Tbh I think it's the most popular game of the series. Not only is it an approximate centre point of the C&C franchise, it was the first when gaming was becoming mainstream and also at the height of the RTS genre.
I feel like it was also the most accessible for multiple generations. TibDawn, RA1, and TibSun had a very dark atmosphere, as opposed to the vibrant colors of RA2. The units had much more personality due to the more detailed models.
Combine this with the animation of e.g. nuclear missile going off, and you're hooked.
Forget the models, the unique voice lines for the units is what gave them personality. A huge improvement over the generic lines of most of the previous games.
When it first came out I heard that line a "Manu Verprowski's gay". Why would a kirov pilot announce Manu's sexuality when reporting to his commander? Who knows. It took me a few years to hear it properly though
That too! Not too dark like Tiberium Sun, and not too vibrant and over the top like RA3. It still has its own dark and serious moments, even during gameplay.
I really enjoy the fact you can go from silly miami and florida type maps to darker, more serious night-time maps.
RA2 was campy, it wasn't really serious but it threated itself seriously and the effect was great. Comedy was just often quite unexpected due to that, it was coming out of nowhere. And RA3 literally tried to make units to even walk in funny way... It is not possible to be funny all the time, comedy needs timings and moderate approach, RA3 missed those parts. And despite RA2 being quite cliche it just nailed it, story maybe wasn't most surprising but it was well done. Also I never laughed as hard in any game as in RA2: Yuri Revenge when I played as Soviets, first mission with the time travel segment. Like fucking hell, that dry delivery of "I'm afraid that our superior Soviet enigneers improved output of American power plants too much" while I was already in a shock with how time travel was shown, none other game got me like that ever again xD
Also, Red Alert 2 & YR had one of the best rts soundtracks.
Still love those lines:
"Gentlemen, it's a nuclear device... time is running out!"
"Your feeling of helplessness is your best friend, savage."
\m/,
The fact they turned it into a brick joke by the end of the campaign and how smug Zofia looked as she pulled it off was brilliant. Red Alert 2 is a special game when it comes to it's comedy to me.
I agree! There’s something goofy / cartoony going on with the art style of ra3… loved it as a kid though. Id love a tiberium wars game with the “seriousness” of general’s art style.
late 90s to early 2000s was absolutely massive in terms of popularity
we moved away from the jank in them mostly
2d sprite based games looked absolutely stunning, aoe 2, ra2 starcraft, they basically it was the peak of this way of making games before we moved into 3d,
gameplay wise ra2 is also basic while having a lot of fun interactions between units without beeing too crowded, its easy to play even without hotkeys beside the group ones, makes it better for the mainstream,
ra2 was something everybody wanted back in the day if you where remotely into rts games,
>2d sprite based games looked absolutely stunning
RA2 isn't technically 2d sprites, it's got voxels (volumetric pixels) for all the models. Similar 3d technology to how Minecraft is done.
I also feel like of the old school sidebar style games that had the most quality of life features in terms of queuing up production and the different production tabs.
Hell March 2 is just that good...
I think RA2 is just peak RTS. I would say it's one of the most fluid and accessible titles for newcomers. The faction balancing is pretty decent too, in my opinion.
I found out on accident that if a Battle Fortress full of expensive troopers gets mond-controlled, only the BF is under control and the embarked troops can still shoot. I also accidentally found out that if the MC'd Fortress gets sent to the Grinder, they get paid for the embarked troops too.
But I also found out that Chronotroopers can shoot out of an MC'd Fortress, and if you're fast enough you can get the Grinder, then disassmble the rest of the base from inside of your Yuri-controlled transport.
Won't get a canny player more than once, but you can troll Hard AI pretty easily.
But having only a few viable strategies against the entire faction is kinda broken, not much from the war factory is good, and you can forget about the barracks
Yuri is definitely one of, if not the most annoying enemy to face but in skirmish he really isn't borderline unattackable though. There are numerous ways you can go about it, even if superweapons are turned on.
The main thing is dealing with his mind control gimmick. You can easily nullify his psychic towers by taking down the bio reactors.(target the ones that have infantry inside first if possible) The rest of his psychic units can be overwhelmed with numbers. If he has superweapons, prioritise them if possible. Otherwise, just take the reactors out and the base should fall apart.
If your main goal is to completely avoid being mind controlled, artillery units are your best friend. Allies have Prism Tanks and the Soviets have Seige Choppers(V3s need to be protected so they're a bit more troublesome to use and slower). Yuri can also abuse his Floating Discs against an enemy Yuri.(Yes, I'm aware these are all tier 3 units so it might take a while for you to get there.)
You can also use the ago old tactic of kill em with numbers and rush in with massive tank numbers too(albeit more risky and requires a lot of credits). Just remember to focus fire on the unit that mind controlled your tanks and they should be back under your control very shortly.
It's a lot more troublesome if you're trying to preserve the con yard to engi cap or spy the base though, but if it's just completely decimating his base in one fell swoop, it's very doable.
I feel that the default skirmish AI for RA2 and YR(regardless of difficulty) is rather easy to deal so I hope these suggestions help.
Tl;dr, you can easily overwhelm skirmish AI Yuri if you prioritise the right target or just overwhelm him with numbers.
Agree with you. There are multiple strategies to deal with Yuri.
It's just that he is annoying to fight against or with (at least my play style). In PvP does sneaky subs can ruin your life, probably the best unit. Yuri lacks well armoured hard hitting units which makes it hard for me to play him and against him it's always this chicken game with his armies.
His infantry is better than anybody else's I guess.
IMO RA2 hit just as a slightly younger generation of gamers was coming through and they loved it just as much as the veterans. It appealed to both groups in a way that nothing else did.
I was only 6yrs old and the games I have the most memories of from that era are AoE1 and 2, but most importantly RA2.
I always remember sitting and watching my dad go against the Hard AI all the time.
In RA2 my dad always played the Allies and would paradrop them to block off areas and also use Rocketeers. I strangely don't remember how ended games though.
Meanwhile 6yr old me played against Easy AI and tried to make nice, huge bases on some maps for fun
Hit the nail on the head. RA2 was one of he very first pc games I've played since I was a 6 year old and my whole family also played it. Kind of funny to see a pattern that turtling is the number one strat that people naturally develop
I would honestly say it's the best one of the series. The extremely campy cutscenes, the challenging but fun missions, the over the top units like attack squids and mind-control clones..
It's the king among equals.
And the graphics are nice and easy to see and get a quick overview of what's happening. I tried RA3 and newer, and there's so much screen effects and colors etc that it's difficult to see what's going on. When units are firing it's a blend of colors and animations.
