Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Game balance

Like previous Command & Conquer games, the two factions in Red Alert 2 have unique armies with their own strengths and weaknesses. To achieve victory, a player must play to their faction's strengths and exploit the other faction's weaknesses. The factions follow the same trend in the previous title.

Soviet vehicles tend to be more durable and have heavier firepower than their Allied counterparts. However, they are also more expensive to build and are slower. The Soviet infantry, on the other hand, are inferior to Allied infantry.

Also, the Soviet faction is superior in the early game and in land wars because of their very powerful and advanced tanks, while the Allied faction is better in the late game with more advanced units, such as those used in naval warfare. In particular, the Soviets are better for early game rushes, which are very common in online games.^[3]

Single-player

A small Allied base at the beginning of a game. The player is preparing to place a "Pillbox" defensive structure.

In single-player mode, the player can either compete in one of three campaigns or compete in Skirmish mode where the battle rules and settings can be customized.

Red Alert 2 contains three campaigns. Boot Camp, Allied, and Soviet. Each campaign is distinct in its own way. Boot Camp is simply a tutorial campaign consisting of two missions in which the player is introduced to the fundamentals of the game with the use of Allied forces. If played, Boot Camp leads into Allied Campaign chronologically. Allied and Soviet campaigns are the two main campaigns of the game, each consisting of twelve missions in which the player faces off against one or more computer-controlled opponents. In some missions, the objective is simply to defeat all opposing forces in the area; other missions have more specific objectives, such as capturing or destroying a particular enemy structure or defending a particular structure of the player's own from enemy attacks. While fundamentally different in story and units, both Campaigns are structured similarly. Both begin with the player operating a limited base or otherwise a Mobile Construction Unit to start from scratch plus a platoon of certain units, but in a few missions construction is not required.

Skirmish mode is essentially the free-for-all multiplayer mode played against computer-controlled opponents. The player chooses a map against as many players the map supports. The player can also change settings such as the number of starting units, the monetary levels at the beginning, game speeds and the availability of superweapons. There are no special objectives, just eliminate all enemies units and structures.

Multiplayer

Red Alert 2 includes two different multi-player modes. One, LAN allows the player to play alongside friends and others without the use of an internet connection. The other, Online Play allows the player to play across the internet and against players from across the globe. LAN play allows for only Skirmish Mode that is available in single-player. Online play allows for tournaments, private games, public games, ladder ranking games and also contains a chat system. In 2005, control of online play for Red Alert 2 and a number of older C&C games was passed over from EA to XWIS, a community-run server.

Setting

Like previous Command & Conquer real-time strategy games, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 contains two separate campaigns with distinct story lines, one for each playable faction.

Red Alert 2 is set in the same alternative history universe as Red Alert in which Adolf Hitler was removed from history. With Hitler gone, the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin attempted to conquer Europe but was defeated by the Allied nations and their military destroyed. Fearing that a regime change would cause mass unrest in the Soviet Union, the victorious Allies installed Alexander Romanov, a distant relative of Tsar Nicholas II, as the puppet Soviet Premier. Romanov acquiesces to the Allies' demands at first, though he builds up the Soviet military for "defense purposes" – a cover for an intended invasion of the United States. The game's story line starts off in 1972, with the United States Armed Forces caught completely off guard by the sudden massive Soviet invasion of the United States, with Soviet aircraft, naval vessels, amphibious forces, and paratroopers coming in on both the East Coast and West Coast and with the majority of Soviet ground forces coming in through Mexico, starting World War III. The U.S. attempts to retaliate with the use of nuclear missiles, but Yuri, leader of the Soviet Psychic Corps and Premier Romanov's top advisor, uses his mind control to manipulate the personnel charged with launching the warheads and leaves them to explode in their silos. Within hours, the U.S. is overrun with Soviet Army troops. The player either takes the role of an American Commander, tasked by General Ben Garville with defending the United States, or a Soviet Commander leading the invasion for Premier Romanov.

