Naval battles are key

With the initial announcement, I was thrilled. As you can see from this post. Naturally, me being a huge Red Alert fan, I made it my mission to get into the beta. So I resorted to subscribing to File Planet just to get the beta.

I was expecting a revitalized version of Red Alert 2. With some new buildings, units or upgrades. But instead I found something different, something weird.

Now this new version is weird, is strange and different. But don't panic! There is a reason behind it. As you can see from this trailer.

See, they made the story line like that. Though there is an explanation for the weirdness, I still don't like it. Every time i build a spectrum cannon I feel like yelling at the screen "It's a f***ing prism tower!".

Though the changes are somewhat unsettling, they have managed to create a game experience that is still the same as the original. I'm not talking specifics, but I feel like this is what Red Alert was always meant to be.

For those of you who were fans of CnC3, you may find it hard to migrate to RA3. This is because the core gameplay is very different. In CnC3 it's basically tank spam, air spam or rocket troop spam. RA3 is extremely dependent on micro-management and tactics.

Thankfully they've streamlined the micro system, by having every unit's secondary ability activated by F. Also to cycle through specific types of units in one large group, just hit tab. Allowing you easy access to their abilities.

Some couples are into weird stuff...

Also another way they've forced players to move around more is to make these new things called Surveillance Towers, or something to that affect can't quite remember. Basically, you  have to catch one of these with an engineer, then they give you a massive area which you can now see. This makes intelligence a key part of gameplay.

Perhaps one of the biggest change to the gameplay is build mechanics. These differ between the three factions, Soviets, Allies and Empire of the Rising Sun. The Allies have the classic build mechanic, build in side bar then plop on map. But, there's no more base expansion from builders. So no more base creeping. You can only expand through Prospectors(Harvesters) Their expansion ability works like the surveyors in CnC3.

The Russians have a slightly different build mechanic, you click on the building you want in the sidebar, and you can choose where it goes on the map instantly. Then it slowly builds on the map. The pro here is that you can build multiple buildings from one production queue, if you have the cash. Of course your buildings are vulnerable while their being built. They have to expand like the allies too.

The Empire of the rising sun is perhaps the most unique of the 3. When you click on the side bar to make a building it builds in there. Once it is done, you dont place it on the map, but instead a small boxy vehicle called a core appears at your construction yard. Think of it as a building in a box. You can move these anywhere on the map. And just unpack them where you want.

I was expecting Red Alert 3 to be a revitalised version of Red Alert 2. I didn't get that. I got much much more.