Until fairly recently, there were only two Command & Conquer titles that I'd owned, despite enjoying them a fair bit. The original, naturally, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert, both for the PlayStation. It'd be close to two decades before I'd gotten PC versions of them, and others, in The First Decade collection.
For this entry, I wanted to go and check out the PlayStation port before the PC version, mostly because I didn't do so for C&C and really ought to have done so. It's time to correct that mistake with Red Alert, and a version that I've not played this Millennium.
Alfred Einstein has gone back in time and killed Adolf Hitler, changing history as we know it. Has he done so for the better? What world do we now live in? Red Alert shows that we'll still find reasons to go to war.
Fun Times
The GDI and Brotherhood of Nod don't yet exist in this timeline, and so our main choice this time around is between the Allies and the Soviets. Stalin is the recognisable figure of the bunch, but the fancy computer screen behind him makes it quite clear that Red Alert is not striving for realism here. That's a given after a time travelling Einstein killed Hitler, really...
Gameplay is much the same as the first game, with the need to juggle power with money in order to train enough troops to swing the battle in your favour. Or it would be, had the first Soviet mission not been an exercise in having fun with aircraft and explosive barrels instead.
After a couple of entry missions on the PlayStation, it was off to compare on the PC.
Frustrations
I'm aware you can't really compare when there aren't any PlayStation screenshots to compare it to, but just imagine the screen above zoomed in 200% with a transparent sidebar and you're more or less there. On the PC, it looks like that shown above. Only it doesn't. Not in motion, anyway.
My experience with the PC version wasn't hellish, but it wasn't fun. Super fast scrolling, hella zoomed out views, a highly detailed mess of pixels, and then, upon completing my mission, it didn't know what to do with itself and sort of crashed, sort of didn't, but definitely couldn't manage to display the results screen correctly.
Here I was, with two very different experiences, and as it stood the PlayStation port of a real-time strategy game was better than its PC original - with controller inputs, no less. That shouldn't be the case. I could already see how the PC version is better, but it sure didn't feel it from where I was sat.
But then I remembered about some resourceful fans...
Further Fun Times
Enter OpenRA, a project to recreate Red Alert up to more modern standards. Playable, streamlined standards. With Red Alert being freeware these days, why not see what you could do with it, I suppose?
After detecting and installing content from my disc and tweaking a few settings to my liking, I was up and running with a version of Red Alert that is both faithful, functional, and fun.
It's not perfect, but with detailed mission info and the original briefing videos, combined with the ease of use of just playing whatever mission you want without having to make any progress through the story or having to look up passwords, then OpenRA is definitely worth checking out.
As for the actual game itself, Red Alert builds upon what worked for Command & Conquer, introducing new structures and troops to fill the holes in the original, as well as fit the theme - I'm looking at you, Tesla Coils and Guard Dogs.
The missions certainly start off with the assumption that you know a fair bit about the way these games play, forgoing the 'build a simple base' type intros from C&C and even Warcraft II, instead choosing to drop you into the action and mixing things up. Destroying entire villages, defending your base, then chasing down and killing a spy within a time limit is not the kind of mission structure you'd perhaps expect, but that's what you get.
Incidentally, I've no goddamn idea what I'm doing on that spy mission. I'm pretty good at getting dogs killed though.
The Allied and Soviet forces have clearer differences in units in this game, with the Allies favouring cheap, nippy units, and the Soviets opting for the sturdier, heavier, more defensive choices. If you're lacking options in one area, like naval warfare, you're probably swimming in options in another field of war.
Still, if you're able to build umpteen of the same unit quick enough for you to care, you can just gather you immense army and play the numbers game against anything you come across, just like all C&C missions eventually descend to.
Well, not all...
Final Word
I didn't play as much Red Alert as I thought I would, partly owing to the problems I had, and my settings aren't quite comfortable in OpenRA, and I'd like to be able to sit back and play the missions as a story, and not as a list, but they're minor quibbles.
Red Alert, both as a game and a series, builds upon Command & Conquer before it and gives you a load more toys to play with, maps to play on, and objectives to play towards. There's just more stuff, which seems to be why this series gets so many expansions and attention. If there's not enough single player stuff for you, then setting up a match against some bots or some humans should give you plenty to do too.
At the back of my mind, though, I've got the sense that I won't see a lot of this stuff. To my recollection, I didn't complete Red Alert as a kid. I can't remember where the plot goes. I can't even remember what the Allies look like.
Both Red Alert and C&C have stories, but they're presented differently. It's more cinematic in Red Alert, I think. It's not a bad thing, but sometimes I just want to take things slowly and build a base for a while before getting on with the mission, rather than get badgered by a countdown timer. Sometimes we don't get that luxury, sure, but this is a real-time strategy game, not necessarily a top-down action title. It arguably forgets that.
Then again, there were special missions and covert ops type things with the first game, so who cares what I've got to say, eh? If you enjoy the series, you probably enjoy Red Alert. Maybe more than the vanilla titles, maybe less so. If you enjoy the genre and somehow haven't played either title yet, then get to it.
If you have never come across Command & Conquer, of these two, I'd probably start with C&C. You can wait for Red Alert until you get the gist of things because you'll need to bring your A-game to this one. At the end of the day, just have a look at it. It's entertainment. Don't turn that down.
Fun Facts
As if you needed further proof that Red Alert didn't take itself too seriously, expansions included missions that task you with defeating giant tank-sized ants.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert, developed by Westwood Studios, first released in 1996.
Versions played: C&C: Red Alert, PlayStation, 1997.
C&C: The First Decade, PC, 2006.
OpenRA, PC, 2007.