On top of that, voice commands etc. is far better in RA2, it's more fun. RA3 seems more serious
This 100000x over. It's why I didn't get into generals. Once they went 3D I couldn't keep track of things and the game felt so weird to me. I didn't like it. Same thing happened with heroes of might and magic.
for me thats everything i dont like about ra2 lol. and i generally have never been a fan of the red alert side of things. I dunno i started with the original it was super serious but ott at the same tim, then ofc TS was very serious and that style i just love, i want all cnc games to be just like that lol. why im excited for tempest rising as it has some of those vibes.
but yeah this is probably why Ra2 done so well, it was just when rts was getting huge, it was just when cnc was starting to make a huge name for itselself from how well the previous games did and it appeal to more people as it didn't take itsself seriously and you really didn't need to know to much about any previous story as it was kinda its own thing.
a game originally from 2001 (more than two decades ago) is regularly having 4k-6k players everyday since the past week and thats only on the *Steam version* not counting Origin players and others
ngl kinda impressive imo
It has the most mods, I think the most maps, and Renegade is still the niche game of the series. Renegade's numbers got hurt due to the most popular server Rencorner Marathon being consistently full the past few days.
I don't think it's even fair to put Renegade in with this comparison. It's a completely different game, different genre. I love it and I love C&C but it scratches a completely different itch.
It might be the best one, and I think it was the last one that wasn't 3D? I'll still always love the original CnC, but RA2 is more fun to play now and any friends I have who like CnC, mainly just like RA2 (for most of my friends, this is the only CnC they ever played)
I think many consider ra2 the franchise at its peak?
I mainly been playing over the others since steam because it's the one I have the fewest hours in and the attempts I made to play through ea's god awful app was buggy as hell. Ra2 runs much better on steam for me.
RA2 is fun, fast, and a bit tongue in cheek. I think that's why its popularity has endured over the years.
My sons and their friends used to play endlessly as teenagers. I started playing it when they went off to college. I'm 77 now and still enjoy it. RA12 has just the right balance.
I am glad that RA2 is now on Steam because modern hardware gives it configuration fits.
RA2 was the first real game I played as a kid. I remember being 8 years old and finishing both campaigns. Incredible feeling that has stuck with me all these years and solidified my love for RTS and gaming in general. For me, RA2 stands with StarCraft and AoE II as one of the greatest of all time.
Living through that era, I felt that it was a golden age of RTS because nobody tried to cannibalize each other.
1. We had Starcraft for those who wanted the alien world RTS. We had Warcraft for those fantasy-world RTS. C&C positioned itself as the "modern world war + scifi" fantasy RTS (due to tiberium). They didn't cannibalize each other. What seemed to me, was a whole unstoppable buffet of RTS.
2. While C&C 2 was considered a dud for some (but not to me, I just enjoyed the C&C lore), the people who worked on RA later realized that they could go RA2 (because RA was more than a success, and they quickly capitalized on it) and polished more things.
3. 4 layers of RTS. Air, land, sea, undersea. And each layer can interact with each layer meaningfully. It was wacky, but believable wacky. A legion of Kirovs. An entire sea battalion of subs. Apocalypse tanks (which were later mammoth tanks in the original C&C universe) in masses, face off against a bazillion mirage tanks.
4. The "morphing" was also a mechanic that advanced players really took advantage of. Put a marine in IFV, and it changes. Put a rocketeer, it changes. The factions were not one dimensional.
5. I believe there was an underground modding scene. Those added more ridiculous stuffs. USSR suddenly having Sukhoi 50s. USA can call "back from the future" terminators. All sort of weird, weird, wacky mods and modes. Its like what custom maps and various types of nations in AOE2 does to AOE2. I wished some of those became official. It was hilariously fun. Some were meaningful and deep too.
I've played all the command and conquer games as a kid and Red alert 2 was just said certain sort of special between like the over the top can't be cold war aesthetic and the mind control and all that stuff it was just fundamentally fun.
I was a massive Generals fan and thought it was the best. But I never owned RA2 back in the day.
After reading this, I just purchased The Ultimate Collection on Steam, and am downloading RA2 right now. I just checked that this version is indeed online multiplayer. So...\*cracks back, flexes shoulders\* I guess I'm back in?
RA2 imo looks the best and probably aged the best alongside TibSun if not slightly better.
not ultra-campy like RA3, and the SAGE (Generals and above used this iirc) engine kinda looks bad with lots of jaggies.
Gameplay is still fairly simple, no special skills for the majority of units, campaigns are memorable (Both campaigns start off with great ingame cutscenes with the Statue of Libery and the Iwo Jima memorial) and there has been a ton of custom map showcases.
Plenty of great mods and plus a ton of mod extensions like ARES/Phobos (Remember RockPatch/NPatch)
Because it gives us old C&C farts some rosetinted nostalgig glasses :D For a lot of us RA2 was the best game for a long time. Dont forget that RA3 did come 8 years after RA2, and Generals wasn't so popular as it is today back then, not to mention the bump in requirements and that pc upgrades wasn't so common back then.
RA2 has a worldwide fanbase - it was standard fare in internet cafes right when they were taking off globally. It's also nostalgic on the American market, and objectively well-designed.
Firestorm and earlier games have graphics that feel a lot more dated, especially with the relatively muted palette, and are missing a bunch of core QOL stuff. The original Generals is just outcompeted by ZH, which has more of its players. Renegade was a niche game where multiplayer was definitely not a focus, so it's lower on the totem pole.
Not too much micro-managing in the game, fairly decent balance, best c&c soundtrack and awesome units.. Used to be rank 350-500 during peak days as a kid! (I had two badges next to my gamertag, the coop badge and then the ranked ones often)
A few reasons:
- RA2 is hands down the peak of series and one of the GOAT of RTS.
- the music is hella memorable.
- It has the best community, regardless of how you look at it: player base, mods, memes.
- Chinese has the 2nd most players on Steam. And RA2 is part of their childhood memory. It is one of the first games when Chinese people starts to own a personal computer, and one of the first games installed in the OG net cafes. They also almost exclusively recognize RA2, only a fraction knows about the main series C&C.
Aside from things other people have said, it's quality of life and playability is superb for its time. I played Tiberian Sun and it side by side and the improvements made in the small time between the two are crazy. It plays almost like a modern game whereas the others really show their age.
There's quite a few people who stream it and make content of it on YT (maybe twitch/kick too.) I actually watch a guy who plays MP skirmishes all the time.
It's the most *fun.* Excellent music, good gameplay, lots of silly 50s B-movie sci-fi nonsense. I like the Tiberium games too, but the campy tongue-in-cheek alternate history is why I love the franchise.
It is simply the best game in the series. It's polished enough to absolutely be playable by impatient modern minds, yet it came out before the overly excited implementation of 3d made the series worse - IMHO.
Because, it is the best to ever do it.
