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As many fans already know, Red Alert is actually a prequel to C&C, taking place in an alternate-reality time period where in Hitler never came to power. Instead, players must command the Allied forces against Stalin, who is trying to take over the world. Of course, players can ally with Stalin if they choose to play "the bad guy."

In addition to a much more beautiful resolution, Red Alert's maps are twice as big as the biggest found in C&C or Covert Ops. Over 30 new game elements can be found in the new game as well, including thieves, medics, attack dogs, spies, land mines, tesla coils, destroyers, cruisers, MIGs, paratroopers and submarines. There are also new building types, such as the Gap Generator, which functions as an anti-radar device, and the Chronosphere.

The inclusion of water vehicles and weponry add a whole new level of strategy to the game, as does the ability of the player to interact with the environment more than was possible previously: Bridges can now be blown up and repaired.

The user interface has been prettied up to take advantage of the increased resolution, and networking support has been expanded. Now, up to six players can join in the battle over a LAN or over the Internet. The chat capabilities have been expanded as well to allow more text to be sent between players.

Two new features players are sure to love: Skirmish mode allows you to play multiplayer games solely against 1 to 5 computer opponents (similar to Warcraft and Warcraft II's custom scenarios), giving people a great opportunity to brush up on their multi-player prowess before playing against real human opponents. And Westwood is including a terrain editor as well, so that diehard fans can now build their own multiplayer maps and distribute them among friends and opponents.

Playing the game briefly, you'll noticed that it seemed a bit more difficult than C&C. Some of the keyboard commands have either been changed or not implemented yet, as Control-[digit] didn't work when trying to group units. Although there is a bunch of new artwork in the game, many of the units and some of the buildings remain the same as in C&C. Light tanks, mammoth tanks and the apache-style helicopters were among the unchanged unit types. The helipads, gun turrets and ore silos (you mine ore instead of Tiberium) were also unchanged. Most of the buildings have been altered to more acurately reflect the target era in which Red Alert takes place. And a few units, such as the medium tanks, have been changed only slightly, in this case the addition of a second barrel on the turret.

Engineers, now called Renovators, have been improved: Now, they can not only take over enemy installations, but they can repair your buildings as well. Spies look like they're going to be among the most valuable new units. They have the ability to infiltrate an enemy's radar installation and report back everything that the enemy is building, doing and saying to other players.

In all, Red Alert should be a solid sequel to Command & Conquer. It adds enough to keep players interested without completely changing the game. Command & Conquer: Red Alert is being distributed by Virgin Interactive Entertainment (VIE).

And for those players who still haven't gotten enough of the original C&C, Westwood and VIE have announced that they are releasing Command & Conquer on four new platforms: Right now you can play in Windows 95 (with the same beautiful 640 X 480 graphics found in Red Alert), the Mac and the Sega Saturn. In '97, it will also be released for the Playstation.