Red Alert was one of the all-time best Real-Time Strategy games, and Westwood couldn't resist to make a sequel to it.
Since Tiberian Sun wasn't much of a big seller, RA2 just HAD to be good to make up for the disappointment Westwoods latest RTS games had made.

The world is peaceful again, and the Allied forces have put a puppet in control of the Soviet government just to make sure the world is safe for another world war. So they thought...
Yuri, a mind-control freak, gets near the Soviet president and takes over his mind, and that's when the fun begins. Soviet Forces attack the United States, and another World War has started.

You can take the side of either the allies or the soviets and no matter which side you take, the ultimate goal is to destroy your opponents forces by finishing several mission objectives.

The missions themselves vary from destroying all forces of your opponent to capturing enemy buildings or even getting to control the US president's mind (when playing with the Soviets).

The graphics, although not 3D yet, are pretty cool since you can now also play at a resolution of 1024*768 which is alot better than before and units and buildings are very well animated.

Gameplay, however, hasn't changed much since the original Command&Conquer. Your opponent still has AI that cares more about attacking in full force rather than trying to infiltrate your base.
For instance, when you encounter a patrol and kill some of the units, the others will start patrolling again if you withdraw a few inches. They're just sitting ducks.

Attacking doesn't really NEED to be done with care. If you've got enough heavy artillery, you can always destroy an enemy base. The only thing you need to watch out for is that while you are attacking his base, your opponent might be attacking your base at the same time so make sure to keep some forces to protect your base. It's not a pleasant view when you go back to your base and see that you don't have any money, and both your construction yard and ore mining facility have been destroyed.

The units themselves are pretty neat, although the Soviet forces have the coolest ones. Mind controllers can control enemy vehicles/units so that you can use the enemy's forces against himself.

Allies have Prism towers (the equivalent of the Tesla coil which defends your base) and to make it more fun, Allies have Prism Tanks aswell which gives them one hell of fire power.

Air forces in RA2 have come a long way since the original Red Alert. While planes like the Harrier still need to return to base after an attack, Allied Rocket soldiers and the Soviet Kurov air ship keep attacking until their target or they themselves are destroyed.

All in all, one can say that the Soviers are really more advanced than the allied forces. They even have cheap little robots (Terror Drones) that attack tanks pretty easily and Nuclear plants that give enough power to supply 2 or 3 bases.

To make both tours (Allied and Soviet) equally difficult, Westwood has created a story for the Soviet missions that includes having to fight against traitor troops which ofcourse have equal units as yourself. Still, the Allied missions are much harder than the Soviet ones.

All in all, one can say that Red Alert 2 is a great game, but it doesn't beat the competition anymore like the original Red Alert did in its time. Games like Dark Reign 2 are equally good although most people will prefer Red Alert 2 because of its history.

One last note : Although alot of attention has gone out to Tanya, the Russian babes are equally gorigious :)