Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

Format PC

Developer EA Games

Publisher EA Games

Genre Sim / Strategy

12 Comments

Jamie Sefton climbs aboard a secret Kirov Airship for the exclusive story on the biggest RTS of the year...

As I'm ushered into a demo room at EA's Los Angeles studio, I clutch my ultimate wish list of features tightly in my hand, and catch a tantalising glimpse of a fleet of grinning Kirov Airships on a stupidly-large hi-def screen. This is a big deal.

I'm the only UK journalist allowed to see Red Alert 3 - a title that millions of gamers across the globe have been waiting to play for seven years.

The previous title, Red Alert 2, is one of the most iconic real-time strategy games ever created; a beautifully-balanced, fast, colourful, silly and exuberant Cold War classic stuffed with ridiculous units (Giant Squid), OTT technology (weather machines) and campy cinematics featuring actors hamming it up as presidents, Russian commanders and sexy agents with a penchant for C4 explosive.

Over the next couple of hours, I'm talked through the features of the game, shown concept art plastering numerous walls throughout the offices and given a personal demo of a Red Alert 3 Allied mission.

As it all unfolds, I start to tick off the wish list of features one-by-one - crazy time travel plot, a third faction, story-driven campaign with co-operative play, German shepherds, more naval combat, more Tanya - until I'm frantically scribbling down more features than Soviet psychic agent Yuri could psychically shake a stick at.

If you're a fan of the Red Alert series, you'd better relax, sit down and take in every word that follows - I think you're going to be a tiny bit excited...

RISING SUN
At the beginning of Red Alert 3, the situation is dire for the Soviets - the Allies have driven back their forces to Moscow and the leadership is cowering behind the gates of the Kremlin.

In a crazed act of desperation, the Soviets head to the basement where they have been working on a time machine which they plan to use to go back in time and get rid of Einstein - the man most responsible for the technological achievements that have led to the Allies' victories. And also, let us not forget, the man who travelled back in time to kill Hitler in the first game so that this whole Red-centric timeline could happen anyway.

This notwithstanding, the Soviets erase Einstein and come back to the present day where it looks like the experiment has been a great success - the Allies have retreated and the Red Menace has returned to its former glory.

However, almost immediately, klaxons begin blaring and the Russians are again under attack, except this time from a superpower their time meddling has spawned upon the world stage: the technological cult of the Empire of the Rising Sun. A sickening feeling hits the Soviet commanders' stomachs as they realise that they've created a new enemy for themselves, and the new war begins...

This is the first time in a Red Alert game that there's been a fully-fledged third faction (the Yuri's Revenge expansion had a sub-faction), and each of the three campaigns will have eight to 10 missions, with the Japanese Rising Sun currently aimed at being unlockable when you've completed the Allied or the Soviet campaign.

"It's really important to us that we don't just build one faction, then cut and paste those units into another faction," says executive producer Chris Corry. "Each will feel very different from a capability standpoint. Japan has the most dramatically different building mechanic with an emphasis on higher technology weapons, so it'll feel and play uniquely."

The RA3 team aren't revealing much about the new faction just yet, but we eked out a chunk of stuff about their design and gameplay style. The Empire of the Rising Sun will be the most sci-fi faction, drawing from Japanese influences like samurai warriors, anime, ninjas and military history.

We saw concept art displaying beautiful dragonfly-type ships, as well as techno-updates of military uniforms from WWII, ninja dudes with futuristic weaponry, units packed with attachments looking like Shinto gates and huge intricately-designed robots, all splashed with those distinctive red-and-white national colours.

"The Sea Wing is a submarine unit that can shoot out of water and be used as an aircraft - the only unit in the game that can do that," says Chris, visibly hurting as I drag the information out of him. "Japan are probably the strongest in the water. Many of their units deploy into a different unit, so there's lots of, er, transformation." Robots in disguise? Oh yes.

NAVAL GAZING
Another major addition is fully-integrated naval combat, which has been a tough challenge for the development team, aware that countless RTS games in the past have torpedoed the idea. Red Alert 3 cleverly achieves naval gameplay by what they describe as "blurring the shorelines", basically making it much easier for players to get their units in and out of the water.

Many of the units are now amphibious and all you have to do to utilise this ability is click where you want to move - the unit will automatically do a contextual transformation from land-based to ocean-based and vice versa. However, amphibious units are not as powerful as a dedicated land or sea unit, so the skill in combat comes in deciding which direction you want to go - flexibility or maximum firepower.

Your mobile construction yard is also amphibious, allowing you to build your base in the ocean, resulting in major ramifications for gameplay. If, for example, you only build land units and storm off to kill your opponent, you might find they've built their HQ out at sea, rendering your army a useless waste of money.

EALA hopes this will encourage players to play more with the aircraft, which will be the only units able to locate and strike at targets on both land and in the ocean with equal power. Amphibious units can strike at ocean-based targets of course, but they're not as powerful as aircraft.

