Review by: Brian Clair

I had always wondered what the fascination was with Red Alert. It had to have been the most anticipated game of the year and, having never played the original, I just couldn’t figure out why it was so popular. Well, having played the game for about a week, now I know. Combined with an intriguing storyline, Red Alert must be the most tactically involving military game this year. While Microsoft’s Close Combat provided a world of pure strategy and tactics, Red Alert goes one step further providing the ability to not only command but to create.

The game starts off in the mid-1940′s, in a secret laboratory located in New Mexico. At this time the allies have nearly won World War II but at the cost of millions of lives around the globe. One scientist decides to change things – to put the wrongs right by eliminating the man who started it all. Using a top secret time shifting device the man travels back to the late 1920′s where a young Adolf Hitler is just getting out of a class. Calling to Hitler the man extends his hand and reluctantly Hitler does the same – it’s the last action Hitler ever takes. Returning to his own time the scientist wonders what has changed – what will change…

What changed was not only the fact that Hitler and the Nazi’s never rose to power but that a far more evil man conquered nearly the whole of Europe. Under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, a man who sent over 8 million of his own people to die in Siberia, the Soviets have swept through Europe – forcing the allies into a fast retreat. Now the only thing standing to oppose Stalin’s forces is you.

Red Alert allows you to choose which side you will fight for in the campaign ahead – the Soviet’s or the Allies. Each will lead you down a long string of dangerous missions. Either way you will command forces of land, sea, and air to achieve your objectives in battles that never should have taken place. The Cold War hasn’t been cold for a very long time and lucky for you that nukes don’t exist in this world (or no one is dumb enough to use them). You begin a standard mission by establishing a base of operations. This means you’ll need ore to build things, power to run things, and defenses. Luckily for you technology is not a problem.

Both sides can build a certain set of basic buildings: construction yards (let you build other things), power plants, ore refineries, barracks (for training troops), war factories (lets you build tanks, mind layers, etc), naval yards, etc. There are more buildings than I could possibly list here but most of them allow you to then construct military units like: riflemen, light tanks, rangers, APC’s, engineer’s, and much more. Once you’ve constructed your base and defenses, it’s time to achieve your mission objectives. This usually means hunting down Soviet forces and destroying them. Of course, the Soviet’s have got truly vicious defensive weapons and no battle against them is easy. Suffice it to say that if you like strategy, military tactics, or liked the original game, you will love Red Alert.