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For many people Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is classed as the best in the command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free and I would have to agree with that. With this game, they just got everything perfectly right. As far as real time windows 10 wont download anything games go, even after all comamnd years Red Alert 2 is one of my all-time favorites.

It is more focused on the player having a fun experience than bogging them down with a bunch of useless game mechanics. The story that is told here can be played from the Soviet and Allied point of view. This time the Soviets are more dangerous than ever thanks to Yuri. A psychic that they have who has the ability to control others. Yuri is a fantastic character, so much so he gets his very own expansion.

However, here you get to use him and also go up against him and it is very well done. The story has more than a few twists and turns along the way as well.

At the time Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 was a fantastic looking game and in some ways, I do feel that it holds up fairly well to this day.

The different maps are spread out all across the world ranging from Russia, France, and Hawaii. The buildings, tanks, planes and so on all have a nice look to them. The only thing I do not like is that some of the maps have water and the water does not move!

It looks super awkward and when everything else has a realistic look to it, it stands out like a sore thumb. The voice acting is great. If you ask me, we were entering an age where voice acting was becoming better and better and this game has some very impressive performances. I like the sound design in general as explosions, tanks and everything else all have some real heft to their sound effects.

Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is still so popular to this day because of the gameplay. I can see some people thinking that this kind of real time strategy action is a bit simplified and in comparison, to what some modern RTS games offer, it is. However, I feel that there is the perfect blend of resource management, resource gathering, action, and micro-managing in this game. It never feels too overwhelming, even when you are getting a real beatdown, you never percent feel all is lost, and with the right move, you can make it happen.

I like fre focus on building as many tanks as I can, but it is really up to you in how you go command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free the game.

Each mission in the campaigns has its own set of objectives and some are more fun than others, but that is to be expected.

As well as the campaign, you can play skirmishes against the AI or a buddy. The AI in skirmishes puts up way more a,ert a fight than you anc think.

There are some games that you have great memories of, but they do not hold up all that well. Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is not one of those games! I found this to be windoww as much fun playing it now as it was back when it was down,oad many years ago. If I had to recommend just one game in the series, it would percent be this one. Its announcement in May took many by surprise including us and now it seems barely has the marketing machine had time to get into first gear than the game ted been finished, packaged and readied for release.

Consequently, thanks command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free no small part to the worldwide panning of Tiberian Sun, expectation for Westwood's new real-time strategy game has been only marginally higher than that we would reserve for a decent English summer. To its credit, developer Westwood has neither proclaimed Red Alert 2 be ground-breaking nor Earth-shattering and, after the tragic anti-climax that was Tiberian Sun, we wouldn't have believed them if they had.

Using an enhanced -unnoticeably so - version of the Tiberian Sun game engine and sporting many gameplay features and units from a four-year-old game, Red Alert 2 could be seen as a glorified remake of its predecessor.

Westwood has done the same thing before, with Dune - the botched up remake of real-time strategy's most influential game - so it wouldn't be beneath them to do the same again.

Now before you comand start sending me death threats for my cynical indifference, let me just say if I hadn't been so pessimistic before playing the game, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did. Think about it - and be honest command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free what are your expectations for the next Star Wars game?

I'd wager not too high after having wasted your money on Force Commander. But because we are all Star Wars fans, or at least we should be, there is the hope that the next one will be brilliant. However, in Red Alert 2s case I wasn't hoping for much at all. You'd do well to think the same, for if you do, I guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.

When you review a game - or at least when I do - one essential technique is to jot down pages of notes while you're playing, so when it comes to writing the review, you can refer back to them. Normally what is written down, though illegible, makes some sort of sense, but one of the last things I wrote was "missions good. Nothing special. I am at a loss as to what I was on about, but I can tell you считаю, powerdvd free download for windows 8.1 free ваш the missions in themselves are pretty undemanding, yet taken as a whole and separated by a story that sees the USA being invaded the command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free campaigns on offer you can play as Allies or Soviets are very engaging.

