Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
- Command & Conquer: Collected (2003)
- Command & Conquer: Mania Pack (2002)
-
Command & Conquer: Red Strike
(2002) -
Command & Conquer: The First Decade
(2006) -
Command & Conquer: Theater of War
(2001) - EA Games Power Pack Vol. 1 (2003)
- Play the Games Vol. 5 (2003)
-
The Command & Conquer Collection
(2003) - The EA Games Collection (2004)
-
The Laptop Collection
(2003)
Description official descriptions
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 takes place approximately two decades since the first Red Alert and, unlike the original, has no relation at all to the Tiberium universe. It is a conventional real-time strategy game which, in terms of gameplay, still faithfully continues the Dune/Command & Conquer lineage.
Although the Western Allies have installed a lackey as the Premier of the Soviet Union, their spies and relevant contacts suddenly go silent with the appearance of a powerful Soviet psychic named Yuri, who turns out to be Premier Romanov's advisor. Soon afterwards, the Soviet Union launches an overwhelming invasion on North America and Europe on land, air, and sea. As is usual, the player joins the Allied or Soviet side in the singleplayer campaign (with 12 missions for each faction) as of that point in the storyline. Whereas the technology level in the original Red Alert had World War II and Cold War-era weapons mixed with a few technologies inspired by failed real-world experiments, the arsenals of both sides in Red Alert 2 predominantly include technologically advanced units and structures such as teleporting Chrono Legionnaires, chain-connecting Prism towers, cloning vats, weather control devices, etc. However, the storyline's tone is considerably more light-hearted than that in previous Command & Conquer games, and following in the footsteps of Tiberian Sun, more known actors were brought to act in the full-motion video cutscenes.
The game uses a modified and optimized engine from Tiberian Sun and expands the gameplay in multiple ways. Both factions are completely distinct both functionally and visually, civilian structures can be garrisoned by each faction's basic infantry unit for increased firepower and rate of fire, the Allied IFV is included as the first customizable unit in the series (which can change its weapon and function based on the carried infantry unit), and there are neutral "tech" structures which bring bonuses to the players who capture them (e.g. oil derricks bring a small but frequent flow of income, airports allow deployment of paratroopers...). Like in the original Red Alert, factions are split into countries (5 Allied countries, 4 Soviet ones) in skirmish and multiplayer, but instead of having hidden production bonuses, each country has a unique unit, structure or support power that the others do not have access to. Aside from the aforementioned main singleplayer campaign, there is a vast number of skirmish/multiplayer maps, short co-op campaigns, and the return of the World Domination Tour multiplayer mode (unavailable in LAN) which was adapted from the Firestorm expansion for Tiberian Sun.
Groups +
- Animals: Cephalopods
- Command & Conquer franchise
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert universe
- EA Classics releases
- EA Value Games releases
- Famous person: Albert Einstein
- Game feature: BGM / music player
- Game feature: FMV / cutscene player
- Game feature: In-game screenshot capture
- Games with downloadable official map/level editors
- Games with game-altering copy protection
- Games with randomly generated environments
- Live action cut-scenes
- Middleware: Bink Video
- PC Gamer Presents games
- Setting: Alaskan
- Setting: Alternate history
- Setting: City - Chicago
- Setting: City - Moscow
- Setting: City - New York
- Setting: City - Paris
- Setting: City - Vladivostok
- Setting: City - Washington, D.C.
- Setting: Country - France
- Setting: Country - Poland
- Setting: Hawaiian
- Software Pyramide releases
- Theme: Psychic powers / Psionics
- Visual technique / style: Voxel graphics
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Credits (Windows version)
349 People (266 developers, 83 thanks) · View all
| Original Concept | |
| Executive Producer | |
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| Associate Producer | |
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| Additional Design | |
| Story | |
| Lead Artist | |
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| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 84% (based on 48 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 121 ratings with 14 reviews)
The Good
It's fast paced. Decent balance between the sides (particularly after the patches.) Graphics were OK, and they had good contrast. The interface is straight forward. There are enough units to be varied and they can form some interesting combinations.
The Bad
Like all Westwood games, it suffers from no fog of war and limited base building. It really sucks to have to cram a new building in between two others because none of the ground around the periphery of your base is suitable. The terrain isn't deformable and the graphics aren't as good as Tiberian Sun, however, the gameplay is much better.
The Bottom Line
I play it all the time. It and Starcraft are my favorite tete-a-tete games.
Windows · by Jeff Watts (18) · 2001
The Best of the C&C's till now
The Good
The movies really rocked especially the actrices like Tanya maybe it's because they used supermodels.
The missions were great.
The music really made you feel like kicking some ass.
