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PC Gamer Revisits Red Alert 2

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Just a bit late in posting this news. Spotted it via Frank Klepacki's Facebook page. Just a couple of weeks ago, PC Gamer did an interesting write up about Red Alert 2. Revisiting the game some 16 years later, PC Gamer feel that Red Alert 2 still holds up today, it's still fresh. Here's a sample of the article....

It was Red Alert 2, released in 2000—a couple of years after C&C sequel Tiberian Sun—that changed the mood and overarching story, ditching all ties to the Tiberian series in favour of a second war between the Soviets and Allies. Little attempt is made to dramatise events. In the first briefing of the Soviet campaign, Premier Romanov pokes a turtle named Uncle Sam as part of an extended metaphor about America being weak and cowardly. US President Dugan—played by Twin Peaks’ Ray Wise—is nervous and petulant throughout. The Soviet invasion itself is triggered when a psychic with a head tattoo mindcontrols a soldier through a telephone. It’s all very silly.

Played today, this tonal shift stops Red Alert 2 from feeling overly dated. The obvious comparison is to Tiberian Sun, which even James Earl Jones can’t save from an awkward mix of drama, action and scantily clad mutant sidekicks. I don’t remember Tiberian Sun being quite so embarrassing at the time, probably because I was 14. Now it’s hard not to cringe through the cutscenes. Red Alert 2 avoids that fate because you can tell its cast are having fun. It’s a knowing nod to the camera; an admission that yes, it’s a new millennium and we’re still doing FMV. Importantly, though, it’s not ironic. It embraces the awkwardness. It owns it.


Arguably Red Alert 2 is the most popular of all the Command & Conquer games. And thanks to the likes of CnCNet, the online multiplayer action lives on. You can read the full article right here.

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Rock Paper Shotgun did similar thing over more than month ago, only for Tiberian Sun: Have You Played Tiberian Sun?

 

 

I hadn’t experienced the interim period between Dune 2 and Tiberian Sun, so the jump seemed enormous. I was in love. So much detail, so many units, so much unbound sci-fi, so much destruction, a true future-war: this was my dream game. First-person shooters fell by the wayside, and for years to come I consumed every RTS I could get my hands on.
It was C&C I craved more of, though. I was disappointed when the immediate follow-up was Red Alert 2, finding the campy alt-history less appealing than the (very) vaguely Warhammer 40kish sci-fi of Tiberian Sun.
Edited by mirza044

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What features were cut from RA2?

 

The Chrono Prism as well as a bunch of other units/buildings.

 

As for RA2 being silly: I think the mix between ham and seriousness works rather well. e.g. when I first saw the cut scene where [a certain character] gets blow up. Better than many other games that got for the "dark and mature" theme and end up being way more cringy.

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Yeah, RA2 hit pretty much the sweet spot between seriousness and sillyness.

YR and RA3 didnt work as well in that regard :/

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