Red Alert 3

[onodera]

Played a couple of missions, didn't like it. RA1 was awesome, RA2 was silly, this one is plain stupid. I'm not talking about the plot and the cutscenes (even though you cocommanders look like pron actors and actresses). The gameplay itself is boring, and the colours are too bright and clashing. There's no feeling of power at your fingertips, which I had in C&C3. You're just sending crowds of goofy units in the general direction of your objectives.

[Felch]

Originally posted by onodera
RA1 was awesome, RA2 was silly, this one is plain stupid.

C&C had mostly sensible units, with a few that were sci-fi but still fit in, like the Mammoth Tank and the Obelisk of Light. RA was the same way, with Tesla Coils and Gap Generators, but a general foundation in reality. It was more of a "what if technology took a little turn here." In RA 3, it's like technology is just upside down. The Japanese have vehicles that can transform into planes. WTF? This isn't some high tier tech, this is right from the get-go. The Soviets have some magical magnetic ray from space that sucks up tanks and boats. WTF? It's like the guys at EA got a hold of all the drugs I've been looking for all my life, took them, and then designed the game.

If it were a crazy cartoon game with cel-shaded graphics and over the top everything, it would be more of a fit. But the story tries to make this seem like this is an alternate history possibility, with the characters being campy but serious.

This game would make more sense if it were some sort of Who Framed Roger Rabbit style deal, with cartoon armies battling it out. You could have Disney, Warner Bros., Anime, all different styles of animation bludgeoning the hell out of each other.

[Zero]

I played easy games with each side to get the hang of how the new units work, and got bored with the AI. I generally avoid campaigns, and just stick with skirmishes.

I played a skirmish on medium, one AI ally, versus two AI opponents. How are they able to build so damn quickly? I (Soviet) get a power plant and my first refinery up, look over to the Allied ally, and it already has power, two refineries, and barracks.

Then the bombers start to come in. I quit before nine minutes were up. One of the computer opponents had used 571 special abilities in that time. How is a human supposed to compete with that? It's more than one per second, on top of building everything seemingly simultaneously.

If this were hard difficulty it would be fine. But easy is downright retarded (AIs will throw a couple infantry at a time against your base, and call it a day). Medium should be something that a normal person would find fun.

I just don't find juggling a zillion different special abilities in real time that much fun. Every single unit has some little button that you have to press that makes it better in certain situations. Why not just pretend like we recruit soldiers who aren't retarded and know how to fight? That way the player can concentrate on the big picture, moving units around to respond to attacks, making attacks, building units and buildings, stuff like that. Having to babysit units so that they know they're supposed to shift into anti-aircraft mode when the chopper comes is a chore. But if you don't pay attention to every little darling ******, they'll just sit there and patiently wait as they're mowed down by some. . .

Just assume that there were another ten thousand words of hatred for this style of gameplay. If you guys crush it on hard difficulty within ten minutes of installation, good for you. I just can't do that. Is there a speed setting I'm missing?

Well couple of things. Its better to pop barracks before ore refinery. Since ore refinery takes a while, you can spend that time pumping out scouts/eng to claim derricks and explore. If you go refinery first thats few precious seconds stuck waiting and doing nothing.

Sounds like you just got harassed and chipped to death by AIs. And Microing is even more intensive in other 'respectable' RTS games like SC, WC and Dow. This franchise really isn't known for awesome micro and this is their attempt to add some in. And it that regards I agree that this game fails miserably at it.

[DrSpike]

Well couple of things. Its better to pop barracks This franchise really isn't known for awesome micro.

An early contender for the understatement of 2009.

[Felch]

Sounds like you just got harassed and chipped to death by AIs. And Microing is even more intensive in other 'respectable' RTS games like SC, WC and Dow.

Yeah, my build order isn't ideal, that's certainly true. I tend to go for a booming economy, and hope to live long enough to bury my enemies. That's something where I don't blame the game. I was just stunned to see that the AI was able to build so much faster than I was.

As far as microing goes, I've always hated it. I'd rather tear into an enemy base with Carriers than fuss around with High Templars. It just breaks the flow of the game completely when you shift from running an army to clicking on individual units and giving them detailed instructions. Should I have to tell my soldiers to reload when they run out of ammo also? Or can they be trusted to handle that? Microing is a way of falsely increasing difficulty without making the AI any smarter. They just allow it to have fine control over all of its units at once, while the human has to make do with assigned groups and select all shortcuts.

Bottom line, I play to have fun, and furiously clicking on guys isn't fun. If I wanted detailed control over characters, I'd play a turn-based tactical RPG, or something like that. Instead of using all the options at my disposal, I usually wind up relying on the bread and butter units, and ignoring all the fancy niche guys.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I remember playing the original Red Alert way back in 1996 or so. It was the last RTS I played for about seven years, when I got my hands on Rise of Nations. I saw my roommate playing Red Alert 2 way back in 2000 or so but it didn't really grab me. Just seemed like more of the same.

RON is great though.

[Zero]

Yeah, my build order isn't ideal, that's certainly true. I tend to go for a booming economy, and hope to live long enough to bury my enemies. That's something where I don't blame the game. I was just stunned to see that the AI was able to build so much faster than I was.

As far as microing goes, I've always hated it. I'd rather tear into an enemy base with Carriers than fuss around with High Templars. It just breaks the flow of the game completely when you shift from running an army to clicking on individual units and giving them detailed instructions. Should I have to tell my soldiers to reload when they run out of ammo also? Or can they be trusted to handle that? Microing is a way of falsely increasing difficulty without making the AI any smarter. They just allow it to have fine control over all of its units at once, while the human has to make do with assigned groups and select all shortcuts.

Bottom line, I play to have fun, and furiously clicking on guys isn't fun. If I wanted detailed control over characters, I'd play a turn-based tactical RPG, or something like that. Instead of using all the options at my disposal, I usually wind up relying on the bread and butter units, and ignoring all the fancy niche guys.

Well I disagree on alot of things about micro. I understand that you feel that micros are unnecessary extra actions the player have to take and that's fine. (And older games certainly do have more of this... just watch the changes from SC to WC3 for good example) but it's simply not always true. Otherwise you'll be playing a game where you just tell your army to 'go and win for me'. Players that do more get rewarded more. And it's not solely for RTS either. TBS games have alot of micros too, just not within the constraint of time pressure. So I guess it depends on if you like playing games under pressure of time but.. Anyways, whatever. moving on.

If you like going econ first, scouting early is very important in RA3. Getting the derrick first is a major boost in econ (you get the bonus $ when you are the first to capture) which at the time I was playing was too much of importance that it basically sealed the fate of game.

If you also like to sit back and steamroll, play soviets. That's the faction that's designed to your style.