Command & Conquer: Red Alert (series)

Last updated
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Genre(s) Real-time strategy
Developer(s) Electronic Arts, Westwood
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X, PlayStation, PlayStation Portable, DOS, iPhone
First release Command & Conquer: Red Alert
November 22, 1996
Latest release Command & Conquer: Red Alert
October 16, 2009

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a series of real-time strategy video games set within the Command & Conquer series.

Contents

The Red Alert series takes place in an alternate timeline, created when Albert Einstein travels back to the past and eliminates Adolf Hitler in an attempt to prevent World War II from taking place. This plan indirectly backfires and results in an unchecked Soviet invasion of Europe by Joseph Stalin in 1946. The Stalin-led invasion of Europe serves as the backdrop for the first Command & Conquer: Red Alert game. Two expansion packs for Red Alert were released: Counterstrike and The Aftermath. New units, missions, multiplayer maps and music tracks were included in these expansions.

The story of the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert game portrays the early in-universe history of the main Command & Conquer storyline, and leads directly to the Tiberium story arc of the Command & Conquer franchise. [1] [2] [3] [4] With the addition of the title Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 at the hands of a new team of developers in September 2000, this connection was rendered unclear, with fans of the series becoming split as to whether or not the time travel excursions of the Red Alert series were forming a separate continuity altogether, or just another side adventure on the way to the Tiberian era. At the time of the release of the 10th anniversary compilation pack, known as Command & Conquer: The First Decade , this new and second Command & Conquer development team claimed in interviews on the pack's bonus DVD that the games existed as three separate universes -- Tiberium, Red Alert and Generals , but with the release of the title of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars in 2007, at the hands of a third new development team from EA Los Angeles, Electronic Arts published a featured document pertaining to ''Tiberium Wars's storyline in which a direct reference to Kane's appearance in the 1950s of Command & Conquer: Red Alert is made. [4] [5]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a stand-alone sequel to the original Red Alert game, which unlike its predecessor makes no references to the Tiberium story arc, and which came with its own expansion pack, Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge . In the storyline of Red Alert 2, the Soviet Union invades the United States, using mind control technology to capture US forces and deactivate America's nuclear arsenal. In Yuri's Revenge, Soviet Premier Romanov's advisor Yuri attempts to overtake the world by using his "psychic dominator" technology. A second and last attempt to stop Yuri's plans sends the player back in time to the conflict occurring in Red Alert 2, but instead of fighting the Soviets/Allies, the player fights against Yuri.

Command & Conquer creator Westwood Studios also released a music disc with the music from the Red Alert series. This disc came bundled with some of the later release versions of the games.

Plot

The basis of the Red Alert series is that in 1946, at the Trinity site in New Mexico, Albert Einstein created a "Chronosphere" time machine. Traveling back to Landsberg, Germany, he met a young Adolf Hitler just after the latter's release from Landsberg Prison in 1924 and shook hands with him to cause a reaction that eliminated Hitler's existence from time by disturbing the "space-time continuum". This prevented Nazi Germany from forming and averted World War II as we know it from taking place.

Without Nazi Germany to stand in the way of Joseph Stalin's ambitions of conquest, the USSR tries to form a Soviet Union stretching across the entire Eurasian landmass. The nations of Europe, including Germany, form the Allies as a Soviet invasion precipitates a different World War II ( Red Alert ) and eventually a Soviet invasion of the United States in 1972 ( Red Alert 2 , Yuri's Revenge ). The Soviet Union is ultimately on the losing side.