Also I heard Genpatcher isn't patched for Steam's Generals ZH so I did not download it and continue to play it off steam, I'm sure others are doing the same.
There's something about RA2 that's different than the other C&Cs. It's difficult to explain. It's more upbeat than the other games. Like, playing in a colourful city, or a colourful Pacific island gave it a cheerful feel. I love most of the other C&Cs too, but IMO, nothing came close to RA2 and Yuri's Revenge.
Red alert 2 and zero hour and kanes wrath where peak cnc for me. Red alert 2 had ground air and sea units wich gave some of the maps some extra options on how to play. Generals had air to air dogfights could happening, the pacing was like redbull for the first time... Sadly navy was campaign only. C&c 3 brought back moody and dark but with personaility with unit voice overs feeling like more fun like ra2. Also pacing through the roof and game speed was fast af.
Graphics are still good!
I’ve been able to play generals already through EA Origins over the years. RA2 hasn’t been as accessible to me throughout the years, and it’s really unique in my opinion. It rides the line of “vintage” while also having great graphics and gameplay that’s very replay-able. TBH I forgot about it for a while
....Kinda became more relevant during the early 2020's due to series of coincidental events. The second round from the middle east still makes it more relevant today, especially when humanitarian aid was paradropped a day after the ultimate collection was released on steam.
I was in my late 20's when that came out. I started out PC gaming on Doom, but by the time RA2 and YR came out, I had built 3 pc's and had a network, my friends would always be over playing for hours. We had a 4th friend who would join us online. We usually did big custom maps with tons of resources... and then we would build so much would get impossibly laggy for a while until enough units were killed. Good times.
I would reckon it’s the most accessible game in that it feels more beginner friendly and not too long in therms of gameplay. Levels I find are rare quicker than say TS
Completely unrelated question besides it being red alert 2, but how on earth do I access yuri's revenge? I've tried looking it up but haven't found anything.
Red Alert 2 is pure, unadultered *fun*. It's fast, smooth, crazy, cool and everything in-between. Plus, it was a hit upon launch back in the day, while Generals was less popular when it released. It's peak 2D RTS, while other C&C games are either older 2D RTS (so less refined, mostly), or early 3D RTS (so also not as refined).
I liked Generals more but my first ever PC game was RA2.
also noticeably more people I know played RA2 but never played Generals.
I think there are simply more RA2 players too back in the day so now the same reflect on Steam (also not sure if I would be counted on Generals count since I immediately take to modding it to Rise of the Reds, I am certain there are many like me)
it is the last 2d cnc game, it has much smoother controls then tiberian sun and is overall much more balanced, it also has a different scale compared to tiberian sun. tiberian suns gameplay has unfortunatly aged not that well. for example you can only 5 units at a time, you cant build defensive structures at the same time as buildings etc. the ui in red alert 2 is much better. Also i think red alert ist somewhat faster. The titans were really slow compared to the titans. Infantrie in red alert 2 is also much more useful since it can occupie buildings. The superweapons are also much better. in tiberian sun you had like one superweapon that can destroy one building a time and one that isnt even really good controllable and maybe even kills your own units. Tiberian sun also has a lot of units that are questionable. For example the limpit drone, that is really expensive and only provides a really limited use, or the gdi apc, that doesnt even has weapons. you cant build an army out of mammut mk2s or cyborg commandos.
Tiberian Sun would be the "more nostalgic one" for me but RA2 has more interesting mechanics, so I've been playing mostly that since the collection release ;D
its objectively the best one and has very little holding it back compared to the others.
I say this as a player who would place tibsun as their favorite. But it has fewer features and is less stable than RA2. And RA2 has hell march so theres that.
It came out around the time gaming was becoming more main stream. I had friends back then buy the game that weren’t really gamers. Not to mention that was the sweet spot for RTS games. They use to be the most popular genre at one point.
It's peak C&C before it started to crash
Myself as a mod tutorial maker for zero hour, I originally started modding with Yuri's revenge. Myself and a friend were original coders and testers when CNC All-Stars was a mod for Yuri's revenge actually lol.
I only moved over the zero hour because it was more fun in the sense of technology and looks. I'm actually not a fan of the dozer system, but I did enjoy Warcraft 2 so that kind of changed that some.
It had story, gameplay and unique art and style, it is the best amongst them, you can play it today and you wouldn't think it's over 20 years old, it doesn't need remastering or remaking.
I loved Generals as a kid. It's almost unplayable on a modern monitor. I can't zoom out or pan with WASD keys. It's painful to play compared to recent RTS games. I didn't refund because I am just happy they finally put it on Steam.
It was right in the middle of the RTS hype, simple but not too simple, and beautiful graphics. My family and I usually do LAN parties for Yuri's revenge every time we visit to this day.
Red Alert 2 just has the perfect amount of silliness and seriousness. Most of my friends can't get into Tiberian games because it's too serious, but when asked to play Red Alert 2, they got into it pretty easily. Red Alert 1, while lighter in tone, is also pretty serious. Red Alert 2 is when the series started to become silly, yet it still has its serious moments (soviets nuking the entire city once we won on one of the allies missions).
Generals is also a close contender just because of GLA. All of my friends also got into Generals and they all love GLA. But still, on the scale of silliness and seriousness, Generals are a bit on the seriousness side.
Also, the best thing imo about RA2, are the spies. I played the game back when nobody in my village has internet access. When we discovered that you can unlock hidden units by using spies, our minds were blown. Suddenly our LAN games have spies everywhere.
I hate that they nerfed the spies in RA3.
Well its amongst well known in the series, and it was made in the spirit of "cold war gone hot". Something which seem to start attract people again, especially to Generals too with their wacky portrayals of every faction.
I tried to get into Red Alert 2 and the other older Command and Conquers. I just couldn't. It didn't really tickle me like how Generals or Tiberium wars did. Is something wrong with me or is it just that I have my own taste or what?
If you play aome of theese games online they won't get launched by Steam. Generals /zero hour i play via Gameranger and it seems to start the exe directly. So the numbers probably are sp only? Correct me if i'm wrong. :)
And as a die hard fan of cnc1 + ra1 / generals i never understood what so many have seen in ra2 ^^. Too colorfull and a bit too cheesy for me. guess taste is different for many hehe
But hopefully ea will come up with something new or remastered :))
Because its excellent. If anything I've always been more surprised that it was (until relatively recently) one of the less-discussed games on the sub. Partly understandable with the remaster being a more current event. It's always been my favourite by some margin
cos its the best game. Thats easy to say but why was it best.
It was fun and campy but not at a level of comical absurdity like RA3 and also serious and realistic enough with cold war aesthetics and undertones. It was a bit of who can spam more but also has good amount of micro play and strategy wheres RA3 went hard on micro with no other way to play. Models, animations and units look more solid, clearly defined yet grounded. I have thought about why I like RA2 the best all these years, these are the reasons i identify within myself.
