Command & Conquer: Red Alert
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Command & Conquer: Red Alert, is a real-time strategy computer game in the Command & Conquer series, released in 1996 by Westwood Studios. The events of the game take place in an alternate history, where Allied Forces defend Europe against an aggressive Soviet Union. It was initially available for PC (MS-DOS & Windows 95 versions included in one package) and was subsequently ported to PlayStation. The Command & Conquer: Red Alert series is also certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the best selling Real-time strategy game in the world, with over 35 million units sold. The name is an interesting play on words: 'Red Alert' indicates a high level of threat, but 'Red' also alludes to the USSR.
Story
Red Alert occurs some time after our World War II, taking place in a kind of alternate reality. Albert Einstein has recently invented a time machine called the "Chronosphere." He used it to kill Adolf Hitler and try to stop WWII, yet his plan backfires. In real life, during WWII Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, but in the game's story, because the Soviet Union was not invaded, Joseph Stalin uses his unspent energy historically used to beat back Germany to instead invade Europe. The Allied Nations must stop him before he conquers the world.
Counterstrike & Aftermath (
In 1997, two expansion packs for Red Alert were released for the PC, Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Counterstrike, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Aftermath. New units, missions, and music were included in the expansions. While the Counterstrike add-on adds many more multiplayer maps, it lacks originality as its single player missions appeared to have been scrapped from modified units (Red Alert units can be modified by editing the game's internal text files) and bundled together to give a feel of new and more powerful units than its predecessor. Of particular note is the addition of the secret Ant Missions to this add-on, where the player battles against giant red ants with super weapon capabilities.
The Aftermath add-on, however, added many new units available in single and multiplay modes. New Soviet units include the Missile Sub, the M.A.D Tank, the Shock Trooper, and the Tesla Tank. New Allied units include the Field Mechanic and the Chrono Tank. Also, both sides receive the Demolition Truck. The add-on also includes hundreds of new maps as well as maps with huge map sizes.
Retaliation (
On August 28, 1998, Westwood Studios released Red Alert Retaliation for the Sony PlayStation , Retaliation was also released; this was a compilation of the two PC expansion packs.
It included exclusive FMV mission briefing and victory scenes that were not in any of the PC expansion packs, which virtually had none. The scenes had a general (for both sides) telling you what your objectives were. One of the generals was General Carville who would later appear in Red Alert 2.
Music
All of the music in Red Alert was composed by Frank Klepacki. Among his most famous songs from the series is the theme of Red Alert, titled "Hell March," which accents the style of the game with adrenalized riffs of electric guitar and synthesizers to the dramatic chant of "We want war, wake up!". It alone has enlisted itself as a staple in the Red Alert series, and a second version of Hell March was specifically created for Red Alert 2.
Tracklist for "Red Alert" soundtrack CD:
- Hell March
- Radio 2 (PC version)
- Crush
- Roll Out
- Mud
- Twin Cannon
- Face the Enemy
- Fogger
- Run
- Terminate
- Big Foot
- Workmen
- Militant Force (Score)
- Dense
- Vector
- Smash (hidden track at end)
- Radio 2 Remix (Playstation version)
When playing the single-player campaign, a limited number of tracks are initially available, and more are unlocked as the player progresses through missions. When playing in a multiplayer or 'skirmish' game, however, all tracks are available from the start. (There are many more not listed and that can be found in the Red Alert expansions: The Aftermath, Counterstrike, Retaliation)
Tracklist for "Red Alert: The Aftermath" soundtrack:
- Bog
- Floating
- Gloom
- Groundwire
- Running Through Pipes
- The Search
- Traction
- Wasteland
Tracklist for "Red Alert: Counterstrike" soundtrack:
- Arazoid
- Backstab
- Chaos
- Journey
- Radio 2 Remix
- Shut It
- The Second Hand
- Underlying Thoughts
- Voice Rhythm 2
Tracklist for "Red Alert: Retaliation" soundtrack:
- Hell March (Remix)
- The Second Hand (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Backstab (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Chaos (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Crush (Remix)
- No Mercy (Remix)
- Mud (Remix)
- Running Through Pipes (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- The Search (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- Shut It (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Traction (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- Voice Rhythm 2 (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike" (Only in Playstation version, I think))
- Wasteland (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- Workmen (Remix)
- Twin Cannon (Remix)
All music tracks can be heard on Frank Klepacki's website.
Gameplay
In-game screenshot.
Red Alert is a real-time strategy series in which the player commands an army and is responsible for gathering resources, building bases, training units, and fighting the enemy's army.
Red Alert was praised for its user interface, which was much more developed than other games at the time. For example, there are virtually no limitations on the number of units one can select. You can select up to thirty units and give them orders, although chances are that you'll never be selecting that many anyways unless they're all infantry. One also can give a unit many orders at once, which it can execute in sequence.
