The Red Alert, developed by the mod team of C&C Labs (makes of The Forgotten and C&C All Stars, undertakes one of the most ambitious tasks in C&C modding: to recreate and improve upon an original game. The mod, in development for Red Alert 3, is based off the original Red Alert's art and game play. Not aiming to model realism, it instead endeavors to bring the addictive heart-pounding game play of the classic to a world-class 3D engine, to bring back all of the classic units, including those from Aftermath, and to recreate the very "feel" of its art style. With The Red Alert, epic tank battles, MiG attack runs, and Cruiser strikes will be more than just fond memories — they will all be weapons in your arsenal once again! It was released on September 21, 2011 and was ranked the number one mod on Moddb.
6/10 - Agree (10) Disagree (5)
Well, this mod is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It's the original Red Alert, but in 3D - and not the kind where you need those special glasses.
I played the mod on my tiny little laptop, so I can't really comment on the graphics... Though I trust that they're pretty darn good when viewed on the highest settings. Even still, I was sad that the faction colour choice had been changed from the vibrant hues of vRA3 to various shades of grey (or red and blue if you were wearing 3D glasses).
Gameplay-wise, I can't say I enjoyed it very much. There isn't much room for creativity - it's quantity that counts in this mod. Most low-tier units are single-purpose, and the more interesting units are expensive and (from what I've experienced) rarely seen in a typical game. So it's not really about strategy in the end... It's about how many Rocket Infantry you can amass. As with most '90s games, there's also an oddly refreshing focus on macro, as the old ore-collection system has been brought back - and works great!
So, all-in-all, the mod surprised me. Everyone else who posts has treated this mod like the second coming of Christ, but there were a lot of things that rubbed me the wrong way. I think to really, truly appreciate this mod, you need to have been a fan of Red Alert back when it came out in the '90s. Sadly, I never played the original Red Alert until very recently, so the nostalgia factor simply isn't there... But I figure you can get a similar experience to this mod by playing the original Red Alert while wearing 3D glasses... (Though I wouldn't recommend playing TRA while wearing 3D glasses, you'll get a headache.)
Anyway, I might be harsh in my review, but I still have to give kudos to all the guys at C&C Labs - it's not easy to put something like this together, and it's cool to see your vision come to reality! I think it's pretty clear I (and anyone else who never really got attached to the C&C series) wasn't your target audience, though.