Cleverly, there are significant resources out at sea, so even if you don't build an ocean base, it's wise to have a naval presence or you're basically handing your opponent an enormous bag of money with "Please kill me!" written on in bold crayon.
What's more all this messing about on boats has led to EALA giving water a new graphics engine so it ripples, shimmers and splashes like real stuff.

TWO'S COMPANY
After the revelations of the naval combat, Chris drops another bombshell: while previous RTS games have included special co-op missions, Red Alert 3 will include a finely crafted story-driven campaign that you can play in both single-player and online co-op.

"Every single mission has been designed with you and a teammate in mind. But we obviously don't want to leave people out if they haven't any online friends, so you can also enlist the help of an AI co-commander."

Every faction has three commanders, each with a unique play style and personality, played by an actor who will appear in video clips and voice-overs. So if you're starting a Campaign mission with a co-commander who prefers tanks and heavy armour, you'll probably approach how you go through that mission differently than if the co-commander you signed up was an expert in the air force.

A monitor in the top-left of the screen allows you to see the AI's state, with four orders available: attack or defend a unit or location, stop or help me. If you don't give the co-commander guidance, the AI will do its own thing, depending on the situation and its personality.

The system poses challenges when playing with a friend (of the communication variety) but this is easily solved with VoIP, and it's worth the effort. The co-commander includes other advantages such as sharing a line of sight, being able to put units in friendly transports, using an ally's airfields and repair abilities, and even building units and giving them to your ally.

"However, we're not allowing you to give money directly, which causes balance problems," explains producer Amer Ajami. "If your buddy is under attack, it's more fun to send units rather than money, as there's physical gameplay tied to them - they might get ambushed by the enemy on the way to the rendezvous, for example."

But if you leave the AI co-commander to his own devices, will he just complete the missions for you? "No, that wouldn't be much fun!" says Chris. "We have to make sure that the AI is competent enough, as you'll always compare it with human players, but also that the experience is always satisfying. I feel that the AI in C&C3 was the very best in the business, and the early indications for RA3 are very good."

Other aspects of the gameplay are being finely tuned up until the game's late 2008 launch. EALA want fast, fluid fun, but they felt that the wide-open economy of C&C3 (allowing you to generate units very quickly) made for a game that was perhaps too fast - in fact the 1.09 patch gated the economy and slowed the action down, which is the direction they're going for in their next offering.

Games will still be quick, but instead of matched multiplayer games lasting 10 minutes, RA3 will have matches of between 20-30 minutes.

Apparently Corry is attempting to head off the traditional "rush-fest" of other C&C games: "We don't want to lose that feeling of being under pressure, but we're going to dial that back a notch. If you try to rush early on, you probably won't be successful. Gamers have got more sophisticated and we want to inject more depth - the combat chain isn't just rock, paper, scissors, so there's more nuance to which units are effective against other units."

As a result, Red Alert 3 will have fewer units that have multiple capabilities, with most being dedicated units that do one thing very well. So, a large force of one type of unit won't be wildly successful now; a response to the Mammoth 'tank spam' from C&C3, which was popular with gamers because the super-vehicle could crush infantry, destroy vehicles and shoot down aircraft.

Also, every unit now has a primary and secondary ability; a very clear cut, binary rule that's easy to grasp but adds complexity to gameplay. Plus, Red Alert 3 will be adopting the tried-and-trusted RTS staple of building on grids, to avoid any issues of choke-points or units getting stuck behind badly-placed buildings.

Enough talking: onto the actual game. I got to see Red Alert 3 in action, as producer Amer took me through a cut-down version of the second-to-last mission from the Allied campaign, where you're sent to investigate suspicious Commie goings-on in Cuba.

After viewing the close-to-final intro screen complete with smart Russian propaganda-style graphics, we're taken to the mission screen, where the choice of three co-commanders were visible - although earlier missions will limit you to one or two.

Amer chose to play alongside Major Giles, a stiff upper lip British AI commander specialising in special weapons and aircraft, and portrayed to tongue-in-cheek perfection in the FMV by Beowulf actor Greg Ellis (see 'Casting Couch' box).

CUBAN CRISIS
Then we're into the mission, and presented with an absolutely gorgeous scene of a Cuban shoreline; deep blue water lapped the beach while a few disparate Soviet units were just visible at the edges of the fog of war.

A Mirage Tank under the command of Major Giles was chronosphered (matter-transported) to the island, while our group of four amphibious Assault Destroyers from a Caribbean base nearby rolled up on the beach, immediately sprouting tank treads.

The Mirage Tank then disguised itself as a Soviet Apocalypse Tank and covered the entire force in a cloaking shield, as we moved inland to check out the area. Ensuring we carefully remained hidden under the Mirage umbrella in this stealth portion of the mission, we witnessed various Soviet activities including an Akula Sub and a hilarious Bullfrog Transport.

