First Look: Red Alert 3

With the latest entry in Command & Conquer’s weird offshoot series coming out on October 28th, I got the chance to have a go at the multiplayer beta a full month before it goes on sale. And I lost, almost constantly.

The main problem with the beta was the total absence of a tutorial or any place to get a feel for the units and the game. Obviously that won’t be a problem in the main game, but goshdarnit, it made playing a match frustrating.

Back in the USSR

You’re really thrown in at the deep end. To slightly lessen the possibility of drowning, I picked the Soviet side, also known to Red Alert veterans as ‘the fun side’. I knew them like the back of my hand.

Only problem with this approach is EA have done a lot of remodelling and tweaking, so now my hand has two extra fingers and a few extra moles.

The first thing I noticed was the weird building system. No, scratch that, the really first thing I noticed was how the camera is a lot more zoomed out than it previously was.

That’s a little bit weird, almost making the whole thing feel a bit isometric. Tanks seem quite small, whereas soldiers seem much larger. Weird.

Anyway, let us move on to more constructive topics. Instead of buying a building, having a timer slowly eating away funds and, when that’s done, finding thee structure is ready to be placed.

Now you have to place the building FIRST. Did Red Alert do that before? I can’t remember, but C&C3 didn’t.

Now for that ‘tweaking’ I mentioned with a rather odd hand-related metaphor earlier. For a simple example, the infamous Apocalypse Tank, once the all-purpose decimator from the Soviet side, has now had its AA rockets removed. Shocking, I know.

This unfortunately means that the Soviets are rather lacking in anti-air weapons now. I discovered this to my chagrin in my second match, when I was wiped out by a bunch of flying robots and some anti-power station pixies.

Turning Japanese

This brings me on to the only real worry I have about RA3 - the Japanese side, a.k.a. the Empire of the Rising Sun. They seem far too technologically advanced for the time period, and feel (and look) more Supreme Commander than Red Alert. They also seem hideously unbalanced in certain areas.

Their commando unit, Yuriko*, is far too powerful, psychically picking up all units and tossing them aside before they can make any impact. The Soviet and Allied commandos only really have an impact against soldiers and buildings.

Commanding troops consisting of big transformers and flying robots just doesn’t seem in keeping with the spirit of the game. Still, each instalment of RA has got sillier and less historical, so I guess that’s the natural progression.

Speaking of silliness, the last game I played I lost within moments because my opponent scooted some (now amphibious and far faster moving) engineers round to my side before I could build any units, then took over and sold my construction yard, crippling me entirely. So much for a tank rush, now we have an engineer rush!

One really big change that I haven’t mentioned is the absence of a Tiberium-like ore, which now seems to be taken directly from mines and oil platforms. This is the first Command & Conquer game since Generals to not have resource-hoovering.

However, the ore collectors still remain just as vulnerable, and you need a lot more of them this time if you want to be building anything at all.

Multiplayer really isn’t the best place to experience an RTS the first time around. A single-player campaign stuffed with cheesy FMV filling is always the best starting point.

Only then can an online venture be countenanced. You (meaning I) just need to know all the units first. Then I’ll beat all you pig-dogs, mark my words.

After the brilliant fun we’ve had with the return of Kane, hopefully EA will manage to resurrect Red Alert with just as much success.

I may be more of an FPS, RPG or Action Adventure fan, and there’s plenty to get me excited in those genres before Christmas, but Red Alert 3 is nevertheless the game I’m looking forward to most. Crank up that Hell March!

Chris ‘The Tingler’ Capel

* Hey, I just noticed! A psychic-powered unit with ‘Yuri’ in the name! Coincidence? I think not!