Quick note: This game runs like ass on Windows 11, not only will you need to manually tweak the launch options to enable wide-screen resolutions, but it also crashes a lot if you Alt-tab. Multi-monitor setups are going to have a rough time of it, so I’d suggest saving often and disabling any extra screens if you want to play online.

Command & Conquer: Generals is the off-shoot of the venerable C&C series after Westwood was left for dead by EA and consequentially a scattered band of survivors were merged with another studio to make a new entry in the series. As such the gameplay is both familiar and yet new, with the same base-building mechanics but a larger focus on abilities. Of course Red Alert 2 had unit abilities, at least for some units but generally these weren’t a big deal. In Generals by contrast, almost every unit gets a couple of abilities or bespoke upgrades that can have a big impact on how they’re used. Whether it be GLA rebels gaining the ability to turn invisible by standing still, or US rangers having the ability to clear out occupied buildings with ease via the flash-bang ability. Then there are the purchasable drones for US armoured units, the ability for GLA units to acquire supplies from defeated enemies (or upgrades for certain units) and a whole bunch of other stuff. Alongside these unit abilities are a bunch of new call-in abilities, unlocked via the introduction of quasi-skill trees. The way it works is simple, each faction has a range of specific unlocks such as gaining access to certain units or commander powers. These can include calling in an artillery strike, spawning friendly units, defensive AoE healing powers or having new units of a certain type spawn in at veterancy rank 1. You won’t be unlock all of them, and they don’t carry over between games. The system is fairly intuitive, you get XP for defeating enemy units and after enough carnage has been caused you’ll level up. Once you’ve levelled, up you can choose from a variety of powers that are structured in a tier-list. This encourages you to purchase these unlocks as soon as they’re available, but you can just save them up for the “stronger” abilities. From my own personal experience, trying to get all of the free damage call-ins like bombing runs and so on is generally the best way to do it. Because you get infinitely respawning free damage, and while there is a cool-down it generally pays off. Especially for the later abilities like the fuel bomb and the EMP blast, which can either wreck an enemy base or army respectively. Outside of these changes, the game is pretty much classic C&C. You’ve got a handful of unit types, they all basically hard counter various other unit types and the tone is pretty silly. Arguably the tone in C&C Generals is a bit more po-faced, but honestly everyone is at best a stereotype in this game. One last thing to mention, is that resources are clustered in specific spots, and don’t respawn over time.

As mentioned, while there are tweaks and changes Command & Conquer: Generals is still fundamentally a classic C&C style RTS at it’s core. Sure the call-ins are a tad overpowered and resources run out scarily quickly, but everything else is par for the course. You’ve got 3 asymmetrical factions, some basic base building that never gets too intensive, a campaign for each faction that’s both fun and yet slightly short alongside a ton of skirmish maps. I guess you could argue that having base building units that can build anywhere, instead of MCVs that can deploy anywhere is a big change. Personally I don’t consider it particularly different, as all it does is make it easier to setup resource gathering stations around the map. As for the combat, while there are a lot more unit abilities going around each unit type is pretty familiar. You’ve got standard infantry that can get run over, anti-tank infantry that shred tanks, tanks which are a bit hopeless against infantry, air units that are great against everything that can’t shoot back and then some artillery units. There are a couple of unique cases like the fully upgraded Chinese overlord tank (OP against basically everything) and the GLA terrorists and bomb trucks which can disguise themselves but really there isn’t anything radically new here. Instead the charm of Command and Conquer: Generals is that everything is just done pretty well. The three factions: The United States of America, China and the Global Liberation Army (GLA) are all fun to play and do feel quite different. The USA has strong tanks and the best air-force but can be a resource-sink and requires decent micro, while a lot of Chinese units get bonuses by being mobbed together and thrown into the fray. Then you’ve got the GLA who are fairly unique and get a bunch of mechanics like stealth infantry and bombs, tunnel networks, claiming supplies from fallen foes and the like but who don’t get any air units and have relatively weak tanks.

