Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
With the release of the third installment of the Red Alert series, Command & Conquer returns to the roots of what made the game series so entertaining – no more terrorists, no alien ore – just Soviets, Allies and a little something more.
On the verge of defeat and the country in chaos, the Soviets employ a time machine to give themselves an advantage. They travel back in time and extinguish Albert Einstein. They return to their present to discover that their plan worked and they are once again holding their own against the Allies. However, they have also unintentionally unleashed a new enemy – the technologically super advanced Empire of the Sun. To make matters worse, wiping out Einstein wiped out all nuclear capability.
Apparently, Electronic Arts didn’t learn its lesson from the Spore DRM debacle. Once again, Mac users find themselves limited to installing the game on five different computers or on the same computer five times before they have to call EA and convince them that they’re on the up and up. For me, this usually wouldn’t be an issue but a catastrophic crash of the game required reinstallation. Whether this reduced my four installs to three, I have no idea. However, there is a silver lining here in that players do not have to leave the DVD-ROM in the drive to play the game.
As usual, the cut scenes and game interludes feature an all-star cast performing B-movie quality acting. Watching professionals such as George Takei take part in these scenes is very entertaining. I’m not complaining, I consider this part of the game series a tradition.
Before purchasing this title, I played the Windows demo. The small graphical details are handled much better on the Windows side and the tutorial in the actual game is more extensive.
Speaking of the tutorial, it requires the middle mouse button and the keyboard. I needed help using the middle mouse button. KeyStrokes and SwitchXS will work with the game in windowed mode which can be accessed by pressing Command + Return on the physical keyboard. Of course, if your onscreen keyboard is not on the window, pointing to it will cause the battlefield to scroll.
Speaking of the graphics, the water effects are impressive. Instead of different colored terrain, the water has depth and resembles a clean swimming pool. The water effects were one of the qualities that attracted me to the game. However, during a water battle, the sunken vehicles can be a bit distracting before they fade away. All of the graphics are great – the animations, explosions, electrical arcs and terrain destruction are eye-catching. I was happy to see that when you garrison a building, barricades appear around the building.
There are many features here that add to the fun of the game. Weapons that suppress electrical activity, weapons that electrify the water surrounding a vehicle, amphibious vehicles, dual-mode vehicles – especially the Empire with vehicles that transform into robots, special abilities unique to each faction and their vehicles and some super weapons that reek of coolness. Some of my favorites include an anti-air vehicle that turns into an anti-personal vehicle when a soldier garrisons inside of it. Each faction also features Top Secret Protocols that become available as you play each campaign scenario. The Soviets have some impressive ones like sucking enemy vehicles into orbit and throwing space junk at any target. Watching three Sputnik satellites crash into a Barracks gave me a good laugh. The Allies’ Air Strike is helpful and the Empire’s Final Squadron can be very effective.
Gameplay is diverse, challenging and entertaining. There are many ways to approach accomplishing the goals of your missions. Fans of RTS games will find a familiar game mechanic with a few cool features that make the game shine. I hate micromanaging and so far this game hasn’t made me do that. I think newcomers to the RTS genre might enjoy this one too.
The game offers some great multiplayer options, which this reviewer did not explore. In addition to text chat during the game, there is VOIP capability as well. The game itself acts like an instant messenger alerting you when someone is looking for a co-op game or alerting others when you’re looking for one. You can play co-op during the campaigns themselves. In single player mode you are provided with a Co-Commander controlled by the game’s AI that you can manage or ignore as you see fit, but they can be very helpful. When you play co-op, your partner becomes the Co-Commander.
The game utilizes mouse movements, single left clicks, single right clicks and clicking and dragging. While the game can make use of the middle mouse button and the keyboard, outside of the tutorial, and entering a name for your profile, they aren’t really necessary.
It took me a little while to get back into the spirit of RTS games, but now that I have, I’m having a lot of fun with Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. However, fair warning, I couldn’t finish the game because level 8 of the Empire of the Sun campaign is very difficult.
The game is available on Mac OS X and Windows.
Macintosh System Requirements:
OS: Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard or higher
CPU: Intel Core Duo or faster (Note: Game will not run on a PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac/PowerMac)
RAM: 1 GB
Hard Drive: at least 10 GB of free space
Video: Nvidia (7300 or better) or ATI (X1600 or better) (Note: Only Intel Core Duo Macs with standard ATI or NVidia cards are supported)
Multiplayer: 2 to 6 players with optional voice support, network or Internet connection required (Cable, DSL, or faster connection)
Internet connection required for product activation.
Note: While you will be able to play Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 with the specifications above, play experience may improve if you have additional RAM above the requirement.
Windows System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista (32-bit)
CPU: XP: 2.0 GHz (Intel Pentium 4; AMD Athlon 2000+; Multiple Cores) / Vista: 2.2 GHz (Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 2200+/Multiple Cores)
RAM: 512 MB for Windows XP; 1 GB for Vista
Hard Drive: 6 GB / 12GB for EA Link
DVD Drive: 8x Speed
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 6800, ATI Radeon X1800 or higher end DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible (Creative Sound Blaster Audigy cards require a Intel P4 2.6 GHz or similar under Vista, Yamaha Xwave-512 not supported)
Multiplayer: 512Kbps or faster Internet connection
Input: Keyboard, mouse
Philip K Jordan
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