I own the PC version and Counter Strike, beat both back in the day at least once. I did not download player made maps or mod the units myself like I did for the original command and conquer. While this game was a masterpiece and improved upon the mechanics from the original, I prefer the original. The time travel plot, setting, almost magic sci-fi superpowers, ore being spread across the surface like tiberium, Tanya and her silly pistols being lame compared to the classic Commando, clunky naval combat, annoying interior missions, annoying mission fail state triggers (like time limits), and some of the faction balance, are why I prefer the original game. Now right after finishing the original game on PSP I beat Red Alert on PSP, normal speed mode. I think I forgot to change the difficulty for the Allied campaign but set it to hard for Soviet. The PSP controls were slightly better for this game but still far inferior to mouse and keyboard. The slower normal game speed made it easier to compensate for the lack of speed and precision. The map and build UI defaulted to on and could be changed in the menu; much better than in the previous game though the UI for building stuff was more clunky. I could get four control groups now with the X working but selecting that group always issued a command. It was still so much worse than the 10 that could be made on PC, especially given the new naval units. I could not get the scatter and guard commands to work, even though they did in the previous game. Despite the shortcomings it was still a fun playthrough.
I recently watched some top level player versus player matches for red alert remastered, and incorporated that advanced play. In particular, moving vehicles around during combat to reduce damage taken. I did like the extra tactical benefit from micromanagement but it was definitely overpowered, especially for light tanks. It should have been a trade off; higher chance to dodge versus lower chance to hit. The more powerful expensive tanks should be objectively better. I used passwords to skip most of the interior missions because they were annoying trial and error. Units did not have enough sight range to properly operate with limited resources, and time limits did not mesh well with slow Playstation controls. Several of the Allied missions started off Commando using a spy or Tanya, which were annoying given how easily they were killed by dogs. I cheated to reveal the map for the final Allied mission just to make the Tanya part easier. She started off in a think fast or die situation, and there were a lot of enemies and dogs to fight before getting to build a base. Even after that I built a medic and put her in an APC just to keep her safe to avoid failing the mission. My control groups were tanks, Jeeps, helicopters and a floater, though I had to reassign 2 or 3 groups for naval combat. I used light tanks for my main army due to their overpowered attack and move, and they seemed to be faster than Jeeps. Medium tanks were better for unattended fighting; I did not build many and either mixed them with the lights or left them to defend the base. It was such a weird design decision to give the same faction 2 very similar units. The only real drawback to light tanks was that they were more likely one shot by Tesla coils while mediums had a better chance to retreat and repair. Light tanks were good at crushing infantry but I used my second control group specifically to kill Infantry. Apcs were more powerful than Jeeps but I never bothered to use them and did not test to see if they had better sight range. I used a group of five Jeeps though I found they took a lot of casualties. It was very important to ensure the enemy infantry were attacking tanks not the Jeeps as they did not out range Infantry. The Allies lacked mobile anti-air so it could be useful to add in a couple apcs full of Rocket Infantry. I found it easier to lure enemy choppers back to base to get shredded by AA guns. The helicopters functioned the same as GDI orcas only a bit better because the Soviets could not build rocket infantry (except in multiplayer). Several Choppers could easily wipe out an entire base as long as they were kept repaired. They were the best way to take out Tesla coils and great at killing V2s and heavy tanks. The anti-tank minelayer was a low cost way to take out enemy vehicles and harvesters but it was very time and attention consuming. Rocket infantry were given the Sam missile as the secondary weapon so they were far more effective against air than in the original C and C. They did well as air defense for the base but Hinds and yaks countered them. Rifle Infantry were not that useful because grenadiers and flamethrowers killed them easily; too easily for medics to be of much use. Spies were an interesting unit but they were slow and did not have enough sight range to see a dog before getting killed. I found it better to scout with a vehicle that was fast enough to retreat, or an expendable cheap rifleman and rely on the GPS satellite to reveal the enemy base. Spies did have a niche for revealing the enemy base if the satellite was not available. Infiltrating the sub pen to get sonar pulse a great way to help against subs, assuming the pen was even accessible. I did read about a glitch to make spies walk on water. The only other useful infiltration was the radar, but it was only useful if the satellite was not available or when playing against an ally with gap generators. Gun boats and destroyers both had depth charges to use against subs, so the faster gunboats were better at that but terrible for attacking ground. I used a single gun boat in the lead to detect subs and circle around to evade torpedoes while my Destroyer group closed in to attack. Destroyers were great against both ground and air, even outranging Tesla coils. The cruiser (should have been called battleship) was incredibly powerful with insane range, easily able to cripple a base by itself, but not every map had enough water. Allied base defenses were cheap and effective, with gun turrets countering tanks and pill boxes countering Infantry. I found it better to put the pill boxes in the same line as the turrets or behind them as the turrets were much more durable. Camo pill boxes were more durable and could even survive a V2 rocket hit, but it was debatable whether the extra cost was worthwhile. AA guns should be placed near the outskirts to shoot down Jets before they release their bombs. I found they usually targeted my war factory, repair bay or harvesters. Artillery was probably the least useful Allied unit. Tanks already out ranged flame turrets, pill boxes covered infantry defense and they were too slow and fragile to be on the offense. I didn't bother to use them. I could see putting them behind turrets for additional base defense or bringing it along to attack buildings that a tank would not be able to get close enough to. Lastly the Chronosphere was not really worth using. All it did was teleport a single vehicle and create random destructive storms. During the final mission those storms wrecked the enemy base and later killed some of my attack force. Using it offensively was tricky because there was not much one unit by itself could do. It would probably be a bit more useful against a human because the AI was on the ball defending its base. If I had already lured the choppers to be shot down and there was an inaccessible ridge near the enemy base then artillery could do some damage. It could also be used to put a mine layer or a cruiser into an advantageous position, or used defensively to teleport a near death unit back to base.