Fortunately each faction is fairly simple to understand and use effectively, with the campaigns basically serving as a series of tutorials. There are one or two missions in each which give you the full arsenal and the chance to use it, but most missions are focused on a handful of available units and you’re just trying to make the best use of them. Each of these campaigns follows the same broad structure and while you do occasionally get to see missions from different perspectives, they’re too short to have much of an impact. For context clearing through all 3 campaigns took me around 7 hours, factoring in half a dozen crashes to the desktop (in a game with no autosaving). The campaigns are fun, but more experienced players are encouraged to try them on Hard or even Brutal as otherwise they are very short and not particularly challenging. Then once those campaigns have been cleared up, there isn’t much left to do but play through the skirmish mode. The map variety is decent and there are just over 20 maps to play, but as mentioned earlier the amount of resources on each map depletes surprisingly quickly and the AI can often be relied upon to squander the funding available to it. Each faction can construct building which let it gain more income over time, or in the case of the Chinese a unit that can gain income over time. Trust me when I say that you’ll either want to do this, or rush the enemy ASAP. You don’t have much time at the apex of the tech tree before resources become a distant memory.

Speaking of the AI, it’s not great in many situations and will reliably trickle through forces in multiple attack waves instead of trying to aim for a killing blow. It’s not the end of the world, but this is a game where the real challenge is in the multiplayer mode. Fortunately there has been an active modding community which has produced swathes of maps and conversions, although at that point you may as well just grab the expansion pack. The good news is that all stores still selling a digital copy of the game now bundle in Zero Hour, although you do also get basically every other C&C game included as well (even C&C4). As for other criticisms of the game, I do have a few. Again the campaigns are really short which is a shame as they only really let you get a feel for each faction towards of the tail-end of their missions. Furthermore I’ll also re-iterate that this game loves to crash to modern operating systems, a problem that the unofficial community version didn’t have. Thanks EA! In terms of problems I haven’t mentioned yet, there are a couple of smaller ones. Unit pathfinding straight up sucks and controlling large blobs of units can be a pain, which is a problem because playing as China explicitly encourages this. The early 3D graphics can be off-putting to some, but I’ve personally never had a big issue with them because that was the style at the time. Finally there are some weird aspects of the UI, that were fixed up in Zero Hour and later games in the series but weren’t quite resolved in the base game. Super weapons need to be activated from their building and don’t appear on the side bar and neither do other building call-ins. Of course the AI doesn’t have an issue with this, but for human players it can be a bit counter-intuitive to actually use the full breadth of abilities that are available to them.

Yet in spite of these niggles, I have no problem recommending Command & Conquer: Generals to pretty much anyone. It has a great soundtrack, good voice-acting, multiple factions that feel different, fun campaigns (even if they’re short), solid combat and plenty of skirmish maps. The expansion pack definitely brings everything to the next level, but the base game is still enjoyable. Even if the new hero units do feel a bit useless compared to the sheer base destroying insanity of Tanya (for example). As such I’ll end my short review by saying Command & Conquer: Generals is a fun game and if you haven’t played it, then you should consider grabbing it on Steam or Origin.

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Red Alert 3: Uprising offers players four mini campaigns – one for each faction and then a campaign dedicated to the Japanese commando unit Yuriko. These campaigns contain three missions each with exception of the Soviets who have a quasi-tutorial mission that has to be completed before you can unlock the Allied and Japanese campaigns. This unlocking is implemented a bit awkwardly, as once you beat the Soviet “tutorial” mission the game dumps you back onto the Campaign Select screen – meaning you need to go back to the main menu and hit chapters if you want to continue it. That petty niggle aside, these mini-campaigns are of a very similar production value to the campaigns in RA3 and feature multiple returning actors from the prior game (those that canonically died and/or fled to SPACE not withstanding). The main issue with them is that they’re… well… mini-campaigns and at a mere three missions each you don’t really have time to engage with either the cast or new units that much. This unfortunately means that things feel a bit rushed, robbing the new units, commanders and exposition from having much of an impact.

But who gives a wooden nickel about the writing in a Red Alert game, we’re all here for the new campaigns! Of these campaigns the Soviet Campaign arguably has the most polish of the main factions and is very enjoyable to play through. The plot is simple and campy, with you as the COMMANDER trying to figure out what the FutureTech corporation is up to. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a massive military-industrial complex company, it turns out they’re involved in some shady dealings and you end up facing the same enemy commander every time who’s in too deep to get out now. The missions themselves are varied and interesting, with a healthy mix of low-units “stealth” gameplay and normal base-building and battling. The game does a pretty good job of forcing you to build up varied forces via the map design, ensuring that Apocalypse Tank and/or Battleship spamming won’t be sufficient to get the job done. The difficulty is relatively gentle, with most missions providing reinforcements during the stealth sections to prevent you from messing up too bad, while the larger battle sections always provide sufficient resources and clear routes of enemy attack. As for the new units, they’re a bit gimmicky but fun to use and I must confess that the return of the Desolator from RA2 made me quite happy. You’ve got the aforementioned desolator which now does AoE damage to all infantry (yes that includes yours), a “mortar bike” which is great against base defenses, a grinder tank that latches onto enemy vehicles/structures and regens health while doing so and finally an upgraded version of the Sickle walker which has both rockets and grenades in lieu of machine guns.