Similar to the Flak Track, the Bullfrog is an amphibious vehicle that doubles as a troop transport, blasting infantry units (in this case armoured bears) into battle using a man cannon, before seeing them float to the ground using parachutes.

The incompetent animals failed to sniff us out, and we continued our reconnaissance mission, edging past a regiment of bubble-helmet-wearing Tesla Troopers, busily powering up Tesla Coils in anticipation of an attack. Major Giles suddenly spotted a group of real Apocalypse Tanks and joined the end of the line, as they eventually led us past saluting soldiers to a secret Soviet base.

"Fire at will!" said Giles, as we decloaked and began blasting the base to smithereens, the buildings collapsing with spectacular pyrotechnic explosions and real-time physics.

Showing off what the team are describing as RA3's visceral 'footprint of destruction', that transforms idyllic environments into war-ravaged hell-holes.

Unfortunately, this was a trap, and an FMV featuring a stereotypical Soviet commanderrrrr (roll those Rs) informed us that 'Operation Grandslam' was now in operation, as a nearby sports stadium opened up to reveal a Kirov Airship carrying a 50 megaton bomb!

A new objective of stopping the deadly zeppelins was given to us, and because we hadn't the time to build up a force to take it down, our co-commander was called in to help simply by us clicking on the attack button and placing a beacon on the Kirov. Apollo Fighters were launched by Major Giles and the airship was destroyed, leaving the AI commander to blast the stadium.

On the ground, Amer spawned four Soviet Conscripts and two Allied Peacekeeper infantry units to demonstrate the primary and secondary weapon concept of RA3. The Conscripts' primary AK-47 weapon tore into the two Peacekeepers, who were quickly dispatched, as their shotguns were unable to match the machine gun's longer range of fire.

Two new Peacekeepers were created, this time utilising their secondary weapon - a riot shield - allowing them to get up-close to the Conscripts so they could unleash lethal shotgun blasts.

To counter, a new battalion of Conscripts appeared, firing their secondary weapon of Molotov cocktails, which then burned the riot shields and left the Peacekeepers open to a deadly spray of AK-47 gunfire. The Conscripts' flaming projectiles were then countered by some nearby German shepherds who unleashed an amplified bark secondary weapon, that stunned the Soviet quartet and allowed the dogs time to run up and bite them to death.

In addition to this balanced RTS gameplay, I was struck by the detailed animation (the dogs stop and scratch themselves when resting, for example) and the hilarious unit voices, which were very much a feature of RA2.

"We've put together a personality page for every unit in the game, where we have a bit of art to depict their style, plus a description of how they sound," says Chris. "For Commander Kirov, for example, we have a picture of a big gluttonous crime boss, and this personality all flows into the dialogue."

END GAME
Amer next took the battle into the ocean, first packing up his construction yard and redeploying it on the water, away from the enemy's tanks. Three Allied Hydrofoil ground-to-air boats were launched towards the enemy's new Kirov, which had just emerged from a nearby football stadium.

Soviet Stingray vessels were protecting the waters, and it took a fleet of Allied Assault Destroyers to sink them, leaving the Hydrofoils clear to blast the airship out of the sky and pepper the stadium with rockets.

Finally, the third launch facility was attacked by six Guardian Tanks, a vehicle with a cannon and a secondary laser rangefinder, that can be used to paint enemies, and give nearby units an extra damage boost.

The base was strongly defended by two Russian Apocalypse Tanks that soon decimated our forces with their dual cannons and a mean magnetic harpoon that drags captured units into a metal grinder mounted on the front of the vehicle.

So, our commander was given clearance to use a Time Bomb, which was chronosphered into the base.

"If you're playing against another person in multiplayer, you can chrono the bomb back to the enemy like a hot potato," adds Amer. "Whoever has it when that clock hits zero is the loser."

This is demonstrated when the bomb displays a smiley face with the words 'Have A Nice Day!' before unleashing a massive explosion, that in this case flattened the Soviet stronghold and won the mission for the Allies.

While I only witnessed the Cuban mission, Red Alert 3 also has missions in locations including San Diego, Cape Cod, Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Easter Island, Mount Fuji and Santa Monica, the latter so that Chris and Amer can "assault their home."

There are also plans for a public beta of the game over the summer (with keys given away free in the forthcoming Kane's Wrath C&C3 expansion), so that EALA can hopefully avoid any bugs and server problems when the game launches later this year.

Exhausted, I collapse back into my leather armchair after the presentation and try to absorb all the juicy Red Alert 3 information that will soon be devoured by starving fans when PC ZONE hits the shelves, including the cool Japanese third faction, a co-op campaign, naval gameplay, a new tech tree, primary and secondary weapons across all units, an AI-controlled co-commander and full physics damage.

EALA have certainly delivered on the checklist of must-haves for the next Red Alert 3. Now all they have to do is deliver the game.

If they don't, Comrades, a Tesla Coil to the testicles may be the only suitable Soviet-style punishment...

Jamie Sefton