Command and Conquer Red Alert Series: Difference between revisions

'''Einstein:''' Time will tell. Sooner or later... time will tell...|''Red Alert'''s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABDm2JcnTPs intro]}}

 

 

 

The premise of ''[[Command and Conquer Red Alert (Video Game)|Red Alert]]'' is simple: in 1946, operating out of a laboratory in Trinity, New Mexico, [[Albert Einstein]] uses a time machine to travel to Landsberg, Germany in 1924 and removes [[Adolf Hitler]] from history. While this prevents the Nazis from rising to power and keeps Germany docile, unfortunately it leaves [[Josef Stalin]] with no obstacle to the Soviet Union’s expansion. This sparks an even worse version of [[World War Two]] during the 1950's as the Allies try to withstand the endless hordes of the Red Army, backed by deadly Tesla-based technology. But thanks to Einstein’s chronosphere and [[Non Entity General|one nameless European commander]], the Soviets are defeated.

** Cherdenko and Futuretech in the third game.

* [[Big No]]: Many. As befits the pilot of a [[Humongous Mecha]], Kenji gets one with an ''echo'' in ''Uprising''.

** In the second game, McBurger Kong, a spoof of McDonald's and Burger King.

** The MiG aircraft in the third game is called "Mikevich-Guroyan", instead of the real life "Mikoyan-Gurevich".

{{quote| ''"Come on, fight for the winning team!"''.}}

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Pretty much all the units, except some aircraft which have to return and reload. [[Lampshaded]] by the Sickle and Rocket Angel:

** Many times in ''Red Alert 3''. Twice for Soviet, first for Krukov's supposed betrayal, though it was later revealed Cherdenko is the one who framed him, second for Premier Cherdenko's [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|event]]. Surprisingly (at least to the players), the Allies also got one against President Ackerman. The Empire don't get any until the expansion, at least in the Allies campaign and Challenge mode.

* [[Cloning Blues]]: the Cloning Vats of ''RA2'' and ''Yuri's Revenge'', as well as Yuriko of ''RA3'' being cloned several times, powering the Empire's ultimate ultimate weapon with many of her doubles. In ''Uprising'' she heads out to destroy a facility which has the sole role of mass cloning her.

* [[Convenient Color Change]]: When a building is captured.

* [[Cool Airship]]: Kirovs.

* [[Faction Calculus]]: Allies (subversive) versus Soviets (powerhouse) in ''Red Alert''. Except on the sea, where it's inverted.

** Allies (balanced) versus Soviets (powerhouse) versus Empire (subversive) in [[Red Alert 3]]. Again, inverted on the sea, where the Empire is the powerhouse.

** The Allied [[Disintegrator Ray|Prism]] and Spectrum laser technology in ''Red Alert 2'' and ''3'' respectively.

** One Soviet mission in ''Yuri's Revenge'' puts you on ''the moon'' of all places. As the lack of a breathable atmosphere poses a problem for your infantry, you instead get jetpack-cosmonauts with laser guns.

* [[Gatling Good]]: The Sentry Gun in ''Red Alert 2'', then Yuri with his own Gatling Turrets and Gatling Tanks.

* [[Heroic Dolphin]]: Used by the Allies in the second and third games.

** The Cuba crisis in Red Alert 2.

** The American sneak attack on Japanese-controlled Pearl Harbor in Red Alert 3.

** The Soviets after the first game. The first game gives what many accounts would consider an accurate depiction of Stalin's regime, but in the next two games they're just a joke.

** A bigger case is the Empire of the Rising Sun in RA 3, who are clearly modeled after [[Imperial Japan|Imperialist Japan]], which in real life was infamous for its war crimes, which include pointless mass murders by the hundreds of thousands, enslavement of tens of thousands of women as sex slaves, and performing medical experiments on prisoners from their colonies that killed thousands of people. Even the whole honor aspect that's presented as a joke in the game was a scary thing in real life; they considered surrender dishonorable and would execute or use enemies who surrendered as slave labor, and fed their civilians propaganda about the Allies that drove them to commit suicide by the tens of thousands when America invaded the Japanese home islands. All of these thing are of course never brought up in the game and the Empire is simply presented as an over-the-top comedic organization, though interestingly it is brought up in an in-progress mod called ''[[Red Alert 3 Paradox]]'' where in the mod's version of RA 3 events, [[Moral Event Horizon|the Empire butchered a major Soviet city]].

** Tesla Troopers with electricity puns such as "Here is your electric bill", " No Resistance" , "Like a Christmas tree", "Why so negative?".

