Did you ever play the board game Stratego as a kid?
Did you dream of commanding armies against an enemy bent on your
destruction?
Command and Conquer
from Westwood studios fulfilled that dream for gamers in the late 90's. In 2000 EA bought the development studio and
produced what was then and still is one of the most entertaining Real Time
Strategy games in the genre, Command and
Conquer Red Alert 2.
If you're a fan of games like Syndicate, Company of Heroes or
Starcraft then this latest freebie from EA is right up your alley. That's right, Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is the current offering from EA's
"On the House" promotion.
If you don't know anything about Real-time Strategy Games
then this may be a good introduction for you.
Set against a backdrop of a cold war gone hot, your goal is pretty
simple. Wipe out the other guy by
destroying or taking over his stuff before he does the same to you.
At your disposal are troops, buildings and vehicles. That is, assuming you've got enough of an
economy to afford them. Lest we forget,
this is war so don't be surprised if the enemy is constantly attacking you
hoping to cripple your ability to fight.
Your perspective is somewhere between 2D and 3D ( most call
it 2.5D ) meaning you look at the game world from a diagonal perspective
hovering over the playfield.
Unlike most properties that EA buys, they somehow managed to
not screw this one up. The game is more
lighthearted than its predecessor and keeps you engaged with amusing dialog and
well acted video clips.
BTW, Kari Wuhrer never looked better than she did playing
Special Agent Tanya Adams in this game.
The interface is simple and the gameplay fairly intuitive. It's primarily a single player game but there
is an Internet (online) option in the main menu although it's doubtful there
are any active EA servers.
For a game that EA's giving away, this is one of the better
deals they've offered up since Syndicate or Battlefield 3.
They're also including the 2001 expansion, Yuri's Revenge.
All it takes is 1.5 GB of hard drive space and a bit of
patience. When EA offered up C&C 2
they found their download servers besieged and had to temporarily take them
down to deal with the demand. So if you
open your Origin Client and find Theme Hospital instead of C&C2, know it's only a stand-in till
EA can ramp up the servers.
Get your copy while you can.
I've never been a big fan of RTS games but so far this one's got me
hooked and who can argue with the price?
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 with the Yuri's Revenge expansion is available now (soon as the servers are back up) on EA's
Origin service.
Here's an example of what to expect...
Here's an example of what to expect...
