The Reds invade America in C&C's surprise new game sequel.

You may have thought that George Lucas had the prequel market pretty much sewn up with the Star Wars Episode One films, but while The Phantom Menace was but a twinkle in the bearded one's bank account, Westwood Studios had already begun work on a prequel to its own 1995 hit, Command & Conquer. Set in the years between the end of World War II and the arrival of Tiberium, Red Alert featured an alternative and, let's face it, not very nice view of what could have happened had some people had their way and the Allies went to war with the Soviet Union. Not a Cold War, a Real War. But why am I telling you this? Approximately a quarter of a million copies of the game were sold in the UK and chances are you were one of those who bought one...

Red Alert 2 is the sequel to the prequel. However, with the announcement of the 3D C&C Renegade as the next big step from Westwood and the never-ending, emphatic, "no" from Westwood regarding the possibility of a sequel, this game was almost on the could-have-been, but-never-was list. The cards seemed stacked against it, but you have to realise two things in this game of bluff: first, Westwood not doing a Command & Conquer game sequel is kind of like Ford not making a new Fiesta - unlikely. Second, the word no, in software industry parlance, doesn't mean "no we're definitely not doing a sequel", it actually means "no, we're not telling a scumbag journalist like you that we are until we're good and ready to do so." So, Red Alert 2 - in development for over a year now, and announced last month - will allegedly be on sale by the year's end.

I'll bet you thought you gave those damn Soviets a sound thrashing last time around? Well, you only defeated them in mind, not in body. The spirit of Stalinism lives on, while what was the spirit of Russkie-hating McCarthyism has slipped from the American psyche. Now the Commies aren't hiding under decent American's beds anymore, they're attacking the country wholeheartedly - from bases in Mexico using a secret psychic, mind-control army, including, apparently, exploding cows and crazed giant squid.

The game is based on this attack, using famous landmarks from US cities, like the White House in DC and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, to set the scene as the Soviets roll forward under your supreme command. The game will also be played from an Allied perspective, just like the original, with America being recaptured and the action moving to poor old Europe again, identified by landmarks like the Eiffel Tower.

Not to be outdone, the Allies have new toys to play with, too. The central theme of Allied technology is so-called Chrono Technology - giving you the ability to beam units around like they do in Star Trek, or at least that's our understanding of it. As well as new units and technologies, many familiar ones from the first game will return, like Special Forces babe Tanya, and a wide variety of tanks, ships, amphibious craft, dirty, stinking nuclear weapons and, of course, Tesla technology.
The game is based on the same isometrically-viewed voxel landscape as Tiberian Sun, itself the eventual result of much tinkering with Dune 2's 1993 vintage playing interface. There does seem to be a lot more variety in Red Alert 2's landscapes as well as appearing much busier, unit-wise, than the earlier game, with lots of exciting explosions and unusual weapons.

Westwood Studios has just started filming the cut-scenes for the game, described as having the highest production values in Westwood history, and the in-game engine game, as we saw it, looks well underway. The release date is scheduled for winter 2000. But we'll have to wait and see, remembering the various delays to Tiberian Sun.

There will be somewhere between 13 and 15 units a side once we're done balancing. About half are extensions from units in Red Alert, but made to be more interesting and powerful. About half are completely new.
The idea behind our unit design is to make sure the sides don't mirror each other. They both have some wild technologies at their disposal, and they both have extraordinary strengths and tragic weaknesses. The trick now is to balance the game and still give either side extremely powerful toys to play with. We call it balancing the game high, which just means you'll always be either on the verge of victory or on the edge of defeat - or both at the same time.

It's hard to pick one unit that's the most exciting, because often the game you're playing at that moment will dictate how exciting a unit is. Sometimes Yuri, the psychic, is great because he can mind-control enemy units. He's not so exciting when a dog bites him to death. Sometimes the terror drones are exciting, especially when they turn an arsenal of expensive tanks into a junk yard. The Kirov Airships are devastating, but they don't go very fast and can be easily killed without ground support. Chrono Legionnaires are great fun as they can erase entire buildings from time.

And that's just a start. We've tried hard to make sure each unit is exciting and unusual in some way.

PCGW: Will units gain experience like they did in Tiberian Sun?

MS: Yes! We're actually taking the concept further than T-Sun did. You'll see units become veterans more quickly and their ability increases will be much more noticeable.