The Allied campaign is the opposite of the Soviet one, feeling a bit rough around the edges as you face off against more enemy commanders than there are missions. The cinematics also feel pretty basic and are fairly short, while the missions are frankly a bit tedious and each have their own irritating little gimmicks. Without wishing to spoil all the surprises, I’ll just say that in the first you have to deal with a modest income stream (only 1 ore mine) while dealing with 3 small enemy bases that rush you constantly until you can take them out (pro-tip: kill the naval yard ASAP). The second mission has a total of four tiny skirmishes that all need to be executed perfectly lest you fail the mission, alongside a very standard battle section which is fairly easy. Then the final mission commits my RTS campaign pet peeve, wherein it encourages you to rush through a mission so that your forces are facing an uphill struggle when a very, very obvious “but wait there’s MORE” moment happens. If you’ve ever played through the campaign for Supreme Commander you’ll know exactly what I mean, and will also know that this makes the balancing extremely wonky as either it’s a brutal fight for survival or just a total cakewalk with no real in-between. Fortunately the Allied campaign partially redeems itself by having fun new units, in the form of a disgustingly powerful new air unit, a quasi-OP artillery unit and a new Cryo-trooper who makes the Cryo-copter look like a toy. There is also a fourth new unit, but they’re not playable within the campaign which is a shame as it’s a big-ass robot tank with AoE energy weapons. Unfortunately this redemption is only partial as the best strategy in every mission is to spam the new air unit with some fighter escorts, which makes the map design in those missions inconsequential.

Wrapping up the main factions is the Japanese campaign which is also pretty cool and enjoyable to play through. Weirdly enough it feels like it was set before the Allied one within the time line, as you help one or two commanders who you take out while playing as the Allies – even though the allied campaign comes before it in the Campaign selection screen. While the missions aren’t particularly difficult, they can be challenging and still require you to move fast and choose your build order with care. Unfortunately the third mission also falls for the “but wait there’s more” trope, but it’s explained in the mission briefing so it’s not a poor twist but instead a deliberate choice. If you choose to capture the Soviet base you’ll still need to sell the buildings to move onto the next stage, allowing you to cheese it (and build the Vacuum imploder) without too much trouble. The other missions are fairly interesting, with the first requiring you to hijack a Soviet base to bail out your ally while the second mission has a large amount of unoccupied vehicles lying around the map for your engineers to hijack. Each feels quite different and much like with the Soviet campaign, there’s enough freedom and resources to give you breathing room to concoct your own strategy. The new units for the Japanese faction are also handled well, enabling you to field melee-focused mechs, a solid anti-air/anti-infantry infantry unit and a big-ass flying death fortress. I really can’t fault this campaign as it keeps things fairly fresh and does it’s best to prevent you from spamming a certain unit.

Finally there is the Yuriko campaign which is a big focus of Red Alert 3: Uprising in terms of marketing and branding. Unlike every other campaign in the series, the Yuriko campaign plays like a top-down action game where you can only control one unit (Yuriko). It plays somewhat like a Diablo game, with a fixed camera angle centered on Yuriko and a hotbar of four abilities located on the bottom of the screen which can be upgraded. To upgrade an ability you need to find intel items (represented as computer terminals) which are scattered around the three missions and are fairly easy to find. The only caveat is that these upgrades are reset on each mission, so there’s little reason to go around and hunt down each one. The abilities themselves are pretty powerful and include;

• Psychokinetic Burst which kills all hostile infantry and stuns all hostile vehicles within an area around Yuriko.
• Psychic Domination which causes up to 3/5/7 enemy infantry to defect to your team. They will diligently follow you around until they die or you dominate new units if these new units bring you above the existing limit.
• Psionic Shield which lasts for 5/7/9 seconds and reflects ranged damage taken back to the enemy who fired on you.
• Psionic Slam which enables you to lift an object (including enemy infantry and some vehicles) before throwing it towards a designated area within vision range. This causes large damage to hit enemies and will instantly kill whichever unit or object has been thrown. Upgrading this ability enables you to pick-up items in a larger range alongside larger vehicles.