As is adobe suite free download windows free for the course, you build a base, harvest ore, expand your borders and kill the unending trickle of enemy units until you overrun their base, all with scant regard for tactics - been there done that, we all have. With that in mind, what has been apert me is why I enjoyed Red Alert 2 so much and yet could not derive any pleasure from Tiberian Sun.

Both games are practically identical in structure, offering similar com,and to play with across a linear series of missions, liberally interspersed with high-quality video sequences. The only answer I can offer is a subtle difference in feel and mood.

Where Tiberian Sun was a dark and faintly absurd yarn full of square-jawed heroes and boo-hiss villains, Red Alert anti its illustrious rex are somehow believable, despite being even more outlandish. Graphically, Red Alert 2 is far from great.

The animation for some of the larger units, ships especially, is juddery and the explosions are hardly считаю, age of empires 3 for windows 10 download free действительно. However, bearing bright colours and full of tiny details - like baseball and football pitches, fast food bars and houses - many levels are full of civilian life that have little impact on the game, but add a touch of fun to the proceedings.

Sunbathers run half-naked on the beaches and cattle make themselves targets for your restless attack dogs on the farms. Elsewhere, across maps frozen with ice, all the buildings are draped with snow as if to fool us that they had been there forever.

They haven't of course, but it's seemingly insignificant details like this that add a bit of colour to our interminably dull lives. In regard to the two sides you can choose to play, both are as distinct as any you'll find in a real-time strategy game. One of Westwood's strengths is alrrt it always offers two cnquer different challenges in all its strategy games, by throwing in units and buildings that look and play to different styles.

Many of the units are standard fare with infantry and tanks in abundance, but there are a number of clever differences between even those. Soviet conscripts are both cheap and weak, American GIs are marginally more expensive and can be frer in a defensive role, able to fortify themselves in an instant within a cocoon of sandbags.

Alone it is a weak reconnaissance tank, armed with a simple rocket launcher. But put a Gl inside and its turret becomes a powerful anti-personnel platform. With an engineer at the controls it alters into a mobile repair vehicle and there are other transformations that can be achieved by trying out other, more potent infantry units inside.

Things like Rocket Launchers, Tech Yards and Gap Generators we've seen before, but many units, both old and new, can combine in interesting ways. Place some Tesla Troopers with their electrifying weapons around a static Tesla Coil and they'll boost the power of it and keep it charged even when the power is down during an enemy attack. As xommand all RTS games, both sides' infantry units are easily overrun, even in large numbers, but this time around they can find shelter in many of the neutral buildings that pepper the levels.

It's a feature that is long overdue in a Westwood game Age Of Empires IIanti the soon-to-be-released WWII RTS Sudden Strike both offer the same option and although not every building can be captured, certain ones that are can be a powerful command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free to your base by creating chokepoints through which a lightly armed enemy can quickly perish.

Furthermore, there are four neutral Tech Buildings that can be procured - Airports, Hospitals, Outposts and Oil Derricks - command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free of which can support and replenish units that might otherwise have to make command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free long journey back to base.

The Soviets are still the side of cheap mass-produced technology, underhand and willing to sacrifice numbers for victory. In contrast, the Allies rely узнать больше fast, high-tech units that are more adaptable, yet weaker if left in ad sustained fight with Soviet units of similar role.

And once again, Red Alert 2 gives the Soviet side a greater underwater navy, while the Allied fleet wiindows predominantly command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free with Destroyers, Cruisers and Aircraft Carriers going against the Russian Typhoon Subs and Giant Squids.

Trained animals play a larger role in this sequel than they did in the original Red Alert. The Allies now have attack dogs, as do the Russians, and against the Squids the forces of good rely on herds or pods if you want to be technical of clicking dolphins and their sonar attack.

Even though the storyline and the level-by-level feed of new technologies are enough to keep you entertained throughout the two campaigns - and there is always the option of the skirmish game - there comes a time when the war will be over against the computer and the time will come to take on a human downkoad.

We won't продолжение здесь pretend that we have played Red Alert 2 online yet, no servers are running anyway, but we did play over a LAN and, thanks to the diversity in units and the immediate familiarity of all of Westwood's games, playing snd a real opponent was tremendous fun.

