Red Alert 3

[CmdrGoob]

Red Alert 3. So here's a short summary: The campaign is OK, but not great, the multiplayer interface is a bit wonky but it doesn't matter because the gameplay is just a ton of fun. It's fast, it's clever and it's fun.

The big new thing to RA3 is that every unit has a special ability you can trigger with one hotkey. Sometimes it's a targeted ability, sometimes it changes a unit's attack mode, and sometimes switches the whole unit back and forth transformers style. The other new thing is that you earn command points in battle, CoH style, to unlock support abilities like air strikes, time bombs, unit buffs and so on. Another new thing is that there are now many amphibious units, which opens up many possibilities for base harassing from the water.

All of this is just super cool. The units and abilities create so much fun stuff you can pull off with quick thinking in the middle of a match. Here's one I just used in a battle. Allies have a commando called Tanya. When Tanya meets buildings, buildings die. Fast. Allies have a support ability called chronoswap, where you select two units anywhere and they are swapped. So, you sneak a dog to the enemy's base through the water while their army isn't there, like you were scouting with it but then swap it with Tanya who was somewhere safe the whole time and start blowing shit up. You saw that coming, right? But now get this: Tanya's ability is a chronobelt that takes her back in time 10 seconds so you can save her life if the enemy gets really close to killing her. I blew shit up for a few seconds but the enemy closed in to OMFG GET HER so I triggered her belt and ended up right back in safety where I swapped from, whisking my expensive Tanya to safety from under the very nose of my enemy. Priceless.

Here's another: the bullfrog is a soviet anti air vehicle, but can also shoot infantry out of a cannon. Yeah, you read that right. I'm facing a guy who has turtled several turrets in front of his base. I stick 4 flak troopers into my bullfrog, and shoot them over a cliff next to his power plant and take it down with mines. He moves back to kill them, but the power to the defenses has gone down so while he's moving to the back of his base, I'm now waltzing in the front. Awesome.

Every time I play, I keep thinking of more cool things I want to try. Maybe I can shoot flak troopers with mines directly behind the enemy tanks as I engage them? I've got an idea for a fast cryocopter attack build with allied infantry using shrinking and freezing to counter anti infantry or anti air vehicles and anti infantry infantry. Or a soviet attack build that uses terror drone stun. I saw someone stun enemy tanks with terror drones and then run them over with his mobile construction vehicle, I want to give that a try too. And there's got to be something I can do with spies...

It could use a couple of balance tweaks, but for a newly released game it's mostly well balanced. It's also a little hard to learn, because it is quite fast paced and micro intensive and everything has abilities, so it's easy to feel a bit confused while you get used to all the units and abilities. And the campaign is fun but doesn't have a huge amount of depth and there's not much story and it could be a bit longer. And the multiplayer interface is a little annoying with things like names in channels not in aphabetical order and the automatch is a bit slow.

But fuck it, you get to screw around with cryocopters. And you don't want to miss that.

UPDATE: A patch for the multiplayer is out. Those concerns should be fixed.

 

[dekkarax]

this review is lacking; basically, you didn't write about nearly enough features that you should have, you went into a lot of detail on one part of the game, then stopped. The trouble is you also didn't finish what you were even writing about, you just listed a few things that you could do with the game; the last 2 paragraphs were ok, but ultimately your review doesn't seem finished. Read it aloud and think to yourself "would this review help me decide to buy this game or not?" I think you will find that the answer is no.

If it's any consolation, your choice of language is quite good. Maybe if you rewrote this review with more content, it would be a good review.

 

[51gunner]

I don't know, he managed to convince me not to buy it. Of course, I'm not a huge RTS fan (preferring to do the shooting myself rather than tell my tiny tiny subordinates to), but his description of the multiplayer has now entirely put me off purchasing it.

Of course, there are certainly many many metric tons of gamers that will be attracted to EVERY UNIT having magic micro mojo, but I have never been one to master that stuff, and thus I have no desire to play such a game against even a computer (because I hate it when a PC does stuff you cannot)

 

[CmdrGoob]

Eh, if you want the boring features synopsis review, go read any review on metacritic. Chances are they'll be a longer winded version of my first and last paragraphs. But none of them really give much sense of what the gameplay is like, so I wrote some examples of the crazy fun variety you see in the gameplay to give a sense of what the game is like to play, which is really the most pertinent feature of all because it's what actually makes this game great.

 

[dekkarax]

I don't know, he managed to convince me not to buy it. Of course, I'm not a huge RTS fan (preferring to do the shooting myself rather than tell my tiny tiny subordinates to), but his description of the multiplayer has now entirely put me off purchasing it.

