EA goes to war, tongue firmly in cheek.
You may think you know the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, but you do not. In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3's alternate history, the allies to launch a surprise attack on Hawaii, a long-time stronghold of the Empire of Rising Sun, and it is only the top of the famous iceberg. Red Alert 3, tongue firmly in cheek and dream up a bizarre world where armored bears parachute from the sky, transformable Japanese mecha wreak havoc, and Mount Rushmore is actually a secret military installation where honest Abe main shoot deadly laser beams out of his eyes .
Red Alert has always been more "colorful" of the Command & Conquer franchise. Its precondition of time travel Messing up space-time continuum allows it to come up with some silly scenarios that are transferred by natural-chewing performances of the actors in live-action video sequences. So with the Soviet Union are facing defeat at the hands of the Allies, a trio of Russia's finest (played by Peter Stormare, Andrew Divoff, and Tim Curry) travel back in time to whack Einstein. This is a tip of the hat to the original Red Alert, where Einstein traveled back in time to whack Hitler. Job done, the Soviet Union to return home only to discover that, like Eckel stomping on a butterfly in A Sound of Thunder, Messing with time have unforeseen consequences.
What are three campaigns, which lets you play from the perspective of the Allies, the Soviet Union, and the new empire in Rising Sun, basically a Japan that is led by Sulu from Star Trek and armed to the teeth with almost every notable Japanese Coming into a unit. There are above diverted mecha as well as non-diverted samurai robots, high-tech ninja, suit-clad engineers, and, yes, even a skirt-bearer school girl armed with Akira-like mental strength. Not to worry, because the Allies and the Soviet Union can play dumb, too, by helicopter to shrink opponents to pint size, smoking-dressed spies, armored Zeppelin, and leggy female command soldiers.
The big new addition in Red Alert 3 is that the entire single-player game has been designed with co-op in mind. You can either play with another human or computer, but basically you each control your own base and forces. If you're playing with a man who has built-in voice chat and an ability to drop markers on the map to get their attention. If playing with a computer, you can issue orders to them to seize a place or find a specific target. It is a good dynamic, because it can make what is traditionally the shorter length, you actually have double the forces, as you normally would in a traditional RTS. Quite often, I leave my computer partner tackle half of the map while I tackled the other.
There is also a naval base element in Red Alert 3, as many cards incorporate bodies of water. You can build submarines, dolphins, carriers and warships, although the line between the naval and land warfare is not exactly cut and dry due to the amphibious nature of many units. Vessels can sprout legs or wear runways and scroll up to dry land and some land units can flow. It adds an extra dimension that was missing in previous C & C game, and it also makes it possible for developers to show the cool water tech.