• Introduction
• The RTS genre
• Market Positioning
• Technical profile
• History of the game
• Plot and narrative
• Similar Games
• Additional information

In this section, we will analyze Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, the game we will be taking the sprites and inspiration from. Red Alert 2 is a real-time strategy game developed by Westwood Studios and published by EA on October 2000.

Cover of the original game

It is a subgenre of strategy games in which, as opposed to turn-based strategy, the time goes moves forward constantly. That results in a more dynamic game because the players have to be constantly responding to the changing game state. The term "real-time strategy" was coined by Brett Sperry to market Dune II in the early 1990s.

Usually, in this kind of games take place in a military ambient; because most actions and the main mechanics distinguish this genre are:

• Be able to position structures and units under the player's control to secure areas of the map and/or destroy their opponents' assets.
• Create units and structures during the course of the game in exchange for materials, money, etc.
• Produce resources or/and collect these. By controlling special points on the map and/or possessing certain types of units and structures.

Red Alert 2 was a commercial success with 334.400 units sold at the end of 2000, meaning a revenue of $13.2 million. It was the 13th best-selling videogame in the United States during 2000. Received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

The game received mostly positive reviews, with IGN calling it outstanding and GamePro's Editor's Choice. One reviewer on GamePro noted "It's not the most innovative game, but with its solid gameplay and alternate Cold War storyline, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is the best 2D real-time strategy game since StarCraft".

Pages	Country	Calification
Computer Gaming World	US	4/5
GameSpot	US	85%
Gen4	FR	13/20
Joystick	FR	85%
Next Generation	US	4/5
PC Game UK	GB	92 %

Their great success was due to the fact that they had already launched other command & conquers, with which the saga was built a good reputation. On the other hand the rts were booming and were in high demand, and by then they had already learned what worked well and what did not, the rules had been established for a RTS(controls, main mechanics), all this coupled with the improvement of graphics quality while maintaining aesthetics and a good narrative that the public loved in previous games.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 uses an upgraded version of the engine used to create Tiberian Sun, another game from Westwood Studio³. The game was created for the computer platform with Microsoft Windows operation system.

The minimum requirement at the moment of launch:

• Operation system: Windows 95, 98, NT 6.0, 2000, or Millennium
• CPU: Pentium II 266 or better or Pentium II 450(to play the multiplayer mode)
• RAM: 64 MB or 128 MB (Multiplayer Mode)
• Video RAM: 2 MB
• Color Mode: 16-bit color
• Support: 4X CD-ROM drive
• Direct Sound Compliant Sound Card
• 200 MB of additional hard drive space
• 3D Hardware acceleration (optional)

To play the multiplayer mode it's needed the previous ones and:

• 56 Kbps Modem (Multiplayer mode)
• TCP/IP Internet Connection or LAN w/ IPX
• ISP for Internet Play

As stated earlier, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is an RTS video game released by Westwood Pacific,which was released for Microsoft Windows and published by EA Games on October 23, 2000 in North America and 27th in Europe.

This game is the follow-up to Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Red Alert 2 picks up at the conclusion of the Allied campaign of the first game.

Genre	Real-time strategy
Developer	Westwood Pacific
Publisher	EA Games
Design leads	Dustin Browder, John Hight, Brett W. Sperry
Technical Director	Henry Yu
Lead Artist	Chris Ashton
Composer	Frank Klepacki
Plataform	Microsoft Windows
Realese	NA: October 23, 2000 | EU: October 27, 2000
Mode	Single-player and multiplayer

You can find the credits here

• It puts us in the same situation as Red Alert, a war between the Allies and Russia but both sides have better technology³.
• Team Developed by Westwood Studios. Published by EA. Harvard Bonin was its boss of production³. Mark Skaggs was its producer⁴. On March 12 of 2012, an editor that let users create their own maps was released⁵.

