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Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Review
PC Review by Quintin Smith
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Somebody needs to put a stop to the Red Alert games. Not because their quality is going downhill, mind. Red Alert 3's an awesome continuation of the series, and the decision to make all three of its campaigns co-operative affairs is the kind of game design that makes you pray whoever it was that came up with the idea got promoted and laid on the same day. It's just that with every new Red Alert game the series drops further into the gutter. The cheesy plot, the unbelievable national stereotypes, the comic book science, the cleavage, the animals that act as improbably effective military units, all of it is increasing at an exponential rate. I mean, they cannot keep this up. Unless someone stops them, Red Alert 4 is going to come out one day and it's going to be a DVD containing nothing but an hour-long video of William H. Macy dancing on a topless Steve Buscemi. One of them will probably have a Russian hat on or something.
For the moment though, Red Alert 3 is still just about holding it together. The plot begins with the Soviets using a prototype time machine to go back to the beginning of the 20th century to kill Einstein, thereby stopping him from developing powerful super-weapons for the Allies. The Soviet top brass return to a future where their nation is kicking ass and taking names, although for some reason the death of Einstein also means the Japanese, now known as the Empire of the Rising Sun, are a nanotechnology-equipped world power (and third playable side).
But we can talk about the Japanese in a bit. As a feature they're completely eclipsed by the new co-op nature of the game's three campaigns. This isn't just the option to play through each of the game's missions with a friend; all of the levels are designed from the ground up for two people, and if you're playing alone then a subservient AI general fills the gap and a simple order system opens up so you can boss him around.
The Soviet squid is conspicuous by its absence and replaced by the horrible War Bears, which are like Care Bears if the Care Bears only cared about eating your face.
But you really don't want to play alone. Unless you honestly vomit in your own mouth a little bit on contact with another human being, you want to play this game co-op. It just works, and that shouldn't surprise anyone who's ever tried teaming up with friends to take on hard AI in Dawn of War, Sins of a Solar Empire or... well, almost every RTS ever made, come to think of it. And RTS teamwork against the computer only gets more fun when you've got set-pieces and personal limitations thrown into the mix. Missions in RA3 might limit the ability to build base defences to one player, another might order you to capture a distant island when only one of you can build land units and the other's stuck with submarines and aerial transports. And throughout all of it the two of you get to experience the laugh-out-loud corny voice acting, seeing the cute animations of your troops for the first time and the advent calendar-like drip-feed of new abilities and units. Unless you load up skirmish mode first of course, in which case in traditional RTS fashion the tech tree's completely unlocked and you can see everything RA3 has to offer in under fifteen minutes. Your call.
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Red Alert 3 - PS3 launch trailer [0] 24 March, 2009
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Co-commanders [6] 19 November, 2008
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Comments: 1-43 of 43 in total
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I'd have to disagree with the reviewer on this one.
First of all the protocol weapons all start off much weaker than the super weapons of Red Alert 2, and you only get protocol weapons by gaining enough xp via killing other units. So if you sit around waiting to react, you'll be the first player out of the game. By the 4th/5th upgrade the protocol weapons are pretty nasty, but by this point you've probably been playing long enough to reach a near stalemate with whatever enemy you have left, and so it rewards players who go out looking for kills rather than turtling and prolonging defeat. It's more there to keep the end game exciting than to interfere too much with the strategy which must come before it. In the single player (well, co-op) mode it's balanced quite nicely as well, you can hang back and defend if you want to knowing all the kills you'll rack up can eventually be put towards destroying the AI from orbit, but the AI often has a super weapon of it's own which 'must be destroyed' before the countdown zeroes, which forces even the most avid turtler such as myself to plan a daring assault. Online everything can be toggled on and off, so again, die hard strategists turn most of the super weapons off which was was also the case with Red Alert 2. The final score is probably about right. I'd of given it a 9 but horses for courses. |
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FaceOmeter
03/11/08 @ 09:57
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This has Tim Curry, a pleathora of invitingly displayed boobies, and armored dolphins. I didn't even realize I was supposed to be playing until 20 minutes in.
Brilliant. Sometimes during the RA2 days I did miss the more measured ridiculousness of Red Alert 1, but on balance I think I can safely say SOLD!!!!!111one |
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carlosdelondres_08
03/11/08 @ 12:06
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The perfect antidote to the (slight ;-) bleakness of Fallout and Far Cry - how can you not love firing a hot pant clad sniper into battle from your Man Cannon...
