There had been rejoice for a number of real time strategy fans, and obviously the Command and Conquer fans when Command & Conquer 3 was announced, but this only triggered one question in my mind and many others, what about the family’s long lost brother, Red Alert? Well it only took eight years of waiting and development for it to be finally true, as it was inevitable, that Red Alert 3 was going to be coming out.

Following the Red Alert series you can follow the life line of the companies developing it, first it started with independent Westwood studios creating the critically acclaimed Red Alert game, then by the time of development of Red Alert 2, EA had bought Westwood studios, merged Westwood studios with another studio to create a subsidiary ‘Westwood Pacific’. In the next few years Westwood Pacific would liquidate, EA would accommodate the IP and create the latest in the series, Red Alert 3. Even with all these exchanges and changes, it’s impressive to know not too much has changed in the foundation in the series.

Red Alert 3 starts off with the infamous live video sequence, the story pans out very similarly to the original Red Alert in that a time machine is created allowing the traverse back in time for the change of present events. This time, instead of eliminating Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union eliminate Albert Einstein preventing the Allies success after the first two games, this in turn though creates the ‘what if’ Empire of Japan, in this case called the “Empire of the Rising Sun” amassing conflict in a huge three way war. So, in Red Alert 3 you’ll find three distinct factions to play as, the Allies, the Soviet Union and the all new Empire of the Rising sun, not quite the same as the eight factions in Red Alert 2, but it depends if you’re looking for scale or variety, Red Alert 3 offers very much of the latter, whether it offers very much in other departments happens to be one of the major aims of this article.

Gameplay:

To understand the direction of Red Alert 3, and Command & Conquer 3 for that matter, you have to had played at least Red Alert 2 to get the over exaggerations and unrealism’s that this game has to offer, as some of the best parts in this game come from the very ‘cheesy’ moments, which happen to be every moment of the live action sequences.

You’ll see some very familiar and quite surprising faces this time around, as with Command & Conquer 3 you’ll see the odd recognisable face from that American drama or soap opera, but this time you’ll be a bit star struck, star struck in gaming standards though so don’t get too excited. The first few faces you’ll witness are Tim Curry, the multi-occupational talent most famous for his TV work, Jonathan Pryce, a partly famous actor from Tomorrow Never Dies and you may have spotted him in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, and of course good old George Takei from the original Star Trek films. It’s a very interesting combination of actors but you can’t help but think why they’re doing something like this, as it’s just a laugh to see them make fools of themselves... with the best intentions of course.

So the poorly written scripts and cringing acting pieces are there for a purpose, anyone who does point this out as a flaw really don’t understand the comical flare EA are heading with the series. However, unlike the previous games so much the cheese does drip off a little onto other areas of the game, for example, the actual game itself.

In Red Alert you had the introduction to a great strategy era, the game really did introduce the foundations of a great strategy game along with the original Command & Conquer, but it was pretty serious in tone, for its time at least. Red Alert 2 offered an extended version of Red Alert, brought you new factions and some ‘interesting’ new units which you turned a blind eye to, Red Alert 3 on the other hand made me giggle somewhat. The first couple of hours of play, many traditional Red Alert fans might react in a fashion of ‘what’s going on here!?’, or any serious realistically influenced strategy game players at least would think this, it isn’t until you’ve played a good few missions and a skirmish for it all to sink in. EA took the stereotypical view of the political situations and militaries which were present before and during the cold war and just took the views that one step further and made it almost ‘comical’ and at the same time looking comic like. So expect stern brutal actions from Soviet Generals and well spoken patriotic statements from the Allied nations, along with parachuting Russian bears and sonar pulse Dolphin units, war has never taking itself so seriously.

A lot changes content wise in Red Alert 3, but a lot stays the same as well. The complete Allied arsenal of units essentially stays the same, along with a few extras to fit the new water based gameplay – spoken about later. The Russians take a 50/50 split of strangeness and familiarity, with the all time favourite Kirov’s (giant zeppelins which drop bombs, quite literally) but then APC’s which fire units out of a cannon, now some people might find this pretty ‘cool’ but I know for certain a lot of strategy players will find this a tad peculiar, and maybe a bit over the top. This is an element which will be taken lightly however as it is a matter of opinion whether you think EA had gotten a bit too obvious with the ‘out of the norms’ and extravagant stereotypes, but it is a thing that is worth mentioning due to a distaste in many modern strategy game players.

The first game you will play will bring up a few points, one of them being the controls. I wish to applaud EA for being one of the first developers for nailing strategy game controls on a console controller, as it’s not easy. These are well streamlined, accessible and the learning curve is minor, in comparison at least. It isn’t without its few problems though, no different to any other strategy on a console, restricted camera movements. I don’t know about other regular strategy players but I like to look at the units I’ve created, here the camera only lets you zoom in so far... enough to look at a few buildings with extra detail, but individual units, you may go through the whole game not knowing what they really look like. There’s also the inevitable issue of groupings, you basically can’t group units as easy as you can with the PC version, which is understandable and probably couldn’t have been made any easier, but it’s still an issue. The only tutorial I had to use control wise was for the support abilities as I didn’t know how to access them, like other strategies they’re not on the screen, they’re on the command menu. Only having to look at one tutorial mission? now that’s quite impressive for a console based strategy game.

