I am not qualified to call myself a gamer. In fact, I am not a big fan of games as I almost never feel the motivation to purchase the newly released game on Steam. However, I could definitely assert myself as a pro gamer for Red Alert because I have been playing it from primary school to even this day. In these years, Red Alert has had many new series with better resolution, more diverse corps, and fancier technologies, yet I still stick to the old version of it. After playing this game for more than 10 years, my experience and understanding of the game progressed over time. Especially in the time of US-China competition, this game could tell us a lot about the past, now, and perhaps future.
Though I believe almost everyone either knows or has played some version of Red Alert (if not, they definitely should!), I will still do a brief introduction of this classic game. Red Alert is a real-time strategy video game of the Command & Conquer franchise, produced by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1996. The second game to bear the Command & Conquer title, Red Alert is the prequel to the original Command & Conquer of 1995, and takes place in the alternate early history of Command & Conquer when Allied Forces battle an aggressive Soviet Union for control over the European mainland. Players can queue commands, create unit groups that can be selected by a number key, and control numerous units at a time. Red Alert requires each player to use their side’s strengths in order to compensate for their weaknesses, in contrast to games such as Total Annihilation or Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, in which both sides have units with similar abilities and rely on outnumbering or possessing a better-balanced force than their opponent.
Pretty straightforward, right? Everything is a mimic simulation of real-world politics and real-world war. You have real-world corps like tanks, soldiers, air fighters, and so on. Your goal is to annihilate your enemies and conquer the world (the whole map). Therefore, this game was very easy to understand and play for any new players.
There are several things worth noting about this game:
First, though it’s a RTS game, it was most famous for its story line. The game takes place in a parallel universe. In 1946, Albert Einstein prepared to travel back in time. He activates his experimental time machine and erases Hitler from the timeline. Hitler’s death prevents him from rising to power as leader of Nazi Germany, effectively creating a new timeline. Without Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union (USSR) grows powerful under the rule of Joseph Stalin. The USSR seizes land from China, India, and then invades Eastern Europe, to achieve Joseph Stalin’s vision of a Soviet Union stretching across the entire Eurasian landmass. In response, the countries of Western Europe form the Allied Nations and start a guerrilla war against the invading Soviet Army. Over the course of the game’s story, the Allies and Soviets fight for control over the European mainland in an alternate World War II. The later version of Red Alert II centers its story line around the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The narrative of this game is really great because it calls back to real world history, creating a perfect context for the RTS game. Also, it is a true portrayal of many people’s imagination that if without Nazi Germany, Soviet Union perhaps will take its place as a conqueror for the world (At least for Europe and Asia). After the World War II, the threat of the Nazi was gone, and taken place by the dread for “Red Warp” — the ideology of Communism represented by Soviet Union. Even though this game was released after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it reflects a very common emotion persuasive in Western countries for the last few decades. I would argue that this narrative could have such a big success precisely because people could relate to it.
Second, while being a real-world reflection, Red Alert also brings in and strengthens many stereotypes inside the game. In Read Alert, the setting of different corps and the slogan they shout also corresponds to either real-world situations or stereotypes people have long held for the last few decades.
For example, The Soviets’ vehicles tend to be more durable and powerful than Allied vehicles, but The Soviets’ sea power was significantly weaker than Allieds’. While the Allied has more advanced technology, the Soviet Union seems quite outdated.
While these are some examples of real-world reflections, the Iron Curtain was a clear sign of the stereotype people have for Communism. The Iron Curtain is a device that renders a selected unit invulnerable to attacks for a short period of time. This was a hint that Communism could brainwash their soldiers so that they become invulnerable. This kind of suggestion was even clearer in the later versions of Red Alert II, where YURI, the representation of the Soviet Union, has mind-controlling facilities and corps.
Third, another feature that makes this game so popular is that almost all parameters can be easily modified by players themselves. In fact, I have played more than 5 mod versions of Red Alert based on the official release, and some of them are even more popular than the official version. Back in primary school, the most popular game we played was a mod version of Red Alert named Red Alert: The Glory of Republic. In this game, China was added as a new country and it has the strongest soldiers in the world. On average, one Chinese People’s Liberation Armysoldier could kill three or even four American soldiers. Though it was pretty bad for the balance of the game, which is a very important aspect for an RTS game, people love it in China.
Finally, it bears great implications for today’s world. Despite great differences between the administration of Trump and that of Biden, they have one thing in common: the competition and war against China. In the real-world politics of the 2020s, The Soviet Union is replaced by China. They are both Communist countries with economic and military power parallel to the United States, and share completely different ideology and values from Western countries. However, one thing that is different this time is that the real physical war is less likely with the nuclear weapon and intertwined economy. Right now, America is trying to play economic and political cards to win: whether it be the “Trade War” started by Trump, the slander of the human rights problem in Xinjiang, China, and The Taiwan problem intensified by Biden recently.
The world is changing, yet one thing Red Alert teaches us is that the War and Competition will never end.
