Have you ever wondered what the world would have been like if Hitler had never risen to power? If Albert Einstein had been killed as a younger man? How different would today be if there was such a change to the space-time continuum? Red Alert 3 presents such an alternate history in a fun, challenging and great looking real time strategy game. While the overall game play and look is very good, underneath the hood are some minor clunky features, faction imbalance and very linear campaign.
Game Details
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Developer: Electronic Arts Los Angeles
- ESRB Rating: T for Teen
- Genre: Real Time Strategy
- Theme: Sci-Fi/Alternate History
- Series: Command & Conquer, Red Alert
- Game Modes: Single player, multiplayer
- Pros: Fun and entertaining storyline; Excellent graphics and detailed units; Fully co-op campaign mode
- Cons: Some faction balance issues; Some clunky gameplay options
Red Alert's Alternate History Lesson
The Red Alert series of games has always taken a light hearted and semi-comical approach to story telling. The original Red Alert game has Albert Einstein traveling back in time to 1924, eliminating Hitler's rise to power with a handshake. Red Alert 2 continued with a Soviet invasion of the United States and now Red Alert 3 makes yet another twist to history as we know it. Red Alert 3 opens with the Soviet Union on the brink of collapse, the long war between the Allied powers has not gone their way. In a last ditch effort to save the crumbling empire from defeat the Soviets travel back in time and eliminate Albert Einstein. This prevents him from assisting the Allies in the development of nuclear weapons. This also cause a ripple effect and when returned to present day, the world has changed drastically. War is still being waged but now with strange new weapons and technologies, and a new empire has risen to power, the Empire of the Rising Sun.
After the opening live-action sequence players can choose any of the three campaigns, one for each playable faction in the game. For the most part basic game-play in Red Alert 3 hasn't changed much from the previous games. Technology trees are fairly basic and while units are quite unique for each faction they are not a lot of upgrade options. With that being said, the Red Alert series has never really been about complex technology trees, base building and dozens of different units/upgrades. Instead the series has been more focused on providing complexity to the way units and combat need micro managing. Red Alert 3 does a great job following this same format with an easy resource/economic management system and the ability to develop complex strategies depending on how you micro manage units and combat.
Campaign and Skirmish Modes
Each of the game's three campaigns are playable by two players in co-op mode. This feature is new to both the Red Alert series and real time strategy games. Players are give the option to play campaign missions in co-op or solo mode. In co-op mode you'll have a real human partner playing along trying to accomplish the same mission. You'll each also have the same overall objectives and can work as a team or split the tasks or map up accordingly. Solo mode is virtually identical to co-op in terms of the missions and objectives, but rather than a live person you'll be teamed up with a computer controlled ally who you can command or leave to the game's AI. In either case you will only be able to control your own units.
Both campaign game modes work very well and the missions are well balanced and fun to play, especially in co-op mode, however the missions are very scripted. So much so that at times I felt like I was more of a spectator rather than an active participant. In addition, the campaign missions are very limiting in terms of what resources, units and upgrades are available at your disposal. It's not until the last few missions that you'll have the opportunity to utilize some of the more powerful and fun units. There were also some bugs in the campaign co-op mode and issues with the main menu in the initial release, these have been fixed in the three patches that were made available in the game's first week of release.
In addition to the campaign mode there's the ever popular skirmish mode in which you can play computer opponents or real people online, on any of the game's two dozen or so maps. Skirmish games are the most for me of any the game modes in Red Alert 3. You have your choice of any of the three factions without the limitations found in the campaigns and the freedom to play anyway you like. It's also where you'll be able to hone your strategic skills by figuring out the best strategy for each civ, unit type, combat situation and more. No two games will play out the same. While I find this to be the most fun, it also can be the most frustrating, especially when playing matches online. Base build order, units and combat will need to be timed and micro'd extremely well to come out on top consistently.
