Fortunately, Westwood's imaginative unit balance breathes a lot of life into the game. Although there are only two sides, in multiplayer games there are sub-sides that each get a unique unit with a special bonus. In fact, the game is rife with special abilities that bring a lot of variety to the units. But it's not just some units being stronger than other. The unit variety bends the game gently without breaking it. There are a lot of units, but they're all distinctive and occupy a prominent place in the overall scheme of things. And the game balance is very clearly visible after playing for only a short time. A few games as the Allies and you know you'll need to contend with those damn Kirov airships. A few games as the Soviets and you'll know to pepper your base with dogs to keep out the spies. The trick is anticipating what your opponent is going to do and then trying to outguess him. Of course, this mainly applies to multiplayer games, since your opponent in single player games won't be doing much of anything.

I hesitate to justify liking Red Alert 2 because it's simply "fun." That's a word that means so many different things to different people that it's effectively useless. It's a refuge for the inarticulate to describe a game as "fun" and leave it at that. But this is probably a lot of what you'll see in the reviews that praise Red Alert 2. What I think they're getting at is the unmistakable enthusiasm that shows through Red Alert 2's sometimes clunky and sometimes lazy design decisions. The problems here would kill a lesser game. But Red Alert 2 is so eager to please, so bright-eyed and enthusiastic, that to not like it you'd have to be the kind of guy who would kick a puppy.

Tom Chick
Contributing Editor