Customer Reviews

Command & Conquer Red Alert 2

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Well this is Westwood's 4th C&C RTS game, and it's GREAT as usual. I gave this 4 1/2 stars, but I rounded that to 5 to display on the title.

Red Alert 2, like all it's predecesors, is a strategy/war game by Westwood,a strategy gaming company owned by the huge Electronic Arts for a while now. It features 2 campaigns, 1 for each side, that walk you through the plot and train you for the regular battles ahead. There is a skirmish mode, which lets you play a multiplayer-style game with the AI. I once used this mode to re-inact the Bay of Pigs invasion, there are so many little options. True fun comes, though, with multiplayer mode, which is the main focus of the game.

Although in previous C&Cs, especially Tiberian Sun, there was a quite a lot of blood and gore when an infantry guy got killed, Red Alert 2 has NO Blood and NO Gore. In fact, when an infantryman is killed now, sometimes he'll say things like "Do'h!" and then fall over and disappear. Still, it's rated "T"like most strategy games. No swearing, either; the president says in the intro movie, "I wouldn't give a wooden nickel about your legacy."

The story is simple: after Red Alert (original), where the Soviets invade Europe in about 1940 instead of Germany because of some complex time-travel assasination that nobody really understands, the Allies install a puppet leader
in Russia. Seeming at first to be an advocate of peace, he later invades the Allies' main supplier and most important fighter the U.S.A. using mind-control and quite a few other intresting technologies. FMV movies will tell you most of the plot.

Once again, Westwod has included graphics that succeed in telling the player what is happening, but not state-of-the-art. They have continued to use their MegaVoxel technology, which models the game in a sort of 2D/3D cross but makes
the units look like an army of mold campared to conventional graphics. (Well that's an exaggeration but they're still quite bad-looking). But as I said before, they still let the player see what's happening, and that's enough,
I think.

The good news is that it needs no such 3D graphics cards that some conventional graphics games do.

Like in the original Red Alert you can pick the Allies or Soviets on a quest for world domination. The Soviets have more in the way of general power, the Allies have intresting technologies to counter that, usually involving prisms
or time travel.

The gameplay is fun and easy to learn. Veterans of C&C will know the interface as soon as they load up the game, it's pratically the same except the the waypoints have gotten confusing and a new cursor has been added to tell you if you are in range to fire or if your units must move first. The tank rush
is easier to resist now, you now have better base defenses and you can garrison buildings with troops. Garrisons are extremely powerful, underestimation of them will lead to a failed assualt that costs you 100,000 credits. The gameplay has been made quicker now, allowing you to finish in about 30 minutes to 1 hour. New multiplayer modes include team alliance and others.

The sound is still sharp, and each class of units has a different selection of random words to say when they are selected, moved, and fired. The music is good, provides ambience and has more speach than any other C&C games. No,
not like somebody is actually singing, but rather every once in a while someone'll say something like, "Gentlemen, it's a nuclear device," or something inaudible in the background.

The game is stable, but like all games you'll get a complete hang once in a while.

This game is a good buy and I had some great fun. It has its set of disadvantages, like all games, but it's gotten better and C&C is starting to get better each release. Obviously destined to be in a museum one of these years. The Last Remaining Copy will behind glass, with a demonstration on a computer to the side. The sign'll say, "Red Alert 2. Archeologists confirm
that it was probobly the best game of the year in 2000."

Pros

+Fast paced, action gameplay
+Easy to learn
+Another bumper crop of new units

Cons
-Graphics not quite, eh, state of the art
-Confusing Waypoints.

(Note: This is Writer50's son)

Red Alert 2 features a new storyline (not pertaining to the old one), new units, new graphics, new sounds, and more depth, all of which are pretty good! Some of the old units have new features which add depth to the game. Like a Chrono Miner and the engineers ability to fix bridgers. The graphics are great for a game of this kind and if you know how to, you can edit the game in nearly every way. If you like war-strategy games or you liked Red Alert- Get This!

Some people (like those other than me that wrote a review for this game) don't know what their talking about!
1. For those you complained about the story, they use the word DECEPTION, it isn't cheesy! It could happen!
2. People complaining about new weapons and the year: It's kind of hard to tell what year it takes place in, but the new units used in the game could be developed in the future!
3. Yuri is added to the game as the Second in Command for Russia, is that hard to understand? In the next game, Yuri wants to take over the world :)

This Game Is Great!

Just out of curiousity I pulled Red Alert 2 out of mothballs. Especially in light of Generals, does RA2 still hold up? The answer, surprisingly enough, is yes!