In Red Alert 3, the Soviet Union teeters on the brink of collapse. Seeing the Premier's office empty, Cherdenko reveals Dr. Zelinsky's Soviet time machine to General Krukov. To retroactively save their country, Cherdenko travels back to 1927 with Krukov and Zelinsky in tow to assassinate the man behind the Allies' technological superiority. As Albert Einstein comes off stage from giving a speech, Cherdenko shakes his hand with disintegrative results. The trio is then returned to the present, where the Soviet Army has the Allied forces on the brink of defeat in Europe and Cherdenko is Premier of the USSR. Just as the gloating starts, an ultra-advanced and previously nonexistent Empire of the Rising Sun embarks on world domination. Without Einstein, calls to use the USSR's formidable nuclear weapon arsenal are met with blank stares, as the atom bomb has apparently never been developed in this new timeline. Thus while the Soviets and Allied battle amongst themselves the Empire of the Rising Sun enters the chaos and a three-way world war breaks out for total control of the globe.

Games in the series

Production history

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Released in October 1996, Command & Conquer: Red Alert was the second Command & Conquer game to be released by Westwood Studios. Instead of returning directly to the Tiberian universe, Westwood Studios decided to create a game centered around the concept of "What would happen if World War II hadn't happened?" The resulting game of Command & Conquer: Red Alert became the prequel to the original Command & Conquer. [1]

Two expansion packs were released within a year, called Counterstrike and The Aftermath, these were also released for the PlayStation in a pack called Retaliation, with additional missions and cut scenes.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

In this sequel to Red Alert, the Soviets launch an attack on the United States. With the aid of Yuri, Premier Romanov is able to avert the nuclear retaliation of the Americans and he is able to gain a foothold in the United States itself. Red Alert 2 features new and old units and technologies and feature a variety of countries within each faction (Allies/Soviets). Each country features his own unique unit/building/technology; the Americans have Paratroopers, the Koreans have Black Eagle fighter jets, the French have a Grand Cannon defensive structure, the Germans have a Tank Destroyer vehicle, the British can train Snipers; Russia has Tesla Tanks, Libya has suicide Demolition Trucks, Iraq has Desolator troops and Cuba has suicide Terrorists. An expansion to Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, was released in which the powerful psychic Yuri tries to achieve world domination. Secretly during the war with the Americans, Yuri has been constructing his own army across the globe and he turns on the Soviets which result in the Allies and Soviets having to ally against Yuri. The game takes place in another alternate timeline, starting with the end of the war in Red Alert 2 having the Soviets lost, but Yuri taking over the world's minds using his Psychic Dominator. The Americans use Einstein's Time Machine to go back in time to the beginning of the war so they can try and stop Yuri before his plans of world domination are finished. This expansion pack includes a new faction; Yuri and new units/building/technologies for each of the three factions.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

A third Red Alert was unofficially announced by Electronic Arts' then Command & Conquer lead Mark Skaggs in December 2004, [6] shortly after the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth . However, Mark Skaggs left Electronic Arts for reasons unspecified shortly thereafter, and there was no mention of a Red Alert 3 until over three years later. In February 2008, both American PC Gamer and Hungarian PC Guru revealed that they would feature Red Alert 3 as cover stories. [7] [8] That month EA confirmed that Red Alert 3 was in production and offered screenshots, interviews and beta testing details. [9] Red Alert 3 features three factions, the Allies, Soviets and the Empire of the Rising Sun. The game features old units from the previous Red Alert games such as Tanya, Kirov airships, and dolphins. Red Alert 3 was the first to feature a 3-D engine. Red Alert 3 takes place in another alternate time line that occurs just after the Soviets lost the war in Red Alert 2 - they go back in time and kill Albert Einstein, removing his influence with the Allies and thus removing the existence of nuclear weapons. In Asia, the Empire of the Rising Sun secretly builds a vast army with technologies and weaponry that forces the Allies and Soviets to occasionally form alliances.

Related Research Articles

Command & Conquer (C&C) is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game Dune II and introducing trademarks followed in the rest of the series. This includes full-motion video cutscenes with an ensemble cast to progress the story, as opposed to digitally in-game rendered cutscenes. Westwood Studios was taken over by Electronic Arts in 1998 and closed down in 2003. The studio and some of its members were absorbed into EA Los Angeles, which continued development on the series.

