Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a 2.5D real-time strategy computer game by Westwood Studios, which was released for Microsoft Windows on September 28, 2000 as the follow up to Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Red Alert 2 supposedly picks up at the conclusion of the Allied campaign of the first gmaes , but this has been subject to debate.
Centered around a Russian invasion of the United States of America in an alternate early 1970s, the game details the American, European, and Korean response to the threat. The gmaes features several real-world monuments, including the World Trade Center, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe.
Red Alert 2 has met with increased popularity in the real-time strategy field over the past few years. A year after its initial release, it received an expansion pack entitled Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge. It continues where the gmaes leaves off, and introduces a new faction and campaign.
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Storyline
Like all other Command & Conquer real-time strategy games up until the expansion pack of Tiberian Sun, Firestorm, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 contains two distinct story lines depending on which faction the player wishes to play as. Both of the storylines alter in several distinct ways. However, the Allied storyline is canon because of how the expansion pack continues.
Allied Storyline
The Allied Storyline starts off with the U.S. Military being caught completely off guard by the Soviet invasion of the United States of America. The Military attempts to retaliate with the use of nuclear warheads, but Yuri, leader of the Soviet Psychic Corps, uses his mind control to manipulate the U.S. personnel charged with launching the warheads and leaves them to explode in their silos. Within hours, the Western and Eastern Coasts of the U.S. are infested with Red Army troops. In response, the President establishes an emergency response team headed by General Carville and the Commander.
They liberate New York City and several key airbases in the Southwestern United States. After this, a Soviet psychic mind control device known as the Psychic Beacon controls the mind of the President and several key officials in Washington, D.C.. However, a swift retaliation frees the President. Then, the military launches a quick invasion of a second Soviet psychic device in Chicago before it can go off and place the whole of the United States under Soviet mind control. Unfortunately, the Soviets retaliate for this attack by launching a nuclear warhead against Chicago, leaving the city in ruins.
Alarmed by the situation, leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom agree to help the United States if they disarm Soviet nuclear missile sites in Poland. After doing so, the U.S. Military is bolstered with men and supplies from the Europeans. This allows the Americans to recapture several areas such as Washington, D.C., which had been retaken by the Soviets, and several areas in Mexico which were under Soviet rule.
Wanting to end the situation, Allied leaders send troops to protect Albert Einstein and retrieve his Chronosphere plans. After doing this, they deploy his Chronosphere in Florida and proceed to use its teleportation capabilities to take an Allied strike team to Moscow. Once in Moscow, Allied Forces promptly disable the Kremlin's defenses and Chrono in a strike team to retrieve the Soviet leadership.
Soviet Storyline
The Soviet storyline begins with the player being debriefed by the Premier himself. After this, the Soviets launch invasions of key Allied positions such as Washington, D.C, Florida, and New York City. With these stunning victories, the Americans flee back in retreat.
Alarmed by the situation, leaders of France and Germany agree to send troops to the border with Poland to help the Americans fight the Red Army. The Soviets send a special forces team to quickly capture Paris while the French Army is busy else where. With this and other key victories in Europe, Europe is in a position of needing help itself rather than giving help to America.
During this time, The Premier's top adviser Yuri begins gaining more and more power because of Yuri using his mind control technology on Romanov. As a result the Premier gives all military authority to Yuri. Some Soviet generals are alarmed at this power shift and begin to rebel. Top Soviet Commander General Vladimir flees to captured Washington, D.C. where he plots a strike against Yuri. However, two Soviet strike teams make their way to D.C. and San Antonio and capture the U.S. President and General Vladimir.
The Soviets then discover that the Allies are developing a new superweapon in the US Virgin Islands known as a Weather Control Device. The Soviets launch a naval assault on the islands and successfully destroys the device before it gets a chance to be activated.
It is revealed that Yuri is indeed a traitor and the Red Army engages in a civil war between Yuri's forces and forces still loyal to Comrade General (the player). The epicenter of the civil war is in Moscow where Yuri is located. Soviet troops reach him and a devastating attack is launched on his base and he is believed to have died. The Soviets then capture the last remaining Allied forces still holed up in Alaska.
