Introduction

Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
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Sound the alarm

Four years after the first Command & Conquer: Red Alert dominated the real time strategy (RTS) world, Westwood is finally bringing its sequel, Red Alert 2, to store shelves. Since Red Alert's release, Westwood has developed two other RTS games, C&C Tiberian Sun and Dune 2000.

Tanks, planes, and infantry. Yay!

Boom!

Red Alert, however, still maintained a rabid following, and many preferred its gameplay over the newer titles. Red Alert 2's release will not only satisfy Red Alert's fans, but may signify the swan song of 2D RTS games altogether. Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft 3 will be in 3D, and the recent announcement of Emperor: Battle for Dune means that Westwood becomes the last major RTS developer to transition to 3D.

Gamers.com recently visited Westwood Studios in Las Vegas for a hands-on peek at the final retail version of Red Alert 2. This editor dutifully camped in their offices for hours playing the game, until they finally had to pry me off the keyboard and mouse at quitting time.

Uh oh.

Time to start

The story

Red Alert 2 picks up the Red Alert story in the modern day era, decades after the Western European Allies' victory over the Soviets in Red Alert 1. The Mother Country isn't happy with the US being the world's leading superpower, so they have stockpiled weapons and created mind control devices for use in their daring invasion of the United States. After knocking out American early warning systems, the Soviets execute a concerted attack on all major US cities -- San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, and the Texas desert are all swarming with Soviet ships and paratroopers.

Even more dastardly, the communists deposit mind control beacons in each conquered city to gain the support of the civilian populace. The US military is clearly in the lurch as they try to gain control of the situation.

Fending off an attack

Tank remnants

Unlike other RTS titles that feature barren or uninhabited landscapes, Red Alert 2 focuses heavily on urban combat. City maps with dozens of buildings and recognizable landmarks comprise many of the game's maps and battlefields. In our play testing, we found the city maps to be well detailed, with lots of streets, bridges, foliage, and other unique details, like soccer and baseball fields. Not all the maps are urban however -- our play testing revealed plenty of traditional battlefield settings outside the city, with fewer, more widely dispersed structures (like barns and farm houses). These non-urban areas include maps in the Colorado wilderness, the Texas desert, Europe, and the Arctic.