Of course, there are certainly many many metric tons of gamers that will be attracted to EVERY UNIT having magic micro mojo, but I have never been one to master that stuff, and thus I have no desire to play such a game against even a computer (because I hate it when a PC does stuff you cannot)

RA3 is quite micro heavy, but it is much better system than C&C3, which was fun, but the only things you really needed in C&C3 was a plethora of tanks, the "Q" key (select all units), and a vague idea of the location of the enemy base(s)

 

[51gunner]

RA3 is quite micro heavy, but it is much better system than C&C3, which was fun, but the only things you really needed in C&C3 was a plethora of tanks, the "Q" key (select all units), and a vague idea of the location of the enemy base(s)

I'm not going to deny that it'll make a game better for people that are into that kind of gameplay. I was more defending the review in and of itself: upon reading, I was able to formulate an opinion and decide if I wanted to buy or not.

I'm aware many of the reasons I wouldn't buy the game are reasons that someone else would.

 

[CmdrGoob]

RA3 is quite micro heavy, but it is much better system than C&C3, which was fun, but the only things you really needed in C&C3 was a plethora of tanks, the "Q" key (select all units), and a vague idea of the location of the enemy base(s)

I'm not going to deny that it'll make a game better for people that are into that kind of gameplay. I was more defending the review in and of itself: upon reading, I was able to formulate an opinion and decide if I wanted to buy or not.

I'm aware many of the reasons I wouldn't buy the game are reasons that someone else would.

Exactly. It's a fast micro heavy action RTS, I put in that sentence to warn people who aren't into that kind of thing, which is fine if that's how they feel.

 

[emptyother]

The game is incredlbly fun, but horrible lacking in certain areas. Allies are WAY underpowered, and usually ends up turtling. And if someone ever takes out their con-yard, they can suddenly not use any of their other buildings... BIG weakness.

And if the game stretches out a bit, which it WILL in 3 player all-vs-all (i cannot attack my enemy, because if i do, my friend will attack me in my weakened state), you suddenly find yourself without money. A depletet ore-mine gives you WAY too little money to ever get back on your feet, and while you are using your superpowers to keep your enemy's unit-size down, he does the same to you.

 

[CmdrGoob]

The game is incredlbly fun, but horrible lacking in certain areas. Allies are WAY underpowered, and usually ends up turtling. And if someone ever takes out their con-yard, they can suddenly not use any of their other buildings... BIG weakness.

And if the game stretches out a bit, which it WILL in 3 player all-vs-all (i cannot attack my enemy, because if i do, my friend will attack me in my weakened state), you suddenly find yourself without money. A depletet ore-mine gives you WAY too little money to ever get back on your feet, and while you are using your superpowers to keep your enemy's unit-size down, he does the same to you.

Nah. Right now Allies = Soviets, Soviets = Empire and Allies > Empire, so Allies are the best faction. Their air units come in tier 1 tech and the whole game they have an advantage in the air, and their T1 infantry is really great also. Try getting early air and using it to harass and cover you while you expand to other ore mines. It's very powerful.

Yes, if the allied con yard gets killed, they lose their tech, but the con-yard is the hardest to kill building in the game. The soviet and empire tech have tech buildings that are easier to kill, so that's actually an allied strength.

Depleted ore mines deliberately give little money so you can't just rely on your starting ore mines the entire game, you have to actually leave your base to secure new ones...

 

[Nimbus]

Hehe. The OP seems more like a "My two cents" thing, rather than a full-blown review. People should calm down.

 

[emptyother]

...Try getting early air and using it to harass and cover you while you expand to other ore mines. It's very powerful.

Yes, if the allied con yard gets killed, they lose their tech, but the con-yard is the hardest to kill building in the game. The soviet and empire tech have tech buildings that are easier to kill, so that's actually an allied strength.

Depleted ore mines deliberately give little money so you can't just rely on your starting ore mines the entire game, you have to actually leave your base to secure new ones...

But the allies are limited to four planes per building, which is not enough to overwin the empire's friggin huge chickens and other nasty empire-anti-air, which is built unlimited sized.

And if only the ore mine in the base had depleted... But when we sit all 3 of us, and after 20 minutes of play EVERY ore-mine on the level has been taken and depleted, the game slows to a standstill, where there is no clear winner until maybe an hour later.

 

[dekkarax]

...Try getting early air and using it to harass and cover you while you expand to other ore mines. It's very powerful.

Yes, if the allied con yard gets killed, they lose their tech, but the con-yard is the hardest to kill building in the game. The soviet and empire tech have tech buildings that are easier to kill, so that's actually an allied strength.

Depleted ore mines deliberately give little money so you can't just rely on your starting ore mines the entire game, you have to actually leave your base to secure new ones...

But the allies are limited to four planes per building, which is not enough to overwin the empire's friggin huge chickens and other nasty empire-anti-air, which is built unlimited sized.

And if only the ore mine in the base had depleted... But when we sit all 3 of us, and after 20 minutes of play EVERY ore-mine on the level has been taken and depleted, the game slows to a standstill, where there is no clear winner until maybe an hour later.

chickens? I'm intrigued.