On the surface, there is plenty which is new for Red Alert. Chief among the additions are the Windows 95 version and the SVGA mode, available only in the Windows 95 version (both come on the same disk). Basically doubling the vertical and horizontal resolution of the original, Red Alert in this mode still looks much nicer. Yes, objects are smaller and can be harder to grab (especially individual infantry units in a group), but the increased viewing area the new mode provides increases playability significantly (without a noticeable decrease in speed, at least on low-end Pentiums). Unfortunately, the special resolution used (640x400 instead of the more common 640x480) can cause problems for some users; some video cards apparently don’t support this resolution, and so far Red Alert has been the only game that’s required me to fiddle with my monitor controls. For players with these card problems, with older machines, or for those who don’t wish to play in Windows 95 a DOS VGA version is available; while you’ll sacrifice Internet play, SVGA, and the Map Editor, all other features of the game are included in the DOS version.

Internet play was heralded as a major feature provided by the Windows 95-based Red Alert; while it has been included, it seems strangely constrictive. There is no way to do direct machine-to-machine gaming; instead you must either go through a for-fee gaming service like TEN or Mplayer (neither of which supported Red Alert at release time, despite the inclusion of install software for each service) or via Westwood’s free Westwood Chat service. Sure, you can both just agree to log on to Westwood Chat, but during testing this wasn’t always possible. Admittedly, this was during Red Alert’s release week, so one could expect the system to experience load problems, but what happens as Westwood adds games to the service (which currently supports Monopoly, C&C, and Red Alert)? The chat areas themselves are the typically chaotic mixture of gamers; if you’re willing to wade through the chaff you can probably find a decent opponent, but I prefer a less "noisy" setting for my gaming.

A number of tweaks and improvements have been made to the game system, but overall gameplay is identical to C&C. You’d expect that the wide variety of new units and buildings would lend the game a different feel, but they really don’t; even the naval units seem to play like land units restricted to the watery portions of the map. Terrain is restricted to what you’d find in Western Europe, especially forests and snowy areas (although by press time I’d encountered an indoor scenario as well!). Different terrain still provides just a different visual backdrop; there seem to be no terrain effects on movement or defense. A formation mode has been implemented, but because of the shape and style of the battlefields and the intensity of gameplay it’s not as helpful as, say, a group of preset formations would have been. Of much more use is the unfortunately undocumented waypoint feature; select a unit or group and hold down Alt-Q while clicking on up to ten waypoints; when finished the unit(s) will move along the path you specific (very helpful when trying to avoid those Flame Towers or Tesla Coils, something the AI doesn’t do well otherwise).

The AI has been improved in a few areas; specifically, it no longer stops at walls, instead often going after them with a vengeance (something you can use to help draw the AI units into range of your base defenses), and it will no longer leave a base totally defenseless when you assault its Ore Truck (the equivalent to the Tiberium Harvester in C&C). The AI also uses the "squish" assault method very well...too well, in fact, as it can easily send a multitude of vehicles after troops on foot at the same time, while you’re hard-pressed to handle more than one vehicle at a time in this mission. In other areas, the AI remains incredibly dumb, often ignoring assaults happening a short distance away. Even your own units can be pretty stupid; true, you can set them in "guard" mode, but they can still be pretty idiotic when it comes to preserving their own skin (a "retreat when at X damage" mode would have been appreciated). In solo gaming, Red Alert makes up for these AI deficiencies much as the original did: by giving the computer faster production, more units at start-up, and (often) a more defensible position.

The included Map Editor is unfortunately undocumented (docs were supposed to be on the CD, but if they’re there, they are very well hidden), but should appeal to those wishing to create their own challenges. It appears to be just a map editor instead of a more flexible scenario editor, although the lack of documentation keeps me from being absolutely certain of this. What is there doesn’t seem terribly flexible, but is better than nothing or the shareware hacks which first appeared for C&C. A lack of a random scenario generator in the Map Editor is greatly offset by the new Skirmish mode hidden in the Multiplayer section of the game: this mode lets a single player take on up to seven computer players on a map of their choosing (complete with all the multiplayer settings), so even after the campaigns are finished, the maps which will surely flood the on-line world should provide solo players with plenty of new battlefields to fight across.

The biggest problem, though, is: will gamers want to continue to fight endlessly across more C&C-style battlefields? Die-hard fans of C&C certainly will, and for them Red Alert is an absolute must-have. For those of us, however, who enjoyed the first game but were looking for something fresh-more gameplay options, or at least different gameplay options-Red Alert is a bit of a disappointment; it’s fun in the short run, but the same meal of fun repeated over and over loses its attraction.

Cheats
There are no cheats for this game.