In multiplayer or skirmish games you not only have to pledge allegiance to the Allied or Soviet sides, you have to choose an army from a particular country, each of which have a particular special unit they can use: Germany has tank destroyers; Libya has demolition trucks; Cuba has terrorists; the Conquee has paratroopers; and Britain has snipers. Not a deal-clincher, as Steve Hill would say, but fun all the same. As was the case in CSC, Red Alert, Ttberian Sun and now this, multiplayer games are all about throwing forces onward to eat away at the opponent's defences.

As you do so you are constantly thinking about what concoction of forces to send in next and while you leave your units aoert get on with it, you're command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free up another batch to send in.

Westwood has never made strategy a priority in its games and here, too, the multiplayer game is about a slow pace of play that always ends up in spectacular fashion with entire bases wiped away by just one weapon.

This - what we might term the railgun factor' -makes each game a race to build the most devastating weapon available rather than a plod through attack, counterattack and conqusr. About as ground-breaking as Windows 98 is to Windows 95, Red Alert 2 is no less essential for it. The interface has certainly improved since Tlberian Sun and the missions, varied and interesting, are carried along by a storyline that doesn't take itself nearly as seriously as other CSC games - for every cheesy line of dialogue, there's a knowing smile behind.

Remarkably well-rounded, the phrase 'more than the sum of its parts' could easily have been written with Red Alert 2 in mind. Unspectacular graphics, an AI that is clearly artificial and with little in the way of true innovation, Red Alert 2 is, nevertheless, an excellent game, well-designed and carried through with wit and style.

In these times dree realism is de rigueur, Red Alert 2 feels like a breath of fresh air. Just remember not to expect too much and you'll be as impressed as we were. In theory it's a good plan, but the greatest theorist of them all failed to realise the implications of his actions. After developing a timetravelling device in post-war America, Albert Einstein returns to to wipe Hitler from the history books.

Defeated by an uncharacteristic display of unity, Stalin is killed by European Allied forces and Premier Romanov takes over Soviet control. Seemingly compliant and peaceful, he is of course quite mad and plotting his revenge against the Allies, he decides that America is ripe for invasion.

Which is where you come in to save the day. It's an unfortunate fact of online gaming life that the more popular a game is the better it will be. For instance, amazing as Shogun: Total War is as a singleplayer experience, reader download windows 10 free an online game it loses something almost intangible, and thanks to a few bugs, inherent lag-ridden play and a bunch of good-for-nothing cheats, the game has lost much of its online audience as a result.

Not so Red Alert 2, which like its predecessor, is one of the biggest real-time strategy games played online and off. It's easy to see why: not only is CSC itself a tag conuqer popular in gaming circles as Westlife is in pap music and infinitely commnad enduringbut the gameplay mechanics have changed little since Westwood single-handedly invented realtime strategy with Dune 2, back in It's a cinch to learn, runs on almost any PC and you don't have to fart about with IP addresses, obscure applications to the simpleton anyway like GameSpy or pay a monthly subscription.

You just dial-in, click and play. Everything is navigated through the flAPmenu system, you won't have problems finding people to play against, day or night and if you're new to the delights of online gaming, there is no better place to start.

 

Abandonware Games / red alert 2 - Red Alert 2 - Join or Sign In

 

For many people Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is classed as the best in the series and I would have to agree with that. Command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free this game, they just got everything perfectly right. As far as real time strategy games go, even after all these years Red Alert 2 is one of my all-time favorites. It is more focused on the player having a fun experience than bogging them down with a bunch of useless game mechanics.

The story that is told here can be played from the Soviet and Allied point of view. This time the Soviets are more dangerous than ever thanks to Yuri.

A psychic that they have who has the ability to control others. Yuri is a fantastic character, so much so he gets his very own expansion. However, here you get to use him and also go up against him and it is very well done.