The Serious Sam of RTS... |
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Tim Curry? And no love for Jonathan Pryce? I mean Pryce > Curry!
I didn't see any mention of the music in the review. I'm listening to the OST now, and christ, Frank Klepacki has absolutely outdone himself, it's awesome. This may just surpass the OST from the original C&C. Um, Klepacki didn't do the music, only the Hellmarch piece. For more info visit this wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26... |
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A bit of history: the Red Alert 1 is an alternate for the C&C universe. In the first Red Alert, Einstein goes back in time and eliminates Adolf Hitler. Years later, you can find Kane, who found Einstein's Time Machine, at the Soviet's side in a high ranking position, scheming for the time when NOD will control the russian territory ( NOD always had strong support in Russia, Eastern Europe and the african countries).
Some of the older gamer might remember the motto: "He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past." So the C&C name was initially justified. Right now, I'm not sure anymore, but I'd really like to see Kane in a comeback in the RA universe. As for Generals, yes that should be forgotten. Or the C&C removed from the title, because the game was pretty good in MP, but had no ties with the C&C whatsoever. |
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RedSparrows
03/11/08 @ 15:27
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Not played this yet, but I have to share the sentiment of the first paragraph. Like the series, but my interest has gone down as the numbers have gone up. Nowt wrong with some silliness, but there's nowt right with dolphins, squids and any new ones for this.
Still, probably will love it. |
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FaceOmeter
03/11/08 @ 19:08
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Maximilian - my respect
I love how this game has attracted 30 comments whilst the GoW 2 thread is on 250+ after slightly less time up. PCs forever! |
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frostcircus
03/11/08 @ 20:49
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Absolute best opening paragraph on the site. And since 90% of the internet's great opening paragraphs are to be found on this site, this says a lot.
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majinraptor
04/11/08 @ 09:45
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i dont understand y people say red alert is ridiculous. just abt any game is ridiculous. u think war bears are weird??? wht abt ridin a bloody dragon in warcraft or fightin the undead. just cant understand y RA is tagged as the ridiculous RTS. No one ever said RA was gonna be a realistic game. it s obviously fantasy/sci fi based as they keep changin stuff by goin bak in time..
i finished the campaigns and i ve been playin online for a couple of days and this game is awesome!!!! been a RA fan ever since RA1(duh..) and this game doesnt disappoint. the reviewer should get his facts straight abt a game before reviewin. also like some1 mentioned earlier the music in this game is absolutely stunnin.... it actually stands out. i got the ost for RA3 cus it s tht damn good. |
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The12thMonkey
04/11/08 @ 20:51
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Blasted through the Allies and Soviets over the weekend, and most of the Empire campaign. I wish they'd been longer, but the entertainment value was high most of the way through. Not yet fired up co-op, mainly because my mate doesn't have the game yet >.>
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So many people complained about the ridiculousness of the cutscenes and units (including the reviewer), but they are made so on porpose. Most RTS games take themselves to serious, and RA3 just makes fun of them coming with something more ridiculous. Think it Team Fortress' RTS counterpart.
And I can't believe the soundtrack hasn't been mentioned, I dare to say it's at least as good as Tiberian Dawn's, thus making it one of the best OSTs ever! If Quintin gave it an 8 without fully getting it, it makes me think that otherwise it would have gave it a 10 :) Though I think 8 is a fair score, an outstanding soundtrack and sarcastic aproach can't make up the fact that the gampeplay, though fun, does not bring anything fresh to the genre beside the co-op campaign. |
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RedSparrows
05/11/08 @ 23:34
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Majinraptor, it's because it doesn't sit well (for me) in the context of the setting. Warcraft is obviously fantasy. Red Alert is too, but I preferred 1 over 2 and the look of 3. I know it's supposed to be insane, but it doesn't work for me. I don't 'buy' it.
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FaceOmeter
06/11/08 @ 01:42
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Nill: It honestly doesn't feel destroyed to my plebian eyes - I didn't know about the 30fps cap and it looked gorgeous to me
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frudgymonk
09/11/08 @ 22:39
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To the guy who said Frank Klepacki has outdone himself on RA3.... what are you talking about????? Klepacki did about 2 tracks out 60 for RA3. The rest is by Tim Wynn and James Hannigan. Klepacki just did HM3 and Grinder 2. Two nice tracks but for chrissakes get your facts right.
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Comments: 1-43 of 43 in total
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