** This started with the Shock Troopers from the first game's add-on pack, ''The Aftermath''. "Extra crispy!" "Fully charged!" "''Shocking!''"

* [[I Love Nuclear Power]]: The Soviets want to marry it. Of particular note are the Desolators. In ''Red Alert 2'', they come with a radiation beam that skeletonizes infantry, and have a secondary ability that can deny a sizeable tract of land to your enemies. In ''Uprising'' they have a [[Dissimile|chemical sprayer]] and an acid shotgun/cannon reducing enemy amour. Heavily so.

* [[Invaded States of America]]: Red Alert 2 is all about this. Several missions in [[Red Alert 3]] are also about invasions of the US mainland.

* [[Non Entity General]]: [[Lampshaded]] in ''Red Alert 3'', where near the end of the end of the Soviet campaign, a Conscript suggests that due to your success in taking it, {{spoiler|New York City}} will be renamed "Commandersgrad" implying the non-entity-commander is actually ''named'' "Commander".

* [[Our Presidents Are Different]]: President Dugan is a President Personable and President Iron in certain amounts.

* [[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. 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.

* [[Psychic Powers]]: Yuri is capable of mind control, and the Empire of the Rising Sun's hero unit in ''Red Alert 3'' has powerful telekinetic powers. Yuri pulls a psychic possession ''over a telephone'' at the beginning of ''Red Alert 2'' With the aid of a special building, he can mind control an entire hemisphere!

{{quote| Intelligence informed me that effective countermeasures involves specially-trained dolphins which are now at your disposal. What's next, killer whales?}}

** The first mission in the Soviet Campaign in ''Red Alert 2''? Operation [[Red Dawn]].

** Averted in [[Red Alert 3]]. Nuclear weapons themselves do no exist, but each faction's equivalent superweapon can wipe out whole bases.

* [[Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness]]: The games get progressively sillier, in contrast to the Tiberian series, which does the opposite.

** Just about all of Stalin's cronies in ''Red Alert 1''.

** Yuri in ''Red Alert 2'' and ''Yuri's Revenge''.

** Also subverted with the Empire: Tatsu is [[Red Herring|baited]] as the Starscream to his father for the first half of the campaign but the two eventually reconcile their differences after Emperor Yoshiro hears the [[Awful Truth]] about the Empire's origins. Given [[Command and Conquer]] games' propensity for [[Civil Warcraft]] and that even the "good" Allies suffer from one, this is actually quite surprising.

* [[Strange Bedfellows]]: The Allies and the Soviets join forces in Yuri's Revenge to take down Yuri, and again in Red Alert 3 to deal with the Empire.

**** But there is no objective reference point for this. All motion is based on subjective local reference points.

* [[Time Travel]]: The ''Red Alert'' series. By Red Alert 3 we're on an alternate ''alternate'' timeline.

*** I. The Allies, especially Germany and Britain, and without direct American military assistance, defeat the Soviet Union. A brave new world then develops throughout the remainder of the 20th century... until the arrival of a strange substance of ''still'' unknown origin.

* [[Title Drop]]:

** At the end of the setup for ''Red Alert'', Kane declares:

** Also in ''Yuri's Revenge'', Yuri states "The entire world and all of its history is mine, to Command and Conquer"

* [[Units Not to Scale]]: instead of complaining that the Allies managed to get an aircraft carrier in a lake, the Soviets should wonder what sort of lake can easily fit well over 50 aircraft carriers side-to-side.

* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: The Empire of the Rising Sun's artillery in ''Red Alert 3''. They're even flat-out simply [[Shout Out|called]] [[Space Battleship Yamato|Wave Motion Guns]], and their floating fortresses use tri-barreled versions.

** Don't forget the Allies' spectrum cannons used by spectrum towers and mirage tanks.

** Shortly after, in the Soviet mission in Washington, try get close to the Washington monument. It shoots laser!

** And Mt Rushmore houses a laser, and its faces shoot lasers.

* [[World of Ham]]-TO have any position in the army, you must be at least somewhat hammy apparently, ESPECIALLY in Red Alert 3

* [[World War III]]: The second game is an alternate World War III in the 1970s, taking place after the alternate World War II in ''Red Alert'', and [[Retcon|retconning]] its connection to the ''Tiberian'' series. ''Red Alert 3'' is an alternate ''alternate'' World War III, coming in at the end of the alternate World War II with the Allies enjoying their victory, erasing the events of RA2.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Command And Conquer Red Alert Series]]