Slow start, finished quickly.
That aside, Red Alert 2 is one of the better C&C's that currently exists. With it's high-speed action and innovative sidebar, it is hard to not like this game.
The sidebar is special in it's own little way, for it has different tabs for respectably buildings, defensive buildings, infantry and vehicles. This basically allows you to be building two buildings and two units at the same time, immensely increasing the speed in which a base and fighting force are pulled from the ground.
The story is a cheesy one, brought in a cheesy way by cheesy characters.
After their defeat a while ago, the Soviets were given a puppet premier, Alexander Romanov. Romanov, however, doesn't enjoy the dictations given up by the Allies and eventually builds up a giant army that is assisted by his advisor Yuri's twisted mind-controll powers. In the storyline it is in the hands of the player to safe America and defeat the Soviets or to lead the Soviets to a victory against the hated capitalists. Can you decide?
The graphics are somewhat on the strange side. Though running on the engine we all know from C&C: Tiberian Sun, all the units look like they've been blown up like a balloon, being very large and all. Not everyone fully appreciated this, and I'm undecided. It does contribute to the cheesiness of the game overall, but we're here to wage some serious war, eh?
The sounds are, if you ask me, just right. The enthusiastic voices of the drivers or infantry and their respective sounds all contribute to the overall feeling the game gave.