in short, a very cool game. The premise is a faithful continuation of the previous story. The game play is fun. The interface is immediately familiar and the graphics are simple and fun.

Red Alert 2 brings our old friends, the Soviets to the American front door. It’s been a while since we’ve had the Soviets to pick on. Frankly, I was already starting to tire of popping terrorists one at a time. Call me a big thinker but I like building and attacking war “machines”. It must be those Total Annihilation genes kicking in again. If you feel the same, Red Alert 2 is a good fix with a refreshingly “retro” look (by modern game standards).

Now, I must admit that I’m not much of a campaigner. I like to boot the game and jump into a skirmish. In fact, I hate when games don’t give that option. Red Alert 2 didn’t disappoint. Within minutes ofinstalling the software I was building a power plant and barracks preparing to hold back the commie horde (my apologies to any communists reading this but the game does have a very pre-glasnost spin). The game comes at you fast and furious as you race to build a base capable of withstanding the usual early strike from the computer opponent (it’s the good defense is a strong offense approach). The quick games can be very quick which allows you the ability to ascertain the effectiveness of units and approaches in short order.

As with most games, each side has a set of unique units that you can build and deploy. Sticking with my capitalistic yearnings, I spend the better part of the night as the Americans. While being repeatedly nuked by the Soviets was annoying, the ability to deploy Chrono Legionnaires was very cool. These units can zap their way across a map and simply wipe opposing units(including structures) out of existence. (Tip: If you can’t penetrate an enemy camp deploy several Chrono Legionnaires near your opponents mining site. This way you can zap their harvesters out of existence and severely damage their economy. This certainly helps wars of attrition to go by a little quicker.)

On the graphics side, Red Alert 2 is standard C&C fare. You won’t see detail anywhere near Ground Control or Earth 2150. In this case, however, it works. Red Alert 2 is simply less serious than most RTS games and that’s its strength. It’s tried and true fun with graphics that match. Afterall, we’ve seen great, board-burning graphics in games like Star Trek: New Worlds and they didn’t get us anywhere. Graphics should add to a game’s feel and never take away from the game play. Red Alert 2 works.

Another nicety is the Red Alert 2 web site. Westwood and EA have put together an awesome Flash site (I recommend you use that version if you can) with soundtrack downloads and a Red Alert 2 fan site kit.

r e c o m m e n d a t i o n

We’re giving Red Alert 2 a “strong buy” recommendation! Go forth and spend, comrade!