So yeah, I meant to get this up here sooner but given this is a pretty in depth game that requires winning the single player campaigns so it took some time to feel comfortable writing a review for it. But anyways, I finished it, I can talk about it and I’m here to give you the raw unfiltered opinion by a true average game of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3.

Before getting started let me briefly mention this is a review of the PC version of Red Alert 3. The 360 version is a completely different beast and I tend to shy away from console RTS games. We all know these games should be played with a mouse and keyboard. Okay, let’s touch on the story. A lot of you who know me or have read my previous reviews will notice historically I find a game’s storyline to be just as important as the game itself. Red Alert has always been Westwood’s (now EA’s) “alternate reality” RTS war game featuring the Russians and the United States going to full blown war with each other. In the previous Red Alert games there were always certain mainstays that EA felt they’d stay faithful to in Red Alert 3, these being FMV live-action cut scenes and in-game units that I’d relate to “going balls out” meaning they’re very unrealistic but fun. Those of you that loved Red Alert for it’s cut-scenes will love that EA really got together some excellent Hollywood talent to play the main characters in the game. Here’s a quick rundown of the main cast:

Premier Anatoly Cherdenko: Played by Tim Curry. Premier Cherdenko doesn’t start out as premier until the time lines get mixed up. Him and the other main Russian character, General Krukov travel back in time and kill Albert Einstein. When the two return, they both learn that this act rewrote history and the Soviet Union is once again returned to its status of a global super power with technology to match that of the current United States. Krukov also learns that he is now the Soviet Union’s greatest General. Cherdenko is a communist propagandist, he’ll use any methods to conceal the truth and coax all to blindly follow his vision without question. Also, I feel he’s the main character of the game since well, he’s Tim Curry. Tim Curry is the shit.

Dr. Gregor Zelinsky: Played by Peter “Un-pimp jo auto” Stormare. The scientist that develops the Time Machine Cherdenko and Krukov use to go back in time. Being that Zelinsky traveled back in time with the two and wasn’t altered when the time lines got all messed up, he knows about the alteration of time and he really just wants to set things right again.

President Howard T. Ackerman: Played by J.K. Simmons of Spiderman fame. President Ackerman is about as anti-communist as a human being can get. Recently elected as US President, Ackerman’s first act is to “strengthen” the Allied forces in Western Europe to protect the allied nations against “The red menace”, “The commie bastards” and to “Send the commies back to their mommies”. I think you get the point.

Emperor Yoshiro: Played by George Takei. One of the side effects of Einstein’s death happening too early was that Nuclear weapons were never created and thus the Japanese never surrendered during World War II. The ramifications of this are seen directly in the Empire of The Rising Sun faction, led by Emperor Yoshiro. The Emperor is an honor purist, plain and simple. He believes that the only path forward is to destroy the Gaijin (barbarian) threat. That means everyone but them. The Empire has advanced technology, greater forces and a naval fleet unimaginable in size.

There are a few other characters in the game that do play a main role in the storyline, but I felt the main faction leaders mentioned above would be enough to get to know each faction. There are a few exceptions I feel do deserve to be mentioned however, those are the Sub-commanders and analysts that work with you through the single player campaigns who all happen to be uber-hawt chicks. (with the exception of Jenny McCarthy and the UFC chick of course – Bleh)

These ladies will be with you all the way through the campaigns. First we have Special Agent Tanya played by Jenny McCarthy, Dasha Fedorovich played by Ivana Milicevic, Lt. Eva McKenna played by Gemma Atkinson, Cmdr. Lissette Hanley played by Autumn Reeser, Suki Toyama played by Kelley Hu, Natasha Volkova played by UFC fighter Gina Carano and Commander Zhana played by Vanessa Branch.

Okay, enough cast members and story, let’s talk about the game. Red Alert 3 encompasses 3 single player campaigns with you playing either the Russians, the Allies or the Empire. Each unit has it’s strengths and weaknesses just like every other RTS game which you work out as the game progresses. Now, I don’t know of you knew this, but I wrote a Supreme Commander review around this time last year. That game I gave high marks because it tried to innovate the way RTS games play, how they’re controlled and the level of graphics they delivered. Red Alert 3 is made with a slightly tweaked C&C3 engine with the only real “tweaks” you’ll notice is in the water graphics and animation which I must say are pretty good looking if it weren’t for everything else looking same-y. The music in the game is exactly what you’d expect from 3 different campaigns featuring 3 different modern cultures.

Let me break off talking about the features of the game and talk about RTS games in general. Someone who will read this will assuredly agree with me when I say that the RTS genre hasn’t had any major innovations since Supreme Commander and those innovations haven’t been used by anyone else. To be honest with you, I feel game developers are just doing the same tried and true things over and over again and it’s making me sick of this genre in general. I do like RTS games and I had fun with the single player campaigns in RA3, but that was mainly due to the storyline and cut scenes, not the game itself.

Here’s what I think the RTS genre needs to reinvigorate itself – meld the FPS genre with the RTS. Yes I know they tried this once with C&C: Renegade, but I think we can all agree that it was a poor melding. What I’m talking about here would be online skirmishes with several players taking up squadron command with an interface that gave them direct control over what their squad does. Then, give one or two real strategist players command over the entire battlefield on each side where they can launch bombardments, issue orders to squad leaders, queue up new units that are used most effectively by squad commanders and generally run the strategy elements of the game. I’d also like to see squad commanders be able to use vehicles that are created with resources gathered by the commander. While I’m at it, why don’t we see more walking armored tank units in these games? I mean Supreme Commander got away with it and I’m pretty sure Microsoft doesn’t own the rights to mech-like units in games completely. Okay, I’m sure you’re wondering how a game like this would work in single player, well it would be basically the same as above but all the squads would be computer controlled. Now, that’s not all, I think making it so you as commander should be able to take control and shift your view to any specific squad leader’s view at any time for more precise attacking and defending. While I’m at it, whoever over at THQ made the interface for Supreme Commander should be hired to build the interface for this game. He did an excellent job and the radical idea of making the game like a giant Google map you can zoom into and back out again eliminated the need for a minimap.

Now, I won’t say that RA3 has no innovation at all, there is one thing I found in the game that was new. At most times during the single player campaign you have a second computer controlled commander that’s following you sometimes and holding the line at other times. Although the system that’s driving this second commander isn’t very smart when it’s following you and when it’s holding the line, it makes me think that this line battle shouldn’t exist at all since it has no bearings on you what so ever.

Why you should play it: I know a few people that spent a LOT of time playing C&C games with friends and instantly fell in love with the series. Those people will still love Red Alert 3. Also those out there that like their RTS games more relaxed and entertaining while not demanding so much in the way of actual strategy will find RA3 right up their alley.

Why you shouldn’t play it: Let’s face it, RTS games are a niche genre. Some like them, some don’t. Those that don’t should just skip it since there really isn’t anything new to see here, move along. Those out there that do like RTS games but prefer them to be more in depth like Civilization or Alpha Centauri, those should also skip RA3 since it just isn’t demanding or engaging enough from a strategy standpoint.

And just because I know all the guys out there want to see more…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 12:23 am and is filed under Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.