Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is a real-time strategy game developed by Electronic Arts. It is the third major instalment in the Red Alert series. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising is the game's expansion.

Plot

 * Main Article: War of the Three Powers

The introduction features Moscow in turmoil, following what appears to be the Allies' emminent victory over the Soviet war machine, as seen in Red Alert 2, with Premier Romanov having fled the country. With the USSR at death's door, Anatoly Cherdenko and his commanding officer, General Nikolai Krukov take a secret elevator to a laboratory beneath the Kremlin. Cherdenko reveals to his superior that he was put in charge of a top secret project a year prior to the fall of the USSR, stating that "time is on our side."

In the secret laboratory, Dr. Zelinsky has been commissioned to create a time machine (similar to how the Allies defeated Yuri in Yuri's Revenge). Cherdenko, Krukov and Dr. Zelinsky enter the machine and go back to 1927, where Cherdenko "erases" Albert Einstein from existence, in a similar way to how Einstein erased Adolf Hilter in Red Alert 1.

Upon return to the present, it is revealed that the USSR is victorious, having conquered most of Western Europe. Oddly enough, though, the chain of command has been broken and Cherdenko is now premier, much to General Krukov's dismay. Suddenly, a message appears from Soviet bases in the east: a new enemy has arisen, the Empire of the Rising Sun, a technological super-power bent on achieving its "divine destiny" of world conquest. Krukov orders a nuclear strike on the Allies and the Empire, but is met with blank stares. Apparently, Einstein's removal from the timeline has made nuclear weapons nonexistent. Dr. Zelinsky comments: "Who knows what nightmares we have created?"

Features
The Return of Red Alert™! - After seven years, the most popular series in EA's 25-million unit-plus selling Command & Conquer™ franchise has returned with a vengeance. Red Alert™ 3 brings back everything fans loved about the series, the humor, the popcorn style story and the franchise's fast, action-oriented gameplay, while breaking new ground for the genre, with an entirely co-operative, story-driven campaign mode and an increased emphasis on naval gameplay.

Co-Op Done Right - Every mission is designed from the ground-up with co-operative gameplay in mind. Join forces and strategize with friends online or join forces with nine AI commanders, three for each faction, all of whom have their own unique personality and style of play that might come in handy depending on the situation.

Command the Seas, Conquer the World - Experience Gameplay as for the first time in the series, waging war on the water will be every bit as important as dominating by land and air. Gain strategic advantages by controlling resources in the seas and mounting three-pronged attacks from all directions.

A New Threat from the East - The Empire of the Rising Sun is a technological terror, with unit designs influenced by a mixture of science-fiction, martial arts and robot culture. The Empire's futuristic units can transform into alternate forms, and they specialize in naval warfare.

Star-Studded Storytelling - Command & Conquer™'s trademark live-action videos return in HD, with over 60 minutes of footage featuring the largest cast in the history of the Command & Conquer™ franchise.

CommandStick 2.0 - Improving on the CommandStick interface first pioneered in Command & Conquer™ 3: Kane's Wrath, 360 owners will get an unparalleled console RTS experience, with controls that continue to bridge the gap between the PC and 360 and a game designed to meet the needs of the console gamer.

Co-Commander
Another feature in Red Alert 3 is where you can have a Co-Commander to do all your hard work. There are several orders you can give to him or her, such as:


 * Strike Target
 * The Co-Commander will immediately send available forces to deal with the targeted unit/structure.
 * Take Position
 * The Co-Commander will immediately send available forces to the indicated location. These forces will only stay there for a short while after the position has been secured.
 * Plan Attack
 * The Co-Commander will begin to build up forces to attack the unit/structure. Should there already be enough forces, the co-commander will send the forces there immediately. This continues until the unit/structure is destroyed.
 * Keep Command
 * The Co-Commander will fend for himself.
 * Co-Commander Strike
 * Co-Commander strikes appear halfway through the missions and have a short decription of what they will do when activated.
 * To view the description, click on the Co-commander strike. The activate button will also appear under the description.

The first four orders, Strike Target, Take Position, Plan Attack and Keep Command can be found in the top-left hand corner of the screen. Beside this, there is a portrait of the co-commander and a status bar below. The status bar gives information on what the co-commander is doing.