The ingame graphics were great, like when you dropped a nuke the whole screen turned white.
The game just rocks, I can't wait until another C&C game get's released.
The Bad
When you play online the game runs really really slow.
The Bottom Line
It is a real improvement to Tiberian Sun
Windows · by Krystman (6) · 2001
Crappy game, pretty fun - no one knows why.
The Good
the graphics are preatty good most of the time, tho sometimes they suck.
great music. voic acting for the units rocks sometimes, suck oher times. a good example for it is the great lybian truck vs. most of the lame soviets (if they were sampled from even semi russian people...)
another example is the Desolator, he sound kewl, like a Warcraft2 deathknight - but isn't he supposed to be Iraqi???
The Bad
stupid plot. boring campaign. a few superunits can crush a base in seconds. snow levels look like crap. stupid unuseful expansive sea units.
stupid ai - your units ignore it when they are being fired upon, plot their own stupid courses and enter enemy fire zones. a few dogs can kill dozens of gis and they just ignore them. units ignore your orders sometimes for no appearent reason - only to get themselves killed.
The Bottom Line
For some unknowen reason this game is fun. maybe it's alien influence. play it, curse the stupid ai and continue to play.
Windows · by Oren Hadas (3) · 2001
Trivia
Best Buy release
When first released, Best Buy had a special offer: the Command and Conquer Soundtrack Collection (soundtrack from ALL C&C games) on CD for the first 100 buyers of RA2 in every store.
Cover
To avoid sensitivity issues after the real-world terrorist attacks on the WTC, EA offered distributors and retailers new boxes in October 2001 which removed the "The Invasion Has Begun" motto and the pictures depicting NY under attack (basically removing the box's flap and background in the front), as well as changing the eyepiece reflection from the American flag to a nuclear detonation.
Editor
FinalAlert was released alongside the patch 1.005, and it allows creating both multiplayer (skirmish, LAN, on-line) and solo (campaign) missions. It was created by a fan, Matthias "Matze" Wagner, instead of Westwood Pacific themselves, but was distributed through Westwood's official FTP server.
German version
This is the first Command & Conquer title not to be censored in Germany.
Installation
Instead of the regular installation like InstallShield or DemoShield, the custom installer of the game explains the events between first Red Alert and this game, which are otherwise barely referenced in the campaign.
Online servers
The game's online servers were migrated from the official Westwood Online infrastructure to the community-run XWIS (XCC WOL IRC Server), under approval and sponsorship from EA's German office on 6 October 2005. The Westwood Online domains have acted as a redirect to XWIS services since then, requiring no additional steps from the user to access the servers short of registering an account.
The World Domination Tour mode's code was not preserved, however.
Sales
In 2000, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Soundtrack
The in-game track list is below.
- Grinder (02:27)
- Power (03:56)
- Fortification (04:02)
- In Deep (03:24)
- Tension (04:05)
- Eagle Hunter (04:16)
- Industrofunk (03:12)
- 200 Meters (04:12)
- Blow It Up (03:11)
- Destroy (04:38)
- Burn (04:38)
- Motorized (04:02)
- Hell March 2 (03:44)
Installer track: In Deep (03:24)
Main menu track: Grinder (02:27)
Loading screen track: Jank (03:46)
Post-game track: Militant Force 2 (01:09)
Credits track: Optical (02:55)
Three tracks were left unused:
- C&C In The House (04:25)
- Probing (04:19)
- Ready The Army (04:57)
The game also had a limited soundtrack release physically and which was included in the Collector's Edition, then as of 2005 digitally on Apple iTunes, followed by other streaming services as they arrived. Note that the list is reordered and the Tension track was cut out, while unused tracks took its place:
- Hell March 2 (03:46)
- Industrofunk (03:14)
- Ready the Army (04:59)
- Grinder (02:29)
- In Deep (03:26)
- Motorized (04:04)
- Power (03:58)
- 200 Meters (04:14)
- Destroy (04:40)
- Burn (04:39)
- Probing (04:21)
- Blow It Up (03:13)
- Eagle Hunter (04:18)
- Fortification (04:04)
- Jank (03:48)
- C&C in the House (04:06)
Awards
- PC Player (Germany)
- Issue 01/2001 - Best Strategy Game in 2000
- Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland
- 2000 - Gold Award (more details in the "Sales" section)
Information also contributed by MAT, Kasey Chang, paul cairey, Xoleras and Zovni
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Kartanym.
Additional contributors: MAT, Rebound Boy, Erwin Bergervoet, Corn Popper, paul cairey, Patrick Bregger, Plok, TaxOwlbear.
Game added October 25, 2000. Last modified March 21, 2024.