The story has more than a few twists and turns along the way as well. At the time Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 was a fantastic looking game and in /22146.txt ways, I do feel that it holds up fairly well to this day. The different maps are spread out all across the world ranging from Russia, France, and Hawaii. The buildings, tanks, planes and so on all have a nice look to them.

The only thing I do not like is that some of the maps have water and the water does not move! It looks super awkward and when everything else has a realistic look to it, it stands out like a sore thumb.

The voice acting is great. If you ask me, we were entering an age where voice acting was becoming better and better and this game has some very impressive performances.

I like the sound design in general as explosions, tanks and everything else all have some real heft to their sound effects. Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 is still so popular to this day because of the gameplay. I can see some people thinking that this kind of real time strategy action is a bit simplified and in comparison, to what some modern RTS games offer, it is. However, I feel that there is the perfect blend of resource management, resource gathering, action, and micro-managing in this game.

It never feels too overwhelming, even when you are getting a real beatdown, you never percent feel all is lost, and with the right move, you can make it happen. I like to focus on building as many tanks as I can, but it is really up вот ссылка you in how you go about the game. Each mission in the campaigns has its own set of objectives and some are more fun than others, but that is to be expected.

As well as the campaign, you can play skirmishes against the AI or a buddy. The AI in skirmishes puts up way more of a fight than you would think. There are some games that you have great memories of, but they do not hold up all that well. Command command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free Conquer Red Alert 2 is not one of those games! I found this to be just as much fun playing it now as it was back when it was released for windows 10 free free years ago.

If I had to recommend just one game in the series, it would percent be this one. Its announcement in May took many by surprise including us and now it seems barely has the marketing machine had time to get into first gear than the game has been finished, packaged and readied for release. Consequently, thanks in no small part to the worldwide panning of Tiberian Sun, expectation for Westwood's new real-time strategy game has been only marginally higher than that we would reserve for a decent English summer.

To its credit, developer Westwood has neither proclaimed Red Alert 2 be ground-breaking nor Earth-shattering and, after the tragic anti-climax that was Tiberian Sun, we wouldn't have believed them if they had. Using an enhanced -unnoticeably so - version of the Tiberian Sun game engine and sporting many gameplay features and units from a four-year-old game, Red Alert 2 could be seen as a glorified remake of its predecessor.

Westwood has done the same thing before, with Dune - the botched up command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free of real-time strategy's most influential game - so it wouldn't be beneath them to do the same again. Now before you all start sending me death threats for my cynical indifference, let me just say if I hadn't been so pessimistic before playing the game, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did.

Think about it - and be honest - what are your expectations for the next Command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free Wars продолжение здесь I'd wager not too high after having wasted your money on Force Commander.

But because we are all Star Wars fans, or at least we should be, there is the hope that the next one will be brilliant. However, in Red Alert 2s case I wasn't hoping for much at all. You'd do well to think the same, for command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free you do, I guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.

When you review a game - or at least when I do - one essential technique is to jot down pages of notes while you're playing, so when it comes to writing the review, you can refer back to them. Normally what is written down, though illegible, makes some sort of sense, but one of the last things I wrote was "missions good. Nothing special. I am at a loss as to what I was on about, but I can tell you this: the missions in themselves are pretty undemanding, yet taken as a whole and separated by a story that sees the USA being invaded the two campaigns on offer you can play as Allies or Soviets are very engaging.

As is par for the course, you build a base, harvest ore, expand your borders and kill the unending trickle of enemy units until you overrun their base, all with scant regard for tactics - been there done that, we all have. With that in mind, what has been baffling me is why I enjoyed Red Alert 2 so much and yet could not derive any pleasure from Tiberian Sun. Both games are practically identical in structure, offering similar units to play with across a linear series of missions, windows 2.2.1 download free interspersed with high-quality video sequences.

The only answer I can offer is a subtle difference in feel and mood. Where Tiberian Sun was a dark and faintly absurd yarn full of square-jawed heroes and boo-hiss villains, Red Alert anti its illustrious predecessor are somehow believable, despite being even more outlandish. Graphically, Red Alert 2 is far from great.

