Just when you thought the Cold War was dead and buried Westwood/EA Games release the latest game in the Command and Conquer (CnC) genre for the PC Red Alert 2! That’s right the Commies are back! This time they are taking over the world starting with the USA! Hooray! Only trouble is that ... Read review
The Soviets are exacting their revenge and invading the United States. Fight on the side ... more
of freedom or join the Soviet war machine.Integrate the power of top-secret technology into your strategy.Select from Soviet Cloning Vats and Allied time-travel devices and use an arsenal consisting of Prism Tanks, Tesla Troopers, Terror Drones, Desolators, Giant Squid and Psychic Mind Readers and more.More ways to wage war than ever before! Play either side in the full solo play campaign or play as one of 9 nations in 8 modes of multiplay and skirmish mode.Take your campaign over land, sea and air to utilise over 80 units and structures to deliver your fury.Wreak havoc with a friend through the specially designed co-op campaign.Cinematic movies accentuate each hard-won battle and brief you for your next mission.
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Really Awesome 2
Advantages: Smoother, faster, brighter, highly more efficient and the game play is superior to previous Command and Conquer games. Disadvantages: Installation was tricky plus it needs a high spec of PC plus loads of memory. Game background is not very believable!
...the latest game in the Command and Conquer (CnC) genre for the PC Red Alert 2! That’s right the Commies are back! This time they are taking over the world starting with the USA! Hooray! Only trouble is that unfortunately this isn’t a good thing, it’s a bad thing - boo hiss!
Red Alert 2 is the sequel to Red Alert with Tiberian Sun lodged in between. Why? I think its because everyone slated Tiberian Sun because it was ... ...with other people and play command n conquer over the Ether and pretend to be PC generals.
Red Alert 2 is like I said previously is slicker, faster, more cartoon like and the graphics are dazzling. The colours are superb compared to its previous outings. Everything is multi-coloured and higher in detail. The people look like people rather than just pixels. Each unit or person has its own sayings: “Yes, commander; I’m there; ... more
Just when you thought the Cold War was dead and buried Westwood/EA Games release the latest game in the Command and Conquer (CnC) genre for the PC Red Alert 2! That’s right the Commies are back! This time they are taking over the world starting with the USA! Hooray! Only trouble is that unfortunately this isn’t a good thing, it’s a bad thing - boo hiss!
Red Alert 2 is the sequel to Red Alert with Tiberian Sun lodged in between. Why? I think its because everyone slated Tiberian Sun because it was set too far into the future, whereas Red Alert is in the present – well all except for the Cold War issue! The story is quite bizarre and totally unbelievable, where the Russians afraid of being a second rate nation after the decline of the Cold War, decided to go back in time (as you do) and tart up their weapons and their technology with little ribbons, bows and tesla coils??? After building up their arsenal (without the aid of Adams, Wenger, Bergkamp & Henry) over the last 30 odd years, the sneaky so-in-so's decide to conquer the world starting with an all out assault on America. First item on the agenda is destroying the Statue of Libearty. How dare they! Well, it’s Tanya the super soldier and her other GI Joes to the rescue – in the same select, move, think, fire game that we now come to expect over the years with other CnC games. This time the actions and motion of the units is slicker, smoother, highly detailed, bright and very cartoon in feel rather than the pixel-ly efforts from the original game. Tanya now has t…t… (sorry can’t say it!) GUNS instead of pixels! Your mission should you chose to accept it is to save the world from the communist invasion – the world in America’s case as North America!
Red Alert 2 comes in a very slick DVD case on 2 CDs. It’s memory requirements a very thirsty 350 Meg, minimum 266MHz PC and 2 Meg graphics card. This won’t be suitable for a 2-3 year old PC. The installation wasn’t that straight forward. It didn’t auto-run and it was doing some stealthy and underhand with Win Explorer, which took about 15 minutes to start to install. The installation was then very slow and boring. As the game was installing, Westwood/EA Games decide to show you a movie of the story background. I found it very drool (‘coz I wanted to play the game immediately) but it came in handy for writing this opinion. Total installation time was analogous to installing windows in around 25-30 minutes on a PIII 450.
