Red Alert 3

Being one of the first people to have the opportunity to have hands on time with Red Alert 3 was one of the coolest parts of the Red Alert 3 Community Summit! When we first had the chance to play the skirmish AI and a bit of the multiplayer, it was very exciting and there were many questions to be answered!

Red Alert 3 is arguably one of the best Command and Conquer games since Red Alert 2. Its smooth game play, its excellent pace, and micro intensive battles make it one of the most fun RTS experiences available. Unlike many of the other CnC series games Red Alert 3 is largely based on player skill, not spam. All of the features and game designs come together to make an excellent game on both the casual and expert levels. The following is a break down of each faction and links to the full structure and unit indexes which have information on every structure and unit in Red Alert 3.

Empire of the Rising Sun

The Empire of the Rising Sun is the most unique and mysterious faction in Red Alert 3. It is surely one of the most fun factions to play in Red Alert 3, at least from what I was able to take from the short time I spent playing this faction. Everything is unique, the building mechanic, the technology mechanic and even the way that most of the units' secondary abilities worked. Many of the units function like Transformers, after they change their functionality is completely new and extremely helpful when combating many different types of units. The Empire is considered to have the "highest" tech units. With the necessity of unit mixing and the addition of secondary abilities that the Empire of the Rising Sun has, it makes for extremely exciting and competitive games!

Building Mechanic
I know this is what you have all been waiting for so here it is. The Empire's build mechanic is like no other seen in the Command & Conquer series, at least applied in such a way as this. At the start of the game you begin with your MCV. In order to produce buildings you must create the pod vehicle, more commonly referred to as an "egg" which you then direct to the location of choice, be it water or land, and order it to deploy. This makes the Empire a very fast faction which can expand into any medium with extreme precision and ease. Although it might seem like a good idea to just send one of these into your opponents base and build a barracks, but there is a deploy time which leaves it vulnerable to attack (the eggs insta-build from the MCV). This build mechanic may not suit everyone for competitive game play but it certainly is fun to use!

Technology Mechanic
The Empire of the Rising Sun also has a very unique technology mechanic that also gives it several advantages over the other factions, although it does come with disadvantages. To get to the next Technology Level as the Empire of the Rising Sun you must purchase the Tech upgrade at the particular unit production structure that you wish to produce the next Tech Level units. This gives you the ability to save some resources by not teching up the structures that you are not using, or do not need to upgrade. The Soviets and the Allies, when Teching up must purchase global technology upgrades, obviously being more costly than the Empire's individual upgrades.

Player Powers
The Main Empire player powers are their Global Upgrades and their Balloon Bombs. The Empire's global upgrades allow you to significantly increase the power of the Empire's navy. This can give you a competitive edge if you are facing a much larger force or if you are trying to control the area of the map covered in water. The Empire's balloon bombs are based on weapons that the Japaneses attempted to use in World War II rather unsuccessfully, however the ones at your disposal are very powerful. You are also able to guide them in the direction of your target, that way you can deal as much damage with it as you can.

Check out the complete index of Empire Structures and Units!

The Allies

The Allied Forces follow the pattern that the rest of the factions set with their non-linear structure and technology leveling process. The advantages that the Allies gain by this are tremendous but it does not give them unfair advantages over the other factions. The Allied Forces rely on their developed technology and their well trained troops to obtain victory in battle. The Allied forces may seem weaker at first but if placed in the proper combination they are devastatingly precise and powerful weapons.

Build Mechanic
The Allied build mechanic is much like what the build mechanic was in Command and Conquer 3, however it is not easily abused. When you have to build something for the Allies you must first build it in the menu. When it is complete you can place it anywhere within a given build radius (static for the Allies). Unlike in CnC3 where someone could build Cranes for multiple build queues, the Allies can not, so when attacking them you will not see five multi gunner defense turrets pop up in front of your army. This build mechanic also provides the Allies with a few advantages that neither of the other factions have. When constructing buildings the other two factions are open to attack and possibly losing the building before its completed, with the Allies the buildings are always completed as soon as you can place them.

Technology Mechanic
The Allied Technology Mechanic is probably one of the most interesting ones in the game. With the Allies you are able to purchase two tech upgrades. These being Height and Clearance and the other being Max Clearance. This tech is then transferred to all the buildings in a certain radius of the Construction Yard. If you want to build an expansion and have higher technology levels available to build at this expansion you will have to either move your Mobile Construction Yard into range, or purchase the upgrades at the outpost.

Player Powers
The major allied Player Powers are their Global Upgrades, their Cryo powers, and the Chrono Powers. The Allied Powers vary greatly but they all serve very important purposes. The Global Upgrades for the Allies allow you to dominate with their Air Force. The Cryo powers allow you to freeze an area making all the units in that area freeze as well. You can than easily take them out as frozen units can take very small amounts of damage because they are brittle. The Allied Chrono abilities allow you to move and switch units anywhere on the map, although the farther you switch them the longer the chrono cool down is, leaving them exposed for attack. Note that you do not need the Chronosphere to use the Allied Chrono Powers.

Check out the complete index of Allied Structures and Units

Soviets

The Soviet Faction is considered the brute force faction of the three. The Soviets rely on large, intimidating, atmosphere destroying armor units. They also have large amounts of both highly trained (Tesla Trooper) and poorly trained units (Conscript). The Soviets are also a very unique faction in many ways, their building and Technology mechanics are vastly different from both the Allied and Empire mechanics. I also found the Soviet faction to be one of the most interesting factions with lots of character.

Building Mechanic
The Soviet build mechanic is basically the polar opposite to the Allies, but it does have some similarities with the Empires build mechanic. As a Soviet player you must choose immediately where you are going to place your structure and then must allow it time to build from the ground up. This leaves Soviet buildings very vulnerable for a decent amount of time. Although this is somewhat hard to deal with if your opponent is doing a strong Air build but it forces you to make tactical choices not only where you place your buildings but when you place them as well.

Technology Mechanic
The Soviet Technology mechanic is very unique unlike the other two factions where you have to purchase Tech in some way or another, for the Soviets you must build structures to unlock the tech. To gain access to the Tech Level 2 units and structures you must build a Super Reactor and to get to the third tech level you have to build a Battle Lab. Unlike the other factions the Soviets only have one pre-requisite for getting the next tech level and that is building the structure that goes with it.

Player Powers
The Soviets generally have three different types of powers at their disposal. These are the Orbital Dump powers, the Magnetic Satellite powers, and the Toxic powers. Each of these has very specific purposes. The Orbital Dump is a power which drops pieces of satellites down onto the battlefield it also dumps what every you may have sucked up with Magnetic Satellite making the higher level powers devastating. The Magnetic Satellite allows you to suck up enemy armor units, removing them from the battlefield permanently. The Toxic powers are best used against Infantry as they create areas of Toxic Waste much like the delsolator did in Red Alert 2. These areas of toxic waste are also dangerous to light and heavy armor alike.

Check out the complete index of Soviet Structures and Units