Note: In all the campaigns, the Co-Commander will always be assigned the colour green (except for allied joint operations with Soviet forces, where the co-commander's forces are red) and the player is always assigned a Co-Commander. Also, if the Co-Commander's army has been destroyed, you can not command them and the mission will increase in difficulty.

Soviet Union

 * Premier Anatoly Cherdenko (Played by Tim Curry)


 * General Boris Krukov (Played by Andrew Divoff)


 * Dr. Gregor Zelinsky (Played by Peter Stormare)


 * Dasha Fedorovich (Played by Ivana Miličević) [UR]


 * Sniper Natasha Volkova (Played by Gina Carano)


 * Commander Oleg Vodnik (Played by Dimitri Diatchenko) [UR]


 * Commander Nikolai Moskvin (Played by Gene Farber) [UR]


 * Commander Zhana Agonskaya (Played by Vanessa Branch)


 * Sergei (Played by Savante Stelio Savante)

Allied Nations

 * Field Marshall Robert Bingham (Played by Jonathan Pryce)


 * President Howard T. Ackerman (Played by J. K. Simmons)


 * Special Agent Tanya (Played by Jenny McCarthy)


 * Lieutenant Eva McKenna (Played by Gemma Atkinson) [UR]


 * Commander Lissette Hanley (Played by Autumn Reeser)


 * Commander Warren Fuller (Played by Randy Couture)


 * Commander Giles Price (Played by Greg Ellis) [UR]

Empire of the Rising Sun

 * Emperor Yoshiro (Played by George Takei)


 * Crown Prince Tatsu (Played by Ron Yuan) [UR]


 * Intelligence Officer Suki Toyama (Played by Kelly Hu)


 * Commander Shinzo Nagama (Played by Bruce Asato Locke) [UR]


 * Commander Kenji Tenzai (Played by Jack J. Yang) [UR]


 * Commander Naomi Shirada (Played by Lydia Look)


 * Imperial Commando Yuriko Omega (Voiced by Lisa Tamashiro)

※ [UR] means this character also appears in Red Alert 3: Uprising.

Units
List of Units in Red Alert 3

Gameplay
Almost all structures can now be built offshore, out of reach of some enemy units.

Red Alert 3 retains the core RTS mechanics of the Command & Conquer series. Warring factions harvest resources using vulnerable collectors and then use those resources to construct military bases and forces on-site. Structures form a shallow but wide tech tree with a variety of units and elusive superweapons. Weapon types are specialized to the point where a rifleman can withstand direct hits from an anti-tank cannon. Red Alert 3's major refinements are the addition of the Empire of the Rising Sun to the factions of the sub-series, similar to what Tiberium Wars did with the Scrin faction, a co-operative campaign, and expanded naval warfare.

The "single-player" campaign is now fully co-operative. Each mission is played alongside an ally. When played online, this is another human player. If played offline one of several computer-controlled characters acts as the player's ally. Teams share income and generally start with the same forces. Computerized characters can be given extremely simple commands, such as an order to take a specific position or to strike a specific target. The campaign has nine missions for each side. Each side's plotlines are mutually exclusive, unlike Tiberium Wars and its preceding and following expansion packs, but like the rest of the Red Alert series.

Naval warfare is emphasized as another front. Executive producer Chris Corry has stated that many units are now amphibious, trading effectiveness for increased flexibility. Buildings and entire bases can be constructed on water, save for such things as ground unit production facilities,[13] and players who "ignore the ocean [are] likely forfeiting a significant part of their potential economy to their opponents." Further stressing this is the fact that, despite some campaign maps being entirely land based, all multiplayer maps have significant bodies of water in them.

The use of naval units and various unit abilities also helped stop players from sticking to one unit and constructing large amounts of (or spamming) them early game.[citation needed] This was a standard strategy for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars/Kane's Wrath, where players would try to build more of one unit faster than their opponent. Manually controlled secondary abilities are common to each and every unit in the game. How each ability is employed varies: some are toggled on or off, others are targeted, and still others are triggered the instant one presses the button. An Imperial constructor might be able to deploy once at a specified location, a Soviet conscript can switch weapons at will, or an Allied artillery piece can engage its shields with a button press but with a cooldown that requires a period of time to pass before the ability can be activated again are such examples of secondary abilities. All abilities are bound to the same key. The game also features experience points that are used to unlock upgrades to unit types as well as "commander abilities" used to call in air strikes, recon sweeps, magnetic satellite beams, etc.. Commander abilities have no resource costs but have significant cooldown periods.