Red Alert battles have 3 domains of fighting: air, land and sea. Each side (Allies or Soviets) can train naval units, aircraft, and land forces. Each side also has its unique capabilities, although in Red Alert 2 they were balanced so that each unit's ability was countered by a similar variant on the opposing side. For example, in Red Alert 2, the ultimate Soviet Tesla coil defensive towers were matched by the Allies' "Prism towers."
Notable units for the Soviet side includes the Heavy Tank, the V-2 rocket launcher, the flamethrower, the Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helichopper, submarines, the Mammoth Tank as well as the MiG attack aircraft and anti-infantry minelayer. The Allied faction has the Light Tank, the Medium Tank, commando unit Tanya, anti-tank minelayer, the Ranger jeep, Gunboats, Destroyers as well as Cruisers and also the AH-64 Apache Longbow attack chopper.
Game Balancing
The game balance between the strengths of the Allied and Soviet armies was innovative in its time: The Soviets are formidable because of their brute force: their weakest tank is still more powerful than the best Allied equivalent, even though it is only marginally more expensive, and this, coupled with the fact that the Allied anti-tank defensive structure (the turret) is inferior to the Soviet Tesla coil (powerful and extremely accurate, like a bug zapper), means that the Allies are at a significant disadvantage during land-based combat. This is repeated in the field of aerial engagements where the Soviets have various specialized planes. For short powerful strikes, there is the Yak Attack Plane for dispatching infantry and light buildings, and the MiG for armour and heavy buildings alike, while the Hind chopper is for staying power against both armour and infantry. The Allied army simply has one chopper, the Longbow, which is best suited to anti-armour work.
Naval warfare, however, is another matter. The Allies have three ships: the Gunboat, which is armed with a weak 2-inch deck gun and depth charges; the Destroyer, which is armed with guided missiles and depth charges; and the Cruiser, which is armed with four double-barreled long-range cannons. The Destroyer is a flexible vessel with the capability of engaging aircraft, submarines, and land targets. The Cruiser is slow, inaccurate, and heavily armored, and can smash an enemy base to rubble within minutes, but is unable to defend itself against submarines, and must be escorted by other ships with that capability. In comparison, the Soviets carry the Attack Submarine that only exists to counteract Allied naval activity rather than provide a threat to an enemy base. Considering that virtually all Red Alert maps contain various bodies of water this makes the Allies a much more credible threat.* The Allies' second strength is their ability to indulge in acts of subterfuge; Allied commanders can build units and structures to recreate "fog of war," effectively blinding the enemy. They themselves can launch a GPS satellite into space to see the whole battlefield. Other Allied units can jam radar, steal money, spy on the enemy, and plant explosive charges on buildings (Tanya). This shows how Red Alert was a much more dynamic game than many of its time and stood in stark contrast to games such as Total Annihilation, in which both sides had units with practically identical abilities.
Unlike the 'rock-paper-scissors' balancing of more recent games, Red Alert requires each player to make best use of their side's strengths to compensate for their weaknesses.
- - In the Aftermath Expansion, the Soviet Missile Submarine was armed with missiles that could only attack land borne targets - basically, a submersible counterpart to the Allied Cruiser, just with a slightly shorter range.
- - The most powerful unit in the game is generally considered to be the Allied Cruiser because of its high attack range (no other unit in the game can fire as far as the Cruiser). Its only weakness is being attacked by Soviet Submarines, though the player does have the option of firing indirect volleys in the general vicinity of the submarines and relying on the splash damage to effectively destroy the sub. This can be done by pressing the Ctrl button, and clicking in an area around the sub. Throughout the campaigns the navy is very important for the Allies and it can prove to be a challenge for the Soviet Player. Unfortuanately, many multiplayer maps do not have large amounts of water, rendering the Allied Navy inoperable.
Characters
Allies
- General Gunter von Esling -- Played by Arthur Roberts.
- General Nikos Stavros -- Played by Barry Kramer.
- Tanya Adams -- Played by Lynne Litteer.
- Professor Albert Einstein -- John Milford.
Soviet
- Joseph Stalin -- Played by Gene Dynarski.
- Nadia -- Played by Andrea C. Robinson.
- Gradenko -- Played by Alan Terry.
- General Georgi Kukov -- Played by Craig Cavanah.
- Kane -- Played by Joseph D. Kucan.
Units and Structures
Infantry
- Main article Infantry
Vehicles
In 1997, two expansion packs for Red Alert were released for the PC, Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Counterstrike, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Aftermath. New units, missions, and music were included in the expansions. While the Counterstrike add-on adds many more multiplayer maps, it lacks originality as its single player missions appeared to have been scrapped from modified units (Red Alert units can be modified by editing the game's internal text files) and bundled together to give a feel of new and more powerful units than its predecessor. Of particular note is the addition of the secret Ant Missions to this add-on, where the player battles against giant red ants with super weapon capabilities.On August 28, 1998, Westwood Studios released Red Alert Retaliation for the Sony PlayStation , Retaliation was also released; this was a compilation of the two PC expansion packs.