Blue: playable Allied nations
Red: playable Soviet nations

Allied campaign

The Allied Commander is sent to New York City with a special forces team led by Special Agent Tanya Adams to repel a Soviet invasion there and then to Colorado Springs to liberate the Air Force Academy and the air base there. As they return victorious, they discover that a Soviet mind control device known as the Psychic Beacon has been deployed in Washington, D.C., forcing the president and General Carville to surrender. The Commander frees them from control and the government goes into exile in Canada.

When the Soviets put another psychic device in Chicago, the Psychic Amplifier, which could control the whole country, the Allies free the city from their Canadian base by destroying the Amplifier. The Soviet chief commander, General Vladimir, retaliates by detonating a nuclear missile in the city. Alarmed, the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom agree to help the U.S. if they disarm the Soviet nuclear missile silos threatening them in Belarus which the Commander and Tanya handle at the behest of the president. Now bolstered by additional men and equipment, the U.S. military is able to launch an amphibious assault on Soviet-occupied Washington, D.C. and recapture the city. After defending Pearl Harbor from Soviet assault, the Allied forces liberate St. Louis and all of the Mississippi River south of the city from psychic control and thwart Soviet attempts to replicate the Allied prism technology that creates massive energy beams to destroy units.

After General Carville tasks the Commander to defend Albert Einstein's laboratory which holds a prototype Chronosphere which can teleport troops anywhere in the world, he is killed by a Soviet suicide bomber. Einstein determines the best place to build the Chronosphere is on a tiny island in the Florida Keys, not far from Soviet Cuba. The Allies use the Chronosphere's teleportation capabilities to take an Allied strike team to Moscow where they successfully destroy the defenses around the Kremlin and teleport in a strike team lead by Tanya that captures Premier Romanov, leading to the Soviet's surrender.

Soviet campaign

Premier Alexander Romanov briefs the Commander about the upcoming Soviet invasion of the United States. The Commander leads an invasion into Washington, D.C. and destroys the Pentagon. Another Soviet invasion is launched into Florida to destroy a U.S. fleet which was threatening the Soviet invasion of East Coast. Despite this, the Soviet chief commander, General Vladimir, is credited with the success of those campaigns. While Vladimir is back in Moscow, Romanov's top advisor, Yuri, recommends proving his worth by taking control of New York City using a Psychic Beacon. When Allied forces from South Korea launch an amphibious attack on Vladivostok, the Commander successfully repels the Allies, leading Germany and France to send troops to the German-Polish border to defend from Soviet aggression. The Commander takes advantage of this by conquering Paris, using the Eiffel Tower as a massive Tesla coil to destroy the city. With this, the European Allies are forced to withdraw their support for the United States.

In the meantime, Yuri has been using his psychic abilities to control Romanov, who gives him control of the military, much to the disgust of General Vladimir. Yuri dismisses Vladimir and tasks the Commander with establishing a base on the Hawaiian Islands. When the Allies try to use their Chronosphere to attack a Soviet research facility in the Ural Mountains, the Commander successfully defends the facility. Shortly afterwards, Yuri tells the Commander that Vladimir killed Romanov. Declaring Vladimir a traitor and a "nonperson", Yuri orders the Commander to capture Vladimir in the White House. After Vladimir's capture, the Commander successfully captures the U.S. president and destroys the Allied superweapon, a weather control device capable of creating powerful thunderstorms.

Impressed by the Commander's victories, Yuri invites them back to Moscow to thank them but their aide, Lt. Zofia, reveals that Romanov recorded a message before his death in which he reveals that Yuri was controlling him and orders them to bring Yuri to justice. The Commander attacks Moscow with the bulk of the Soviet army and destroys the Kremlin, seemingly killing Yuri. They then use information from Yuri's files to destroy the Allied last-ditch effort to assault the Soviet Union using another Chronosphere, effectively becoming the ruler of the world. In the final cutscene, it is revealed that Yuri has survived, setting the stage for Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge.