Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The fourth main game in the Command & Conquer series, Red Alert 2 is set during the 70's, when the supposed puppet-Premier of the USSR leads a world communist alliance in a surprise invasion of the United States, with the help of the mindbending psychic Yuri. Though once more the Allies rally to win the war, the now-renegade Yuri has his own plans and steals a time machine in an attempt to conquer the past. He's thwarted, but the time travel shenanigans aren't finished.

The game was followed-up by an expansion Yuri's Revenge on October 2001.

Please note that this page is for tropes specific to this game. Please add tropes relating to multiple games to the Red Alert series page.

Tropes used in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 include:
  • All Up to You:
    • Justified in the Allied campaign, as you're the only battlefield commander still alive in the U.S. East Coast following the initial Soviet attacks.
    • In Yuri's Revenge, the Soviet commander ultimately gets Premier Romanov's full trust as he's not only about the only truly loyal one left, but is also aware of the Bad Future Yuri intends to bring about.
  • Alternate History: Set in the 1970's, the game is this to both the first Red Alert and the original Tiberian Dawn.
  • America Saves the Day: Played with. The United States does eventually lead the way in the Allied campaign, albeit after receiving aid from the Allies in Europe. Something that Gen. Carville only begrudgingly relents to, as Americans needn't ask for help. In Yuri's Revenge meanwhile, President Dugan outright boasts to Yuri that "we won the war".
  • Anachronism Stew: Thanks to the altered timeline, there are lasers, autonomous drones and even webcams by the 1970s.
  • And Now for Something Completely Different: The Lunar mission in the Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge (which involves tracking down Yuri's stronghold on the Moon) is the only point in the entire Command & Conquer franchise that takes place off-world, while featuring unique Cosmonaut units to boot.
  • Awesome Personnel Carrier: The Battle Fortress and IFV are awesome in their own way. The IFV can change armaments depending on the troop type it is carrying; the Battle Fortress can crush other vehicles!
  • Badass: The Hollywood actors that help the Allied commander during the Hollywood mission in Yuri's Revenge are fairly badass in their own right.
  • Badass Bystander:
  • Bald of Evil: Yuri.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Premier Romanov even without Yuri's influence isn't himself a threatening villain.
  • Bilingual Bonus: A number of tracks in the game's music contain audible lines in various languages such as French, Russian and German.
  • Bland-Name Product: McBurger Kong, a spoof of McDonald's and Burger King.
  • Brick Joke: The Soviets momentarily wind up too far in the past in Yuri's Revenge, fending off dinosaurs before arriving at the correct time due to overcharging the time machine. This comes back to bite Yuri in the ass when the Soviets repeat the same thing as he steals the time machine, only this time draining the power reserves so he can't come back.
  • Broad Strokes: How the game treats the first Red Alert, with its events more or less having happened, including an Allied victory. It's implied as well that the Red Alert 2 timeline also diverged at an unspecified point.
  • Cartoonish Supervillainy: Pretty much the entire premise of Yuri and his faction, which ups the somewhat ridiculous RA arsenal Up to Eleven with the addition of genetically mutated Hulk look-a-likes, psychically powered infantry, UFOs and so on. Then there's the expansion campaign, which features such gems as weaponized Moai statues, an Arctic/Moon base and a gothic Transylvanian mansion headquarters. Regardless of which campaign, all of Yuri's plans end up failing spectacularly and then Yuri himself eventually being submitted to some humiliating fate.
  • Casting Gag: Barry Corbin, who plays General Carville in Red Alert 2, is basically reprising his role as General Berringer from WarGames. There's even an explicit Shout-Out during one of the Ant missions ("I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good!").
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: General Vladimir, who was an important supporting character in Red Alert 2, is nowhere to be seen in Yuri's Revenge, its expansion pack.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Yuri. Sure he's part of a villain faction, but he's Obviously Evil even compared to the other characters, and nobody but the brainless General Failure suspects him of treachery. See also Obvious Judas in the YMMV section.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything:
    • McBurger Kong restaurants from Red Alert 2 feature a giant ape statue/sign on the roof. When the building is garrisoned, the ape gains a commando-style headband; when the building is damaged into the red, the ape covers its eyes as if cowering in fear.
    • An Allied mission of Yuri's Revenge, which takes place in Sidney, Australia, has instead the McRoo Burger restaurant, complete with a giant kangaroo on the roof!
    • If Boris dies early on in the first Soviet mission in Yuri's Revenge, not only is there unique dialogue, but Boris himself reappears once your forces successfully return to the past, momentarily puzzled as he hadn't died at that point.
  • Dirty Communists: How the Allies view the Soviets, obviously.
  • Dirty Coward: Yuri's gattling tanks and Magnetrons: they certainly like to dish out punishment at long range, but flee at the first whiff of a counterattack.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Boris to Tanya after a fashion in Yuri's Revenge.
  • Dumb Muscle: Yuri's Brute units, who are devoid of any intellect as a result of genetic mutation carried out on humans subjected to conversion.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Many people don't realize that General Carville (and his actor) appeared in the second expansion of Red Alert 1, making him the only actor to appear in multiple titles and the only character other than Einstein to do so. This may have something to do with his only appearing in the PlayStation release of the game under the Retaliation name.
  • Easy Level Trick: The second Allied level can be beaten by skipping your base building and using your starting forces to destroy the levels target.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: Subverted in "City of Lights" as restrictions in the depiction of French monuments may have forced Westwood to alter the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe into something similar yet still distinct from their real-life counterparts.
  • Enemy Mine: The Allies and Soviets in Yuri's Revenge, though it's made pretty clear that both sides want the other out of the picture almost as much as they both want Yuri dead.
  • Everything Is Big in Texas: In Red Alert 2, one Soviet mission has you hunting down the U.S. president in San Antonio. All of the male civilians wear cowboy hats and fire handguns at you. The U.S. base is actually around the Alamo, though they don't garrison it. But you can.
  • Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Soviet anti-ship squids.
  • Evil Laugh: Crazy Ivan as well as Tanya.
  • For Want of a Nail: The fact that the Allied and Soviet campaigns of Yuri's Revenge start at all story-wise is because the failed American strike on the Psychic Dominator on Alcatraz still managed to cripple the nuclear reactor powering it, allowing precious time for the time machine in San Francisco to be completed.
  • Game Mod: A number have come out over the years. Among the most notable ones is Mental Omega, a full-fledged expansion pack and fan reimagining of Yuri's Revenge.
  • General Failure: General Vladimir, the incompetent glory hound who's your superior in the first half of the Soviet campaign. He gets you into trouble in the second mission by assaulting the vastly superior American fleet with only his personal command ship, and then leaving you to deal with them as he flees the battle. Then when you have completed the destruction of the U.S. East Coast fleet, he takes credit for your accomplishments by returning to Moscow before you can. His one saving grace is being savvy enough to see through Yuri, but it feels rewarding when you finally remove him from command.
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Literally: Yuri's "Genetic Mutator" superweapon instantly converts a bunch of people into massive musclemen.
  • The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: The Allies, the Soviets and Yuri (and his faction).
  • Government in Exile: President Dugan and what's left of his staff eventually wind up in an undisclosed location in Canada.
  • Historical In-Joke:
    • Possible example in the briefing for one of the Soviet missions. The player is shown a picture of Stalin, with Yuri edited in on his right. This picture really exists and is famous for being doctored, the real life version showing Stalin sat next to Lenin, who bears a fairly strong resemblance to Yuri. This version of the picture, created at the behest of Stalin, is a forgery to try and give him more credibility as one of Lenin's closest collaborators.
    • Towards the end of the Allied campaign, the Cuban Missile Crisis is recreated. Except this time around, the Soviets and Allies are already at war and the outcome doesn't result in nuclear apocalypse.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Taking down a Kirov Airship is not without risk, as the explosion it creates upon crashing is enough to kill most infantry and can seriously damage if not destroy structures.
