|
It will soon be here. Something most veteran real-time strategy gamers have been waiting and hoping for. With the release of C&C2 most thought it wasn’t going to happen but it doesn’t seem that long ago that Westwood officially announced Red Alert 2. The game is actually pretty far through the development processes and is still on track for a release this October, and that isn’t too far away. Red Alert 2 uses a modified version of the game engine used for Command and Conquer 2. The voxel technology has been reworked a bit and this allows the units to look a lot more detailed and colorful. In fact most everything in Red Alert 2 breaks away from the tough and gritty C&C universe and also aids in giving this alternate universe so much more unique detail.
If a person wants unit variety in their real-time strategy game, Red Alert 2 will probably the closest thing to pure bliss. From the mind-controlled squids to the herd of bomb-strapped cows this game uses every angle it can. Other units include the Aircraft Carrier, Tesla Troopers, Prism Tanks, Harriers, Kirov Airships, Crazy Ivan, and everyone’s favorite Attack Dog unit. Through the death and despair of the enemy, units will gain in ‘rank’ and will eventually gain an ability that can make them vital to any cause. If things get too rough a player will also be able to garrison their units within civilian buildings and this provides a pretty good amount of additional protection and firepower. Resources won’t be handled too differently from the original Red Alert but the resource gathering units have received some upgrades. The allied resource harvesters have the ability to warp time and space to teleport themselves back to the main refinery, while the soviets’ miner is outfitted with a menacing turret. Westwood is also adding Oil Derricks to take over and an ability to refine ore more efficiently, which increases profit. Westwood constantly reinforces the idea that Red Alert 2 will be fast, furious, and fun. RA2’s style of play looks very similar to the original but a lot more attention was put into unit balance. Since they opted to create units that are far more specialized and unique, Westwood is working with ‘high balance’. This kind of balance involves a good number of unique units, while ‘low balance’ deals with a good number of mirrored units. High Balance sounds like a far more intricate process but so far it seems as if they are putting all of the unique units to good use. For the most part cost and build time are going to be two of the main balance factors. Powerful units take more time and money to build while smaller less powerful units don’t. Other balance tweaks will take place between sides but for the most part that is how things should work. With all of the above said it becomes pretty understandable that they have re-invented the interface used in the original. A tab system has been utilized to clearly label each type of build option, a new advanced command bar option has been added, a diplomacy menu, and a ‘Planning Mode’, which is a developed waypoint system. The end result Westwood desires is a game where the winner isn’t truly decided until the end of the game. With the use of so many unique yet equally powerful units the tides can turn at any moment. It is up to the players to deal with situations accordingly. What looks to be the biggest advantage Red Alert 2 has is the simple fact that Westwood isn’t trying to change the core ideas behind the gameplay by pushing the technological envelope. Red Alert 2 is still certainly nice to look at (which proves that 2D still rocks) and will no doubt offer up the same insane and very intense experience the original provided us years ago. Below is a link to a very cool image from the Red Alert 2 EPK that I have resized to 1024x768 and 800x600 for use as a wallpaper. They are in .bmp format so just download them to your windows directory. 
800x600
1024x768
|