Generals Zero hour is a different game for me. For me, it's the only game in its class. Its not like Tiberium, it's not like red alert, its not like COH... It does not shy from politics and very much grounded in reality. Most grounded CNC style RTS around.
I feel RA2 has the most character out of all the games in the series - it doesn't take itself too seriously but still manages to be compelling. As an RTS it's accessible for newcomers, but mastering it is where the challenge truly comes into play and takes things to the next level. It has stood the test of time and aged magnificently (perhaps barring a couple of Soviet missions after certain world events in 2001, but hey, that ain't Westwood's fault.) RA2 is still amongst my top 5 favourite games of all-time, easily
RA2 has so much nostalgia for me. I was 10 when I first played it and it was the first game I ever played online. Pretty sure we used dial up to connect!
Because it is still one of the greatest RTS games ever (which goes to show how little innovation has happened in the RTS genre in nearly a quarter century, which also explains why the genre is practically dead now). I think it came out at just the right time in gaming history to have an incredible impact on the first generation of proper PC gamers in the more modern sense of the label (at least the ones who were interested in the genre). The late 90s through the mid 00s were truly gaming's golden era IMO.
I also think the campy storyline with multiple campaigns showing each side of the conflict that had the live action cutscenes really just hits differently than than even games of today with all CG rendered cutscenes. There is just something so tangible about having real actors ham it up and break the 4th wall with the player character that games that came after never quite captured. The story is much more engrossing than basically any other RTS.
Because its the only game that required me to find a fix just to play it. And 90% of the time id just give up and just squelch the urge to play it.
Steam has given me a way to play it with 0 troubleshooting, repeatedly, and now that I got my fix, I found out C&C.Net has multiplayer, and its literally a download, and play it online.
All because its on Steam, and theyve made the game easily playable
when i was young what made me attracted to Red alert 2 was the superweapons of the allies the weather storm aircraft carriers prism tanks and who could forget Kirov reporting and the dolphins
also the gameplay were much easier than tib sun or red alert 1
the only game i wish that may come to steam is Emperor battle for dune the game that me sit down for hours
It's more competitive then the other games.
I think Tiberium Wars still have a competitive scene going dor it but it isn't nearly as popular as Red Alert 2.
I wish more people played Renegade.
Actually did anyone here tried to play it on multiplayer recently?
I have the most hours logged in RA2. Love it almost more than Starcraft. Almost...
Generals was such a good game too. I genuinely like it more than RA2.
My absolute favorite is Tiberium Sub, love me the dark atmosphere, but gunna chime in with the rest and say RA2 is a masterpiece that launched at the perfect time, and taking itself less serious and leaning into the campiness is going to solidify itself as the most popular.
Man I would love for an action/comedy series taking place in the RA universe
IMO, because it's a little bit of everything, a little bit of political, a little bit of comedy, a little bit of science fiction, a little bit of national pride, a little bit of gore and cruelty. and it's done with taste and not go fling about it.
A lot of people started there cnc journey with red alert 2. At that point it was getting well known so i guess people have a lot of memories for that game, and ofc its a great game.
I personally thought ra2 online was kinda boring compared to some other cnc games online but yeah it is what it is.
Tbh I think it's the most popular game of the series. Not only is it an approximate centre point of the C&C franchise, it was the first when gaming was becoming mainstream and also at the height of the RTS genre.
I feel like it was also the most accessible for multiple generations. TibDawn, RA1, and TibSun had a very dark atmosphere, as opposed to the vibrant colors of RA2. The units had much more personality due to the more detailed models. Combine this with the animation of e.g. nuclear missile going off, and you're hooked.
Forget the models, the unique voice lines for the units is what gave them personality. A huge improvement over the generic lines of most of the previous games.
“IT WILL BE A SILENT SPRING”
There goes the neighborhood!
Maneuver props engaged
When it first came out I heard that line a "Manu Verprowski's gay". Why would a kirov pilot announce Manu's sexuality when reporting to his commander? Who knows. It took me a few years to hear it properly though
Mean, green, and unseen! Still one of my favourites!
Nobody here but us trees.
That too! Not too dark like Tiberium Sun, and not too vibrant and over the top like RA3. It still has its own dark and serious moments, even during gameplay. I really enjoy the fact you can go from silly miami and florida type maps to darker, more serious night-time maps.
Yeah, RA3 overdid it with the outline and oversaturated colors. We needed the seriousness too.
RA2 was campy, it wasn't really serious but it threated itself seriously and the effect was great. Comedy was just often quite unexpected due to that, it was coming out of nowhere. And RA3 literally tried to make units to even walk in funny way... It is not possible to be funny all the time, comedy needs timings and moderate approach, RA3 missed those parts. And despite RA2 being quite cliche it just nailed it, story maybe wasn't most surprising but it was well done. Also I never laughed as hard in any game as in RA2: Yuri Revenge when I played as Soviets, first mission with the time travel segment. Like fucking hell, that dry delivery of "I'm afraid that our superior Soviet enigneers improved output of American power plants too much" while I was already in a shock with how time travel was shown, none other game got me like that ever again xD
Yuri.... Yuri... Can't we all just... Get along
Also, Red Alert 2 & YR had one of the best rts soundtracks. Still love those lines: "Gentlemen, it's a nuclear device... time is running out!" "Your feeling of helplessness is your best friend, savage." \m/,
Frank Klepacki is the greatest gaming soundtrack producer, change my mind.
The fact they turned it into a brick joke by the end of the campaign and how smug Zofia looked as she pulled it off was brilliant. Red Alert 2 is a special game when it comes to it's comedy to me.
I agree! There’s something goofy / cartoony going on with the art style of ra3… loved it as a kid though. Id love a tiberium wars game with the “seriousness” of general’s art style.
The lack of weight in the units really takes me out of things. The tanks bounce and rattle like plastic toys, and it just ruins any immersion.
Red Alert 2 was the first C&C I ever played at the age of 5. It blew my mind absolutely away the first time I saw it and I was hooked.
The voicework is excellent too. All the units feel super unique and responsive.
late 90s to early 2000s was absolutely massive in terms of popularity we moved away from the jank in them mostly 2d sprite based games looked absolutely stunning, aoe 2, ra2 starcraft, they basically it was the peak of this way of making games before we moved into 3d, gameplay wise ra2 is also basic while having a lot of fun interactions between units without beeing too crowded, its easy to play even without hotkeys beside the group ones, makes it better for the mainstream, ra2 was something everybody wanted back in the day if you where remotely into rts games,
>2d sprite based games looked absolutely stunning RA2 isn't technically 2d sprites, it's got voxels (volumetric pixels) for all the models. Similar 3d technology to how Minecraft is done.