Cast & Characters
Allies
Soviets
gmaes play
Every aspect of gmaes play in the game is based on the collection of money. In the gmaes , money can be collected by several means. The most common is using Miner trucks to gather Ore and/or Gems and transport them to a Refinery. A player can also gain a lasting income by capturing Oil drills (neutral buildings that are present in some maps). There also are two one-time sources of money, namely collecting random crates which are present in the map and selling off enemy buildings which have been captured by one of the player's Engineers. The money is spent on constructing and repairing buildings and units. In both cases one can start construction before having the full cost in one's reserves, as construction pauses if one runs short of money.
There are 5 types of "constructor" building: Construction Yard (for buildings); Barracks (non-mechanized units); War Factory (mechanized units); Shipyard (naval units), and, only for the Allies, Air Force Command (Harriers or Black Eagles). At any point in the gmaes one can construct a maximum of one building/unit in each category—having more "constructor" buildings simply speeds up production.
The various nations are members of either the Soviet or the Allied faction. The factions have similar basic buildings but different sets of advanced and defensive buildings. In addition, each nation has a special ability—usually a unique unit, but the USA gets free para-drops of GIs every few minutes and France can build a defensive super-gun, the Grand Cannon. Even the basic buildings produce different sets of mobile units for the Soviet and Allied factions. To build more advanced units one must first construct more advanced buildings. The advanced and defensive buildings can only be constructed if specific basic buildings are present.
gmaes balance
Like previous Command & Conquer games, the two factions in Red Alert 2 have unique armies with their own strengths and weaknesses. To achieve victory, a player must play to their faction's strengths and exploit the other faction's weaknesses.
In general, the Soviet faction (group of nations) is superior in the early game and in land wars because of their more powerful tanks, while the Allied faction is better in the late game with more advanced units, in naval wars, and on large maps. In particular, the Soviets are better for early game rushes, which are very common in online games.
Allied Advantages
The Allied forces largely focus on speed and military intelligence. By building a specific structure (the Spy Satellite Uplink), the Allied player is able to see all of the activity on the map. Or, to prevent an opponent from seeing what is occurring at his or her base (Gap generator), the player can build a different structure which shrouds a base from view. Most Allied units also feature increased mobility, being much quicker than their Soviet counterparts and allowing for quick raids. Versatility is also a key part, as the base GI infantry can bunker himself to deploy a more powerful gun, while the "IFV" unit takes on the characteristics and weaponry of whatever unit is inside it. Units like the "Mirage Tank" and "Spy" facilitate guerrilla tactics, as the tank can disguise itself as a tree when not moving, and the Spy can enter enemy structures to steal money, gain technology, or turn off the opponent's power supply for a brief period of time. The Allies also have the ability to build Harrier jets, which can mount quick attack on enemies before escaping; and the ability to create "Rocketeer" units—flying infantry. In addition to this, the Allied mining truck, the "Chrono Miner", can teleport back to drop off its load of ore, halving its travel time, and making resource collection much more efficient.
Soviet Advantages
Soviet forces place emphasis on power and numbers on the battlefield. Their basic tank, the "Rhino", is more expensive than the Allies' "Grizzly", but has heavier armor and more potent weapons. The basic Soviet infantryman, the "Conscript", is only half the cost of the Allied "GI", and can be produced much more quickly. In addition to this, the "Flak Trooper" and "Tesla Trooper" units can easily destroy aircraft and tanks respectively. Speeding up production further is the "Cloning Vats", which provide the player with a copy of every infantry unit produced. Though the Soviets lack the quick striking power of Allied Rocketeers or Harrier jets, they are able to field the "Apocalypse Tank", the most powerful tank unit; and the "Kirov Airship", a massive airship which is capable of carpet bombing an area. Many high-level Soviet units also are able to auto-repair themselves. Also, the Soviet player can construct nuclear power plants, which completely fill the power meter; and can field "War Miners" which, while lacking the teleportation abilities of the Chrono Miner, sport a powerful gun and carry twice the amount of ore.