Alongside these abilities there are some generic upgrades which increase your speed/damage/health and which are also shared by any infantry you’ve dominated. Ultimately this campaign is heavily based around maximising the damage output of your abilities and thus juggling the ability cooldowns. While the cooldowns are fairly short, Yuriko can only attack one enemy unit at a time without them and for the majority of the campaign you’ll only have a handful of infantry supporting her. As such Psionic Slam and the Burst ability are your main method of churning through hostile units. Fortunately there are multiple healing stations located throughout each of the maps, so it’s often prudent to engage in hit-and-run tactics if you are outgunned. There are also some Psychic blocking stations in the third mission, within which all of your abilities (except the humble right click attack) are blocked within an AoE radius. These are easy to deal with, but getting within range of one will automatically “liberate” any infantry held by your Psychic Domination ability and cause them to attack you like the impudent dogs they are.

Much like the Soviet campaign, the Yuriko campaign is one of the highlights and has been implemented well with the difficulty remaining consistent but never overwhelming. The ability cooldowns prevent you from being OP and the gradually escalating number and damage of enemies prevents you from being careless, as it can be easy to get overwhelmed. There are also some lore tidbits hidden within the intel stations which give some context to the overall setting and aside from the fact that two of the three missions take place in the same map, I can’t find any reason to fault this one.

To wrap up Red Alert 3: Uprising also has some other new single player content (aside from the new skirmish maps), in the form of the “new” Commander’s Challenge mode. In it you play as a FutureTech commander, but instead of controlling a new fourth faction you’re instead allowed to choose which faction you’d like to play at the start of each mission. The twist is that you initially have a very limited arsenal of units/buildings, with each mission unlocking one new unit for one of the three factions. The missions themselves are split between main missions and side missions, although both give you one unit for completion.

These missions are great fun and each involve some sort of gimmick; whether it be interrupting a duel between two commanders who will ignore your base until you attack, dealing with a skirmish on a map with perpetual satellite drops smashing into it or playing through a map with hundreds and hundreds of explosive barrels scattered around. The main challenge comes from the fact that each mission has a par time that needs to be beat for you to receive 100% completion, which doesn’t give you any additional units or bonuses but does provide a true challenge for anyone aiming for 100% completion. With that being said the missions aren’t necessarily easy, especially the first time you play them as you’ll be hamstrung by your limited access to units and defensive structures. As such you’ll be making a LOT of use out of T1 units and will need to orientate your strategy away from T3 tanks/aircraft and Superweapons. Every mission is unique, punchy and the par time ticking away keeps you on your toes.

Once you’ve cleared through all 13 of the main missions, you get an ending cutscene and are then thrown back to the mode’s mission select menu to carry on. There are an additional 37 side missions alongside the main ones, with more of these unlocking with the completion of a mission of either type (and another bonus ending cutscene for beating all of them as well). As such there is a ton of content here even if you don’t care enough about 100% to go back and try to beat those par times (doing so will unlock the final bonus message). One last thing worth mentioning is that as you beat the missions you build up a reserve of credits, based on your performance in each mission. During any mission you can hit the RED ALERT button when your threat meter (in the bottom left corner) is full, which gives you these credits and makes all of your units hit max veterancy instantly. The catch is that doing so makes your mission time 99 mins and 99 seconds, essentially preventing you from achieving the par time.

In conclusion, Red Alert 3: Uprising is a great expansion pack for a great game that retains the campy tone of the original while vastly expanding the amount of single player content available. While it is a shame that both the campaign co-op mode and multiplayer mode are missing, I consider these small omissions for those who are playing it these days. The mini-campaigns are mostly great (Allies notwithstanding) and the Yuriko one is very unique in how it plays without being any worse for it. The commander’s challenge mode is also a great new idea, that not only makes use of the RED ALERT button (that was originally intended to be a main feature of RA3) but also provides around 50 additional missions for you to playthrough. Considering how cheap Red Alert 3: Uprising is on modern storefronts ($9.99 through Origin, $19.99 through Steam and both have frequent -75% discounts), I’d have no problem recommending it to any RTS fan – even if they are a novice at the genre.

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