It included exclusive FMV mission briefing and victory scenes that were not in any of the PC expansion packs, which virtually had none. The scenes had a general (for both sides) telling you what your objectives were. One of the generals was General Carville who would later appear in Red Alert 2.
Music
All of the music in Red Alert was composed by Frank Klepacki. Among his most famous songs from the series is the theme of Red Alert, titled "Hell March," which accents the style of the game with adrenalized riffs of electric guitar and synthesizers to the dramatic chant of "We want war, wake up!". It alone has enlisted itself as a staple in the Red Alert series, and a second version of Hell March was specifically created for Red Alert 2.
Tracklist for "Red Alert" soundtrack CD:
- Hell March
- Radio 2 (PC version)
- Crush
- Roll Out
- Mud
- Twin Cannon
- Face the Enemy
- Fogger
- Run
- Terminate
- Big Foot
- Workmen
- Militant Force (Score)
- Dense
- Vector
- Smash (hidden track at end)
- Radio 2 Remix (Playstation version)
Tracklist for "Red Alert: The Aftermath" soundtrack:
- Bog
- Floating
- Gloom
- Groundwire
- Running Through Pipes
- The Search
- Traction
- Wasteland
- Arazoid
- Backstab
- Chaos
- Journey
- Radio 2 Remix
- Shut It
- The Second Hand
- Underlying Thoughts
- Voice Rhythm 2
- Hell March (Remix)
- The Second Hand (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Backstab (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Chaos (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Crush (Remix)
- No Mercy (Remix)
- Mud (Remix)
- Running Through Pipes (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- The Search (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- Shut It (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike")
- Traction (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- Voice Rhythm 2 (Taken from "Red Alert: Counterstrike" (Only in Playstation version, I think))
- Wasteland (Taken from "Red Alert: The Aftermath")
- Workmen (Remix)
- Twin Cannon (Remix)
All music tracks can be heard on Frank Klepacki's website.
Gameplay
- Main article Vehicles
- Main article Aircraft
- Main article Navy
- Main article Structures
Connections to the Tiberian Series
Command & Conquer: Red Alert was designed as a prequel to the first C&C game. During the Soviet campaign, Kane makes infrequent appearances as an advisor to Stalin. Kane, it seemed, instigated the battles of Red Alert, in order to secure a power base for his Brotherhood of Nod. Indeed, Nadia (one of Stalin's advisors) asks the player to 'keep the peace' until Nod becomes active. Kane shoots her, and informs the player that he is the future. During the Allied Campaign, a news announcer reporting on the Allies' loss of Greece also announced that the United Nations had created a special military task force to deal with future global conflicts. It was assumed that this group was the Global Defense Initiative (GDI).
A debated theory to resolve the apparent timeline error is to consider Red Alert as the genesis of two parallel stories. If the Soviet campaign is played in Red Alert, Russia emerges as the dominant power and Kane and the Brotherhood Of Nod take control of this new empire. This leads into Tiberian Dawn when it collapses in the 1990s. On the other hand, if the Allied campaign is played in Red Alert, the Allies emerge victorious, and the timeline leads directly to Red Alert 2. Of course, this is not without consistency flaws. As mentioned above, during the Allied campaign in Greece, the newscast refers to the formation of an "Initiative of Global Defense" to combat Soviet militarism in any form, a clear reference to the military alliance of the same name in Command & Conquer; yet if the Allied campaign is played, C&C never takes place, and Red Alert 2 contains no mention of GDI, though this can possibly be explained by the lack of any military threat great enough to warrent the GDI's continued existence after the Allied victory over Stalin. The problems arise mainly because, of course, Red Alert was originally conceived solely as a prequel to Tiberian Dawn, and only after its mass popular success was a separate sequel planned, muddying the timeline. Since there are science fiction stories that occasionally have parallel or alternate universes, the "parallel universe" theory is the only logical explanation in which both outcomes can continue their own separate paths without interfering with each other's story.
Former Westwood employees, however, claimed that they were working on an internal timeline developed which seamlessly linked the entire series together.
See also
External links
- [The XWIS server] - an alternative server to Westwood Online (WOL) created by Olaf van der Spek and sponsored by the EA Germany Community Team.
- [A comprehensive resource outlining the complete story line]
- [Red Alert Mods] - At the Mod DB
- [RA Techcenter²] - An active Red Alert community
- [Red Alert Archive] - Archive of Red Alert files and information
- [Black Magic's Red Alert Page] - Black Magic's Red Alert Page
- [Command & Conquer: Red Alert] at MobyGames
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