Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy video game in the Command & Conquer franchise, developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1996. The second game to bear the Command & Conquer title, Red Alert is the prequel to the original Command & Conquer of 1995, and takes place in the alternate early history of Command & Conquer when Allied Forces battle an aggressive Soviet Union for control over the European mainland.
It was initially available for PC (MS-DOS and Windows 95 versions included in one package) and was subsequently ported to PlayStation. The PlayStation version was also re-released as a download on the PlayStation Network for PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3, but has since become delisted.PSN Update at Three Speech On August 31, 2008, Electronic Arts, who acquired Westwood Studios in 1998, rendered Command & Conquer: Red Alert freeware.
Widely considered one of the greatest games ever made, Red Alert was praised for its engaging gameplay, alternate history setting, and competitive multiplayer. The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, released on June 5, 2020, through the services Origin and Steam, contains a graphically rebuilt Red Alert, the expansions Counterstrike and The Aftermath, additional missions and briefing videos that were exclusive to the PlayStation's Retaliation port, and an unlockable gallery of unused and "making-of" materials.
Gameplay Like Tiberian Dawn, the game has split routes for most missions. The objective stays the same but the map layout differs. The single-player campaign is complemented by live-action cinematic sequences.
Players can queue commands, create unit groups that can be selected by a number key, and control numerous units at a time.
Players mine resources (consisting of ores and gems, as the Tiberium mineral in the regular C&C series has not yet arrived on Earth), which are processed into credits to make in-game purchases including building structures, produce vehicles, training troops, and making repairs. Rare gems are worth significantly more credits, but unlike ores, they do not regenerate within the map. Players can build additional ore refineries and ore trucks to mine these resources faster; however, excess unspent credits require storage in special 'ore silos' that can be constructed. Resource management, including acquiring ore quickly to build up one's own forces as well as denial of ore to opponents, is often key to victory.
While building a base, a player has to construct power plants to keep up with the growing demands of electricity, otherwise high-powered installations such as radar and Tesla Coils will not function; as such, power plants are often the first to be targeted in a base attack. An opponent's critical damaged structures can be captured with the use of engineers, allowing the player to produce units from that structure even if not part of one's own faction (i.e. if an Allied player captures a Soviet war factory, they can produce Soviet units like the Mammoth Tank).
In addition to the single-player campaign and a multiplayer mode, Red Alert includes a map editor and the bonus software Westwood Chat.
Factions The game features two factions with differing styles of play. Red Alert requires each player to use their side's strengths in order to compensate for their weaknesses, in contrast to games such as Total Annihilation or Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, in which both sides have units with similar abilities and rely on outnumbering or possessing a better-balanced force than their opponent.
The Soviets' vehicles tend to be more durable and powerful than Allied vehicles, but are usually slower-moving and more expensive. The Soviets also have superior defensive capabilities against ground attacks, with Flame Towers (guard towers outfitted with heavy flamethrowers) and weaponized Tesla coils, with the latter being able to destroy most Allied armour in 1-2 hits, although it has very high power consumption and cannot function without a sufficient and continuous supply of electricity. The Soviets' main weakness is at sea; their only offensive naval unit is the submarine (produced in the submarine pen), which only exists to counter Allied warships and gain intelligence. It is normally invisible except when surfacing to attack when it is vulnerable to destroyers and gunboats. They also have a wide selection of air units for assault; the Yak-9 plane armed with machine guns for strafing infantry and light structures, MiG-23 strike fighter (though erroneously depicted as a MiG-29 in cut-scenes) whose missiles are suited for heavily armored vehicles and buildings, and Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship whose YakB rotary gun is effective against light and heavy targets; the unprotected Yak-9 and MiG are designed for hit-and-run attacks as they release their payload all at once, while the armored Hind can remain in combat longer and unleashes its firepower more gradually. In addition, the Soviets also have access to periodic map revelation through spy planes, and can deploy infantry by air through paratroopers. In the latter half of the Soviet campaign (but not in multiplayer/skirmish mode), they also have access to periodic airstrikes from Badger bombers. The Soviets' secret weapon is the Iron Curtain, a device that renders a selected unit invulnerable to attacks for a short period of time. The Soviet 'tank rush' was a popular strategy online, involving building many heavy tanks and overwhelming the opponent with sheer numbers.