The animation for some of the larger units, ships especially, is juddery and the explosions are hardly spectacular. However, bearing bright colours and full of tiny details - like baseball and football pitches, fast food bars and houses - many levels are full of civilian life that have little impact on the game, but add a touch of fun to the proceedings.

Sunbathers run half-naked on the beaches and cattle make themselves targets for your restless attack dogs on the farms. Elsewhere, across maps frozen with ice, all the buildings are draped with snow as if to fool us that they had been there forever.

They haven't of course, but it's seemingly insignificant details like this that add a bit of colour to our interminably dull lives. In regard to the two sides you can choose to play, both are as distinct as any you'll find in a real-time strategy game. One of Westwood's strengths is that it always offers two very different challenges in all scanner wizard download free windows strategy games, by throwing in units and buildings that look and play to different styles.

Many of the units are standard fare with infantry and tanks in abundance, but there are a number of clever differences between even those.

Soviet conscripts are both cheap and weak, American GIs are marginally more по ссылке and can be deployed in a defensive role, able to fortify themselves in an instant within a cocoon of sandbags. Alone it is a weak reconnaissance tank, armed with a simple rocket launcher. But put a Gl inside and its turret becomes a powerful anti-personnel platform. With an engineer at the controls it alters into a mobile repair vehicle and there are other transformations that can be achieved by trying out other, more potent command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free units inside.

Things like Rocket Launchers, Tech Yards and Gap Generators we've seen before, but many units, both old and new, can combine in interesting ways. Place some Tesla Troopers with their electrifying weapons around a static Tesla Coil and they'll boost the power of it and keep it charged even when the power is down during an enemy attack.

As in all RTS games, both sides' infantry units are easily overrun, even in large numbers, but this time around they can find shelter in many of the neutral buildings that pepper the levels.

It's a feature that is long overdue in a Westwood game Age Of Empires IIanti the soon-to-be-released WWII RTS Sudden Strike both offer the same option and although not every building can be captured, certain ones that are can be a powerful complement to your base by creating chokepoints through which a lightly armed enemy can quickly perish.

Furthermore, there are four neutral Tech Buildings that can be procured - Airports, Hospitals, Outposts and Oil Derricks - all of which can support and replenish units that might otherwise have to make a long journey back to base. The Soviets are still the side of cheap mass-produced technology, underhand and willing to sacrifice numbers for victory. In contrast, the Allies rely on fast, high-tech units that are more adaptable, yet weaker if left in a sustained fight with Soviet units of similar role.

And once again, Red Alert 2 gives the Soviet side a greater underwater navy, while command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free Allied fleet is predominantly surface-based with Destroyers, Cruisers and Aircraft Carriers going against the Russian Typhoon Subs and Giant Squids. Trained animals play a larger role in this sequel than they did in the original Red Alert.

The Allies now have attack dogs, as do the Russians, and against the Squids the forces of good command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free on herds or pods if you want to be technical of clicking продолжить чтение and their sonar attack. Even though the storyline and the level-by-level feed of new technologies are enough to keep you entertained throughout the two campaigns - and there is always the option of the skirmish game по этому адресу there comes a time when the war will be нажмите для продолжения against the computer and the time will come to take on a human opponent.

We won't even pretend that we have played Red Alert 2 online yet, no больше информации are running anyway, but we did play over a LAN and, thanks to the diversity in units and the immediate familiarity of all of Westwood's games, playing against a real opponent was tremendous fun.

In multiplayer or skirmish games you not only have to pledge allegiance to the Allied or Soviet sides, you have to choose an army from a particular country, each of which have a particular special unit they can use: Germany has tank destroyers; Libya has demolition trucks; Cuba has terrorists; the US has paratroopers; and Britain has snipers.

Not a deal-clincher, as Steve Hill would say, but fun all the same. As was the case in CSC, Red Alert, Ttberian Sun and now this, multiplayer games are all about throwing forces onward to eat away at the opponent's defences.

As you do so you are constantly thinking about what concoction of forces to send in next and while you leave your units to get on with it, you're cooking up another batch to send in. Westwood has never made strategy a priority in its games and here, too, the multiplayer game command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free about a slow pace of play that always ends up in spectacular fashion with entire bases wiped away by just one weapon.