The controls are all well and good when they work, that’s crucial to being able to play, but to enjoy what you’re playing is even more important. If you followed the game at all before it came out, the emphasis and focus on most of their trailers was on the water based gameplay. What this meant was being able to build bases and send units over plain seas, so really being able to go anywhere you wanted with next to no restrictions. This is a feature which can make or break the game, why? well, if you balance it out correctly and weigh out an almost even number of pluses of why it’s best to build on land or on sea, then this adds a whole set of strategy techniques, but if you leave little restraints to what you can do then it makes water an almost useless or needed terrain type, in Red Alert 3 it might as well be a variant of land. Red Alert 3 nearly had it, you aren’t able to build a barracks on land, or a vehicle factory. Both buildings of which have units that aren’t amphibious, although the vehicle factory generally has at least one unit which is amphibious. Water is just too much of a necessity, in any skirmish game you may as well build as many buildings as possible in the water as it’s the safest place to be, all except your ore refinery as it needs resources to gather. I expect a patch or two may be released to balance this further, but at the moment it’s a great innovative feature, which I’m surprised hasn’t been thought already, that isn’t completely established.

To make up for the lack of factions in Red Alert 3 EA have really worked on the idea of variety, as they say ‘variety is the key’. Having six very similar factions with the odd special unit here and there or three distinct playing and looking factions which add different experiences, I know which one I’d choose. EA hasn’t made each faction too different though so it becomes unbalanced, or just unplayable as one faction, just different enough to make you think before you choose.

The Soviet Union probably plays in the most normal way in base creation, buildings are placed and built and then their units are reliant on medium based Tesla. The Allies build their buildings within the command menu and then their just placed upon the ground, their units are probably the most standard of all the factions, good all rounder’s. If you had to pick the greatest dissimilar faction the Empire of the Rising Sun is probably the best of the crop to pick, their buildings are created in what seem like flat pack triangular crates which can move and then manually choose where that building can be setup. The units on the other hand are based upon a robotic, nano samurai theme. You’ll have samurai robots and Transformer like vehicles, if you want to pop into a Star Wars meets Transformers merged universe then, this is the faction to be.

Graphics:

It has already been said that some may find the theme to be over stereotyped, but I don’t think you can deny that the art style isn’t attractive. The game itself might be too bright for some, as was the first Red Alert - this was likely played upon - but the menus are very pleasing to the eye, EA have captured a ‘pseudo’ comic style take on the Soviet Union. It reminds me a little of Omega Red from the X-Men, who actually happens to be a symbol of communism.

The bold and characterised menus are matched well with the Soviet focused storyline and the bright colours portrayed in the graphics engine. The water is bright blue, ground textures feature vibrancy and the factions emphasise the reds, blues and whites of their political statuses, and it may not appeal to everyone, but it’s been done for all the right reasons.

Looking at the technical side of the game, it’s obvious to see the engine has great potential for visually looking great, unfortunately the Xbox 360 hasn’t done the best of jobs with picking this up. The game isn’t by any means horrible to look at, but I can understand why they may have restricted you moving in any further on the units. There are some low texture resolutions, anti-aliasing issues and poor shadow implements, a common pattern with console strategy games. If you played the game without looking at internet screenshots and trailers you probably wouldn’t notice or care, but there are significant differences when you compare the two.

I have encountered the odd slowdown, mainly when there’s fighting as well as a lot of buildings in one area, nothing game breaking but it is very noticeable to the eye. It’s also a bit worrying for a game that doesn’t really allow you to take part in large battles, you’ll be encountering a lot mini of skirmishes than anything.

Sound:

I believe the soundtracks were borrowed heavily from the previous two games, and then they were tweaked and modernised. It all fits, as Red Alert and Halo seem to be the only games where a guitar solo heightens the experience.

All three of the factions have their own soundtrack themes in Red Alert 3, and all three depict the image of the faction very well. The most disliked though I think will be the Empire of the Rising Suns soundtrack, some of the tracks can be a bit grating on the ears, more so the singing parts.

It’s good to see that the iconic ‘Hell March’ theme is back from the dead once again, and it hasn’t been completely destroyed with modernised sound effects, it still catches the high-points of Red Alert and brings back some great Command & Conquer memories. Doesn’t quite have as much ‘umph’ as the original, but – as I’m sure fans will agree - it is hard to live up to.

Longevity:

Red Alert 3 offers you three campaigns within the same timeline. The Soviet campaign offering their perspective on the situation, fighting off the Empire of the Rising Sun and Allies on both fronts, the Allied campaign fighting the Soviets, Empire, and then the Soviets again, and the Empire of The Rising Sun battling the Soviets and then Allies.

The campaigns singularly won’t take any more than 4-5 hours but as a whole they are fairly lengthy, what adds to the replay-ability though is the introduction to co-op gameplay. You’re able to at any time, before a mission in the campaign, invite a friend or allow a single player to join the game with you as an extra hand in the game. This works out pretty simply, but because it’s a strategy game you’ll be naturally working co-operatively, I was surprised that this hasn’t been done more often in strategy games.

Skirmish battles are a minor feature of extendability, they’re not that compelling as they’re rather short, and only four players don’t really give you much room for customisation. Once you’ve done a couple of skirmishes, you’ve really done them all. Unless they’re going to release DLC, then this feature is best on the PC.

Overall:

Red Alert 3 can be mistakenly seen as an outdated and underdeveloped strategy game, that’s if compared to modern real time strategy games such as Company of Heroes or World in Conflict, as those games in some way offer elements which are “innovative” and “groundbreaking”. What Red Alert 3 does though is offer a game which can be relative to its well received sequels and refreshing with its modernised outlook. It does try to offer new play techniques by focusing on the harnessing of water, yet falls short slightly due to balance and potential purposes of the feature, but it does make up for that with a simple but enjoyable co-op experience , accessible control scheme and lengthy campaign mode. If you can’t grab the PC version of this game, you should receive a very similar Red Alert experience with the Xbox version.