Command And Conquer: Red Alert 1 (30 Years Later)

 One of the reasons why I became a fan of the Command and Conquer series, is because it not just had one amazing gaming series, but it had two and in today's blog post, I want to talk about the original Command and Conquer: Red Alert game which is thirty years old.

Unlike the mainline series of Command and Conquer, Red Alert is an alternate historical timeline video game based on time travel.

The plot for this real-time strategy game follows Albert Einstein where in 1946, travels through time, all the way back to 1924 and meets with a young Adolf Hitler who has been released from prison. The two have a brief conversation before shaking hands which ended up killing Hitler, preventing him from adding power and changing the timeline in hopes for a better future. Unfortunately, World War II still happens, but it is between the Allies and the Soviet Union.

The Allies and the Soviets are the two rival factions that the player can choose from and each having their own ending depending on which faction you have chosen. But one thing they have in common though, is both sides are looking to control Europe.

When it came out originally for the PC in 96 before the Playstation got its hands on it in 1997, the game scored big time. In fact, many people called it one of the greatest games of all time because of its alternate history setting, gameplay, especially on the PC version and competitive multiplayer.

Like many others, I too really enjoyed the concept of Red Alert. The very idea of time travel has always been a fascinating topic within Sci Fi storytelling and the whole be careful what you wish for, you just might get it where you think you are doing something good, only to find out that you made it so much worse.

Plus the connection to the Tiberian series was pretty cool where they showed Kane, the leader of the Brotherhood of Nod as the mysterious advisor to Stalin was pretty cool. However, I felt they quickly abandoned this after the first Red Alert game. I wonder why they did that?

I also loved using some real life figures like Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla whether it be from the story itself or weapons which were inspired by inventions these two had created was pretty cool.

Gameplay was a lot of fun too! I loved the challenge of what unit could work in each situation. This game really made you think hard with what you wanted to in each level.

Also, congrats to Frank Klepacki who created the music for the game and was the winner of the 1996 PC Gamer awards for best Soundtrack as well as Strategy Game of the Year by Game Developers Conference, same with Computer Gaming World.

I am probably sounding like a broken record at this point, but I am completely shocked to see the fact that this game is now 30 years old. I was only six when it came out and I feel even older every time I see it on YouTube.

It was another fun look back of some of my favorite things growing up and this game and really series were very fun.

Until Next Time!

God Bless and Be Safe Everybody! 🙏🙏🙏