    • In "Dark Night", it is possible to capture a nuclear missile silo once you manage to train an engineer and get him to one of the enemy bases. Lt. Eva would then suggest the player to use it against the other silo—the captured nukes are significantly more powerful than the ones in Skirmish mode and Multiplayer, and thus can destroy the enemy silo with just one hit.
  • Human Resources: Yuri's Bio-Reactors from the Red Alert 2 expansion. They don't generate much power on their own, but "garrison" infantry in them and they become some of the best power plants in the game.
  • I Love Nuclear Power: In addition to nuclear missiles, the Soviets this time around have access to radiation-spewing Desolators (via Iraq) and nuclear-armed Demolition Trucks (via Libya).
  • Invaded States of America: The catalyst of the game's plot and where a good portion of the game and expansion takes place.
  • Large Ham:
    • Premier Romanov seems to be trying to win a contest in "thickest Russian accent".
    • General Vladimir too: Behold the power. OF MOTHER RUSSIA!
  • Lighter and Softer: Unlike its darker and more serious predecessor, Red Alert 2 has a rather campy and light-hearted tone.
  • Mad Bomber:
    • Crazy Ivans and Chrono Ivans. Full of one-liners to match. "I lost a bomb... do you have it?", "Here, hold this!". They are also the only units in the game that can attack (plant bombs) on allied units without holding the force fire key.
    • Tanya also counts, carrying all the C4, one-liners and her iconic laugh from the previous game. And then she ups her ante by being able to blow up vehicles in the expansion.
  • Made of Explodium:
    • Not only barrels, but pretty much every scenery prop explodes (albeit harmlessly), even if you only ordered a GI/Conscript/Initiate to shoot at it. A bunch of tires is passable, but beach towels?
    • Yuri's "Psychic Dominator" weapon permanently mind-controls a few enemy units (even those that are already mind-controlled, even if by another Psychic Dominator). It also, for some bizarre reason, makes all nearby buildings explode.
  • Mission Control: Lt. Eva for the Allies, and Lt. Zofia for the Soviets.
  • Monumental Damage: A lot of landmarks get blown up or are at least damaged considerably over the game, including the Pentagon. Averted with the Eiffel Tower in the Soviet campaign, however, which is used as a gigantic Tesla coil to destroy the rest of Paris. In Yuri's Revenge meanwhile, it's also possible to destroy the Apollo Lunar landing site at one point in the Soviet campaign.
  • Mood Dissonance: The game's cheery atmosphere gets a bit more serious when Carville dies.
  • Multinational Team:
    • The Allied forces, while having a much more pronounced American element, are still comprised of units from various countries.
    • Downplayed with the Soviets. While the majority by and large come from the USSR, there are units from Cuba and the Middle East.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: RA2 uses the Tiberian Sun engine, which resulted in the two games' assets being mostly cross-compatible as well as a number of effects being repurposed to suit the game's narrative: the Magnetron's beam appears to be a recolored version of the Disruptor tank's sonic beam in Tiberian Sun while Allied Prism beams appear to be a higher-resolution Nod laser beam.
  • No Campaign for the Wicked: Yuri in Yuri's Revenge does not have a campaign.
    • Except they sort of do in the little-known co-op mode.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo:
  • Palette Swap: Yuri's hover transport is nothing more than a recoloured Allied hover transport vehicle.
  • The Player Is the Most Important Resource: The video cutscenes after the final mission acknowledge that the success of the final battle was due to your leadership.
  • Playing with Fire: Yuri's Initiates are psychics who attack by burning things with their powers.
  • Power Glows: Starting with Red Alert 2, any unit that makes it to Heroic (max veterancy) status will find their weapon fire glowing red, either in the form of a large red muzzle flash, the projectiles themselves glow, or the explosions they create are bright red mushroom clouds bigger than the unit itself. Heroic-level Grizzly, Rhino and Apocalypse tanks launched two miniature nuclear shells per barrel, and Heroic-level V3 Launchers and Dreadnoughts launched V3 rockets with small nuclear warheads. Kirovs also got tesla bombs, at least doubling the area of effect with a blue electrical glow.
