Just as with the first part of the series the story starts with a voyage back in time but the difference is that this time it's the Soviets who want to change history in their advantage. They went back to the year 1933 when Albert Einstein held a presentation in Brussels and by taking out this genious the Allies lost their superior technology and the Red Army quickly managed to conquer a large part of the world. Still there were consequences as a third faction called the "Empire of the Rising Sun", an alternative Japanese power that has watched too much manga and anime, emerged.

You can choose between all three sides and they have their own distinct playing styles. Allies have speed, Soviets brute force and the Empire of the Rising Sun have flexibility. Familiar Allied units like Mirage and Prism towers return and also when it comes to superweapons the Chronoshpere is still present. Seeing that the latter as well as the Mirage tank were developed by Einstein in the previous games it's strange they're still available but this gets explained by the fact that they're now created by FutureTech. The super unit is still Tanya, the naughty girl that now not only has C4 and double pistols but also a "Chrono belt" with which she can go ten seconds back in time and get her life back to maximum.

The Soviets certainly don't go for less and concentrate even more than ever on brute firepower. You immediately notice this from the new ground unit "War Bear" which is a more potent verios of the Allied guard dog with a longer life meter. Also their artillery unit is back with a new name: the V3 Rocket Launcher. One icon in their superweapon arsenal is missing though, no nukes anymore as the death of Einstein prevented the invention of the nuclear bomb.

Funny to see that the Allies managed to get certain weapons through other means while the Soviets didn't. Their super unit who steals the show is Natasha, a female sniper who can have buildings and vehicles bombarded with a laser and can even kill multiple hostile units with one shot. Handy if the enemy is stupid enough to rush you with a lot of infantry.

The Empire of the Rising Sun is quite the hi-tech faction and heavily inspired by Japanese popular culture. Lots of mecha units can be controlled but also samurais and ninjas are present. They also have super weapons like a swarm of nanoprobes that can lock down an area completely for 30 seconds. Perfect to protect your army when it gets bombarded. Also this new army has a super unit and this comes in the form of Yuriko Omega who follows Japanese anime tradition by being an 18-year old schoolgirl. She floats in the air and takes down enemy forces with her psychic powers. Even the most hardened hostile infantry units get extinguished within seconds thanks to her psychic yell. Those little black-haired girls!

Building and collecting ore was also adjusted as you can now build just about any building on water. The famous Ore collecting also got some tweaks as there are no more fields to be mined but specific places where you need to place a refinery.

To keep the player busy with finding new tactics the makers have added each unit with an alternative function. With the Allies and Soviets they usually look the same but when using an alternative function of a unit from the Empire it will completely change appearance. Mecha Tengu for instance is a pure anti-infantry unit but with a press of a button you can transform it to a jet that only attacks air units.

A nice addition in single player is a second commander who will assist you in each mission. Don't expect miracles though as you'll often have to rescue your "friend". If you have some friends who also own Red Alert 3 you can have them replace the AI commander thanks to the co-op. Still it's sad that this only works with friends and can't be done through match-making. In any case you'll hardly ever have to restart a mission as even the highest difficulty degree isn't too bad.

Those that like to humiliate other players will be glad to hear that you can play with up to six players in multiplayer. Of course a decent control is necessary and for this we get a radial menu that's an improved version of the one introduced in C&C3: Kane's Wrath and which allows to create or manage units with only a couple of clicks.

Graphically the game continues in the line of Red Alert 2. All units and buildings look cartoonish and the colors are all quite bright. Those that look for a raw and realistic Red Alert like in the first game can keep dreaming. Just like with C&C3: Tiberium Wars we see the return of the famous FMVs and again realism is far to be found. Although a pretty extensive Hollywood cast was hired you could wonder whether this was necessary as there's never any serious acting. Not that we mind of course as it perfectly fits the atmosphere and who loves over-the-top B-movies will have more fun than ever.

One disadvantage is sadly enough that the game doesn't consist out of one big story. This makes that although there are three ending, one for each side, a possible sequel can only build further on one of them. It's too bad the story wasn't set up as in C&C3: Tiberium Wars.

None other than Frank Klepacki, a legend thanks to his excellent soundtrack of Command&Conquer, is responsible for the sound. From the new Hellmarch to the Eastern sounds for the new faction, Frank knows how to immerse players. The atmosphere is therefore very much ok.