Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 (PC)

Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 is the sequel to the popular 1996 spin-off of Westwood's definitive real-time strategy game. The latest game in the successful series isn't a dramatic technological improvement over any of its predecessors, and its hammy alternate-World War II setting borders on being tasteless. However, Red Alert 2 is a very polished game that combines tried-and-true play mechanics with enough new features, improvements, and enhancements to make it both an excellent sequel and a great real-time strategy game in its own right.

Red Alert 2 retains many of the conventional mechanics established and reused in the various Command & Conquer real-time strategy games. As with its predecessors, Red Alert 2 encompasses most all of the elements that define the genre. You view the action from an isometric perspective typical of most other 2D real-time strategy games, and you play using most of the same exact controls from previous Command & Conquer episodes. The formula still works just fine - you can easily select and move your groups of units, which generally do a good job navigating the game's environments. Red Alert 2 doesn't offer any especially advanced options for your units - for instance, you can't move or array your troops in preset formations, and you can't order your troops to automatically scout or return for repairs and such. But it's just as well, because the units are autonomous in more important ways - they're good about automatically acquiring enemy targets, and they're generally responsive to orders, if only because the game itself plays very smoothly.

Even so, you might initially have some trouble directing your attacks, because it can be difficult to see incoming enemy units on the game's minimap, especially at higher resolutions. Also, when you set units to battle groups, the number corresponding to the group appears a little too large next to each unit; it can almost eclipse some of the smaller infantry. These minor problems may take getting used to, while most other aspects of Red Alert 2's interface just make the game more accessible and more rewarding as you get better at it. For instance, you can set waypoints for several groups of units and thereby conduct these groups simultaneously, though doing so might not always be viable in the heat of battle.

Though the right-hand vertical interface bar in Red Alert 2 will seem instantly familiar if you've played a Command & Conquer game before, you'll soon find that this particular interface is actually much better. The lower portion of the interface, which is used for building all the various units and structures available to your faction, is divided under four tabs: You click on the respective production tab to see all your available base infrastructure, base defenses, infantry units, and vehicle units. This division makes it easy to quickly find the right unit or structure you want to build. Red Alert 2 also lets you queue up multiple units for production, set rally points, and customize the keyboard hotkeys to your preference.

The interface also introduces what's a fairly significant change - and what's a fairly significant improvement - to the way that this Command & Conquer plays. You can generally build only one type of thing at a time under each production tab, though there are exceptions, as you can build land, sea, and air vehicles all at once from the vehicles tab. However, you can also build from any and all of the tabs simultaneously. Previous Command & Conquer games restricted you to having to build only one type of structure at a time, which meant that as you built up your stationary base defenses, including walls and gun turrets, you'd have to forego building new facilities that unlock the strongest units. However, in Red Alert 2, you can build structures and defenses simultaneously. This change actually goes a long way toward making the gameplay even more fast-paced, since you can - and should - now oversee the production of base infrastructure as well as defenses all at once. This also makes the resource management aspect of Red Alert 2 even more interesting, since you need to balance your resources more carefully.

You need to harvest your resources from mineral patches by using special mining vehicles, as in all other Command & Conquer games. While the real-time strategy genre has recently seen a backlash against resource management elements - tactical combat games that completely exclude resource management have become quite common - the resource gathering in Red Alert 2 is actually an interesting part of the game. On one level, it's very simple - as soon as you build a refinery, its miner vehicle immediately and automatically sets out toward the nearest mineral patch. The miners are fast and efficient as they go about their business - and for the first time in a Command & Conquer game, and perhaps for the first time in any real-time strategy game, your miners aren't a complete liability. Actually, the mining vehicles are distinctly different between the game's Allied and Soviet factions - the Allied miner instantly teleports back to its refinery as soon as it's full. If you need to rescue it in a pinch, you can also make it teleport back to base at will. The Soviet miner is more self-reliant; it's heavily armored, and it packs a powerful machine gun that can shred groups of infantry and light vehicles. Neither of these vehicles is susceptible to early-game attacks that might otherwise cripple a player's economy before he could assemble a sizable force.

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