Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising
Developer(s)	EA Los Angeles
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Composer(s)	James Hannigan, Frank Klepacki, Timothy Michael Wynn
Series	Command & Conquer (main) Red Alert (sub-series)
Engine	SAGE
Version	1.00
Platform(s)	Uprising Microsoft Windows Commander's Challenge PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release date(s)	Uprising INT 12 March 2009 Commander's Challenge INT 24 September 2009
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: T
Media/distribution	Digital distribution

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising is a 2009 real-time strategy video game developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts. It is a stand-alone expansion to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 released only for Microsoft Windows and offered via digital distribution. It does not require Red Alert 3 to play. It features about 30 new maps for traditional skirmish with many of these taking place in new environments. It does not contain any multiplayer elements such as cooperative play, online play or network play.

A part of Uprising called Commander's Challenge was also released as Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Commander's Challenge on PlayStation Store and Xbox Live for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 respectively on September 24, 2009. It functions as a stand-alone game and does not require Red Alert 3 to play. Commander's Challenge contains only the Commander's Challenge mode of Uprising and the new units and weapons, but not the campaign or skirmish modes. It currently costs 800 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Campaigns

Uprising picks up on where the Allied Campaign of the original game left off. Four "mini-campaigns" are available, one for each faction in Red Alert 3 and a bonus one centered around the origins of the Empire's commando Yuriko Omega. Each of the campaigns is three missions long, with the exception of the Soviet one, which consists of four. Initially only the Soviet and Yuriko campaigns are available, the campaigns for the Allies and the Empire of the Rising Sun becoming available after finishing the first mission in the Soviet campaign.

Plot

All three campaigns assume that the Allied faction was victorious at the end of Red Alert 3: Soviet Russia is undergoing de-militarization, and, following Emperor Yoshiro's death, Crown Prince Tatsu has surrendered to the Allies, while secretly plotting to return his Empire to its full power.

The Soviet campaign focuses on the remaining Soviet resistance trying to stop FutureTech, an Allied defense contractor, which plans to create a super weapon called the "Sigma Harmonizer", a device to selectively stop time. FutureTech is revealed to have been helped by European Union President Rupert Thornley, who planned to "create Heaven on Earth" using the device.

The Allied campaign concentrates on defeating several renegade Imperial warlords who still resist Allied occupational forces. Emperor Tatsu has seemingly begun to cooperate with the Allies, but reveals his true intentions after his military authority is restored by the fall of Takara, the last enemy commander in the Allied campaign.

The Empire's campaign covers the fight against two Soviet generals who attempt to conquer parts of Japan. The Allies are also partially involved, attempting (rather ineffectively) to stop the fighting and restore peace. Crown Prince Tatsu greets the commander at first mission. On the second he orders the commander to protect the tomb of his father, Yoshiro, the Emperor of the Rising Sun in Red Alert 3. In the final mission, he orders a counter-attack against the Soviet generals.

The Yuriko campaign recounts the story of Yuriko Omega, her origins and discovery by the Imperial military, her captivity by the Allies and her fight to rescue her sister. The Yuriko campaign uses different controls and camera than the rest of the game, only allowing vision of the screen in which Yuriko is located, and replacing the sidebar, minimap and threat meter with a compact command bar dedicated to Yuriko and her psychic abilities.

Cast

Allied Nations

Main article: Allied characters of Command & Conquer

• Holly Valance as Brenda Snow
• Ric Flair as Commander Douglas Hill
• Malcolm McDowell as European Union President Rupert Thornley
• Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as FutureTech CPO Kelly Weaver
• Louise Griffiths as Commander Lydia Winters

Empire of the Rising Sun

Main article: Imperial characters of Command & Conquer

• Jamie Chung as Commander Takara Sato
• Julia Ling as Izumi
• Vic Chao as Dr. Shinji Shimada

Soviet Union

Main article: Soviet characters of Command & Conquer

• Moran Atias as Commander Vera Belova

Returning Characters

Allied Nations

• Gemma Atkinson as Lieutenant Eva McKenna
• Greg Ellis as Commander Giles Price

Empire of the Rising Sun

• Bruce Asato Locke as Commander Shinzo Nagama
• Jack J. Yang as Commander Kenji Tenzai
• Lisa Tamashiro as Yuriko Omega
• Ron Yuan as Crown Prince Tatsu

Soviet Union

• Ivana Milicevic as Dasha Fedorovich
• Gene Farber as Commander Nikolai Moskvin
• Dimitri Diatchenko as Commander Oleg Vodnik

New units

Allied Nations

• Harbinger Gunship: A heavy anti-surface gunship that can both absorb and inflict heavy damage, but mounts its main weapons are only on one side.
• Pacifier FAV: An amphibious transforming field artillery vehicle, that can use dual chainguns when undeployed.
• Cryo Legionnaire: An amphibious infantry that can freeze a group of ground units rather than kill them.
• Future Tank X-1: An anti-surface tank that can both absorb and inflict heavy damage to match its considerable cost.

Empire of the Rising Sun

• Steel Ronin: A bipedal robot armed with a naginata suited for melee and speed, with a ranged special attack.
• Archer Maiden: A ranged infantry that can attack both air and land units with a tech-longbow, but is quite costly.
• Giga-Fortress: A powerful unit that can transform between a mobile naval fortress and an aircraft with a long range cannon.

Soviet Union

• Reaper: A versatile walker that attack both land and air units and can permanently transform into a stationary gun emplacement.
• Grinder: An armored amphibious vehicle capable of disabling and grinding enemy units and buildings.
• Desolator: An infantry armed with chemical weapons and surprisingly resilient but costly.
• Mortar Cycle: A cheap and fast attack bike armed with Molotov cocktails and mortars.

Commander's Challenge

Uprising also features a mode called Commander's Challenge in which players can play against AI commanders with various skill levels. This mode was also released as a stand-alone downloadable game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Commander's Challenge contains 50 different, successively tougher scenarios. This is loosely based on Generals' Challenge from Zero Hour. It features some returning commanders from Red Alert 3 as well as some new ones. It contains some Campaign-Only Units that appeared in the original Red Alert 3 such as the Tesla Tank and the Shogun Executioner. Certain Maps in the Commander's Challenge also have special effects such as garbage raining from the sky or units produced on the map are shrunk. Before completing any missions, the player has access to only the basic units of each side, however upon completing each mission, more units are unlocked from the tech tree of that challenge's opponents.

There are 13 main challenges and a further 37 side challenges which are unlocked as you work your way through the game.

External links

• Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising at IGN
• Command & Conquer Database
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising at the Internet Movie Database