Ore fields as resource sites have been removed. These originated in the first Red Alert as a functionally identical equivalent to tiberium, in C&C similar to a strip mine. Gameplay mechanics haven't changed a great deal since fields have been replaced with stationary ore mines - although this does impact on strategic ore-refinery placement and covert refining to an extent.

Each of the three powers has something to boast at:


 * The Soviet gains supremacy of the land;


 * The Allied gains supremacy of the air;

You can use these to divert an effective strategy at your enemies
 * And The Empire of the Rising Sun gains supremacy of the sea

Tutorial
This Tutorial feature is available to those who are beginners at RA3. A Tsunami Tank, Hammer Tank and Guardian Tank made a truce to teach the Commander about the basics like simple commands, base building, special abilities, and Co-Commanders. During the tutorial the Tsunami Tank is often seen shooting at the Hammer Tank for making stupid comments. At the end of the Tutorial, the Hammer Tank driver switches to an Apocalypse Tank and was last seen firing at the Tsunami Tank for assaulting him.

Premier Edition
Premier Edition is a limited edition of Red Alert 3. The new package includes original soundtrack, posters of stars casted in the Motion Video, and a key for future Command & Conquer beta games.

Campaigns
The recommended Campaign order is Soviet then Allies and finally Imperial but you can do them in any order you wish.

Expect very unique campaign structures and units like the Shogun Executioner and the MT Rushmore superweapon and the Tesla Tanks.

Imperial Campaign
The Imperial Campaign is about how the Commander conquers the Earth and becomes the Supreme Shogun. In this Campaign you will also command unique units and Structures like the Black Tortoise and the Shogun Executioner. Expect heavy foes like the Apocalypse tank to come up against you in this campaign, as well as to fight the Soviet and Allied Alliance which includes Dreadnoughts and Aircraft Carriers up against you.

Also Ackerman is a cyborg spy programmed to spy on the Allies.

Soviet Campaign
In this campaign the USSR will not make a Allied and Soviet Alliance and will destroy both the Allies and the Empire without any help. Also expect the Commander to become a general and later on the Premier as the USSR demonstrates the definition of betraying one another.

Allied Campaign
The Allied campaign is about how the Allies win the war and how a commander becomes hero to the Allies. Also, in this campaign the Commander will team up with Moskvin and Zhana (Soviet commanders) in several missions.

Also, expect to see Ackerman removed much due to his Doomsday Roosevelt Superweapon and Gregor joining the Allies.

Endings
Caution! May Contain Spoilers!

Imperial Ending
The Empire of the Rising Sun campaign ends with an King Oni cutting down the Allied Forces Flag with its lasers and then putting an Imperial Flag in its place. Yoshiro and his son grants the rank of Supreme Shogun to the Commander, while Suki is out at Hawaii and asks the Commander to join her.

Soviet Ending
The USSR ending is where the USSR Commander takes control of the USSR and annihilates both the Empire and the Allies. The Statue of Liberty is destroyed and replaced with a statue of Lenin. The Commander like in RA1 and RA2, gains the rank of Premier. Dasha gives a toast to the Commander and then the Commander, now known as the Premier, steps onto the balcony to the cheering crowd outside the Kremlin with the last words said "The world is yours...".

Allied Ending
The Allied Campaign ends with the Statue of Lenin toppling and the Soviet leaders arrested and put in cryo prison. Tanya and Eva dress up in black and white respectively, wanting to date the Commander. This places the Commander in a rather interesting situation. Don't worry, the Commander wont get to choose since it fades out there.

Also, the friend of the recently deceased President Ackerman says he "reluctantly" takes the position of President and he promises a better future for all of America.

Reference
Red Alert 3 Main Website

CNC Main Page

Fact
In some conditions, 'Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 can be installed in Windows 7 or later, even if the earlier statement does not state it. The game can also be played with out the disk.'

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and its expansion pack Uprising are available on Steam