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Interface changes are minimal - a new system separates the build menus for base facilities, defences, infantry and vehicles, eliminating the long, tedious scrolling menus of the previous games. Later missions involve landmarks like the World Trade Centre, and there's a great urban multiplayer map based around the Alamo. For the first time, the American forces must defend the Statue of Liberty from Soviet attack, while in the first Russian mission you're going after the Pentagon. Her flesh-and-blood appearance will probably be the cause of many sweaty palms.įor the first time you can now battle around real places and buildings - sounds like a small point, but gives the single player campaign a greater sense of personality. Tanya - an old favourite from past Red Alert games - makes a welcome return (the character does anyway as the actress has been replaced with an arguably more attractive counterpart), armed with her usual pistols and C4 explosive. They can also help to offset the inevitable repetitiveness of the single-player game by encouraging some personal involvement with the protagonists - this only works if the production is first-class, and it is. As always, the pre-mission briefings are excellent - starring a cast of professional actors, they add spadefuls of character to the game. However, it would be wrong to say there's nothing new in Red Alert 2.

And to be fair, the previous games have always been well-received and excellent sellers. No flashy 3D graphics for Red Alert 2 here no fog of war, no multiple mission paths in single-player - not even a rotateable isometric view like Sim City or Rollercoaster Tycoon.

So it's little surprise to find that Red Alert 2 follows the tradition of ignoring recent developments in real-time strategy games and delivering the same pacy gameplay the others in the series offered. But while other developers have been keen to expand on the theme, adding everything from 3D graphics to first-person perspectives, Westwood has always remained true to its retro roots. It's a simple formula, and a much-imitated one. Somewhere else on the battlefield your opponent is doing the same. A few units and a battlefield with scattered resource fields at your disposal, you build a base, harvest these resources, and use funds thus gained to construct an army. Command & Conquer games, in the past, have followed the same recipe. Westwood isn't exactly a name people associate with innovation.

Red alert 2 first decade alt tab black screen