I’m a hater of the interaction between game play and movie sequences. If I wanted to watch a movie then I’ll go to the cinema. This game is heavily into movie sequences. I must say that they are very impressive and hop between the goodies and the baddies. The goodies included super soldier Tanya who remarkably looks like Lara Croft! So that’s where she is hiding! ; )
Red Alert 2 has a number of different games play options. These are the role of the ‘Allied Force’ through the usual set of campaigns and battles leading to the ultimate goal of victory of kicking the Commies butts! Another option on the second CD, where you take control of the Commies and kick the American butts (sounds appealing if Al Gore or Bush Jnr are in power)! Other options including the network option so that you can play the game across the local area network at work or via 2 PCs linked together via modems or whatever. My favourite is the Skirmish modes. Where you can take control of your forces in a one-off battle and try to dominate and kick up to 7 other computer butts at the same time. Also, there is an Internet mode where you can hook up with other people and play command n conquer over the Ether and pretend to be PC generals.
Red Alert 2 is like I said previously is slicker, faster, more cartoon like and the graphics are dazzling. The colours are superb compared to its previous outings. Everything is multi-coloured and higher in detail. The people look like people rather than just pixels. Each unit or person has its own sayings: “Yes, commander; I’m there; Ha ha ha; I won’t be late; argghhhh (in my case)…”
The game play is very smooth and most of the annoying problems from the previous games have been ironed out. The ore harvesters (used to harvester gems, crystals & ore which is processed to make money) are fully independent; therefore they don’t wait around for you to send them out looking for ore. The infantrymen (sorry isn’t politically correct just yet) are very important in this game rather than cannon fodder in previous outings (sorry isn’t politically correct just yet!). They have the ability to dig in and hold position without getting squished or overpowered like before. According to the number of kills they get promoted (and demoted – happened to me once) and heal themselves over time – this happens with other units. The GI Joes can now garrison within buildings. This allows them to hold up, fortify their positions, which makes your positions stronger and more powerful.
Back come the customary tanks and out go the legged robots from Tiberian Sun! Woohoo! You can never have enough tanks! Tanks do it for me every time – well not really! This time they come in different varieties. There is a splendid model that has sneaky camouflage and turns itself into trees waiting for Ivan to come near and blast his head off! The equally superb prism tanks which can knock out as many as 20 units at a time with their in genius prism technology (design by Prof. Einstein). Plus the ordinary run of the mill tank which shots normal shells!
Back also come the navy that completely vanished in Tiberian Sun. Hooray for the guys in flares! You get the usual ships – destroyers (with planes), aircraft carriers (with planes) and other platforms with sea-to-air missiles. All come in very handy when Ivan is off your starboard bow! The boys in lighter blue, Biggles or the Air Force as they are know have the realistic and very dangerous Harrier Jump Jet and that’s it a part from the planes from the Navy guys.
The Soviets have an equal but effective opposition to the Allied Units – dogs, conscripts, tesla coil guys, bigger tanks, tesla coils, rocket launchers, submarines (which don’t sink of their own accord) and updates to all their buildings. Their barracks looks like a statue of Lenin.
The buildings have also witnessed a thorough going over. The Mobile Construction Yard is superb. It builds quicker. You can only build one building at a time like before. You now have unlimited queue for all your men, planes & navy weapons (5 was the limit in TS). All your buildings have a single build entry along with your defensive installations - prism lasers, patriot missiles & gun post. This speeds up the game play tremendously allowing more strategy rather than wasting your time down at the local arsenal – picking and choosing, do I need one of these missile systems or one of those; do I get discount for cash; and do you do home delivery and do you accept VISA? Every build runs smooth, which is good because this allows you to concentrate on the game play. The money rolls in its thousands rather than the annoying dribs and drabs in previous CnC titles.