Yuri's revenge is an expansion for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 released on October 10, 2001, by EA Games. It follows the story of Yuri, who has created its own army and is trying to take over the world ^{6 7}. It adds new allied and soviet units, single player campaings, multiplayer options, cooperative campaigns, cutscenes and a new faction, Yuri's army ⁴. When it was released it was the biggest expansion ever developed by Westwood Studio ⁴.

• Command and Conquer
• Red Alert series
• Tiberian/Tiberium series
• Generals series

Title	Release
Command & Conquer	NA 1995: MS-DOS, August 31 NA 1996: Macintosh, Saturn December 18 NA 1997: PlayStation December 18, Windows 95 March 10 NA 1999: Nintendo 64 June 29
Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations	NA 1996: MS-DOS
Command & Conquer: Red Alert	NA and EU 1996: MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows , October 31, NA 1997: PlayStation October 25
Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Counterstrike	NA 1997: DOS and Microsoft Windows , April 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert: The Aftermath	NA 1997: DOS and Microsoft Windows
Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor	NA 1997: Microsoft Windows, November 30
Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Retaliation	NA 1998: PlayStation, August 28
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun	NA 1999: Microsoft Windows, August 27
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm	NA 2000: Microsoft Windows, March 7
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2	NA 2000: Microsoft Windows, October 23 EU 2000: Microsoft Windows, October 27
Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge	NA 2001: Microsoft Windows, October 10 EU 2001: Microsoft Windows, October 19
Command & Conquer: Renegade	NA 2002: Microsoft Windows, February 26 EU 2002: Microsoft Windows, February 14
Command & Conquer: Generals	NA 2003: Microsoft Windows, February 10 EU 2003: Microsoft Windows, February 14 NA 2004: Macintosh, April
Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour	NA 2003: Microsoft Windows, September 22 NA 2005: Macintosh, February
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars	NA 2007: Microsoft Windows, March 28 EU 2007: Microsoft Windows, March 29 NA 2007: Xbox 360, May 10 EU 2007: Xbox 360, May 11 NA 2007: Mac OS X, August 28
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath	NA 2008: Microsoft Windows, March 24 EU 2008: Microsoft Windows, March 28 NA 2008: Xbox 360, June 24
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3	NA 2008: Microsoft Windows, Octubre 28 EU 2008: Microsoft Windows, Octubre 31 NA 2008: Xbox 360, November 11 EU 2008: Xbox 360, November 14 NA 2009: playStation 3, March 27 EU 2009: PlayStation 3, March 23
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising	WW(Worldwide) 2009: Microsoft Windows , March 12
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight	NA 2010: Microsoft Windows , March 16 EU 2010: Microsoft Windows , March 19
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Alliances	WW 2012: Web , May 24
Command & Conquer: Rivals	WW 2018: Android and iOS , December 4

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Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 has two unique story lines. Both the Allied campaign and the Soviet campaign start after the events of the original Red Alert, in which the USSR was defeated by the Allies. The Soviets invaded the Allied nations without warning and Michael Dugan, the American president, order a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union but silo operator was mind-controlled by Yuri and the nuclear missiles detonate close to silos' doors.

In the first place the player repel an invasion thanks to Tanya, then you recover the air base and alt the Soviets' advance to the midwest and it is discovered a psychic device has been deployed in Washington D.C. The psychic beacon manages to take control of President Dugan, general Ben Carville, and several other key Allied leaders in the city, who promptly surrender the United States to the Soviets. But a quick counter-strike destroys the beacon and allow to rescure the city.

Washington D.C. still reamins in Soviet hands so they move to Canada and discover another psychic device in Chicago, the Allies launch an offensive and free the city in a surprise attack, but the Soviet General Vladimir detonates a nuclear device destroying the city. Alarmed by the nuclear attack on Chicago, the European Allied leaders of France, Germany and Great Britain are willing to lend help to the USA, in a daring covert operation, Allied spies infiltrate the Soviet Battle Lab and destroy the two Nuclear Missile silos in Soviet-occupied Poland.

