From the Ashes is a campaign for C&C Red Alert that takes place after the Soviet victory, depicting events that builds up to C&C Tiberian Dawn.
At one point, Westwood intended for C&C Red Alert to be a prequel to C&C Tiberian Dawn, before Red Alert 2 derailed that temporarily, and then everything got turned into a parallel reality; From the Ashes, by Zaptagious is, in essence, that missing link between Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn that explains everything and makes it all work, and it does it masterfully.
The story picks up with the Soviet ending (that's right, the bad guys won in this one), and uses the danger presented by that tragedy to explain the origins of the United Nation's Global Defense... Agency (not quite there yet), in what could be seen as a warped alternate reality version of the WW2 events that saw America's entry in the war to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, except this time it's a beheaded, worn down and chaotic Soviet Union that is the occupier.
The campaign initially tackles the nuclear threat presented by the Soviets, and then addresses the unbalance of power between the factions, as the allies admit that the Soviet Mammoth tank is the cavalry weapon of the future, and that everyone must have it. After that what follows is a daring strike on the infamous Kapustin Yar, where many of the RA1 Soviet technologies die (while others are salvaged by a mysterious faction working in the shadows...), the encirclement of Moscow, Operation Overlord, and many other memorable missions that tell a tale of a changing world, that has not seen the last of change, for what the future holds for this timeline is not only military reinvention and political upheaval, but ecological desolation and the radical transformation of all life on Earth.
Visually From the Ashes is very impressive, the immersion mod gives the factions authentic UI elements, score screens, at least one victory CG, and even a magnificent intro.
Levels are well designed and well paced, if you managed to beat RA1, you should be able to handle this, it's nothing crazy like the traditional trial and error of C&C Tiberian Dawn, missions are decently challenging, without being overbearing.
If there's any criticism I can direct at From the Ashes, is that at times I would feel a bit overwhelmed by the instructions given to me, for example, in mission 13B Legion, where I had to travel to various specific points in the map in a certain order to make things easier for myself, I actually pulled up the workshop page of the mission in my browser to read the directions in the briefing again, because it was a lot to keep in mind for the duration of the mission, but I don't think this is a fault of Zaptagious, unfortunately C&C Remastered does not allow you to review the briefing in-mission (as far as I can tell), and it does not have a mission objective reminder like future games do, such things are sorely missed, but it is what it is.
This mod is a must have and a must play for any C&C fan, the unofficial "pre-sequel" (to use the silly Borderlands terminology) that enriches the C&C storyline in new ways, and provides hours of engaging new missions for players of all types.
Awesome mission pack, had a blast. Mission are quite challenging, had to restart few to complete.
Top quality.