The game settings come in three levels – easy, medium or brutal. I’m not one of the world’s best game players so I stick to easy as I can kick Ivan’s butt in the Allied campaign. The game play and the strategy are superior to previous CnC games. The units have more intelligence rather than standing around whilst their allied neighbours get blown up. Tanya (super women soldier) can now swim. She spots and shots enemy units more efficiently, although gets eaten by the guard dogs more efficiently, as well! All animal lovers will appreciate the added bonus of controlling animals to do your dirty work. Dogs roam around picking off Ivan at will. You even get loads of dolphins that have their sonic boom waves that destroy ships. Good on ya Flipper! You can even control cows and crocodiles! Although these animals are rather stupid, don’t expect Daisy, Buttercup or Bluebell to go and blow up the Commies whilst you sit in your field tent drinking a brew and talking about sex, farting and playing cards. In Skirmish modes, you can participate as different countries so you don’t have to be the team USA all the time - hooray! Each country has a different speciality unit, for example, good old team GB has the petrol tax dodger or is it the sniper? The USA has the WWF wrestler (you wish) or is it the paratrooper?
Red Alert 2 is a highly polished game compared to its previous outings. It sticks to the same rigid game play but more polished and refined. All lovers of strategy game or the CnC series should buy this game! The graphics are positively cooking on gas - very cartoon like and/or realistic, detailed and bright. You concentrate more on strategy rather than building and mining – although this element of the game still exists. You don’t go short of a bob or two like before and wait ages for the coffers to accumulate. The different modes of play are good. You can control either the Allies (USA, GB & Germans) or the Soviets (Commie Russians) either in campaigns, skirmish (custom individual battles) or via a network or on the Internet. I can’t commend on how Red Alert 2 fairs on the Internet because I haven’t tried it yet! Trusting Westwood/EA Games it will be on the same vain as Tiberian Sun that was very good – although you normally get you butt kicked by some smart-arsed spotty teenager. The movies are great and play a huge part between campaigns and between some objects within missions. Strategy is better than before. Instead of sending just all your tanks, you need to send an integrated combination of infantry, engineers (mechanised & building mechanics now), tanks, close air support, flipper (dolphin), lassie (dog) and buttercup (cow). You think I jest about Buttercup don’t you? Its true, Tanya rescues a herd of cows from a paddock from the crazed Russians and they declared themselves to be allies!
If you love the Command and Conquer series then Red Alert 2 is the brightest and best of the series!
Advantages: Great strategy gameplay Disadvantages: Not quite difficult enough at times
I own every Command and Conquer title that has been released and I have to say that this is definitely the best so far. When I heard of its impending release i was overjoyed and when i finally purchased it I was disappointed!
This title diverges away from the old storylines of the Brotherhood Of Nod and turns to the more realistic setting of America vs. Soviet Russia, after the Cold War. The Russians deceive America and attack.
You are given the ... ...stores.
In conclusion, provided that you have a decent enough computer this game is truly great. It has excellent game-play, great graphics, imaginative settings and units and cool interactive scenes that put Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 head and shoulders above the rest of all other strategy games. ...
richiev10 29.07.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
Advantages: Just about everything!!! Gameplay, Lifespan, Units, Opportunities, Internet, the list continues Disadvantages: Childish scenary compared to Tiberian Sun, and (i'm struggling) expansion pack taking too long to come out!!
Red Alert 2 is an outstanding game. Like all of the other C&C games, this game is a very playable and great game. Four types of play have kept me occupied every since it was released. The graphics arent as good as Tiberian Sun, being more 'childish' than Tiberian Sun, however there is much better gameplay, better and more units, and a lot more possibilities.
The main type of play is the missions. You can either be Soviet or Allies. With the Allies ... ...progress, which follow a very good story line. A man named Yuri (a physic bloke) takes over the mind of the president of Russia, so he can be in control. He then attempts to take over the whole world using his physic powers. You aim is to stop his attempts which include people taking over your men, and people from your own country turn against you.
Being Soviet, is the opposite of above, attempting to take over the world. As the game progress missions ...
michaelwood 24.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
Advantages: Good Graphics, Easy To Learn Disadvantages: Graphics Could Be Improved, Sound effects
The original Command & Conquer was released in 1995, since then the series has become one of if not the most popular line of games for the PC, Westwood then released Red Alert (1999) followed by Tiberian Sun (1999), Red Alert 2 (2000) and most recently Generals (2003).
Command & Conquer and Tiberian Sun both consist of two sides GDI or the Global Defence Initiative and the Brotherhood of NOD, whereas Red Alert and Red Alert 2 featured the Allies ... ...Out of all the Command & Conquers - including Generals, Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge is my favourite because of the storyline, fairly good graphics, but most of all the great game play and skirmish mode allows for a unique battle every time you play.