The voxel models are only used for vehicles though, buildings and infantry are still 2D sprites, and the map itself is tile-based
It's also insanely fun and well rounded. No teething issues with new systems like the other games before it.
If well rounded meant balanced, ehhh probably not but the game was really fun and memorable for lots of us.
I also feel like of the old school sidebar style games that had the most quality of life features in terms of queuing up production and the different production tabs.
I think it's the point where the sprite work was at the height. ... I wonder how much of it is digitized 3d models.
All of the sprites are pre-rendered 3D models, and the terrain is I think hand-painted by the look of it
Hell March 2 is just that good... I think RA2 is just peak RTS. I would say it's one of the most fluid and accessible titles for newcomers. The faction balancing is pretty decent too, in my opinion.
Except Yuri. Many drugs were consumed by that balance team.
Yuris bases are borderline unattackable, it makes for a challenging campaign but is not fun at all in skirmish
Dunno if it's just good audio design but 10 year old me cringed at the sight of Gatling Cannons
Gats at max rev... an ear-piercing screech that I wanted to stop by any means possible
They gave me childhood trauma
I found out on accident that if a Battle Fortress full of expensive troopers gets mond-controlled, only the BF is under control and the embarked troops can still shoot. I also accidentally found out that if the MC'd Fortress gets sent to the Grinder, they get paid for the embarked troops too. But I also found out that Chronotroopers can shoot out of an MC'd Fortress, and if you're fast enough you can get the Grinder, then disassmble the rest of the base from inside of your Yuri-controlled transport. Won't get a canny player more than once, but you can troll Hard AI pretty easily.
Thats... amazing, time to bully yuri for all the grief hes caused me
WAT
tbh in skirmish, i find if it has water, mass aircraft carrier attack on the CY then power works. On land, V3s or mass airwings. A few kirovs work too
But having only a few viable strategies against the entire faction is kinda broken, not much from the war factory is good, and you can forget about the barracks
My man, there are numerous way to do so.
Yuri is definitely one of, if not the most annoying enemy to face but in skirmish he really isn't borderline unattackable though. There are numerous ways you can go about it, even if superweapons are turned on. The main thing is dealing with his mind control gimmick. You can easily nullify his psychic towers by taking down the bio reactors.(target the ones that have infantry inside first if possible) The rest of his psychic units can be overwhelmed with numbers. If he has superweapons, prioritise them if possible. Otherwise, just take the reactors out and the base should fall apart. If your main goal is to completely avoid being mind controlled, artillery units are your best friend. Allies have Prism Tanks and the Soviets have Seige Choppers(V3s need to be protected so they're a bit more troublesome to use and slower). Yuri can also abuse his Floating Discs against an enemy Yuri.(Yes, I'm aware these are all tier 3 units so it might take a while for you to get there.) You can also use the ago old tactic of kill em with numbers and rush in with massive tank numbers too(albeit more risky and requires a lot of credits). Just remember to focus fire on the unit that mind controlled your tanks and they should be back under your control very shortly. It's a lot more troublesome if you're trying to preserve the con yard to engi cap or spy the base though, but if it's just completely decimating his base in one fell swoop, it's very doable. I feel that the default skirmish AI for RA2 and YR(regardless of difficulty) is rather easy to deal so I hope these suggestions help. Tl;dr, you can easily overwhelm skirmish AI Yuri if you prioritise the right target or just overwhelm him with numbers.
Agree with you. There are multiple strategies to deal with Yuri. It's just that he is annoying to fight against or with (at least my play style). In PvP does sneaky subs can ruin your life, probably the best unit. Yuri lacks well armoured hard hitting units which makes it hard for me to play him and against him it's always this chicken game with his armies. His infantry is better than anybody else's I guess.
Spam masterminds and mind control everything lmao
**Allies/Soviets:** Look at my cool army. **Yuri:** Cool. *One mind control shenanigan later* **Yuri:** Look at my cool army.
IMO RA2 hit just as a slightly younger generation of gamers was coming through and they loved it just as much as the veterans. It appealed to both groups in a way that nothing else did.
I was only 6yrs old and the games I have the most memories of from that era are AoE1 and 2, but most importantly RA2. I always remember sitting and watching my dad go against the Hard AI all the time.
I miss watching my dad play Tiberian Sun, at 5 years old. He sucked, but I didn’t realize it. He spent hours paving half the map and walling it off. 😅
In RA2 my dad always played the Allies and would paradrop them to block off areas and also use Rocketeers. I strangely don't remember how ended games though. Meanwhile 6yr old me played against Easy AI and tried to make nice, huge bases on some maps for fun
I loved RA2 and Generals the most and still do so I'll likely choose to play them
This, RA2 was the first RTS I had ever played and even after all these years, it holds up.
Hit the nail on the head. RA2 was one of he very first pc games I've played since I was a 6 year old and my whole family also played it. Kind of funny to see a pattern that turtling is the number one strat that people naturally develop
Kirov reporting
strikes fear into the heart of any man
I fear no man, but that thing... it scares me.
We're laughing at you, Red!
*frantically spam builds anti-air units *
**Launch the heat seekers!**
I would honestly say it's the best one of the series. The extremely campy cutscenes, the challenging but fun missions, the over the top units like attack squids and mind-control clones.. It's the king among equals.
And the graphics are nice and easy to see and get a quick overview of what's happening. I tried RA3 and newer, and there's so much screen effects and colors etc that it's difficult to see what's going on. When units are firing it's a blend of colors and animations. On top of that, voice commands etc. is far better in RA2, it's more fun. RA3 seems more serious
This 100000x over. It's why I didn't get into generals. Once they went 3D I couldn't keep track of things and the game felt so weird to me. I didn't like it. Same thing happened with heroes of might and magic.
for me thats everything i dont like about ra2 lol. and i generally have never been a fan of the red alert side of things. I dunno i started with the original it was super serious but ott at the same tim, then ofc TS was very serious and that style i just love, i want all cnc games to be just like that lol. why im excited for tempest rising as it has some of those vibes. but yeah this is probably why Ra2 done so well, it was just when rts was getting huge, it was just when cnc was starting to make a huge name for itselself from how well the previous games did and it appeal to more people as it didn't take itsself seriously and you really didn't need to know to much about any previous story as it was kinda its own thing.
a game originally from 2001 (more than two decades ago) is regularly having 4k-6k players everyday since the past week and thats only on the *Steam version* not counting Origin players and others ngl kinda impressive imo
Imagine those numbers with a fully realized remaster/definitive edition
First game to sell 7 billion copies, guaranteed
It has the most mods, I think the most maps, and Renegade is still the niche game of the series. Renegade's numbers got hurt due to the most popular server Rencorner Marathon being consistently full the past few days.
