Yellow alert

Initially, the second part of the Command & Conquer series, Red Alert, was to be linked to the story of its predecessor, Tiberian Dawn. This is why in German the game was originally called Command & Conquer - Teil 2: Alarmstufe Rot, translating to Command & Conquer - Part 2: Red Alert. However, Westwood had other plans and split the strategy series into two alternative directions. Unlike Blizzard's StarCraft and Warcraft games, which are only related by name, the storylines of Command & Conquer were always quite close to each other - of course, they were supposed to be set in the same universe.

While the Tiberium series revolves around the eponymous crystal and the battle between GDI and Nod, Red Alert takes place in a crazy parallel universe where time travel and dolphins armed with missiles are still the most normal things in the world. As Red Alert was only released to the German market in cut form due to Hitler's guest appearances, as well as the sometimes bloody cutscenes and I was still too young for it, I never really had any points of contact with the battle between the Soviet Union and the Allies. But it doesn't at all feel alien to me because in principle we do the same things in both games: Base building, resource gathering, unit recruitment, enemy dismemberment.

Games from the Command & Conquer-series

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (1995)

Command & Conquer: Alarmstufe Rot (1996)

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999)

But the similarities don't end there, because the C&C-brothers are also musically similar. Here as there, rock master Frank Klepacki is at work, who already set the tone for the series in Tiberian Dawn and continues it seamlessly in Red Alert : Hard electric guitars, powerful drums and synths are served up en masse in the score, which offers 16 to 22 tracks depending on the release.

At the forefront is Hell March, the theme from the Red Alert-series, which cleverly combines the aforementioned elements with marching noises and the call to arms 'Die Waffen, legt an!' (German for 'Ready your weapons!'). Immediately we are in a twisted, gun-toting world in which our head alternately shifts into forward and reverse gear obediently. Fun fact: According to Wikipedia, the track was actually intended as the theme for the Brotherhood of Nod in the Tiberian Dawn addon The Covert Operations ... that's how it can go.

After C&C came out we wasted no time kicking out Covert Ops. I wrote some more ambient style themes they asked me for, and then I began tinkering with this heavy metal song that I was trying to gear towards Nod for the next big C&C game. Brett Sperry came in my office and said "You got anything I can hear for the new C&C?" I played it for him. He said "What's the name of this one?" I said "Hell March". He said "That's the signature song for our next game".

Composer Frank Klepacki on Hell March

After this highlight, the score falls a little bit off for me non-nostalgics. I've heard a lot of it in one form or another in the other C&C-games, where it catches me more than here thanks to my nostalgia. Exceptions are the Smash hidden within the track Surf No Mercy, which accompanies the hidden Easter Egg campaign against giant ants in the style of a surf rock track, or the Raren-pieces, which bring some variety to the 'monotony'. Nevertheless, I like the mixture of quirky rock and trancy electro offered here, because it reminds me in part of Emergency 2 and Mortal Kombat .

Incidentally, the score received the 'Best Video Game Soundtrack' award from the games magazines PC Gamer and Gamesclice in the year of release. So again: it's no bad soundtrack, it's just ... old. In addition, the score was re-recorded as part of the 2020 Remastered Collectionjust like Tiberian Dawn. In addition to a few pieces that probably didn't make it into the OST of the main game and the add-ons back then, the 51 tracks are 'only' the familiar in better quality. Nice to have, but not a dealmaker. Despite the new edition, the score remains, as so often, a child of its time.