Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Counterstrike (Mission Disk)
                    Westwood Studios/VIE

             Reviewed by James Judge on a P120

After playing Red Alert for some months now I've been eagerly
awaiting the release of this mission disk. Not for the missions,
but for the new units that the hype in the mags said would be
there. I quivered in anticipation of playing around with great new
units such as Tesla Tanks, Super Russian Wonder Dogs, Super Jets
and Elite Super Soldiers.

So frenzied was my excitement that, when I popped into my local
HMV to get a couple of CDs I decided to pop upstairs to the
computer floor and, upon seeing the mission disk, proceeded to
shower the shop with a tidal wave of frothy spittle. Handing over
my fifteen pounds I ran to catch the next bus home.

It was late. It was raining.

Finally I got home cold, wet but still frothing slightly from my
left nasal passage. I dashed upstairs, loaded up the disk (which
installed itself seamlessly over my old copy of Red Alert and
Westwood Chat (the Internet program supplied with the game)) and
started up a Skirmish mission (me versus computer AI) to see what
the new units were like.

An hour later I was still looking. I'd built everything that was
available and still I had no new units to play with. Hmmmmn.
Deciding to call upon the aid of a higher power I darkened the
lights, lit a few candles (the red ones with the funny scent),
pulled the curtains and sat cross-legged in the middle of the
room, calming my inner-self and trying to call up the Phantom.
After a few hours my legs had gone to sleep and the wax from the
candle looked dangerously close to overflowing onto my keyboard.

I decided to use the 'phone instead. After all, it's good to talk.

"Go away, I'm playing Counterstrike" came the ghostly response.

"Yeah, bu..."

"Go AWAY!!"

Gnnnmph! Git. Still, he did 'phone me back and told me that he
couldn't find any new units. Oh dear. Maybe Westwood were lying.

Well, they were, sort of. It now transpires (having read reviews
of the disk in the glossies) that there ARE new units, but only
the computer can construct them in one of the 16 extra missions
supplied. They aren't in the construction hierarchy so no manner
of hoping, praying and sacrificing will have you controlling a
battalion of Russian Super Wonder Dogs. What a rip off.

Still, excluding the new units that you don't get, you do get 16
new missions to play with which, if you've played all of the other
missions in Red Alert should give you a couple of hours of fun -
especially on Hard difficulty level. You also get a page of Morse
code which, when decoded properly, tells you how to access the
secret ant missions.  Nipping down to the local church hall I
collared the nearest Boy Scout that I could find, thrust the page
of Morse code under his nose, a sharp knife to his left jugular
and told him to decode the damn thing. It transpires that you must
hold down the left shift key while left clicking on the little
speaker in the top right of the main options menu. You then start
a small campaign against some giant ants, which is pretty
difficult and I haven't gotten very far with them, it must be
said.

As well as all that, for the multi-player freaks among you, there
are another 100+ multi-player levels to be playing around with.
They are all good fun and will provide hours of entertainment, and
they are a nice break from the original few that were supplied
with Red Alert.

The only other additions are purely cosmetic - there are new audio
tracks which play during the game, six music track that you can
play on your CD (if you're that way inclined) and a Red Alert
Desktop Theme for those of you with Microsoft Plus!  installed. I
think it's pants and not even worth the trouble of installation. A
friend however, thinks it's cool. Each to his own, I s'pose, but I
still think it's pants.  All in all I feel very cheated by this
add on disk. Some time I will trawl through all of the extra
missions, but that's not why I bought the disk. I really wanted
the extra units which, I hoped, would address some of the minor
imbalances of the original, especially in the air and sea
department. But no, there are no new units for you to play with,
which really annoys me. Still, there are a lot of extra
multi-player levels which is good for those of you without a
Internet connection and who need more MP levels.

If you just can't get enough of RA and simply can't wait until
Tiberian Sun later this year, then this may provide a small
stop-gap, but don't expect it to last you for ages as there are
only a few extra missions. Also if you are in desperate need of
new multi-player levels then this may be a way of getting them.
However, if you're looking for new units then steer well clear -
your money will be wasted and you'll end up disappointed. As I
was.
                              - o -