CnC: Final War is a semi-total conversion for Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge that retells the Second Great War between Allied forces located mostly in Europe and the massive Soviet Empire, that has expanded well across the eastern continent.
Final War has a lot of polish and promise! It's being actively developed by a (i think?) one person team, who seems well aware of their limitations and has created a great stepping stone into more updates. I ask anyone reading this to bear in mind the date in which it was written. FW's development cycle is quick and exciting,and as a result much of what is written here is subject to change.
First, on story: There is one! And it seems interesting. Based off of RA lore, with a mind toward RA1 especially, this game is a sort of re-imagining of RA 2 if the timeline did not involve a sudden soviet resurrection, but a long term buildup and rise to power by a group of post-soviet oligarchs looking to build a new totalitarian super-state over the ashes of the soviet republics. This state, the Eastern Empire, is the soviet representative, while the Allies have confederated together in Europe, with America only loosely affiliated with the goings on of the world. Think RA2 at a sort of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare tech level. Yuri exists, or existed, and his followers remain in the shadows after his schemes were thwarted off camera as the 'remnant legion' - which is Yuri but without the mind control and an emphasis on pyrotechnics and toxins. Overall, the concept is different enough to give the factions a fun flavor, and allows a lot of creative license to try new things, which I hope the author pursues. We don't have campaign missions quite yet, but SP 'challenge' missions exist, so for now you'll kind of have to narrate your own tales in the world via challenge or skirmish games. Will the Eastern Empire become a world superpower, taking vengeance on the allies? Will Europe again smash eastern aggression? Will the Remnant Legion build the utopia/dystopia their leader wished? You can decide for yourself! [Its also very, VERY easy to assume this game happens a decade or two after the allied campaign of Yuri's Revenge, so you can play this mod that way too]
Second, the factions: Currently FW is unique among mods in that you choose one of three primary factions, then choose subfactions ingame from the defense menu. There are exclusive and non exclusive subfactions which will be define below:
Remnant Legion has no subfaction.
The Allies have ATOMOS, a research/tech oriented faction based around teleportation and hover tech
-The Crusaders, currently the arguably strongest airborne faction with some straight forward ground units to support.
The empire has:
-The People's Militia, a vehicle and mobility based subfaction entirely based around use of mechanized infantry via their 'combat crawlers' which combined with their other vehicles become a dangerous threat.
-Okhrana, which is a 'experimental' tech faction with solid heavy armor options and an exceptionally good helicopter that can dominate the land, sea, and air.
Finally, all factions can elect to choose one of two generic subfactions, the American corporate Acheron-Tech, or Mercenary Warlords subfactions, both of which offer a variety of fun strategies to mix and match wit existing factions. This will be improved in an upcoming release that will expand the sub-factions into full faction lists, allowing ATOMOS to have Acheron access, etc.
Gameplay: Finalwar's gameplay style is similar to RA2's, but it does enough to differentiate itself that its endearing and a little less derivative than other mods. Aside from cool new units and sides, the gameplay offers several substantial improvements over the base RA 2 experience: secondary economy is implemented for all factions via refinery upgrades, allowing slower more defensive play styles if those are desired, while still rewarding map control and aggression. Players are encouraged to build secondary bases and fortresses by using expansion vehicles ala cnc3 and RA3, and a strong focus on 'VTOL' style air units that hover in the air and do not need to land makes aerial combat and play much more fun and immediately engaging, fully realizing that spectrum of combat. Its quite possible to run full aerial army builds with any faction, and is fun to play to boot. These are the main points that won this mod's high score!
Final words: Final war is a mod that could use some diversity in its army lists. Additional sub-factions, unit variation, new units in general, and story elements will help this mod grow and prosper, but for those not interested in waiting, the mod -today- stands on its own as a breakaway hit for the RA2 modding scene, and a great choice for new and old players alike. Be sure to thank the author and rate this mod yourselves, we can reward active dev's like him. In a scene with the likes of red resurrection and mental omega, its heartwarming to see new works of love break the mold, try something different, and survive. If you are dying waiting for Allies Revenge- look no more, Finalwar is not simply the next best thing its- dare I say it- even better.
cant wait for it
Great mod with all new assets and unique features! The AI is challenging for those looking for a step up from the vanilla AI a There is a lot of work gone into this mod and the author is a jack of all trades when it comes to code, artwork and ideas. Definitely worth checking out
This mod is completly new there are a lot of cool new mechanic in this mod that you should try it.
Awesome mod. However, the fatal error is occurring anytime.
very nice
its a great mod
One of the best YR mods out there. Lots of attention to details.
Nice.
No doubt one of the best mod..Its like whole Different game but in a good way of course,cant imagine a total hours and effort that has been put in to this development.