Frank Klepacki American musician, video game music composer and sound director

Frank Klepacki is an American musician and video game composer, best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was 17 years old. He has scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, Westwood Studios' Dune games, The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards.

The Tiberian series is a series of the Command & Conquer franchise of real-time strategy video games developed by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts. The games of the Tiberian series compose the storyline of the original Command & Conquer universe. The 1996 Command & Conquer: Red Alert, made to be the prequel to the 1995 Command & Conquer, is the genesis of an alternate history in which games outside the Tiberian series are set. In Command & Conquer, an anomalous extraterrestrial substance known as tiberium is brought to Earth through a meteoric collision in the early 1990s. The substance's intriguing yet hazardous properties fuel an escalating war between two global factions: the United Nations' Global Defense Initiative, which seeks to prevent the proliferation of tiberium, and the mysterious and ancient Brotherhood of Nod, which embraces the substance as the herald of a new age and the next stage of human evolution.

Kane (<i>Command & Conquer</i>) Character in Command & Conquer

Kane is a fictional character in the alternate history universe of Westwood Studios' and Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer real-time strategy video games. A recurring antagonistic character in the Command & Conquer franchise with his first appearance in 1995's eponymous title, Kane has appeared in all main series Command & Conquer titles as the charismatic mastermind behind the secretive Brotherhood of Nod society, a quasi-religious terrorist organization.

<i>Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2</i> 2000 video game

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a real-time strategy video game which was released for Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2000 as the follow-up to Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Red Alert 2 picks up at the conclusion of the Allied campaign of the first game. Its expansion pack is Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, released a year later in 2001. Red Alert 2 was principally developed by Westwood Pacific in collaboration with Westwood Studios.

<i>Command & Conquer: Red Alert</i> 1996 video game

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy video game of the Command & Conquer franchise, produced by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1996. The second game to bear the Command & Conquer title, Red Alert is the prequel to the original Command & Conquer of 1995, and takes place in the alternate early history of Command & Conquer when Allied Forces battle an aggressive Soviet Union for control over the European mainland.

<i>Command & Conquer</i> (1995 video game) 1995 video game

Command & Conquer is a 1995 real-time strategy video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive. Set in an alternate history, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations and a cult-like militant organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, led by the mysterious Kane. The groups compete for control of Tiberium, a mysterious substance that slowly spreads across the world.

<i>Command & Conquer: Renegade</i> 2002 video game

Command & Conquer: Renegade is a first- and third-person shooter video game developed by Westwood Studios and is part of the Command & Conquer series. It is the only Command & Conquer game that uses the first-person view. It was released on February 27, 2002 by EA Games.

Joseph D. Kucan American actor and video game developer

Joseph David Kucan is an American video game developer, director, actor, screenwriter, and casting director for various gaming companies and films. He is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is well known for his role as Kane from the Command & Conquer series.

<i>Command & Conquer: The First Decade</i> 2006 video game

Command & Conquer: The First Decade is a compilation of the Command & Conquer series' games published from 1995 to 2003, bundled onto one DVD and updated to run optimally on Windows XP. It was released on February 7, 2006. Included in the compilation was a bonus DVD with a look behind the scenes of the franchise, including interviews with producers, concept art, various soundbites, as well as a montage of the winning fan videos of the "Are You The Biggest C&C Fan?" competition held prior to the compilation's release.

<i>Command & Conquer: Yuris Revenge</i> 2001 video game

Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge is an expansion pack to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 developed by Westwood Studios. The game was released in North America on October 10, 2001 by EA Games. The game is centered on a shadowy ex-Soviet figure named Yuri who has established a secret army of his own and poses a threat to the free will of the world.

SAGE is a game engine used primarily for real-time strategy games developed by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts. Earlier implementations of the engine were known as W3D while later versions were branded SAGE 2.0.

