PC Review: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
by Teh Mera on November 3, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Say you are sitting in your house one night and a group of parachuting bears with Soviet helmets crash through your door. Without proper skill, you can easily find yourself in this situation while playing Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3.
The game begins with the downfall of the Soviet Union during their last ditch effort to become victorious. They resort to a desperate weapon, a highly experimental time machine that they use to go into the past and alter the present. When they return, they find themselves in a battle with not only the allies, but with the Empire of the Rising Sun. With all three nations on the verge of killing each other, the final battle is just beyond the horizon.
The game itself plays a lot like Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, with a bunch of new features that make it superior to its predecessor. For instance, the feature that revolutionizes this game the most is its co-op campaign missions. The entire single player game can be played with friend over the Internet, or via LAN. If you don’t have any friends :-( that’s okay because the computer can just as easily be your co-commander.
Having the computer as your co-commander is a little tricky because you are unaware of what it is building and when it is going to attack the enemy. Therefore, you need to base your tactics around the computer and what it is doing, and this could be very difficult at some points.
As with its previous games, Command and Conquer delivers an intriguing storyline with actors such as Tim Curry, George Takei, Andrew Divoff, J.K Simmons, and Jenny McCarthy (don’t worry, Jenny doesn’t have too many speaking parts, but she does make for some good eye candy). The storyline itself is quite basic, but the live action parts with the actors help string it all together. It helps the player seem like they are a part of the story rather than just hearing it from a third-person perspective.
The multiplayer portion of this game is everything you could ask for in a modern day real-time strategy. It basically has its own version of Xbox Live built into it. There is a tab that has a friends list, several lobbies, and a section where you could join games. People could send you game invites, and all you have to do is click on this tab and you can instantly join their game. From what I have seen, the multiplayer is lag free and I haven’t had any problems joining games.
The gameplay itself is quite fast paced, very similar to Tiberium Wars. Units die very quickly and there isn’t much room for micromanaging mistakes. One thing that I absolutely loved about this game was its application of naval combat. This is one of the few real-time strategy games that have correctly added naval combat to its bag of tricks. This element leads to a battle on three fronts: land, sea, and air.
Also, there are many units that are amphibious: not only are they effective on land, they are also effective on water. I was so excited when I saw my stingray boats grow legs and walk on land.
Another new point in this game is the threat meter. This meter accumulates how much destruction you cause, which then adds to an overall meter. The meter will hit milestones that grant you skill points, which you then place into a tech tree to learn new abilities. For example: the Soviets can obtain air strikes if they cause enough damage to the opposing enemies.
One other thing I found fascinating was the alternate fire on a lot of the units in the game. With the press of a button, your Soviet riflemen can go from shooting their assault rifles to tossing Molotov cocktails, Hydrofoils switch to weapon jammers, and so on.
The controls themselves are an exact replica of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. If the key actions themselves don’t float your stingray, every button is fully changeable in the options menu. In a nutshell, it’s a very standard layout for any real-time strategy game. Personally, I find this layout to be very comfortable and easy to use, not only for the avid RTS-er but for someone just getting into the genre as well.
The graphics in this game are done very well, and I see little complaints in this department. They have refined every little detail to look stunning, especially when you get up close with them. There is nothing like watching a Kirov Airship drop bombs on a group of unsuspecting victims (I think what does it for me is the hammer and sickle, followed up by the shark face).
Sound-wise, I am a big fan of unit dialogue. I love when units have funny little things to say when you click on them. This game is no exception. Listening to the Soviet infantry is my absolute favorite — they have funny little sayings that keep the comedy alive (“this is nice coat” and “am I suppose to do something” just to name a few).
Even though I enjoyed playing this game, I decided to knock points off of the score because of a beef I have with the Command and Conquer franchise in general. I don’t like the fact that the gameplay itself is so unvaried. For example: I build my base and then I meet my enemy in the middle. When I meet them in the middle, we fight back in forth until one of us wins the tug of war match. That’s it. Rinse and repeat.
This franchise really doesn’t emphasize enough tactics that force players to create multiple bases and expand their arsenal, even on higher difficulty levels. Most winning strategies involve the usage of only 2-3 different unit types and up to 2 bases (most of the time the maps are so small they end up being right next to each other). This can lead to any game in the franchise being very repetitive and boring within a month of play, and Red Alert 3 is no exception.
Now I know it’s asking a lot to reinvent the main gameplay mechanics, but this has been a recurring problem with every game since Command and Conquer: Generals. Besides this personal issue I have with the franchise, I believe this is a solid purchase. It has a compelling single player, a very competitive multiplayer, and some awesome co-op options.
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5 Comments » |
on November 3, 2008 3:04 pm
I disagree with you on that last point. I’ve played Red Alert 2 almost every week from its launch until Red Alert 3 came out, and that never got old. I fucking love that game. Red Alert 3 improves the mechanics quite a bit by encouraging naval bases and more varied tactics with the alt-fire methods. Also, the sheer hilarity of the game is massive WIN!
on November 3, 2008 3:30 pm
You had me at “parachuting bears.”
on November 3, 2008 8:36 pm
Ya i agree with you on the fact that red alert 2 was awesome, but the comparison I was trying to make was with the more next gen rts’s from the command and conquer franchise (tib wars, kain’s wrath and red alert 3). In my opinion, they seem to strait forward to me. I find real time strategies like starcraft and supreme commander to have more depth than this one. Thats basically what I was getting at. I would never bash RA 2.
on November 4, 2008 12:31 am
Good. NO ONE BASHES RED ALERT 2!
Nevertheless, I still think that RA3 has variation.
on November 4, 2008 11:17 am
WTB Yuri, 300g pstkkthx.