Both games are an attempt at modernizing their predecessors to a new generation of gaming, and in the process, a change in tone was all but expected.
I obviously can’t prove any of that, and I know speculation doesn’t make for good critique, but that’s the conclusion ten years of hindsight have afforded me. So if Tib Wars was the result of a team following a trail of faded but still mostly readable signs, Red Alert 3 feels like they got lost in a forest without a compass or map, and the whole game suffered because of that. Problem is, there was no such blueprint for what the next Red Alert should’ve been. It’s obviously not the game Westwood would’ve made, but many of its ideas found their way into Tiberium Wars, so the project did have a great influence on the final product. When EA Los Angeles was developing Tiberium Wars, they did so by mostly following the blueprint of a project left behind by Westwood Studios-the canceled Tiberium Incursion. I think this setup is very indicative of a serious problem not with the game itself, but rather with the development team. It’s a new game from a different team, for a new generation. With a premise such as this, it’s no surprise Red Alert 3 is so different from its older brother. Thus begins the third great war in the Red Alert universe! Or fourth? It’s unclear what exactly changed since the previous two games aren’t canon anymore and yes I am actually discussing the lore of Red Alert and you better believe that’s far from the dumbest thing I’ll write today. Yes, by eliminating Albert they have inadvertently unleashed the Empire of The Rising Sun upon the world, and they’re out to get their divine destiny. Unfortunately for everyone, without Einstein, there are no nukes, and without nukes, instead of retaliating with bad isekai and doujins of tentacular content, Japan instead applied all of their ideas in their military department. So the Soviets go back in time and pull an Einstein on Albert Einstein, removing him from the timeline before the events of either Red Alert game ever took place. Gregor Zelinsky is on the verge of completing their own version of the device. Oh, you want to know what the explanation is? Hell if I know and fuck if I care! I ain’t buying a mobile RTS for a system I don’t even own! But from what I can gather from an hour of YouTube videos, the basic gist is that the Soviets stole an incomplete time machine project from the Allies, and at the end of the game, the Allies have launched an all-out attack against the Soviets right as their top dog science man Dr. A plan so bold, it will change the course of this war! And every other war! Yes, it’s another goddamn time machine, what did you expect? Why do the Soviets have a time machine if this is a sequel to Yuri’s Revenge? You see, that is actually explained in the (and I need you to pay attention now) iOS tie-in game called simply Red Alert, cause that isn’t confusing at all. Red Alert 3 begins with the Soviets about to lose yet another conflict with the Allies when Colonel Antony Cherdenko (played by the one Tim Curry) suggests a plan. So buckle up and grab a snack, cause this one might get personal. I remember losing interest in it back in 2008, but I’m a very different person from back then, one with Internet access and an (admittedly flawed) understanding of history. It also made a number of substantial changes to the series, and with more than ten years of hindsight behind me, I’m not so sure how well they hold up. It was reviewed well enough by the critics and it sold decently. So in 2008, EA Los Angeles unleashed upon the world Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. In other words, I was the hype, and how could I not? My favorite RTS of all time was getting a sequel! All aboard the wacky train, no refunds allowed! I still remember spending hours on the promotional website learning everything about the new units and plot, waiting literal minutes for a GIF to load because my internet was that shitty back then. There hadn’t been a new entry in the Red Alert side of the family since 2001, so the world was fairly excited, and by the world, I mean me. With the warm reception that Tiberium Wars received in 2007, history was all but sure to repeat itself. The sun will rise, water will evaporate, the human race will eventually wipe itself out from the face of the Earth, and after every mainline installment of Command & Conquer, a Red Alert title is sure to follow. In life, there are some things that are simply inevitable.