I prefer the Soviet faction due to their more powerful units. A lot of their missions had annoying time limits and conditions though. Again I used passwords to skip the interior levels after at least trying once. There was one where I started off being chased by a larger group of rifleman and could not seem to outrun them. I failed the second last mission I guess because they destroyed their own chronosphere. Rather than do the entire level again I just skipped to the next. I got a good win on the one about destroying the stolen convoy truck by dropping paratroopers right next to it. I barely scraped by the level about escorting three trucks because they were following my engineer and had him trapped. I had the way cleared and could have easily won if I could actually move the trucks. Instead the time limit expired and enemy vehicles arrived. I lost almost everything while one truck barely made it to the end. Stupid escort mission, those trucks should have been directly under my control. My four control groups were tanks, hind or dogs, Jets or V2, and submarines. The heavy tank formed the backbone of their early army. It was almost as fast as a medium with double the fire power, which allowed it to do pretty well against Infantry. It was a great unit but the only Soviet anti-air unit was the mammoth tank, which was largely the same as it was with GDI. The only difference was that it automatically shot rockets at Infantry so it countered everything. Despite being so powerful they were shockingly easy to lose with their slow speed. Their self healing allowed them to better survive mines; oh how I hated those invisible mines. Both tanks were good for attack and defense though the mammoth edged out as a bit better for attacking if the enemy had helicopters, otherwise the heavy was better for speed. Early on I backed up my heavy tanks with a group of two to three dogs to kill Infantry. This was effective though I had to be sure the Infantry were not going after the dogs and that the tanks did not kill them with friendly fire. Later on I had a single hind helicopter that I used for killing rocket Infantry, artillery and other weaker units. Large groups of Hinds could replace migs in a few missions that did not allow them. Migs were the best Soviet unit and probably the best thing in the game. I liked using a squadron of five to six to bomb things to death. They could easily destroy any vehicle, ship or building, though they were fragile and had to be repaired often. A great tactic was to offer decoys for any anti air units to attack, such as paratroopers or my favorite trick; putting iron curtain on the Hind and having it soak up all the anti-air. V2 rockets were great for destroying base defenses as well as any stationary units like tanks and destroyers. Having one was good enough, three at most to destroy a gun turret instantly. However they were very unhandy and prone to firing when I did not want them to. I wish there was a way to tell them to only fire when told to. Submarines were the only combat naval unit and were even more clunky to use than the Allied ships. Just telling them to attack was silly as they would clunk around and get in each others way. They had trouble hitting moving targets. The best thing to do was micromanage each sub to surround a ship. Doing that with five Subs would often one shot a Destroyer. In any other situation it was shockingly easy to lose Subs. The remainder of the Soviet's units were not very good. Yak planes were better at killing rocket Infantry then the Hind so it could be worthwhile to have one. The antipersonal mine layers were pretty much useless. A small group of two to three grenadiers were good at killing Infantry but like in the previous game they were bad for friendly fire. Flamethrowers were changed to shooting a slow fireball that was less effective than the instant flame in Tiberium Dawn. It was still very effective against Infantry but dubious whether they were worth building instead of grenadiers. This was another baffling design choice; why the one faction got both types of specialist anti infantry Infantry. The Iron Curtain was much better than the chronosphere. I used it for air but it could be used for ground and naval situations. Paratroopers were a lot of fun to use. Most times I used them to exploit any vulnerabilities in the enemy base defense. Other times I used them for defense or even scouting. The spy plane was not quite as good as the GPS satellite while the bomber was kind of useless. The Tesla coil was the overall best defensive structure but it was very vulnerable and needed to be supported by units, multiple layers of concrete wall and Sam sites. I usually put two coils next together with 2 or 3 layers of concrete. Flame turrets were not very good because they could not shoot over concrete walls, had limited range and were not good against tanks, so I rarely used them.
After the campaigns I played a few skirmish maps. The first one on normal was too easy. Then I played hard and lost because the enemy started off right next to me and I had both power plants towards them. I did manage to defeat their attack but lost all power and was paralyzed. After winning a few matches I cheated to reveal the map just to skip the tedious scouting phase. I used a slightly different strategy here compared to the campaigns. I doubled up on ore harvesting by building a second refinery, still two trucks per. The key to beating the hard AI was surviving their frequent large attacks. They were not very intelligent though so it was enough to build a solid defense and a large group of tanks. Then I could pick away at their base from the air, or sea if the map allowed.
If I were to mod the game I would improve the sight range of some units, especially the jeep. Dogs would have 0 sight. Rocket infantry and APCs would be buildable by Soviets during the campaign. Both factions could build the supply truck as a cheaper unarmed apc. The jeep would be faster than the light tank, which would be lowered to the same speed as medium tanks for balance. Medium tanks and grenadiers would switch factions. Heavy tanks would have weaker hp and given dual flame shot to become anti infantry flame tanks. It could also be fun playing through with all unit hp severely lowered.
9.0/10
