Saturday, March 8, 2008

Skeptical of Red Alert 3

Okay I loved the Red Alert series, back in the day Westwood Studios had the RTS genre under their thumbs. The newest Red Alert pits our favorite nations against each other in a cartoony bought to annihilate each other. The different playing styles of each nation was the Red Alert series greatest strength.

Each nation had its overall appearance tied directly to the units and their use in different situations and strategies. We all had our favorite units (40 German Shepards work for me) and ways to use them and sending in overwhelming numbers was a sure-fire way to destroy any opposition.

But this is 2008 and the RTS genre whether EA would like to recognize it or not, has changed. Their last attempt with Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium wars was ho-hum at best. It just didn't feel like much was getting done when you sent in your troops and held their hand every step of the way. I hated micro-managing my entire base. There were too many elements in CC3 that went to waste cause my attention was elsewhere. The old Red Alerts were simple enough where this didn't present a problem.

Supreme Commander in my eyes was the first breath of fresh air in the genre in a long time. Sure each race was a carbon copy of the other, but it gave you more control than any other RTS aptly living up to its name. Rather than babysitting your troops like in CC, you were able to stack orders on each building and unit. And that was good because the scale of the game was huge along with the battles requiring you to be in many places at once. But you had your units doing their thing while you worried about the bigger picture, not about guiding a few units around a mountain (see CC3).

So here's where I'm placing my money; if Red Alert 3 can keep it simple like the old Red Alerts then I will enjoy the game immensely ("Mammoth Tank assembled" always makes me smile). If the game becomes too complex and becomes a micro-managing orgy then I will not enjoy the game. That simple.

EA had a great chance to make the Tiberium series shine again and failed; where you spent your time worrying about dictating every step your units make. Hopefully Red Alert 3 is a lesson learned and brings this aging franchise a fresh breath but also back to its roots; being fun.