Mods/Maps
Red Alert 2 is a popular game for modding. Hidden within the ra2.mix (ra2.mix\local.mix\rule*.ini) is a configuration file called rules.ini. This file can be extracted using a tool called the XCC mixer and edited after extraction. The rules.ini is constructed in such a way that it is very easy to modify; no programming skills are required. There are tags which refer to the strength of a unit, such as its hit points, which can be modified with the program.
It is also possible to create whole new units. There are other .ini files, such as the art.ini and ai.ini, which allow for further modification, like adding a cameo to one's units and making the AI use them.
FinalAlert is a map editor for Red Alert 2 that went through numerous revisions. First came FinalAlert, developed independently by Wagner. It was later replaced by FinalAlert 2, a collaboration between Wagner and Westwood Studios, which was in turn upgraded to FinalAlert 2 Yuri's Revenge to allow support for Yuri's Revenge—this version was still an official utility. Wagner later released a tweaked version which had some bug fixes and included tunnels–leftover code from Tiberian Sun—although this version was no longer classed as an official Westwood utility. A number of well made singleplayer missions, complete with storylines, were written for both Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge by fans using FinalAlert.
XCC WOL IRC Server (XWIS)
In 2005, control of online play for Red Alert 2, and a number of older C&C games was passed over from EA to XWIS, a well-established community run server that now organizes the ladder, and with the help of a community reporting scheme, bans cheaters. The server is sponsored by the EA Germany Community Team.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert series
This is the series which Red Alert 2 is in. The series was established in 1996 with the release of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Red Alert 2 takes place 20 years later, continuing from the Allied ending where the Soviets were defeated by the Allies and peace was restored.
Following Red Alert 2 in the series is Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, released in 2001. The basis of this story is Yuri evading intelligence organizations around the world to set up his own secret army. A string of powerful mind control machines are set up across the world ready to be initiated. A time machine must be used to go back in time and stop the madman's conquest.
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series
The Tiberian series was originally intended by Westwood Studios to be a series of games which take place 50 years after the Allied ending of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. On the bonus DVD of the Command & Conquer: The First Decade compilation pack however, the development team of Red Alert 2 claimed that the Tiberium and Red Alert gmaes existed as separate universes. A year later, Electronic Arts Los Angeles would publish a featured document on the official C&C website around the time the third gmaes of the Tiberian series (Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars) was released, which was titled "Kane's Dossier".In this document, a direct in-universe reference to Kane's appearances in the era of the original Red Alert gmaes is made, linking the first Red Alert gmaes to the Tiberian series once again.
Controversy
Westwood found itself in a storm of controversy regarding Red Alert 2 after the events of September 11, due to the contents of both the game and its packaging, despite the fact that Red Alert 2 was released before the attack on the World Trade Center. In the first mission of the Soviet campaign, the player is required to destroy the Pentagon, and in a later mission, capture the Allied Battle Lab at the base of the twin towers of the World Trade Center; once the Battle Lab is captured, a Psychic Beacon is built between the twin towers and the player must then defend the Psychic Beacon for a given amount of time to complete the level. Destroying the World Trade Center towers (or garrisoning Conscripts in them) gives the player bonus crates. In addition, the original packaging for Red Alert 2 had a hinged cover that would open to show a scene of New York City under attack by Soviet forces. In the middle of the box, the twin towers were shown with a plane flying near them, and the words "The Invasion has begun" over them. Westwood immediately pulled from stores all remaining copies of Red Alert 2 in the original packaging, and retooled the box art before reissuing the gmaes . None of the gmaes 's content was changed, except for the names of famous landmarks.
Later versions of the game (after patch) would rename the World Trade Center and other famous landmarks (Arc de Triomphe for one) to more generic names (Arch of Winning for example). This has, ironically, caused a bit of controversy among fans who prefer the real names; fan made patches are available to restore the original authentic names. Later versions of the game also replace a portion of the Intro movie, removing the part of the scene in which the statue of Liberty's head is destroyed by a missile, instead showing it already headless. The intro in "The First Decade" release of Red Alert 2 is identical to the original, including the destruction of the statue of Liberty.
Original soundtrack
The Red Alert 2 soundtrack was composed by long-time Command & Conquer collaborator Frank Klepacki.
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