I forgot to post this review at the time. Oops. Posting it now to get it out of my drafts bin.
You can play either Red Alert or Tiberian Dawn multiplayer in CnC Remastered and one of the most interesting parts is just how much better Red Alert’s multiplayer is. The most obvious difference is that the maps are much larger, so you’re not micro-managing your base layout to avoid running out of room or blocking your harvesters. The Harvester AI also benefits from more room to move around. Gems mixed in gold fields add an extra micro element for people who want to mine more efficiently. And boy are those harvesters dumb. One of Starcraft’s best innovations was the hack of just letting harvesters ignore collisions.
Silly harvesters aside, it’s shocking how well Red Alert holds up, especially to a group of players now seasoned by 8 Bit Armies, Red Alert 2, Grey Goo, and Starcraft II. It helps that with huge screen resolutions available now, you can have just absurd numbers of units on screen without lag. You can blanket the map in tanks. The grittyness of Westwood’s RTS is on full display; a good tank micro will turn a column of infantry into a large puddle. Infantry will go to ground when fired upon. Moving units appear to be able to dodge some shots. Tesla coils appear to have glorious procedural lightning. While you can probably win with math (like any RTS) it at least feels like there’s an element of micro and an element of chance in there. Luck combines well with Light tanks, as it happens.
The music though, what about the music? As someone who’s been listening to the CnC and RA tracks since the mid 00s I can say confidently that the music is absolutely amazing. The cover versions, the remastered versions, they’re both awesome. I have this vivid memory of sharing music back in ’10 or ’11 and showing someone Bigfoot. The bitcrushed quality didn’t bother me, but others couldn’t see past it. That problem is a thing of the past. I forsee blasting these versions for far longer than I will be playing the game. Klepacki has done it again.