A Review: Command And Conquer: Red Alert 2 -- Yuri's Revenge PC, 2001

Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge is an expansion pack to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, developed by Westwood Studios. The game was released in North America on October 9, 2001. The game is centred on a shadowy ex-Soviet figure named Yuri, who has established a secret army of his own and poses a threat to the free will of the world. The gameplay is a literal copy-paste of Red Alert 2, but with new FMV sequences, additional units, and new locations.
 

I thought that this game was wild and completely off-the-wall, but in the best way possible. It was crazy that this game's plot went from a fairly standard C&C-type plot to going to the literal moon! Yuri was the perfect villain for this game, and the fact that the U.S. and Soviets were forced to make peace to stop him tied him into the Tiberium timeline almost flawlessly. The new units and structures that were made available were excellent, and I really liked the new depth they added. However, I did think that a Yuri single-player campaign was sorely missing and hurt this game, in my opinion. I honestly believe that would have made this an almost perfect game too. I really do. The fact that this was an expansion was also something of an issue for me, as it was painfully short and lacked some key details. Like the background on how Kane started the Brotherhood and how G.D.I. came to be formed. I felt that this was something of a big plot hole for Red Alert 2, as Kane was oddly featured in Red Alert but then seemed to not be mentioned again. I would have also liked some more missions, but I also recognise that this is an expansion and not a full game per se. I loved the FMV sequences and thought that the writing and scripting were very good again from Westwood; the cheese and acting were on point; and I loved the humour and references littered about. I would have liked some more closure with Lt. Zofia and the possible love or promise that was going on during the Soviet campaign; I feel that would have opened up some interesting plot choices. However, nothing ever seemed to materialise on that front, and even the various fan-made wikis know nothing of her character after the game. The gameplay was just as solid as in Red Alert 2, in my mind, but seemed to be more refined. I liked the smoother command responses and found that the pathing was again improved this time around. Units seemed to clump together and stay that way for the most part, which made some battles much easier. There were fewer problems with resource spawns on the maps, and there seemed to be better in-game balancing with regards to units and their costs to train or build. I liked that the game was also less punishing if you messed up than the other games were.
 

Visually, Yuri's Revenge reused the assets of Red Alert 2 and was just as good. Some of the textures and skins were of higher resolution, and the various animations looked to have also been tweaked. I loved that day-to-night transitions were now a thing and thought the shadow and lighting effects were also better than those of Red Alert 2. The weather phenomena were nicely implemented and rendered, and their effects on buildings and troops were also very good. The use of different colour effects around structures was a nice visual indicator of key targets and locations I felt, and is something that I know carried over into other games in this series. I feel the same way about the graphics that I do about the gameplay for this one; they aren't so much improved upon but are refined.
 

Overall, I really liked this game but desperately wanted it to have more missions and content. I would have loved for this game to have been a full stand-alone title of its own, but I still see this as a worthy expansion for Red Alert 2 and a game that is worth the time and effort to play.


8/10 – A Good Game!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