The two big attractions for Red Alert 2 are its unique units and its unashamedly B-Grade Movie Acting cheese factor. Firstly - to the units. Because RA2 isn't based on any real-life scenarios (Soviet Union invades America? Please.), this gives the developers creative freedom to create the craziest units imaginable. So we have soldiers with rocket packs (Rocketeers), Tanks that can camouflage themselves (Mirage tanks), and shock troopers that fire lightning bolts (Tesla Troopers). To this very day, the units in Red Alert 2 are still my favourites of all time.

The second big attraction is how RA2 revels in its B-Grade movie roots. It was a huge surprise because so many game developers take the "grim and gritty" route. Red Alert 2 wallows unashamedly in its own cheesiness. It also introduced some very memorable characters. Udo Kier is suitably very creepy (in a cheesy way) as the Pscyhic Yuri. Tanya (played by Kari Wuhrer) - in addition to being a useful unit in the game, she's played with real charm and feistiness. There's Ray Wise as the US President, who's clearly sending up Bill Clinton. And finally, one of my favourite game characters of all time - General Carville, played brilliantly by Barry Corbin. He gets some great lines - one of my favourites is "I'm sick and tired of living in Canada. Get me my office back!". And his delivery really fires you up and makes you want to kick some Soviet [...].

That (to me) is what separates Red Alert 2 from any other game before or since. It flatly refuses to take itself seriously and invites the player to have a lot of fun. The graphics may not be as advanced as Generals, but the gameplay and memorable characters more than make up for it.

Just wanted to say that the Amazon review notes the cheesy cut scenes as a negative aspect, where as most people I have talked to, and myself, find the overt and excessive cheesy factor to be highly entertaining.
Overall a fantastic game. Gameplay adds just enough new naunces to give it a unique feel. And what the graphics lack in a technical aspect, they make up for in artistic value, and by really helping build up the atmosphere of outrageous sci-fi/history/comedy mishmash background. While not the most well rounded or ground-breaking games around, it is one of the most fun games I've ever played.

Red Alert has always paved the way for technology (on the game engine side), with the original Red Alert making the leap into SVGA. Red Alert 2 features a truely enhanced 2D engine with huge structures.

You finally get to fight on US soil (none of the previous C&C engines could have done this justice like the Red Alert 2 engine does). Gameplay is more back to basic, User Interface has been revamped for the first time in the series.

This doesn't feel like a sequel. If you've ever enjoyed C&C, buy this now.

This game has to be one of the best I have played in a long time. This is no Red Alert duplicate. It has tons of original gameplay and is all around an awesome game. I would highly recommend this game for anyone who is a fan of real-time strategy

Anybody who as ever played a strategy game and enjoyed it, this is the game for you! I borrowed this game from a friend for one day, and the next day I was out at the store buying it. I have been playing it for as long as I can remember, and I still try to play it as much as possible.

Some people are saying that this game requires no strategy whatsoever. Well, people who say that are most likely not winning a game right now. That is because they do not play with strategy, they simply build thirty tanks and watch them get blown up by the enemy defenses. As with any RTS game, you need to use strategy. Build forty-five tanks, send fifteen to the enemy base, and distract them. Then, send your remaining thirty tanks and annihilate their base. Unless I am mistaken, that is considered a strategy.

Of course, I must admit, Westwood Studios COULD have made Red Alert 2 with a Three-Dimensional engine, but that's not important. Sure, it may have a cheesy story and ultra-cheeseball cutscenes, but none of these things interfere with the fun gameplay of Red Alert 2.

As for parents worried about their children playing bloody, gory games, fear not! Red Alert 2 has no blood or gore at all. Oh, and also, there is no swearing.

All that I can say to you now is: BUY RED ALERT 2! You will not be dissapointed!

Electronic Arts gave XWIS (strike-team.net) all of Westwood's old games and the online servers. This has dramatically improved fair gameplay, support, and competition. XWIS offers prizes for top players each month. Great game to be able to get all of this for. Also one of the best RTS sellers of all time.

Oh my! Westwood has done it yet again! Another great RTS strategy game and one of the few sequels to live up to its predocessor's name. There are more units, 3D battle plane, more units, more control. Buildings that can be entered by troops, veterancy, more nations to choose from (each with it's own special unit). This game is truly great. Only drawback is the limited air power of the soviet nations (no more MIGS just slow blimps). The graphics are great and a very cool refinement that the first RA did not have.

If you liked Red Alert you'll probably like Red Alert 2!

This game blows all others away with great graphics, cool new catch frases when you click on units, and an almost endless amount of new units and buildings. You get nuke silo's and weather machines but those are only a few of the buildings. You go through an epic struggle to defeat the allies, or defeat the soviets who have a powerful mind controling weopon who's name is Yuri. It is definitely beatible because I beat the game with the allies.
Whether you want to win with the prism defense systems of the allies or the tesla technology of the soviets, There is no end to the excitement of beating the 20 levels or so on either team.