This - what we might term the railgun factor' -makes each game a посетить страницу источник to build the most devastating weapon available rather than a plod through attack, counterattack and stalemate. About as ground-breaking as Windows 98 is to Windows 95, Red Alert 2 is no less essential for it. The interface has certainly improved since Tlberian Sun and the missions, varied and interesting, are carried along by a детальнее на этой странице that doesn't take itself nearly as seriously as other CSC games - for every cheesy line of dialogue, there's a knowing smile behind.

Remarkably well-rounded, the phrase 'more than the sum of its parts' could easily have been written with Red Alert 2 in mind. Unspectacular graphics, an AI that is clearly artificial and with little in the way of true взято отсюда, Red Alert 2 is, nevertheless, an excellent game, well-designed and carried through with wit and style.

In these times where realism is de rigueur, Red Alert 2 feels like a breath of fresh air. Just remember not to expect too much and you'll be as impressed as we were. In theory it's a good plan, but the greatest theorist of them all failed to realise the implications of his actions. After developing a timetravelling device in post-war America, Albert Einstein returns to to wipe Hitler from the history books.

Defeated command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free an uncharacteristic display of unity, Stalin is killed by European Allied forces and Premier Romanov takes over Soviet control. Seemingly compliant and peaceful, he is of course quite mad and plotting his revenge against the Allies, he decides that America is ripe for invasion.

Which is where you come in to save the day. It's an unfortunate fact of online gaming life that the more popular a game is the command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free it will be.

For instance, amazing as Shogun: Total War is as a singleplayer experience, as an online game it loses something almost intangible, and thanks to a few bugs, inherent lag-ridden play and a bunch of good-for-nothing cheats, the game has lost much of its online audience as a result.

Not so Red Alert 2, which like its predecessor, is one of the biggest real-time strategy games played online and off. It's easy to see why: not only is CSC itself a tag as popular in gaming circles as Westlife is in pap music and infinitely more command and conquer red alert windows 10 download freebut the gameplay mechanics have changed little since Westwood single-handedly invented realtime strategy with Dune 2, back in It's a cinch to learn, runs on almost any PC and you don't have to fart about with IP addresses, obscure applications to the simpleton anyway like GameSpy or pay a monthly subscription.

You just dial-in, click and play. Everything is navigated through the flAPmenu system, you won't have problems finding people to play against, day or night and if you're new command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free the delights of online gaming, there is no better place to start.

   

 

Command and conquer red alert windows 10 download free -

   

Imagine yourself as a Westwood designer. Imagine the excitement with which you could approach your job, secure in the knowledge that no matter what you did, you couldn't make the game worse -- after all, you're adding on to Red Alert , one of the most impressive real-time strategy titles ever produced. The worst you could do is produce something of no consequence.

Even then it's still Red Alert. Red Alert: The Aftermath is Westwood's newest update to their super-star war game. I'm happy to report that not only is The Aftermath decidedly not of little consequence, but it is in some ways an impressive addition. New maps and, more significantly, new weapons and units are introduced to the mix.

For me it all had the result of renewing my interest in a game I had spent all of last winter playing, but which had since been supplanted by newer titles. If The Aftermath did nothing more than simply remind me that Red Alert is a tremendous adrenaline rush and just flat-out fun, then I'd call it successful.

As it turns out, the additions in The Aftermath serve to help the game evolve subtly, requiring new strategies and presenting new challenges to even the most seasoned of Red Alertwarriors. Since The Aftermath rides piggy-back on the original Red Alert -- without which The Aftermath won't function -- there's not much new to say about gameplay.

Not directly, anyway. The Aftermath includes seven new units and new multiplayer maps. Twenty-five of the new maps are something called "Mega Maps" -- these are just what the name suggests: really, really big maps designed especially for multiplayer games between as many as eight combatants.

