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.
Okay, so this was hiped to be just like Red Alert, but on a 3D engine. That's what I came to expect.
What I DIDN'T expect were dozens of changes. If you're going to do an OpenRA styled version where you change stuff to fit what you think it would be in the modern day, say so. What's advertised and what is given are not the same. And I'm not talking bugs or graphics. Here are a few things:
Weapon Accuracy: I don't know if you ported numbers on damages and armor types straight over or if you modified them, but the weapon accuracy makes some weapons beyond overpowered. Units such as rocket soldiers and artillery can obliterate anything in their path. It also makes infantry die far too easily to tanks: something that was blatantly not intended (as it forced you to mix your units and give the Mammoth Tank a real dominant ability.) And it also makes air units basically useless, as they die far too easily. My HIND died before I could scout out the single rocket soldier that was killing it (speaking of which: air units need to see farther with this shroud junk.)
Tanya: If you can't code Tanya to not fire automatically, that's one thing. But why did you remove her from the Soviets? It makes no sense. At least give Soviets Volkov or something else based on Aftermath missions.
Mine Layers: Seriously? You're charged for each mine you plant? Might as well not even bother. There has got to be a better way to do that.
MAD tanks: Yeah... they don't do 1/3 damage to buildings or anything. I did my normal MAD rush expecting a dead CPU base. Instead things are barely damaged. Plus the deployment method means you must do each individually, screwing with your attack.
I could go on. While this mod is fun and I had some flashbacks, overall I was disappointed with how it turned out. It can be easily rectified, but as of right now... eh, I'll just skirmish on RA1. If you want to change stuff, fine, but don't advertise like it's THE definitive Red Alert.