The Allies' forces are generally cheaper, faster to build and more agile. Their infantry can survive longer with good use of their Medic unit. The Allies' strongest tank (the Medium Tank) is weaker in a one-on-one engagement against the Soviets' starting tank (the Heavy Tank), but it is also slightly faster and less expensive. The Allies also have anti-tank minelayers to counter superior Soviet armour. The Allies have only one air unit, the anti-tank AH-64 Apache attack helicopter (erroneously called 'Longbow' despite lacking the distinctive FCR of the same name), compared to three Soviet air units; however, the Allies also have anti-aircraft guns (more powerful but shorter-ranged than Soviet Surface to Air Missiles). Allied defenses against ground assaults — pillboxes and turret emplacements — are less powerful than the Soviets' Tesla Coil, but cheaper and better protected while also less dependent on electricity. On maps with water, Allies possess a major advantage in naval power thanks to the Destroyer, a versatile medium-sized warship armed with guided missiles capable of engaging all targets on land, sea and air, and the Cruiser (erroneously depicted as an Iowa-class battleship in cut-scenes), a large warship for shore bombardment equipped with turret-mounted 8-inch naval guns giving it the longest-ranged and most powerful surface-to-surface attack in the game. The Allies also possess several other tools of subterfuge and military intelligence, such as spies to gain information on or disable enemy facilities, and thieves for stealing enemy resources, hiding their own units and structures from detection via the 'gap generator' (a special tower outfitted with electronic warfare equipment, which creates a "fog of war" preventing enemy players from being able to see the tower or anything else in a large radius around itself), and revealing the whole game map with a prototype GPS satellite. The Allies' secret weapon is the Chronosphere, which temporarily teleports a selected unit to another part of the map.
In online play and computer skirmish, both Allied and Soviet forces have access to the transport helicopters and the missile silo, which is not available to either side in single-player mode (though missile silos are found in some Soviet bases in the latter half of the Allied campaign). In online play and computer skirmishes, the Soviets have access to two of the Allied side's infantry: the Rocket Soldier (for anti-air and anti-tank fighting) and Tanya, a commando capable of easily killing infantry and destroying structures with demolition charges.
Unlike the standard Allied/Soviet factions in the single-player campaigns, in multiplayer/skirmish, players choose a particular country to play as, each with its own unique advantage over the others. Allied countries consist of Germany (greater firepower), England (better durability) and France (faster rate of fire), while Soviet countries consist of Russia (lower costs) and Ukraine (faster movement speed).
Plot Command & Conquer: Red Alert takes place in a parallel universe. At the Trinity Site in New Mexico in 1946, Albert Einstein prepares to travel back in time. He activates his experimental time machine and returns to Landsberg, Germany, on December 20, 1924, where he meets Adolf Hitler just after the latter's release from Landsberg Prison. Following a brief conversation between the two, Einstein shakes Hitler's hand, which erases the latter from the timeline.
Hitler's death prevents him from rising to power as leader of Nazi Germany, effectively creating a new timeline. Without Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union (USSR) grows powerful under the rule of Joseph Stalin. The USSR seizes land from China and then invades Eastern Europe, to achieve Joseph Stalin's vision of a Soviet Union stretching across the entire Eurasian landmass. In response, the countries of Western Europe (including an already-rearmed Germany) form the Allied Nations and start a war against the invading Soviet Army. Over the course of the game's story, the Allies and Soviets fight for control over the European mainland in an alternate World War II: Allied ending: Following the siege of Moscow, an Allied platoon discovers Stalin buried alive in the rubble of the Kremlin. As they begin attempting to remove the debris from the fallen Soviet leader, General Stavros unexpectedly enters the room and stops them. He "convinces" them that they saw nothing and orders them to leave the premises. Stavros then stuffs a handkerchief into Stalin's mouth before covering his head with a large stone and walking away. Soviet ending: As the Soviets celebrate their victory at the newly captured Buckingham Palace, Stalin commends the Commander (the player), but is poisoned by Nadia, who guns him down as the poison overcomes his body. Following Stalin's death, Nadia tells the Commander that the Soviet Union is now under the rule of the Brotherhood of Nod, who plan to return to the shadows again and reemerge in the 1990s, leaving the player as the puppet ruler of the USSR, ready to do the Brotherhood of Nod bidding for "the foreseeable future". She is betrayed and shot in the back by Kane, who reveals to "Comrade Chairman" that he is the true mastermind.
Connection to the Tiberian games
Westwood Studios designed Command & Conquer: Red Alert to be the prequel of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, and by proxy of the Tiberian series as a whole.