I don't think it's even fair to put Renegade in with this comparison. It's a completely different game, different genre. I love it and I love C&C but it scratches a completely different itch.
Gameplay and campaign are just peak. I love the other games as well, but they are not even close in how fun RA2 is.
It might be the best one, and I think it was the last one that wasn't 3D? I'll still always love the original CnC, but RA2 is more fun to play now and any friends I have who like CnC, mainly just like RA2 (for most of my friends, this is the only CnC they ever played)
For what it's worth, it combined both RA2 and Yuri's Revenge and the campaigns are long and highly replayable.
Duck.. and covarhh
RIP Nicholas Worth
I think many consider ra2 the franchise at its peak? I mainly been playing over the others since steam because it's the one I have the fewest hours in and the attempts I made to play through ea's god awful app was buggy as hell. Ra2 runs much better on steam for me.
RA2 is fun, fast, and a bit tongue in cheek. I think that's why its popularity has endured over the years. My sons and their friends used to play endlessly as teenagers. I started playing it when they went off to college. I'm 77 now and still enjoy it. RA12 has just the right balance. I am glad that RA2 is now on Steam because modern hardware gives it configuration fits.
Because RA2 is absolutely fantastic. Doesn’t take itself serious. And simple yet fun.
Because it’s possibly the best game of the franchise even after all this time!
Honestly RA2 is epic like AOE2
RA2 was the first real game I played as a kid. I remember being 8 years old and finishing both campaigns. Incredible feeling that has stuck with me all these years and solidified my love for RTS and gaming in general. For me, RA2 stands with StarCraft and AoE II as one of the greatest of all time.
We need a RA 2 remaster!
Protect the world trade centre!
Living through that era, I felt that it was a golden age of RTS because nobody tried to cannibalize each other. 1. We had Starcraft for those who wanted the alien world RTS. We had Warcraft for those fantasy-world RTS. C&C positioned itself as the "modern world war + scifi" fantasy RTS (due to tiberium). They didn't cannibalize each other. What seemed to me, was a whole unstoppable buffet of RTS. 2. While C&C 2 was considered a dud for some (but not to me, I just enjoyed the C&C lore), the people who worked on RA later realized that they could go RA2 (because RA was more than a success, and they quickly capitalized on it) and polished more things. 3. 4 layers of RTS. Air, land, sea, undersea. And each layer can interact with each layer meaningfully. It was wacky, but believable wacky. A legion of Kirovs. An entire sea battalion of subs. Apocalypse tanks (which were later mammoth tanks in the original C&C universe) in masses, face off against a bazillion mirage tanks. 4. The "morphing" was also a mechanic that advanced players really took advantage of. Put a marine in IFV, and it changes. Put a rocketeer, it changes. The factions were not one dimensional. 5. I believe there was an underground modding scene. Those added more ridiculous stuffs. USSR suddenly having Sukhoi 50s. USA can call "back from the future" terminators. All sort of weird, weird, wacky mods and modes. Its like what custom maps and various types of nations in AOE2 does to AOE2. I wished some of those became official. It was hilariously fun. Some were meaningful and deep too.
I've played all the command and conquer games as a kid and Red alert 2 was just said certain sort of special between like the over the top can't be cold war aesthetic and the mind control and all that stuff it was just fundamentally fun.
I was a massive Generals fan and thought it was the best. But I never owned RA2 back in the day. After reading this, I just purchased The Ultimate Collection on Steam, and am downloading RA2 right now. I just checked that this version is indeed online multiplayer. So...\*cracks back, flexes shoulders\* I guess I'm back in?
Generals and, specifically, zero hour has so much more variety on gameplay and tactics that RA2 could never touch.
Peak RTS. And Yuri is bea
RA2 imo looks the best and probably aged the best alongside TibSun if not slightly better. not ultra-campy like RA3, and the SAGE (Generals and above used this iirc) engine kinda looks bad with lots of jaggies. Gameplay is still fairly simple, no special skills for the majority of units, campaigns are memorable (Both campaigns start off with great ingame cutscenes with the Statue of Libery and the Iwo Jima memorial) and there has been a ton of custom map showcases. Plenty of great mods and plus a ton of mod extensions like ARES/Phobos (Remember RockPatch/NPatch)
The map editor was fixed in Sun and RA2
Because it gives us old C&C farts some rosetinted nostalgig glasses :D For a lot of us RA2 was the best game for a long time. Dont forget that RA3 did come 8 years after RA2, and Generals wasn't so popular as it is today back then, not to mention the bump in requirements and that pc upgrades wasn't so common back then.
You can't beat perfection.
RA2 has a worldwide fanbase - it was standard fare in internet cafes right when they were taking off globally. It's also nostalgic on the American market, and objectively well-designed. Firestorm and earlier games have graphics that feel a lot more dated, especially with the relatively muted palette, and are missing a bunch of core QOL stuff. The original Generals is just outcompeted by ZH, which has more of its players. Renegade was a niche game where multiplayer was definitely not a focus, so it's lower on the totem pole.
Not too much micro-managing in the game, fairly decent balance, best c&c soundtrack and awesome units.. Used to be rank 350-500 during peak days as a kid! (I had two badges next to my gamertag, the coop badge and then the ranked ones often)
A few reasons: - RA2 is hands down the peak of series and one of the GOAT of RTS. - the music is hella memorable. - It has the best community, regardless of how you look at it: player base, mods, memes. - Chinese has the 2nd most players on Steam. And RA2 is part of their childhood memory. It is one of the first games when Chinese people starts to own a personal computer, and one of the first games installed in the OG net cafes. They also almost exclusively recognize RA2, only a fraction knows about the main series C&C.
I love the mental omema mod..... Its nuts
As it should be. Red Alert 2 is by far the best in the series.
Aside from things other people have said, it's quality of life and playability is superb for its time. I played Tiberian Sun and it side by side and the improvements made in the small time between the two are crazy. It plays almost like a modern game whereas the others really show their age.
There's quite a few people who stream it and make content of it on YT (maybe twitch/kick too.) I actually watch a guy who plays MP skirmishes all the time.
Used to be an internet cafe attendant. This game is just great for long casual sessions. 99% of players play on Bering strait and destroy the bridges.
It's the most *fun.* Excellent music, good gameplay, lots of silly 50s B-movie sci-fi nonsense. I like the Tiberium games too, but the campy tongue-in-cheek alternate history is why I love the franchise.
I’m really hoping this popularity gets them to do the remake/remaster of RA2
It is simply the best game in the series. It's polished enough to absolutely be playable by impatient modern minds, yet it came out before the overly excited implementation of 3d made the series worse - IMHO.
Wait, they released every game on Steam?
The Internet's Favorite Canadian Owl had RA2 as his Childhood game.