  • The Remnant: The Allied forces in and around San Francisco (and Einstein's time machine) are all that remains of the free world at the start of Yuri's Revenge, Yuri's Psychic Dominators having turned the rest of the planet into mind-controlled slaves. The only reason why that's so is because the one built in Alcatraz was insufficiently powered.
  • Renegade Russian: Subverted with Yuri, who has a family estate in Transylvania that he uses as a stronghold and is implied to be of Romanian descent. He and his followers eventually breakaway from the Soviet Union, having his own army by Yuri's Revenge.
  • Ret-Gone: This is what the Allies' Chrono Legionnaire does, literally erasing enemies from time.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In Yuri's Revenge, both the Allies and the Soviets in their respective campaigns go back in time to stop Yuri before he can complete his Psychic Dominators.
  • Spanner in the Works: The Soviets in Yuri's Revenge. Yuri activating the Psychic Dominators doesn't stop their initial goal of stealing the time machine in San Francisco to change the past and win the war. Only now, they're forced to deal with both the Allies and Yuri, thwarting both factions in the process.
  • Spiteful AI: The mind control tanks take damage if it mind controls too many units. It will happily push forward and Mind Rape as many units as it can regardless of this until it is destroyed.
  • Stock Sound Effect: The nuclear missile warning siren used in the game was a stock sound clip from the Universal Studios Sound Effects Library, also used in countless media such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Downfall among others.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: While pre-release screenshots of the game used exact replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, these were altered in the final release likely due to usage rights over the depiction of French landmarks (especially when they are portrayed in a less-than-flattering light). Later releases of Red Alert 2 patched this even further by giving them generic names e.g. "Paris Tower" and "Arch of Winning" due to Unfortunate Implications after the September 11 attacks. There is however a mod which restores the old Eiffel Tower complete with a custom destruction animation.
  • Symbology Research Failure: Red Alert 2 has Russian Orthodox Church architecture on Communist structures, never mind the fact that the Soviet Union has had a history of demolishing churches as per their anti-sectarian policy.
  • Take Over the World: The Soviet campaign endings in a nutshell, with the one for Yuri's Revenge going a step further by mentioning Romanov's plans to expand Communism beyond Earth.
  • Title Drop: "The entire world and all of its history is mine to command and conquer."
  • Too Soon: The game was released a year before the September 11, 2001 attacks, with the original cover having a CGI illustration of New York under siege and the Twin Towers in plain sight. Following the attacks, EA pulled all existing copies of the game and re-issued it without the offending imagery; the game remained unaltered however, as one of the Soviet missions still has the Twin Towers present with Lt. Zofia mentioning them by name. It also doesn't help that the player can still blow up the World Trade Center and get in-game bonuses from doing so.
  • Unperson:
    • Yuri brands general Vladimir a traitor and a "non-person" after setting him up for Romanov's murder. Having known Stalin personally, he probably picked up the habit from the man himself.
    • By the expansion, the Soviets generally refer to Yuri as the "Traitor Yuri."
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • Yuri's faction has the Grinder machine, which you can send your obedient soldiers (or hypnotized enemies/civilians) into to be shredded into valuable scrap bits.
    • One allied mission sees you trying to destroy a network of such devices Yuri's built in Los Angeles. There's no time limit on the mission though, so you're free to watch brainwashed civilians walk into them for as long as you like while you build up your forces.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Premier Romanov in Allies campaign, especially after the player destroyer the 3 nuclear silos in one of the missions.
  • Violent Glaswegian: The crew of the Allied Battle Fortress in Yuri's Revenge certainly qualifies, though the accent is pretty bad.
    • Battle Fortress: ROLLING THUNDER!!
  • Washington, D.C. Invasion: The Soviet campaign has the Commies invading America's capital twice. The second time being, at Yuri's orders, to eliminate Vladimir, who's taken up residence in the White House.
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