Blakdust: Red Alert 2
Written: Mar 02 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great on-line play!! Beautiful graphics, cool units, immense battles
Cons: typical story, short missions in single-player mode,
The Bottom Line: RA 2 is a progressive step forward for RTS games. Brilliantly conceived, a masterful production.
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| samadust's Full Review: Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 for Windows |
I first discovered RTS (Real Time Strategy) games when Dune: The Battle for Arrakis was released for Sega Genesis in the early 90's. I had just read the book by Frank Herbert and while perusing the local Blockbuster I saw the title and decided to rent it by name recognition.
I had no idea what I was getting into.
14 hours later I was still sitting in front of the T.V. The room was dark in the early morning glowing blue light coming in the window, my retina was burning from lack of sleep, frustration and T.V. radiation. My palms were running rivers of sweat and aching from the marathon of thumb action, my mind was racing with excitement as the House of Harkonnen's tanks descended for a final time on my base and was slaughter by my rocket turrets, troops and other base defenses.
I was initiated.
For the next four days of my rental I could hardly separate myself from the game. It was so addictive I went out and bought it as soon as I returned it. It felt like playing a game of chess magnified 1000x. Real time warfare, hundreds of troops, dozens of tanks, aircrafts and harvesters, strategic maneuvers, outlandish ambushes, surprise attacks, flat out demolition, all without scars or pain other than personal neglect.
I had discovered a whole new type of gaming. Before this, I had played action games, platformers, puzzles, never to the insatiably addictive extent as Dune. So when the Command & Conquer series became available on console, namely the Playstation, I was first in line to pick it up. Command & Conquer led to Red Alert then Dune 2000, Tiberian Sun and on to Red Alert 2. In between there have been many other RTS games produced by other companies but no one makes RTS like Westwood/EA.
Red Alert 2 improves upon every aspect of every other RTS the company has ever made. It gives expansive battles, many, many new units, improved graphics, faster processing speed, more intuitive AI, clearer FMV's with notable actors, high resolution and fast on-line play.
*= They must have been smoking crack
**= Not the worst but bad
***= Could have been better but I'll give it to 'em
****= Solid effort, good job
*****= Excellent, innovative, Bravo!!
The Story ***
The Soviets have discovered a way to travel through time. They have done so and in the course of their travel, altered history through assasinations and various other actions. They gained power and marched westward conquering lands until the Allies, with their superior combat technology, thwarted their supremacy attempt and replaced their leader with one of their own choosing, Alexi Romanov.
Romanov, unfortunatley, harbored great hatred for the West for destroying his country and plotted a clandestine revenge. Before America (leader of the Allies) knew what was going on he was already conducting heavy attacks on major U.S cities. President Dugan immediately forms a plan for retaliation.
"The World erupts into conflict."
Not bad. It is very interesting and vaguely realistic, accept for the time travel thing but it need'nt be realistic, it's a curvy plot that makes for amusing cut scenes. Yet the structure of the plot is overtly typical. You are a general (that makes sense) reporting to a mid-level official who reports to the highest official. The plot unfolds pretty typically but I don't want to reveal exactly how. My point is that the story could have used a little more creative revision, but it is satifactory.
Sound *****
The sound on Westwood RTS games are notorious for being very well done. Richly orchestrated, cleverly matched with the action and concept, nicely layer for depth of perception and contemporary. Much like the rest of the series the soundtrack is mostly techno and industrial. There are war chants, marching sounds and the rough industrial sound of steel against steel all set against a driving beat or atmospheric sythesizers that are better for those who want to here the sounds of warfare more and less music. You have the option to switch tracks at will and/or shut off the music entirely.
The sound effects of the war itself are beautiful. There's nothing better than hearing the burst of your Apocalypse Tank's cannon bellowing out while a pack of Soviet Conscripts riddle away chattering bullets at a structure that's flaming loudly and falling to ashes. The sounds are accurately sensitive to distance. If there is a small battle going on in the western part of the screen and you move your view over to the east, the sounds will recede into the distance the further you go. The sounds also come in true stereo, the best way to play is with a good pair of headphones. The voices are clear and understandable with appropriate accents and different sayings for each unit. All volumes can be adjusted.
Graphics *****
Graphically the series has been making consistant leaps forward with each enstallment. From the crude, yet sufficient graphics of the first Command & Conquer to the precision of Red Alert 2, there is a huge difference. The environments are highly detailed all the way down to park benches, vacationers on the beaches in Hawaii, sign posts and traffic lights. The troops, although pretty small, are nicely detailed with uniforms, identifiable weapons and gadgets. The buildins are crisp and sharp, interestingly designed and colorful and the warfare proceeds with bright graphics and pleasing results.
There is less slow down than in earlier versions. It does occur but doesn't detract much from gameplay. The cut scenes are also upgraded, coming in sharper with less blips and a flowing video.
Gameplay & Control*****
With few additions to the control scheme C&C: Red Alert 2 has the smoothest gameplay of them all. Drastic slow downs, especially during the action scenes severly hurts over all gameplay but, when running on a good computer, RA 2 pretty much avoids this hinderance.
Like the earlier installments there are many short-cut keyboard commands to enter and lots of special tactic enhancers. The many new units on the game like the Iraqui Desolator or the Libyan Radioactive Demolition tank add many new strategies to the game. Once the shortcuts are learned, quick navigation of the menu's and deft maneuvering are at your fingertips.
Units and Structures *****
I think this time they got it right. Many complained about the earlier games giving stronger, more practical units to one side and not the other, therefore creating an imbalanced game in single-player and multi-player mode. While might seem true sometimes with RA 2, I don't think it is. Each team has it's strengths and weaknesses and one can always overcome the other by exploiting their strengths strategically.
In example, during multi-player missions, you have the choice of choosing from 8 different countries. One of the countries is France who has the ability to create a Grand Cannon for base defense. When invading your enemy and being faced with the far reaching, devastating threat of the Grand Cannon it can seem hopeless. In the face of three or four cannons, 10-15 tanks can be destroyed before they get close enough to strike back. Yet this problem can be eradicated through the use of other resources if used skillfully. In this way, I think this game requires more skill than previous installments. Each party is given the option to create heavy hitting units, devastating attacks and defenses so if you are not up to par and very observant/skillful, forget it.
-Here is a brief description of some of my favorite units & structures:
The Rocketeer (Allies): These units fly and attack objects on land and in the air. They are fast and good in groups to take out infantry and swarm an unprotected building.
Chrono Miner & War Miner
Chrono Miner (Allies) will drive out to Ore, collect and instantly teleport itself back to base. War Miners have an attatched gun turret that defends the miner agains pesky infantry. Both are very helpful.
Kirove Airship (Soviet)
An airship the moves very slow but has strong armor and devastates anything it flies over. It drops crushing bombs and destroys structures quickly.
Cloning Vat (Soviet)
Duplicates every infantry unit you create. For each one you train, it trains another for free.
This game is brilliantly conceived, fast and furious, great to play on-line, thoughtful and extremely strategic. This is the ultimate RTS game and should be on the shelf of every fan and those who are curious. I can't recommend it enough.
By the way, if you play this game on-line and want to challenge me, you can email me at dflowe@newwf.org and let me know or find me in the Red Alert 2 clubroom. My id name there is blakdust.
Samadust
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
samadust
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Member: Douglas Flowe
Location: USA
Reviews written: 182
Trusted by: 94 members
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