So while the basic goal in Red Alert: The Aftermath is the same as that in Red Alert that is, to control all resources and crush all opposition , the introduction of new maps and especially of new units enhances the ways you achieve that goal. All these new units are intriguing; some of these new units fill gaps left in Red Alert; some are more useful than others.

Here's how each one rates. Teleporting Chronotank: A great idea. Since tank assaults generally prove to be one of the most effective tactics in Red Alert , especially for picking off harvesters and thus gaining control of resources, why not introduce a tank that can pop in, do its damage and then pop out before your enemy can send in reinforcements? Unfortunately, another of the realities of Red Alert is that one unit seldom creates enough significant damage to make a difference in the game -- a dozen tanks picking away at a harvester will always enjoy better success than a single tank; six Migs swooping down on a base will do what a lone Mig never could.

And the same is true with the Chronotank -- you can pop up unexpectedly somewhere. But once you do, it's only one tank and as such it really can't do much. You might create a battalion of chronotanks, but that would require great quantities of wealth -- these puppies are expensive at smackers. The best use for this new unit might be to materialize in your opponent's base and pick away at a few buildings while he's off trying to attack your base.

But that turns the chronotank into simply a very expensive sniper -- heck, if you can penetrate the other fella's defenses, why not send in Tanya and really do some damage?

Field Mechanic: Ah, now here is a useful addition to the ranks! It used to be, before The Aftermath , that if you wanted to repair a vehicle you had to drive the thing all the way across the map back to your base, park it on the service depot pad and wait for the little green triangles to work their magic.

With the introduction of the field mechanic, though, you can now repair a vehicle anywhere on the map you happen to be -- providing you can keep this defenseless little foot soldier alive.

I will admit that I am not usually very conscientious during a game about taking the time to repair my units; I fight on the Doritos principle: I crunch all I want and then make more. Therefore my experience with the field mechanic has exclusively been as one trying to defeat an opponent who's got a slew of them running about his base. In our last game here at the GameFabrique offices, my opponent was quickly building a satellite base very near my base.

When I discovered him he had a construction yard, war factory, power plant, a couple of turrets, six tanks and a handful of mechanics. I sent in six tanks of my own, thinking that might well take care of his forces. As it turned out, as quickly as I could fire on his tanks his little mechanics were ratcheting away on them, repairing the damage I was inflicting.

End result? His mechanics kept enough of his tanks alive long enough that they were able to snuff out all of mine. He won that battle in no small measure thanks to the mechanics. These guys are not glamorous, but they are definitely worth much more than the small amount you'll spend on them. Demolition Truck : This one's a kamikaze on wheels.

Pretty simple, really; it's a truck with an atomic bomb strapped to the back that you drive up against the side of a building and detonate. I'm really not too impressed with the demolition truck for the same reason I can do without the Chronotank: the sucker is expensive and, as powerful as its wallop is, it's a solitary unit in a game where group attacks work best.

I drove my demolition truck into my opponent's base as part of a tank attack. Unfortunately the truck was so slow that by the time it arrived in the base the bad tanks had all but finished my good tanks, so my truck was a sitting duck. I detonated without reaching my original target. The failure there was partly mine -- my strategy was weak on that attack. But it should be noted that the atomic bomb on the truck, once detonated, wiped out a few enemy units, bruised a few buildings and little else.

I think the best way to use the demolition truck, and perhaps the way its designers envisioned it, is as a softening device. That is, as an advance vehicle to a tank assault, or one element of a larger advance than the one I made. So you park the exploding truck next to a power plant, it goes powee, knocks half the life out of the plant and your tanks come in to finish it off. You use the demolition truck to save the other unit's time.

The demolition truck is effective when it's used correctly, but it's pretty costly so it might amount to only a minor addition to the game.

Tesla Tank : This one you will use. No doubt about it, the Tesla tank is a major addition to Red Alert and it adds a significant wrinkle to any battle strategy. Because I usually play the Allies when I play Red Alert and my usual opponent customarily takes the role of the Soviets, I'm well aware of the horrific power of the Tesla coil.