<i>Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars</i> 2007 video game

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is a 2007 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 platforms, and released internationally in March 2007. The game is a direct sequel to the 1999 game Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and takes place roughly seventeen years after the game's expansion pack Firestorm, in which Tiberium has grown to become a considerable threat to the planet, leading to the world's political borders and territories being remade into zones denoting the level of contamination by the alien substance. The game's story sees the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod engage in a new global conflict, this time as major superpowers, only for the war to attract the attention of a new extraterrestrial faction known as the Scrin, which attacks both sides while harvesting Tiberium for its own purpose.

<i>Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3</i> 2008 video game

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is a real-time strategy video game developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in October 2008 in the United States and Europe for Microsoft Windows. An Xbox 360 version was released on November 11. In addition, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ultimate Edition, the PlayStation 3 version which contains additional material was released on March 23, 2009 along with the OS X version by TransGaming. The game is a continuation of the Red Alert games within the Command & Conquer series. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising, a stand-alone expansion pack, was released for Microsoft Windows in March 2009. It was offered via digital distribution.

<i>Command & Conquer 3: Kanes Wrath</i> 2008 video game expansion pack

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath is an expansion pack for the 2007 real-time strategy video game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Developed by EA Los Angeles studios and BreakAway Games studios, it was released on March 24, 2008 in the United States and on March 28, 2008 in Europe by publisher Electronic Arts, and was also released on June 24 for the Xbox 360.

<i>Music of the Command & Conquer series</i>

The music of the Command & Conquer series consists of the soundtracks of the Command & Conquer video games, published in various soundtrack and compilation albums. C&C is a video game franchise, mostly of the real-time strategy style, developed primarily by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts. Much of the music for the series was composed and produced by Westwood Studios' former sound director and video game music composer Frank Klepacki for the early games, with composition duties being taken on by several others following the liquidation of Westwood Studios in 2003. Klepacki returned to the series in 2008 to assist with the soundtrack for Red Alert 3.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a 2.5D real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for iOS. It was released in October 2009 in the App Store.

Mark Skaggs is an American video game producer and executive. Skaggs is known for leading the team that created the Facebook game FarmVille for Zynga, leading the team that created CityVille. He served as Executive Producer and product lead for the PC real-time strategy games Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Command & Conquer: Generals, and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth.

<i>Command & Conquer Remastered Collection</i> 2020 video game

Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection is a remaster of the first two titles in the real-time strategy video game series Command & Conquer with rebuilt graphics and sound improvements, and bonus materials. It was developed by Petroglyph Games with Lemon Sky Studios, and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on June 5, 2020, for Origin and Steam. A physical edition intended for collectors was released by Limited Run Games.

References

  1. 1 2 Westwood Studios (1997-10-24). "Westwood Studios Official Command & Conquer: Red Alert FAQ List". Westwood Studios. Archived from the original on 2017-03-14. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  2. ↑ Westwood Studios (1998-10-23). "Official Command & Conquer FAQ v3.0". Archived from the original on 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  3. ↑ Westwood Studios (1998-10-23). "Official Command & Conquer Gold FAQ v1.3". Archived from the original on 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  4. 1 2 "Kane's Dossier". EA Games, Command and Conquer 3 official website. 2006-10-29. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2007.
  5. ↑ EA Los Angeles (2007-07-25). "Command & Conquer 3 News Announcement". EA Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
  6. ↑ "The Next C&C Game: A Red Alert Title!". Planet CnC. 2004-12-06. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
  7. ↑ HeXetic (2008-02-12). "Red Alert 3 Announced (again)". PlanetCNC. Archived from the original on 2008-02-17. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  8. ↑ Chuck Osborn (2008-02-12). "Red Alert 3 Announced in April 2008 issue of PC Gamer, No Hungarian Required". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  9. ↑ EA Games (2008-02-14). "Red Alert 3 Official Press Release" . Retrieved 2008-02-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.