I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a decent game to pass time, and it has now become a budget game which is priced at only ten pounds, so you can't go far wrong in my opinion. ...
davidcraig_2004 19.03.2004 (19.04.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
Advantages: Takes a strategy classic on to new heights Disadvantages: Too few missions
...the back of this, the Command & Conquer series was released, with the second in the series being Red Alert, which on its own spawned four add on packs. Unfortunately, even after having a windows overhaul from the original DOS versions it is more than a little dated, so Westwood have released Red Alert 2.
The story picks up from the original, so if you are not familiar, here is a summary. In the original, Einstein has invented a time machine, which ... ...rise to power by removing him from the time line just after he leaves prison. As Hitler no longer rises to power, the Soviets become a world dominating force and attack the Allies but are defeated. The Allies then place their own patsy at the head of the Soviet government, so that they can make sure the Soviets stay firm allies, or so they think.
Red Alert 2 picks up at this point in the story where the allies hand picked leader Romanov launches ...
jason_webb 11.05.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
Advantages: Some improvements over the older ones Disadvantages: Just another rehash of C&C
Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is a real time tactical combat game. You control units on a battle field and establish bases to build and support those units. You can play on one of two sides. You can play on either the Allied Side or the Soviet Side. Each side has their own weapons and units and each side has a different strategy that is needed to win the game. The story line is that the Soviet’s launch a massive and I mean massive attack against ... ...to win the game.
Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 also has a multiplayer mode, in which players can battle each other. When you are playing a multiplayer game, you select a country instead of a side. Some countries are on the Allied side and some are on the Soviet side. Each country has its own special weapon. France has the Grand Cannon which is a giant defensive gun that takes down incoming units easily. Russia has the Telsa Tank which zaps bolts ...
robin_best 21.03.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
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Advantages: New campaign, new race. Disadvantages: only expansion, no whole new game
Redalert2 was a mighty fine game, although i never played it online, with the campaign and with the skirmish option i always enjoyed myself. Then when Yuri's revenge came, i was kinda suprised by it. I thought it would just be an couple of extra levels, and some new NOD and GDI units. But no, a whole new race was born. The yuri race was a mutant/slave and brain controlling race, where the head yuri was the new commander. Along with a whole new campaign it came, in where yuri was also a playable race. In skirmish he was also choose able. Some specialty's of the yuri units. For example: NOD and GDI had both harvester bots. But yuri had harvester bots with slaves inside! A NOD or GDI could free them, and then yuri no longer had control over them. Instead of Conscripts or GDI men, you had Green big "hulks" these basic units were strong ...
Advantages: Easy to use and awesome story Disadvantages: lag on internet games
shape and form.
Graphics:
In a basic 2.5D graphic over view it gives the realism that you are commanding a force with a satellite view from above with an angle of 45 Degrees downward to give that nearly 3D effect.
Internet Play:
This is a great game to play online against anyone just for a laugh you can get huge enjoyment out of this game, as I have myself. This makes the game come up to completely different level because have to be smart and think like the enemy which over all brings out more enjoyment in the game.
Game requirments: RedAlert2 and 350MB free hard drive space to play the mission CD
Overall this game is awesome for people that like strategic games and they should buy this! ...
Advantages: Excellent expansion pack for excellent game Disadvantages: Too fiddly to play online
One of the most interesting characters from the bestselling RedAlert2 is back, in his very own expansion pack.
The pack adds 2 new whole career modes, playing as either the Allies or the Soviets in a battle to crush Yuri's forces. These are both well thought out and both end up with the Allies and Soviets joining forces in an epic battle. The missions are also much more diverse than on RedAlert2, with one taking place on the moon.
The new units and structures in Yuri's Revenge add a lot to the gameplay. The Allies and Soviets get extra units, and of course Yuri has his entire army.
The Yuri units add a whole new dimension to the game. He gets his own unique miner, the Slave Miner. This uses slaves inside the miner to mine the ore. Like the Chrono Miner and War Miner, it has its advantages, but also its disadvantages ...