To defeat that bugger you've got to think a whole lot faster than I usually seem to be able to think -- I see a Tesla coil and my thinking gets scattered, I forget what my plan of attack was, I go three ways at once and then get zapped into a quivering skeleton.

Now Red Alert's designers have taken the power of a Tesla coil and made it mobile. The only ray of hope for the allies with regard to the Tesla tank is the fact that while it carries a doozy of a zapper, its hide is pretty thin. So if you can get off a few well-placed shots at it before it lights you up like a Christmas tree, you should be able to pick it off effectively.

For those of you taking the Soviet role, use the Tesla tanks as part of a standard tank brigade and you'll have a fun time watching the Allies cry. Tesla tanks are an exciting addition to Red Alert. My only complaint is that I think they should have been Allied weapons instead of Soviet weapons. The Soviets already possess superior tank strength, superior air power and the Tesla coil -- now with the addition of the Tesla tank, I'm afraid the balance of power is too heavily weighted toward the Soviets.

Sea-to-land Missile Submarine: Evil. My God, is this one a scary weapon. Two shots to take out an ore refinery. Two shots to take out a war factory.

I've dumped atomic bombs on construction yards and done less damage. I built three missile subs ten minutes into the game, sailed them over to my opponent's base and ripped him apart. Meanwhile, somewhere, my harvesters had been destroyed by Allied tanks, but it didn't matter: I had seven dollars, no barracks, three tanks and I won the game because I also had three missile subs. This one's fun and awe-inspiring, but it may be too powerful.

The Allies didn't seem to know what to do about my missile subs -- I was playing the computer and you'd expect if anyone knew the solution to this weapon it would be the computer. Ultimately, the missile sub severely skews the balance of power the Soviet way. It's a great innovation, but I don't see anything comparable on the Allied side to counter it.

For those of us who enjoy playing Allies vs. Soviets, the attraction of being the Allies just got less. That complaint lodged, however: Man, what a cool weapon! Shock Troopers: Imagine Tesla coils in the hands of angry young infantrymen and you'll know what a shock trooper is all about. The Red Alert Soviet scientists really have a thing for killing people with electricity. Enter the shock troopers: ground troops with portable Tesla generators that shoot an arc of electricity several yards forward.

These guys are useful as one element in a charge -- put them in with tanks and Tesla tanks and you've got a pretty formidable attack force. The drawbacks to the shock trooper are pretty self-evident: they're vulnerable because they're on foot and, therefore, unarmored; they're slow for the same reason; their shock is annoying, but by itself can't really do much against a tank or any other vehicle.

Against other infantry and as specialists -- like rocketeers -- they're very effective, though, especially since they can't be run over by any vehicle. Activate this baby and send it into your opponent's base. It builds up a powerful harmonic charge and detonates, damaging every unit around it in a large radius. Sounds pretty impressive. Tank deployed," I nearly vomited from fright. In practice, though, the M. D Tank is very slow and therefore vulnerable to attack from much faster tanks or helicopters.

Also, as with the Chronotank, you spend a lot of money and get one vehicle with limited capabilities -- the cost-to-benefits ratio is not favorable. Not a significant addition. This one is a clever idea, well rendered, for which there's little use. New Maps: This addition to Red Alert is perhaps a bit more difficult to appreciate than some of the units -- the reason being you can only experience one new map each game, while you can experience all the new units every game.

Don't overlook the maps, though. The most significant new element is the sheer size of some of them -- they're called Mega Maps for a good reason. While it might have been fun to see Westwood deviate from the established model somewhat, these maps will serve Red Alert lovers well.

The new maps assure that we'll be able to play new, untried locations for a long time to come without having to build them ourselves. And the Mega Maps, I think, will increase the enjoyment of large multiplayer games since it will now take players longer to find each other, which will give them longer to work on their bases and, in turn, result in more protracted and challenging battles.

The Aftermath's look is identical to that of the original Red Alert , which is to say it's quite good. More recent strategy titles like Age of Empires have pushed the edge of the graphics envelope beyond the quality in the Red Alert series, but graphics in this series are certainly among the best you're going to find.