Red Alert 2 the most recent in the Command and Conquer series of RTS
games has just expanded in the form of an expansion pack to rival the original game for
both story and game play. Those of you who liked the original will love this expansion
even more. This game continues with the same partially cartoon like and sometimes goofy
themes that Red Alert and Red Alert 2 have both been based on. New units continue to
follow the cartoon like style and give the player some laughs along the way. It is however
slightly different and I will outline some of the differences here. Most
noticeable of the things that set this expansion off from the original are the units. This
expansion changes the units drastically by throwing in a new and totally different enemy
who takes some of the Soviet units and add them to its own and unique arsenal. Yuri,
formally scientist and Agent of the Soviets, has returned with his own new army fully
stocked with his own brand of weapons. On the unit side of his army he gets a menagerie of
units ranging from gun toting clones to big mind controlling brain tanks and even branches
into mutations. Yuris army introduces a new battle for your army, the struggle for
their minds. Mind controlling devices and units corrupt your units giving full control to
the whims of Yuri. Be it leader or peasant most units will fall to the mind controlling
devices of Yuris army. In addition you will face the menacing tank bashing
incredible hulks capable of ripping even the strongest of vehicles to shreds. What more
Yuri can generate these mutations among your own men turning them against you. Once you
have dealt with the mind controlling whims and tank bashing hulks of Yuri you still must
contend with his home base which is now protected by an interesting device of the past,
the gattling canon. This cannon protects the base from many levels of attack with the
ability to hit both air and ground units. All this gives the army of Yuri a distinct
advantage against both the Allies and the Soviets. Allies and Soviets are not left totally
defenseless against the army of Yuri, they have new units of their own. Robot tanks
bolster the Allies defense and attack giving them the ability to ignore the effects
of Yuris mind control with these units. Soviet forces now have a quick attack air
unit and a new artillery unit all in the form of a attack helicopter that can change into
artillery upon landing and giving them both quick attack and damage all in one unit. I
have only listed a few of the new units and advances that you can get in this expansion
and I will leave them for you to discover for yourselves.
Story is again a bit on the unbelievable side but that is just the way that Red
Alert has been and always will be. The story surrounds the soviet Agent Yuri who builds
devices to control the population of the world and make them his slaves. As the allies you
travel time to defeat Yuris plan before it is even complete, and get some help from
former friends from Red Alert 2. You even travel to Yuri dominated Hollywood and free the
actors there who are being forced to film a dinosaur movie later you go into Antarctica to
fight the forces of Yuri and destroy one of his domination devices. In the Soviet campaign
you steal the Allied time machine and stop Yuri but also take the opportunity to win the
original war between the Allies and Soviets. Soviet missions are quite a bit more fun and
start out with a quick trip back in time in which you end up fighting dinosaurs. Through
out the Soviet missions you visit many different environments and fight a greater
assortment of Yuris devices than in the allied missions. You even go to the moon as
the soviets and your leaders rejoice as Russians finally land on the moon. This new story
comes complete with 17 new between mission videos and various in play videos. All the
videos still feature the same actors as the original in their slightly goofy but totally
enjoyable roles giving the movie sequences a life of their own and a well deserved place
in this expansion.
Multiplayer is yet again a place where this game shines and still relies on the
same tactics to make it a balanced game. Multiplayer games are bolstered by the pre-game
abilities to chose your starting position and choose your allies. Also the new coop levels
are a refreshing break from blowing up all your friends. Like the original this expansion
uses pure destruction to keep peoples interests and it does it well. All the new
units and buildings add to the balancing act of this game in which every side has powerful
and destructive units so that there is no distinct advantage to anyone, except if they are
actually better than their opponent. A new badge system helps set players apart from other
players by awarding badges for certain achievements such as beating all 4 of the coop
campaigns, and making the top 1000 standing in any given month. Quick match games now
affect your rank on the Westwood online ladders and a new quick coop option allows you to
quickly enter a game with another person and fight a random coop battle.
Downsides of this game are small and unimportant but I will list a few of them
anyway. One thing is that this game is too easy if played in any mode but hard and still
relatively easy in that mode. Playing this game in easy or medium modes gave me a less
enjoyable experience overall and playing in hard made some of the game experiences a
little bit more enjoyable, namely that instead of fighting nothing you actually end up
seeing units to blow up. Second, in the first mission of the allied campaign Tanya gets
blown up and it does not affect the game play at all even though it says she will be out
of commission for a while.
The monster that is Command and Conquer gets a new breath of life with this all
new expansion. Great interplay of new units and mixing up of old ones gives this game a
whole new taste without having to much change in the way the game is played. As expansions
go this one is among the best for tying itself into the original game thus making it a
truly enjoyable experience in the Red Alert world. All around this expansion stays true to
the Red Alert style and story making it a good buy for all you Red Alert fans.