How is Command and Conquer Red Alert 3?

RA3 is a complete joke. 

It ditches every bit of seriousness that was left in the Red Alert series (Red Alert 2 had the perfect balance, imo) and goes over-the-top in just about every way possible. But if you like your hero units as 12-year-old girls wearing school uniforms or you enjoy shooting bears from cannons....then this is the game for you. 

But seriously, it's only worth buying if you can justify buying the C&C Ultimate Collection ($20) and it's really only worth getting it for 'The Red Alert' mod.  It's the original Red Alert done on the RA3 engine.  Looks fantastic.  

Otherwise:

-Get C&C3 if you want a C&C game from this generation.  It's a good game. (This is me assuming you've never played it, of course)

-Avoid the plague that is C&C4. 

If you like Starcraft, you might like Red Alert 3.

If you like Command and Conquer, you will hate Red Alert 3

RA3 is a complete joke. I'd say the same thing to C&C4 as well. 

Get C&C3 if you want a C&C game from this generation.  It's the only good one.  (assuming you've never played it, of course)

 

 

HavocV3

I second this.  C&C 3 was the last of the good games in the series, it still had the old-school feel.  All went downhill after that (though you could argue it was going downhill long before that lol).

I have to agree about the old school feelings leading to a new sort of dislike for CNC: RA 3. I picked it up because of the steam sale...and well its not really that fun so far. Campaign seems alright but I was doing some skirmishes with AI on hard and its ridiculous. I cant even imagine brutal. Anyways the game feels like its on crack, and I cant find any settings to turn the game speed down.

Perhaps this is nit-picky but there is no soundtrack options or selections to my knowledge either. That really bothers me because this series always have great music and I want to be able to hear individual songs sometimes during gameplay.

The unit selections seem limited too. No upgrades on buildings, or for units like generals and CNC3 implemented. I mean its not a BAD deal if you get it on sale, but I can't say this brings me back to the days of RA 1/2 at all. CNC3 really is the last great game of the franchise. Maybe they will reinvigorate this series in the future but with EA at the helm its difficult to hope for. I really do miss the westwood era.

I agree with Havoc, after playing the first 2 many times and loving it, RA3 just doesn't give u the same feeling. EA, in their usual manner, forgot about the subtle humorous details and the balance between funny and serious that made the first two great, and went with what their simple minds told them made the first 2 great, scantily clad women, and crazy nonsensical units.

The game might appeal to kids, but it was an embarasment for the series. The game lost the one thing that made RA 2 my favorite RTS ever, charm. 

graphically speaking it looks nice i think. 

character and feeling wise it just is not the same. the campaign feels very hollow, and goes way too silly. 

I will be giving that new Command and Conquer free to play a whirl to try it out see if i like it. Red Alert and Generals were my two favorite CnC universes.

It's great fun with a great sense of humour. It doesnt take itself serously, it has hot babes and the game is well aware of how dumb it is. Highly recommended.

I agree with Havoc, after playing the first 2 many times and loving it, RA3 just doesn't give u the same feeling. EA, in their usual manner, forgot about the subtle humorous details and the balance between funny and serious that made the first two great, and went with what their simple minds told them made the first 2 great, scantily clad women, and crazy nonsensical units.

 

The game might appeal to kids, but it was an embarasment for the series. The game lost the one thing that made RA 2 my favorite RTS ever, charm. 

pl4yer_f0und

Forget Red Alert 3. RA 2 is still my favourite. What were they thinking with RA3, seriously?

Forget Red Alert 3. RA 2 is still my favourite. What were they thinking with RA3, seriously?

mhofever

This in every way. I got bored and irritated with RA3 during the first campaign and (possibly alone here) I found C&C3 stale and not different enough from the original C&C (I also hated Tiberian Sun for not having enough big battles).

RA2 was great. But so many RTS series have been spoiled over the years (bar Starcraft), that I rarely feel positive about buying them.

[QUOTE="pl4yer_f0und"]

I agree with Havoc, after playing the first 2 many times and loving it, RA3 just doesn't give u the same feeling. EA, in their usual manner, forgot about the subtle humorous details and the balance between funny and serious that made the first two great, and went with what their simple minds told them made the first 2 great, scantily clad women, and crazy nonsensical units.

 

The game might appeal to kids, but it was an embarasment for the series. The game lost the one thing that made RA 2 my favorite RTS ever, charm. 

SaudiFury

Honestly dude, who gives a shit. About 99% of people playing it are young males. We like looking at women, it's just a fact of life.

I liked the campaign well enough. It was fun to play and beat with a friend. I like some of the music for the game.

Red Alert 3 is good, the people who are saying it's too goofy and cartoony or whatever else are forgetting that it is a sequel to a game where you use mind-controlled squids, flying cowboys, clones of a bald psychic, time machines and etc. in a war started by a crazy Russian ruler who cannot speak for 1 second without looking like some crazy clown that wants to rule the world.

While in terms of campaign and presentation it's worse than RA2, in terms of actual gameplay (faction and unit variation, different army compositions and tactics, balance, etc.) it's the best game in the command and conquer universe together with modded C&C Generals. I've had loads of fun with it playing with my friends on multiplayer.

Also if the guys who are making the Paradox mod actually finish it and it delivers everything that was promised RA3 will become one of the best RTS games ever. Too bad it will take them probably about 10 more years.

The campaign was made to be played co-op, which in my eyes was a complete shame. I like my singleplayer and multiplayer seperate in an RTS. Or do it like Company of Heroes 2: singleplayer, multiplayer and co-op.

If you have someone to play the game with it could be fun. Solo I found it to be very, very boring and only played a few mission.

Like others have said C&C3 (and its expansion) was the last great C&C game. Don't know what happened to the developers after that. But having played Warfighter recently, their quality is still going down.