With additional men and equipment from the European Allies, the US launches an new assault on Soviet-occupied Washington, D.C., with the assistance of German professor Albert Einstein's Weaponized Prism technology, succeed in liberating the capital from the Soviets. With Washington back under American control, Allied leaders are now able to launch a new battle plan to drive the Soviets out of America. The Soviets, using their psychic technology once again, have deployed another Psychic Beacon and taken control of St. Louis, Missouri.

Albert Einstein has his Chronosphere built and a strike team made ready for teleportation to Moscow. The plan works, and Premier Romanov is captured. Thanks to the Chronosphere and Albert Einstein the Allies end the war.

This campaing begins with the Comrade General being briefed by Premier Romanov himself and telling him to take over key locations like Washington D.C.n Florida and NYC. When captured the Alleid make an alliance with France and Germany and send soldiers into Russia. Because of that France and Germany are defenseless so Russia attack Paris and win this and many others all over Europe, causing America being left without allies.

Yuri meanwhile is taking control of Premier Romanov with his mind powers, General Vladimir sees this and go to Washington D.C. to help the Allies but he got caught with President Dugan. They uncover that a Weather Control Device is being developed by the Allies in the Virgin Island and Yuri wich now has all the power order an attack on the island and destroys the device before the Allies can activate it.

The Soviets found that Yuri is actually a traitor and want to take him down, so a civil war begins for the control of Russia. The war take place in Yuri's actual base, in Moscow. The Soviets manage to take down Yuri by destroying his base and Yuri is believed to die. For the last place the Soviets capture the last base of the Allies in Alaska taking the victory in the war.

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By the time Red Alert 2 launched the real-time strategy genre has been relatively stable. Since there most of RTS emphasize on the basic elements and improve the aspects that were successful in predecessors.

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty developed by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Games in December 1992. The history and stetic is based on David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel with the same name. It's considered as an archetypal real-time strategy game, cause this one established the format and structures of the RTS videogames. It was a success for the moment and was an inspiration for other games like Command & Conquer(Created by the same company), Warcraft, etc.

In Dune I, player have to command one of the three interplanetary houses, the Atreides, the Harkonnen or the Ordos. The objective is to possess Arrakis(A desert planet). To do this the player have to harvest spice,a drug, using harvester vehicle, and convert this into credits to build units in order to destroy and defend from enemies.

Warcraft II is created by Blizzard Entertainment released at 1995, the game happens in an epic medieval fantastic air where humans exist with different mythological creatures. In this delivery, it maintains the essence of the last Warcraft, but in this one, you got the capacity to choose in which side, humans or orcs, also the number of creatures are larger, humans got helped by elves, dwarves and gnomes by the other hand orcs got trolls, ogres and goblins. Controls and graphics had been improved as artificial intelligence.

Total Annihilation, created in 1997 by Chris Taylor y Cavedog Entertainment. Known to be the first game to introduce the first 3D models in RTS, it uses the main mechanics of Command & Conquer, which are the same mechanics establish in most RTS games. The plot is set in a future in the middle of a galactic war, the battles are placed on the surface of different planets and moons. The efforts of the player are centered on constructing a base and an offensive force and conquering opponents zones. The player is also concerned with gathering resources, to evolve units and terrain. Battles take place against AI in a story-driven campaign, although the Ia quality is pretty low, cause the software doesn't know which units are better for different maps, this produced sometimes ridiculous situations.

It is developed by Stainless Steel Studios and released on November 2001. It's the first game of Empire Earth series. The game was inspired by Age of Empires, the big difference between them was that Empire Earth got a bigger historical timeline since prehistory to the future. The game requires players to collect resources to construct buildings, produce citizens, and conquer opposing civilizations. But the way Empire Earth comes with some innovative ideas, a moral system that afects units states, units called heroes; The "strategist heroes" that had special abilities like heal nearby units and demoralize enemy's units but got a low attack power, and "warriors heroes" that give encouragement and got a higher attack power.

Here we link the manuals of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion, Yuri's Revenge, which contain a vast array of information of all aspects of the game.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 Manual

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge Manual

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