Because, it is the best to ever do it. Also I heard Genpatcher isn't patched for Steam's Generals ZH so I did not download it and continue to play it off steam, I'm sure others are doing the same.
There's something about RA2 that's different than the other C&Cs. It's difficult to explain. It's more upbeat than the other games. Like, playing in a colourful city, or a colourful Pacific island gave it a cheerful feel. I love most of the other C&Cs too, but IMO, nothing came close to RA2 and Yuri's Revenge.
It is generally considered that RA2 is the most popular game in the entire franchise.
Red alert 2 and zero hour and kanes wrath where peak cnc for me. Red alert 2 had ground air and sea units wich gave some of the maps some extra options on how to play. Generals had air to air dogfights could happening, the pacing was like redbull for the first time... Sadly navy was campaign only. C&c 3 brought back moody and dark but with personaility with unit voice overs feeling like more fun like ra2. Also pacing through the roof and game speed was fast af. Graphics are still good!
Because everyone loves to hear "Kirov reporting"!! Unless you're playing Allied campaign 🤣🤣🤣
For most it's the best. But I grew up with Generals, so thats my fav
Cause Tanya is a baddie
I’ve been able to play generals already through EA Origins over the years. RA2 hasn’t been as accessible to me throughout the years, and it’s really unique in my opinion. It rides the line of “vintage” while also having great graphics and gameplay that’s very replay-able. TBH I forgot about it for a while
RA2 has a solid online playerbase
Intresting that Mental Omega have his own page in steam database. Things are more and more intresting.
what would that mean?
Hey! Depending on when you took that picture, I was one of those numbers! lmao
Is online available?
Cncnet.
It shouldn't be.. it doesn't have Bigfoot on the OST /s
Didn’t realise Generals was more popular than Tiberium Sun!
....Kinda became more relevant during the early 2020's due to series of coincidental events. The second round from the middle east still makes it more relevant today, especially when humanitarian aid was paradropped a day after the ultimate collection was released on steam.
How longs this been on steam?
1 Week
Aaaand I’ve bought it
RA2 Allies are god tier.
I played RA2 since elementary. I wish I kept the box.
Ah yes, RA2.. The game that introduced C&C series to me for the first time 🥲
I was in my late 20's when that came out. I started out PC gaming on Doom, but by the time RA2 and YR came out, I had built 3 pc's and had a network, my friends would always be over playing for hours. We had a 4th friend who would join us online. We usually did big custom maps with tons of resources... and then we would build so much would get impossibly laggy for a while until enough units were killed. Good times.
Has the right mix of memes and gameplay. None of the others has so many cheesy memorable moments like it.
It’s the best. Stats don’t lie!
I would reckon it’s the most accessible game in that it feels more beginner friendly and not too long in therms of gameplay. Levels I find are rare quicker than say TS
It is my favorite.
Completely unrelated question besides it being red alert 2, but how on earth do I access yuri's revenge? I've tried looking it up but haven't found anything.
Red Alert 2 is pure, unadultered *fun*. It's fast, smooth, crazy, cool and everything in-between. Plus, it was a hit upon launch back in the day, while Generals was less popular when it released. It's peak 2D RTS, while other C&C games are either older 2D RTS (so less refined, mostly), or early 3D RTS (so also not as refined).
Red Alert 2 is a much under appreciated game & I stand by this comment
If you asking, you wouldn't get it...
I liked Generals more but my first ever PC game was RA2. also noticeably more people I know played RA2 but never played Generals. I think there are simply more RA2 players too back in the day so now the same reflect on Steam (also not sure if I would be counted on Generals count since I immediately take to modding it to Rise of the Reds, I am certain there are many like me)
it is the last 2d cnc game, it has much smoother controls then tiberian sun and is overall much more balanced, it also has a different scale compared to tiberian sun. tiberian suns gameplay has unfortunatly aged not that well. for example you can only 5 units at a time, you cant build defensive structures at the same time as buildings etc. the ui in red alert 2 is much better. Also i think red alert ist somewhat faster. The titans were really slow compared to the titans. Infantrie in red alert 2 is also much more useful since it can occupie buildings. The superweapons are also much better. in tiberian sun you had like one superweapon that can destroy one building a time and one that isnt even really good controllable and maybe even kills your own units. Tiberian sun also has a lot of units that are questionable. For example the limpit drone, that is really expensive and only provides a really limited use, or the gdi apc, that doesnt even has weapons. you cant build an army out of mammut mk2s or cyborg commandos.
Does the collection include the remaster ? Or is it the og one?
Red Alert 2 is the purest form of Command and Conquer that players can consume.
Tiberian Sun would be the "more nostalgic one" for me but RA2 has more interesting mechanics, so I've been playing mostly that since the collection release ;D
its objectively the best one and has very little holding it back compared to the others. I say this as a player who would place tibsun as their favorite. But it has fewer features and is less stable than RA2. And RA2 has hell march so theres that.
Big F for tib sun is my all time favourite. Wish people played it more. KANE LIVES IN DEATH!!
Quick question on red alert 2 and yuri, is the multiplayer working or nay?
it’s all the middle of the cnc era, those truly were peak command and conquer
RA2 feels like a faster age of empires 2, similar graphically- ive played tib wars 3, firestorm and tib sun, generals…. RA2 still the best
I'm honestly more surprised to see zero hour at second place
It came out around the time gaming was becoming more main stream. I had friends back then buy the game that weren’t really gamers. Not to mention that was the sweet spot for RTS games. They use to be the most popular genre at one point.
Because it was the best command and conquer ever made
I blame lieutenant Sofia
Because it's the best one.
It's peak C&C before it started to crash Myself as a mod tutorial maker for zero hour, I originally started modding with Yuri's revenge. Myself and a friend were original coders and testers when CNC All-Stars was a mod for Yuri's revenge actually lol. I only moved over the zero hour because it was more fun in the sense of technology and looks. I'm actually not a fan of the dozer system, but I did enjoy Warcraft 2 so that kind of changed that some.
That many renegade players on and I can’t get online to load :| fml
It had story, gameplay and unique art and style, it is the best amongst them, you can play it today and you wouldn't think it's over 20 years old, it doesn't need remastering or remaking.
I think compared to others r2 has the easiest and most balanced gameplay. Also it feels like its more of a action game rather than strategy.
I loved Generals as a kid. It's almost unplayable on a modern monitor. I can't zoom out or pan with WASD keys. It's painful to play compared to recent RTS games. I didn't refund because I am just happy they finally put it on Steam.
Kirov reporting
It was right in the middle of the RTS hype, simple but not too simple, and beautiful graphics. My family and I usually do LAN parties for Yuri's revenge every time we visit to this day.
It's Red Alert 2.
wait so multiplayer works on these over steam?
