Parachuting bears and psychic schoolgirls are just the beginning of the bizarre fun that waits in EALA's terrific new RTS.
Real-time strategy is a serious matter. It is the domain of intense strategy players who sweat over large imaginary wars, causing the deaths of thousands of virtual humans. Fortunately, someone forgot to tell that to developers at EALA. Red Alert 3, the latest in the Venerable Command & Conquer series, has finally crossed the line from tongue-in-cheek parody of its predecessors to an out-and-out aircraft-style comedy. The result is a beautiful game, which is built around the idea of providing a large, Goofy smile to the player's face, while still in a position to be a pleasant, if somewhat simple, real-time strategy title.The game's basic premise is appropriate psychotic. Soviet Union, on the verge of collapse, using a Time Machine in the Kremlin in the basement to remove Albert Einstein from history, to remove the person most responsible for their enemy's technological superiority. Returns to the present, Russians, the Western allies to flee only to find that their interference has created a third superpower to contend with - Japan. The new empire in the Rising Sun is a techno-fetishist society that mixes nanotechnology with the Bushido code to the field armies of cyber-Samurai and giant robots and mental school girl command soldiers. Players, of course, can choose to play as one of the three powers and trying to dump their opponents in the dustbin of history.
The game's cheerful disregard for anything resembling logic or coherent world-building is easy Red Alert 3's strongest attribute. , It starts with the game's design unit. Whatever hand-picked, Red Alert 3's armies consist of units that are equal parts subtle parody and over-the-top madness. Soviet Union, for example area War Bear scouts, there are actual armored bears. Their Twinblade attack helicopter, on the other hand, is a classic Soviet Hind helicopters, which seem to defy physics by flying with two main rotors (for twice the "cool" we assume). The Japanese, on the other hand, in an army full of things like the king oni (giant robot juggernauts) and a basic infantry unit engaged in a light monkeys while wearing samurai armor.
The entertainment factor has risen once battle is joined. Visually, the game is full of things to delight the eye. Particular favorites include the Soviet bullfrog personnel carrier, which starts infantry units out of a cannon to have them parachute gently to Earth. Each unit actually has its own animation sequence for this. Engineers somersault helplessly around in the air while flying to bear on their backs with their four legs twitching in panic. Fighting dolphins fried by Tesla coil will leave a small skeleton floating in the water a moment before it sinks. A mission in the single-player campaign actually has the player rescue troops from a circus.
The game's audio is also merit special mention. Score composers Tim Wynn and James Hannigan, together with the original Red Alert writes Frank Klepacki, has withdrawn himself by creating a hard driving late 80s / early 90's metal sound, dating back to the original game, while stressing the relentless pace In this new edition. The game's music is matched by exceptional voice-over work. Each unit in the game has a number of standard kd response to be clicked on and even a few seemingly context-sensitive comments that are intended to throw an occasional unexpected surprise on the player. Russian conscripts units, for example, make comments that reflect how poorly educated, they are together with a lighthearted gallows humor confirmation that their major strategic task is to die in ridiculous numbers. "Promotion, here I come!" is a common exclamation points as a unit are thrown into combat with, say, an Allied tank, which is about to squish him.
Real-time strategy is a serious matter. It is the domain of intense strategy players who sweat over large imaginary wars, causing the deaths of thousands of virtual humans. Fortunately, someone forgot to tell that to developers at EALA. Red Alert 3, the latest in the Venerable Command & Conquer series, has finally crossed the line from tongue-in-cheek parody of its predecessors to an out-and-out aircraft-style comedy. The result is a beautiful game, which is built around the idea of providing a large, Goofy smile to the player's face, while still in a position to be a pleasant, if somewhat simple, real-time strategy title.
The game's basic premise is appropriate psychotic. Soviet Union, on the verge of collapse, using a Time Machine in the Kremlin in the basement to remove Albert Einstein from history, to remove the person most responsible for their enemy's technological superiority. Returns to the present, Russians, the Western allies to flee only to find that their interference has created a third superpower to contend with - Japan. The new empire in the Rising Sun is a techno-fetishist society that mixes nanotechnology with the Bushido code to the field armies of cyber-Samurai and giant robots and mental school girl command soldiers. Players, of course, can choose to play as one of the three powers and trying to dump their opponents in the dustbin of history.
The game's cheerful disregard for anything resembling logic or coherent world-building is easy Red Alert 3's strongest attribute. , It starts with the game's design unit. Whatever hand-picked, Red Alert 3's armies consist of units that are equal parts subtle parody and over-the-top madness. Soviet Union, for example area War Bear scouts, there are actual armored bears. Their Twinblade attack helicopter, on the other hand, is a classic Soviet Hind helicopters, which seem to defy physics by flying with two main rotors (for twice the "cool" we assume). The Japanese, on the other hand, in an army full of things like the king oni (giant robot juggernauts) and a basic infantry unit engaged in a light monkeys while wearing samurai armor.
The entertainment factor has risen once battle is joined. Visually, the game is full of things to delight the eye. Particular favorites include the Soviet bullfrog personnel carrier, which starts infantry units out of a cannon to get them parachute gently to Earth. Each unit actually has its own animation sequence for this. Engineers somersault helplessly around in the air while flying to bear on their backs with their four legs twitching in panic. Fighting dolphins fried by Tesla coil will leave a small skeleton floating in the water a moment before it sinks. A mission in the single-player campaign actually has the player rescue troops from a circus.
The game's audio is also merit special mention. Score composers Tim Wynn and James Hannigan, together with the original Red Alert writes Frank Klepacki, has withdrawn himself by creating a hard driving late 80s / early 90's metal sound, dating back to the original game, while stressing the relentless pace In this new edition. The game's music is matched by exceptional voice-over work. Each unit in the game has a number of standard kd response to be clicked on and even a few seemingly context-sensitive comments that are intended to throw an occasional unexpected surprise on the player. Russian conscripts units, for example, make comments that reflect how poorly educated, they are together with a lighthearted gallows humor confirmation that their major strategic task is to die in ridiculous numbers. "Promotion, here I come!" is a common exclamation points as a unit are thrown into combat with, say, an Allied tank, which is about to squish him.