C&C: Red Alert 3 Uprising Preview

Impressions

Rounding out this new feature set is a final new mode that’s aimed squarely at hardcore Command and Conquer fans who’ve perfected their singleplayer and multiplayer tactics and now want something with a bit more longevity.

Dubbed Challenge Mode, this new mode is more like Risk than a traditional C&C campaign. Composed of more than fifty levels, the aim of the game is world domination – which you’ll have to gradually accomplish by expanding out of your small starting nation.

Challenge Mode isn’t simply about shepherding players through the strong of all 50 levels though, which is good because the development team reckons there’s a good 20 hours of playtime to be salvaged just from the Challenge Mode.

Instead, many of the missions on offer to you are side-quests that you can undertake if you want to gain access to new tech and weapons. Don’t expect to uncover the secrets of the Giga-fortress or the Grinder unless you tackle every one.


On the other hand though, you’ll have to carefully weigh up the value of each and every side mission and secondary objective because the main aim in Challenge Mode is to beat the campaign as fast as possible. There’s a clock that’s constantly ticking up all your seconds and an average time for you to beat if you want to prove yourself a true C&C fan.

Plus, if you can beat the developer highscore too, which we’ve been lead to believe is very aggressive, then you’ll unlock some extra goodies – though what they are exactly we can’t say just yet. Mainly because we don’t know. Damn developers and their secrets…

Still, at least there’s plenty of other interesting stuff in Red Alert 3: Uprising to help keep us distracted. You hear that EA? We don’t need your little hidden bits of video and stuff!

One thing that’s got us most intrigued about Uprising for instance is that it’s going to be published digitally – and digitally only. There’ll be no retail release at all, so don’t expect to find Uprising on sale in the shops. The only places that’ll be stocking Uprising will be Direct2Drive and EA Store.


Oh, and regarding Steam, Electronic Arts’ official policy is that it is still testing Valve’s favoured distribution platform out with some other titles. That’s why only some EA games are available and only then in some territories – EA is still trying to see if Steam is a good fit for it’s catalogue (and inevitably its wallet). So, with any luck at all, EA will announce a Steam release in the near future but there’s nothing to confirm it at the moment.

Regardless of whether there’s a Steam release or not though, it’s fair to say that we’re still very excited for the release of the laboriously titled Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising, mainly because it looks set to spin a little bit more innovation into the enticing, but predominantly derivative original game. The Yuriko Campaign and Challenge Mode especially seem excellent ways to give players a little more for their money without damaging the existing aspects of the game.

With an expected extra 20 hours of gameplay in just the singleplayer campaigns, a totally new and very lengthy mode to get to grips to and the usual expansions to tech trees and multiplayer maps, Uprising is at least as exciting as the original game – so keep an eye peeled for our full Red Alert 3: Uprising review later this year.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising hasn’t got an official release date just yet, but will be available as a PC exclusive game later this year.