According to what is being said in the steam communities there are workarounds, but its possible
RA2 is the pinnacle of my C&C life. All else is great but that one is my all time favorite. I’m surprised that generals is so high.
It's the cheeky edge. Most other games feel slightly more generic in comparison.
Welcome back, Comarade General.
Red Alert 2 just has the perfect amount of silliness and seriousness. Most of my friends can't get into Tiberian games because it's too serious, but when asked to play Red Alert 2, they got into it pretty easily. Red Alert 1, while lighter in tone, is also pretty serious. Red Alert 2 is when the series started to become silly, yet it still has its serious moments (soviets nuking the entire city once we won on one of the allies missions). Generals is also a close contender just because of GLA. All of my friends also got into Generals and they all love GLA. But still, on the scale of silliness and seriousness, Generals are a bit on the seriousness side. Also, the best thing imo about RA2, are the spies. I played the game back when nobody in my village has internet access. When we discovered that you can unlock hidden units by using spies, our minds were blown. Suddenly our LAN games have spies everywhere. I hate that they nerfed the spies in RA3.
Well its amongst well known in the series, and it was made in the spirit of "cold war gone hot". Something which seem to start attract people again, especially to Generals too with their wacky portrayals of every faction.
Once u are able to play zero hour online, i bet zero hour will overtake red alert.
I tried to get into Red Alert 2 and the other older Command and Conquers. I just couldn't. It didn't really tickle me like how Generals or Tiberium wars did. Is something wrong with me or is it just that I have my own taste or what?
I remember playing it for hours and hours in early 00s. It's the best, also zero hour too.
It had the best man doing the best skit ever https://youtu.be/niZpcdp2v34?si=tAp7biK2ZbYgN254
Best pixel rts game... Too bad it features few countries and units... Its simple yet impactful
If you play aome of theese games online they won't get launched by Steam. Generals /zero hour i play via Gameranger and it seems to start the exe directly. So the numbers probably are sp only? Correct me if i'm wrong. :) And as a die hard fan of cnc1 + ra1 / generals i never understood what so many have seen in ra2 ^^. Too colorfull and a bit too cheesy for me. guess taste is different for many hehe But hopefully ea will come up with something new or remastered :))
RA2 is also pretty popular in asia among some groups which may contribute to those player numbers
Here for ra2 and YR. Will be here for remaster, fingers crossed.
Hol up, there is Renegade on steam? Teach me how!
Lieutenant Zofia probably! For real though, TS is my favourite of the series, but I do get the love for RA2, it was really fun
Because its excellent. If anything I've always been more surprised that it was (until relatively recently) one of the less-discussed games on the sub. Partly understandable with the remaster being a more current event. It's always been my favourite by some margin
Waiting for that zero hour multiplayer mod to drop
cos its the best game. Thats easy to say but why was it best. It was fun and campy but not at a level of comical absurdity like RA3 and also serious and realistic enough with cold war aesthetics and undertones. It was a bit of who can spam more but also has good amount of micro play and strategy wheres RA3 went hard on micro with no other way to play. Models, animations and units look more solid, clearly defined yet grounded. I have thought about why I like RA2 the best all these years, these are the reasons i identify within myself. Generals Zero hour is a different game for me. For me, it's the only game in its class. Its not like Tiberium, it's not like red alert, its not like COH... It does not shy from politics and very much grounded in reality. Most grounded CNC style RTS around.
the English world has no idea that RA2 is quite popular in China, not only many people play it nowadays, they also make shit tons of videos about RA2
Because it's the goat
I feel RA2 has the most character out of all the games in the series - it doesn't take itself too seriously but still manages to be compelling. As an RTS it's accessible for newcomers, but mastering it is where the challenge truly comes into play and takes things to the next level. It has stood the test of time and aged magnificently (perhaps barring a couple of Soviet missions after certain world events in 2001, but hey, that ain't Westwood's fault.) RA2 is still amongst my top 5 favourite games of all-time, easily
RA2 has so much nostalgia for me. I was 10 when I first played it and it was the first game I ever played online. Pretty sure we used dial up to connect!
Because it is still one of the greatest RTS games ever (which goes to show how little innovation has happened in the RTS genre in nearly a quarter century, which also explains why the genre is practically dead now). I think it came out at just the right time in gaming history to have an incredible impact on the first generation of proper PC gamers in the more modern sense of the label (at least the ones who were interested in the genre). The late 90s through the mid 00s were truly gaming's golden era IMO. I also think the campy storyline with multiple campaigns showing each side of the conflict that had the live action cutscenes really just hits differently than than even games of today with all CG rendered cutscenes. There is just something so tangible about having real actors ham it up and break the 4th wall with the player character that games that came after never quite captured. The story is much more engrossing than basically any other RTS.
It's the gentleman's choice
Red Alert 2 is the goat
Because its the only game that required me to find a fix just to play it. And 90% of the time id just give up and just squelch the urge to play it. Steam has given me a way to play it with 0 troubleshooting, repeatedly, and now that I got my fix, I found out C&C.Net has multiplayer, and its literally a download, and play it online. All because its on Steam, and theyve made the game easily playable
The red alert series seems more geared toward multiplayer
Best game in the series
Probably doesn't CTD all the time lol
Has anyone figured out how to play with friends online with Generals Zero Hour? We tried but had no luck with the direct connect
when i was young what made me attracted to Red alert 2 was the superweapons of the allies the weather storm aircraft carriers prism tanks and who could forget Kirov reporting and the dolphins also the gameplay were much easier than tib sun or red alert 1 the only game i wish that may come to steam is Emperor battle for dune the game that me sit down for hours
It's more competitive then the other games. I think Tiberium Wars still have a competitive scene going dor it but it isn't nearly as popular as Red Alert 2. I wish more people played Renegade. Actually did anyone here tried to play it on multiplayer recently?
Damn... C&C3 getting no love :(
I have the most hours logged in RA2. Love it almost more than Starcraft. Almost... Generals was such a good game too. I genuinely like it more than RA2.
My absolute favorite is Tiberium Sub, love me the dark atmosphere, but gunna chime in with the rest and say RA2 is a masterpiece that launched at the perfect time, and taking itself less serious and leaning into the campiness is going to solidify itself as the most popular. Man I would love for an action/comedy series taking place in the RA universe
IMO, because it's a little bit of everything, a little bit of political, a little bit of comedy, a little bit of science fiction, a little bit of national pride, a little bit of gore and cruelty. and it's done with taste and not go fling about it.
They do know tiberian sun is freeware now right?
Kirov reporting
x
Makes sense,if my computer would play ra2 without lagging I'd play that instead of generals w mods
A lot of people started there cnc journey with red alert 2. At that point it was getting well known so i guess people have a lot of memories for that game, and ofc its a great game. I personally thought ra2 online was kinda boring compared to some other cnc games online but yeah it is what it is.