Westwood went out of their way to keep as RA2 as similar to the original as possible. The game’s universe should be very familiar to fans of the first Red Alert. Having flung off the Red Army in the original, the alternate universe created by Einstein’s assassination of Hitler continues to plod along. The Allied Forces have placed a new Soviet leader in power that they believe they can control. This sense of confidence is soon shattered as the revamped Soviet army begins an all out invasion of America.

As it seems to be Westwood’s storytelling device of choice, hi-resolution full-motion video was used to capture respectable acting talents providing the real story behind Red Alert 2. The script is actually pretty well written and in my opinion provides a better performance than what was seen in RA and C&C2. The characters seem far more fleshed out and it is a great deal easier to notice actual personality in the writing. As for the plot itself, it isn’t bad but it really isn’t anything that will catch most gamers off guard. Most of the mystery involves the psychic named Yuri, the rest of the story seems rather predictable but the style and presentation make up for most of the lack of real substance.

The story’s presentation doesn’t really end there. Westwood has borrowed the enhanced mission structure from C&C2 and used it for Red Alert 2. This wasn’t a bad move since this was one of the better aspects of Tiberian Sun. The FMV sequences may provide the backbone of the story and objectives, but the in-mission video and objective updates give each mission a boost and also provide a bit of spontaneity the first run through.

The missions are primarily built upon the old search and destroy formula. However, with the heavy amounts of well utilized scripting the result may not be something entirely fresh, but the concept is used well. As the game progresses the player is blessed with new units and technologies and a lot of the missions center around these new technologies.

I am not the biggest fan of voxels but I have to admit they were put to decent use in RA2. Staying in the second dimension is still a bit of a gamble in the age of 3D accelerators but I think the visuals are refined enough in this game to keep most gamers happy. There is an option to bump up the resolution above 640x480 and this comes recommended, because the voxel units look pretty bad at anything under 800x600. The game environment is presented fairly well. The structures on each side are certainly unique in style and the various cities are represented well. The visual effect of terrain elevation doesn’t quite match the quality of everything else. Things descend at sharp angles more than slopes, and this is even more noticeable when units pass over these areas.

What really pushes the surreal experience of Red Alert 2 to the next level is its use of realistic locations. The original sorely lacked this but Red Alert 2 seems to capitalize on it. The player will battle it out all over the United States and various parts of Europe, many of them marked with significant landmarks.

The Red Alert 2 unit roster is certainly a peculiar one. How many real-time strategy games have mad bombers that can attach bombs to cattle or mind controlled squids that can make short work of enemy naval units? This not only presents some wacky situations but some very challenging balance issues. The development team has managed to work some sort of miracle because as wacky and different as these units may seem there are balanced very very well.

Yes, tank rushes are still an early game tactic that can be used but not only do the core infantry units tend to survive a lot better against these kinds of assaults, there are also several early units built specifically to kill tanks. Once things move out of the early game phase it is really anyone’s victory. Many of the units have been allowed some serious versatility. For example Allied G.I.’s are able to dig in behind sand bags, while the Infantry Fighting Vehicle takes on the properties of the unit inside. If the IFV has an engineer inside it will become a mobile repair vehicle. The coolest option for all G.I. and Conscript (Soviet G.I.) units is the ability to garrison within buildings. The buildings scattered throughout maps give increased protection and firing range to infantry units.

The tech trees on each side are built to maximize the frantic pace of the game and to keep the race even on both sides. There are only a few short hops to the Nuclear Silo and the Mind Control units for the Soviets, and only a few quick hops to the Weather Control Device and Tanya for the Allies. This super-weapons arms race may sound like it would require a frantic race for resources, but there are a few things that keep hope alive.

Once a super-weapon is built not only is the weapon revealed on the map to all players, but there is also a timer that tells all players how much time is left till the weapon is active. This gives all defending players a chance to lead a successful assault on the super weapon structure. The timers between uses of all of these weapons are considerable in length, which reinforces the need to use other units to protect or advance on the enemy until it can be used.

I seriously held the validity of a ranking system in question. Some games had tried it but I had yet to see it actually matter. Red Alert 2 answers my skepticism by really rewarding higher ranked units. The rewards not only boost unit speed, but rate of fire, firepower, and 'armor'. After a small rank boost your British sniper fires at a faster rate and your Kirov Airship is raining even more destruction on the opposition. It is very cool to see something like this work out. For once it really pays to try and keep your units alive for as long as possible.

The single player missions are scripted quite a bit, so AI problems will not pop up too much in that type of game. The single player game on the whole tends to be really quite easy even on medium mode but presents a better challenge on hard. The real issues with Red Alert 2’s artificial intelligence only crop up during skirmish and coop multiplayer missions. Since the AI isn’t scripted nearly as much we get to see a much more free form example of how it operates. The result is an AI that mirrors some of the same problems in C&C2, but they aren’t nearly as severe. Despite difficulty settings it tends to be either very easy to defeat or very hard, which can end a game quickly either way.

The AI rarely (if ever) fights itself in skirmish. I have set myself against two AI opponents in skirmish and many times I have been encountered with both AI’s quickly taking turns attacking me. The result is a series of successive tank rushes and super-weapon attacks that are very hard to defend against. If a person is willing to take this kind of challenge that is ok, but you won’t get a free for all out of a skirmish. This type of thing can be fixed in future patches, so all hope is not lost and it isn’t severe enough to make the game unplayable. If anything it might just make the player even better.

Of all the things this game has accomplished the multiplayer game is the best of them. The net code fantastic and this allowed many great online games on my 33k connection. The in-game online interface is great too. Getting online, connecting to friends, and organizing a game is simple. This gets rid of the need for annoying banners and game-network windows running in the background slowing things down with silly ads. There are many multiplayer game modes to participate in and pre-generated maps to play on. Although Westwood opted not to include any sort of map editor, I have found that the Random Map Generator serves its function quite well.

Ultimately it is the intuitive multiplayer experience that really made the original such an experience, and Red Alert 2 actually does a better job with this. The many things that work for RA2 easily overpower the things working against it. If you are looking for a fun and explosive real-time strategy title that isn’t mired in diplomacy and realism, look no further.