Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

After being off the radar for nearly seven years, the big daddy of real-time strategy franchises - Command and Conquer: Red Alert - is back with another wartime offering. The older Red Alert games were developed by Westwood studios, the RTS veterans who revolutionized and popularized the genre. Once the studio got liquidated (no thanks to the crapfest Command and Conquer: Renegade was), the reins of the franchise went to EA Los Angeles. I had my doubts about the franchise then and expected Red Alert 3 to be a watered down commercialized product - and that’s what it is (to an extent), but thankfully, it’s a lot of fun to play.

For starters, the game’s lost all its seriousness with some terribly enacted cutscenes where a lot of popular stars (including Peter Stormare, Ivana Miličević, Andrew Divoff and Tim Curry) ham it up big time with an appallingly fake accent and some terribly written dialogues to match up, that’s sure to make you throw up a bit in your mouth. I can understand that EA’s gone for a light-hearted approach here but the intro cutscene sets the mood completely wrong with some very cheesy acting that alienates the game from its forefathers. However, as if to redeem itself, the cutscenes are followed by a rather gorgeous animated video of rolling tanks and hulking battlemechs prepping up and engaging in battle. That is sure to stir some interest at least.

I’d barely rid myself of the bad taste the terrible intro left behind, when I was disappointed once more by the art style of the game. The training missions actually looked like a rainbow-colored space monkey had thrown up all over it. It featured completely saturated bright shades of red, blue and every other color you can imagine, making it look more like SimCity and Rollercoaster Tycoon than a wargame. If it’s any consolation though, the game looks a little less jarringly colorful during the missions, and you grow used to it eventually.

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The visuals really begin to shine through during naval missions though, since the game’s featured water effects are truly beautiful. They boast of realistic ripples, underwater shock waves, and riptides that are sure to put a grin of every graphic whore’s face. The best part is that it runs rather smoothly on mid-ranged rigs, and it doesn’t stutter even when the dazzling pyrotechnics of your super units come into play! I ran the game on Windows Vista x64 on my Core2Duo e8400, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Asus P5Q mobo, Nvidia 9600GT rig, and the game ran at a constant 30-40 frames per second, which is quite respectable.

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While EA’s done a great job with technical optimization, it seems like they’ve barely paid any attention to the game’s storyline. The base of the story is similar to that in previous Red Alert games, and takes place in an alternate timeline. It goes a little like this - the Soviet Union’s on the losing end of a war against the Allied forces, and in a desperate attempt to save themselves they make use of the experimental time-travel technology their scientists have developed, and go back in time to assassinate Einstein - the source of the Allied technological prowess. When they move back to the current time, they find out that their alteration of history had given Japan enough leeway to become a world power called “the Empire of the Rising Sun”. So now they’re part of a 3-way battle between them, the Allied Forces, and the Japanese army!

Just like any C&C game there’s a campaign for each of the three sides - The Soviet Union, the Allied Nations and the Empire of the Rising Sun. These campaigns basically boil down to mission after mission of a rather uninspired 3-way tug-of-war where one side tries to gain an upper hand over the other by stealing/retrieving another’s technology or the like. The half-assed cutscenes don’t help matters either, and the story eventually becomes a mockery of itself. For what it’s worth, regardless of the uninventive script, the missions are a heap of fun to play, and as an RTS the game excels.

Red Alert’s been know for its over-the-top units and immense firepower - all of which makes an appearance in this game too. Each side has its share of powerful units, be it land, aerial, naval or amphibious. Many of our favorite units from previous games make a return (gotta love Tesla Troupers!), with a plethora of unique units such as the Sickle - a spider-like tank that can actually pounce on and squish enemy infantry; the elite Rocket Angel - a plasma rocket slinging chick that can paralyze enemy units using her whip! There’s enough here to experiment with, ensuring that you can play around with your army’s unit composition to customize your army in unique ways and approach similar combat situations in a multitude of ways.

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The gameplay is spot on with a myriad of new features to help you control your army a lot better. For instance, in most RTS games, when you wish to retreat from a losing battle to recover your losses, your units take eons to turn around and run. RA3 features a retreat command for such situations - just press the D key and click in the directions you want to move. Instead of exposing their vulnerable backs to the enemy, your units will move backwards ensuring that their armored side faces the enemy, giving them a fighting chance! I used this command quite a bit, but in the heat of huge battle when things get real chaotic, it becomes hard to keep track of units and you tend to forget about this ability all together.

The unit AI is rock solid at most places, and you don’t have the usual clustering of units while giving move orders through choke points like in most RTS games (which is a major pain in the ass). But, just like every other RTS out there, the amphibious unit AI is shabby and your units take the longer route more often than you’d like. You even have AI allies during all missions, and these guys aren’t like the daft friendly AI you’ve encountered in most games. While it isn’t sophisticated enough to win a battle for you single-handedly, you can give it some awesome AI commands, that give it a general idea of what you want it to do. For instance, after capturing an Ore field that has its flanks exposed to enemy fire, you can order the AI to guard it, and it’ll take a call as to which units it should produce to counter the enemy’s attacks (for example, if the enemy is heavy on air units, your friendly AI will produce many flak troupers/anti-air weaponry) and you can be assured that the AI will do the best it can.

If playing with the AI is not your thing, you can opt to play the entire campaign with a friend. Each mission is designed to support co-op play, so when a friend joins in the AI is simply replaced. Doing this lowers down the difficulty level of the game tremendously, so I suggest playing on Hard if you want to be even remotely challenged in a co-op game.

At the price of Rs. 999, Red Alert 3 offers three pretty lengthy campaigns and the ability to play cooperatively or against a friend, which is decent value for money in my eyes. While the game doesn’t match up to the glory of its predecessors, it manages to engross you with some good old school RTS action, with a hint of new features to enhance accessibility. If you’re an RTS gamer and not offended by poor acting or bad storylines, Red Alert 3 is certainly worth a shot!