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.
Alright, so I had at a it a bit, and here's my tentative opinion.
First of all, the number one thing hurting this mod is lack of coherency. When I started a game on Pier Pressure, I had my large, smooth-looking conyard right next to an original RA3 structure. It was extremely jarring.
Second, many units feel underdesigned and bland. I'm going to have to stick to my opinion from the first video (http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-red-alert/videos/the-red-alert-gameplay-trailer#imagebox) that the visuals could have been pushed more into stylized territory.
Good stuff? The pace of play feels perfect. It has all the stuff I'd want from an RA1 remake. Leaving in garrisonable structures and tech structures was good. The balance feels both better than RA1, and very similar to it. The collector mechanic works perfectly, mad props for that.
Nitpicks. The unmanned ranger is just weird; sticking a scaled infantryman into a vehicle is not hard. You'd barely have to animate them. If it was a style choice, it was a strange one. I was missing the giant backpacks on the infantry. You changed the top of the UI, but not the bottom, so they don't match.
Bug Report; when you order the mechanic to repair a vehicle, he goes into a squat and glides over to it. It looks very odd.
Finally, mad props to you guys for releasing this. It's the biggest and most complete RA3 mod yet, and you've really lit a fire under my butt to make Paradox better and more complete. Well done, gentlemen.
Simply put, this is a true remake of the classic strategy game of the mid 90's. Playing this mod is a heartwarming experience.
A very good game with some bugs, glitches and balance issues. The mod would have been more better if it has the original two single-player campaigns.
Excellent remake of the RED ALERT. Need some patches to fix issues but this game is well done.
Fantastic re-creation of the original red alert.
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.
So yesterday I have been playing it for 2 hours and it got an 10 for the old red alert style back in the 90's overall the mod is just great.
but the down part is that the air-units got a small sight of view and that my units don't attack automatically, for me then don't know if other people got this but like i said this mod give's back the old red alert feeling pretty well.
Keep updating & [make some "bug" from what RA has]
An excellent remake of the classic RA. If only the camera could be zoomed out a little further I would have had no complains at all! I still give it 10/10 though.
Bar a few rough edges it plays well, looks how it should :D.
Is stable enough (hour + and 3 games no crashes yet).
For v1.0 thats great, most games don't come out this stable, roll on the next version. :D.