Red Alert 3 Co-Op Review

Review System(s): XBox 360, PC

Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo Monday 05th of January 2009 12:03 PM

Red Alert and Red Alert 2 were always some of my favorite RTS games on the PC. Something about the over the top nature of them just stuck with me. Red Alert 3 continues the tradition of it's predecessors. Cut scenes filled with cheesy Hollywood acting, a plethora of units to choose from, and a unique style campaign for each faction. There's something very special about this Red Alert though, and I'm not talking about the plethora of "babes" the game promotes...no this Red Alert features a game that is co-op throughout the entire game. When we talked with the Red Alert 3's Producer Greg Kasavin we were told how co-op can create a game that's more diverse with deeper missions. But do deeper missions mean more strategy?

I'll be honest, I've had a falling out with RTS games. While games like Company of Heroes held my interest through it's entirety, most recent RTS games like Supreme Commander and Universe at War, I simply couldn't last past a few missions. The biggest reason for this for me was the constant micromanagement of resources. Thankfully while Red Alert 3 does require base building and an influx of cash, it's a simple as building a refinery to bring in the benjamins. After that you can begin to crank out tanks and troops till your heart's content.

Yes, the game even comes with a "Girls of Red Alert 3" Poster

There's plenty of variety across the game's three campaigns; Soviet, Allied and Empire of the Sun. Along with completely unique units and buildings per faction, each has their own global special attacks like a space magnet, freeze ray and aerial bombardments. There's no cookie cutter units here, no string of "machine gun dudes" and "bigger machine gun dudes", after all having an "alternate history story" allows for some freedom. Instead we have war bears, Transformer like vehicles, vindicators, and psychic Japanese school girls. In between and during every mission you'll be greeted by FMV style sequences filled with famous actors, actresses and actresses with cleavage all adding to the game's style.

So the content is good, but what about the co-op?

Page 1 Page 2

Tags: xbox 360 pc 2 player co-op red alert reviews

Download Red Alert For Free in Preparation for Red Alert 3

Electronic Arts has decided to promote the release of the upcoming co-op-able 360 and PC RTS Red Alert 3 by making the original (Read More)

Red Alert 3 Co-Op Preview at IGN

Merely seeing the words Red Alert kicks off the Hell March theme in my head. Red Alert 2 has always been one of my all tim(Read More)

The Next Volley in the DRM Wars: Red Alert 3?

DRM, for all sorts of media, is a bit of a mess right now, and that's putting it delicately. How many times can you move t(Read More)

Reader Comments

rafoca at 12:26 PM on 1.5.2009

Great review! I may buy this game in the future for xbox 360.

This game is the first rts that allows full co-op mode, but I think Halo Wars will beat it :p

pheriannath at 01:46 PM on 1.5.2009

My biggest gripe about the game (aside from me sucking at RTS games in general) was that if you lose certain buildings during the campaign, you're not allowed to rebuild them.

roland at 11:04 PM on 1.5.2009

Did you try any of the skirmishes out? Even though I've looked forward to the campaign for this, for me RTS games always hold their lasting appeal with skirmishes (preferably 2 or 3 human vs AI).

bapenguin at 01:22 PM on 1.6.2009

Honestly there's so much campaign there, we didn't play the skirmishes.

I think total we beat about 8 missions and that took us about 10 hours. And there's 24 missions total (8 per faction)

I tried a few missions solo and they took me almost an hour each as well.

biosc1 at 05:17 PM on 1.6.2009

Dang...I was really looking forward to this game, but I just can't justify it after purchasing Company of Heroes, Warhammer RTS's and Supreme Commander.

I may break eventually when it becomes available on Steam, though.

Ghengis at 08:04 AM on 1.7.2009

I think some of you guys must not be long-time C&C fans -- the *point* of the campaign is that sometimes they take the "RTS Engine" part and make little puzzle games out of it.

The "Tanya with spies" mission you were talking about was one of those. They weren't trying to make it "open world" or encourage you to "think outside the box", any more than you can "think outside the box" in Sudoku. There was one right answer, one path you can viably take, and the point of the mission was to find that path. If you don't like that kind of mission, fine, use a walkthrough or something, but it's hardly a design flaw.

bapenguin at 08:11 AM on 1.7.2009

The problem is, that's not completely true anymore. In fact, because of the co-op aspect there were several solutions to certain situations, while other ones found us fumbling to find the right "puzzle piece." It all just feels very artificial.

Total Comments: 7

CoG Network Members Click to comment: