Red Alert 3 Review

Real Time Strategy at it's greatest. The ever growing and improving series that you have come to know is still as strong as ever, delivering quirky and entertaining acting alomg side a great storyline. Red Alert 3 delivers some top notch gameplay.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 gives us an alternate reality where many of today’s weapons do not exists and destroyed armies of long ago are still a tyrannical force of power. In the first red Alert, Albert Einstein travels back in time and removes Adolf Hitler from history, meaning the events of World War II never take place, giving us the original Red Alert, Red Alert 2 and Yuri's revenge. Now, with the soviets on the brink of defeat, 3 Soviets remove Albert Einstein from history, again changing the space time continuum. Upon return, they quickly find that many events, including the Soviets impending defeat turns into an almost certain victory against the Powers of Western Europe. However, a new player has come into the picture. The Japanese Imperial forces are now a major force to be reckoned with. Tim Curry (Loaded Weapon 1) plays the Soviet Premier, George Takei (Sulu form Star Trek) leads the Japanese force and J.K. Simmons (Jonah Jameson from the Spiderman movies) portrays the comical U.S. leader.

Featuring a fully co-operative campaign where you can team up through the fibre optics with the AI or a buddy, the game has alot of nice new additives to add to the Red Alert series. 3 campaigns (as mentioned, the Soviets, Japanese and USA) offer plenty between-mission and in-mission videos to add to the enjoyment. Naval warfare takes on a new role, many building (like power plants and Ore Refinery's) can be built on water, some vehicles and troops can attack forces on water, so good strategies must now take this into account. The collection of Ore (necessary to produce money for purchasing buildings and units) is underground using many scattered ore mines. Most of the weapons in the previous titles are included. Notably absent are nuclear weapons (which do not exists after the death of Einstein), but many more super weapons are just as, if not more, destructive.

There isn't much difference between the three teams. The most notable ones are the building queues. Allies select the structure to build and wait until the building is finished, then place it on the battlefield (as per the usual). Soviets place the structure on the battlefield and wait for construction to be completed (a reversal of the latter). Japanese building uses vehicle cores that turn into the designated structure.

The cast features the main players mentioned above as well as Jonathan Pryce (Field Marshall Robert Bingham), Jenny McCarthy (Special Agent Tanya Adams) and Ivana Milicevic (Dasha Fedorovich) to deliver an intricate storyline that excites as well as entertains.

Multiplayer features cop-op campaigns where you and a friend (or the computer) tackle the main campaigns missions. Skirmish levels feature over 20 maps that give the game it longevity.

The graphics are colourful, but there are places that need improvements. The fine detail in the Command & Conquer games are always improving, but seem to stay one step behind what they should be. The video is clear and great quality. The sound is what you would expect, a clear improvement on previous titles in the series.

Any fan of the Command & Conquer or Red Alert games won’t need convincing. Almost all gamers would have played at least one of the Command & Conquer games. So you should know what to expect. This title certainly isn't a clone of any other release, but you'll get straight into the gameplay without any problems. Worthwhile if you’re a fan. A good release, but there are still many areas in need of improvement.