Westwood’s Command & Conquer series is almost as old as the real time strategy (RTS) genre itself. Westwood themselves are generally credited with starting the genre with the game Dune 2. The C&C series itself is split into two separate timelines – the original series, and the Red Alert "prequel" series.

The original C&C and its sequel, Tiberian Sun, tell the story of the battle between GDI and The Brotherhood of Nod, in their battle for domination of a near future version of earth afflicted with a valuable and dangerous mineral known as tiberium.

The Red Alert series, however, goes back in time and imagines a world where World War II never ended and the cold war never began. Russia has grown into a superpower and strives for world domination while the Allied forces have the brilliant mind of Albert Einstein on their side, and he’s invented a device that allows teleportation of units across great distances.

Red Alert 2 picks up after the original RA, with a Russian invasion of the United States. Russia now has a powerful ally in the form of a psychic known as Yuri to counter-balance the Allied forces Einstein-created weapons. Playing as either the Russians or the Allies, you’ll follow two engaging campaigns through the war for global supremacy.

RA2 uses the Tiberian Sun game engine, but you’d have to look hard to see it. The graphics are crisp and clean, the buildings and units are large, bright and well-animated. There’s none of the drabness exhibited in Tiberian Sun. Everything is bright, easy to distinguish and generally fun to look at. You can also crank the resolution up past 800x600 for the first time in the series, making the game look even better.

Many fans complained that Tiberian Sun clung to the aging C&C building columns, forcing you to scroll through long lists of buildings and units until you found the one you wanted to create. RA2 adds tabs that help to organize your building options – you click on the structure, infantry or armor tab and are presented with a list of the relevant units available. You can also queue up to 10 units at a time, another welcome change from past C&C titles. These changes help streamline the interface and are a step in the right direction.

It’s obvious that the developers were looking to add interesting and fun to play units into this game, and it worked. There are loads of "wow factor" units this time around. The Soviet Apocalypse Tank is an armored monster, firing from twin cannon turrets, missile launchers, and able to roll over fencing and sandbags. The Allies have a lightly armored Prism Tank, which fires a beam of light and is able to combine its beam with other Prism Tanks to create super-powerful lances of laser death. The continued alliance with Einstein has led the Allies to the culmination of possibly the ultimate infantry unit yet in an RTS – the Chrono Legionnaire. These guys are able to teleport anywhere on the map in the blink of an eye, and use their chrono-beams to erase units and structures from existence. A group of these soldiers can wipe entire bases off the face of the map before the opponent has a chance to figure out what happened.

C&C games have always been a little like an elaborate chess match, and RA2 is no exception. For every unit, no matter how powerful, there’s a counter-unit that can destroy it with ease. Tanks may be great at hammering artillery units or other vehicles, but a horde of sandbagged, machine-gun toting infantry can make a tank rush turn tail and retreat. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of all of the units in the game is part of the challenge, and attacking with diverse forces is usually the key to victory.

RA2 features lengthy campaigns for both the Allies and the Soviets, and there are loads of multiplayer options in addition to single player skirmishes that can be set up against any number of AI opponents. There’s even a short co-op multiplayer campaign to add replay value to the game.

Red Alert 2 is, in my estimation, the best game in the C&C series to date. It breathes fresh life into the series, has lots of cool new units to play with, and is just plain fun to play. It’s not the best RTS available, but in a crowded market, I’d place only Age of Empires II and Starcraft before it.