Line #18 YMMV/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2


1	YMMV page for the overall series:
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3	* YMMV/CommandAndConquerRedAlertSeries
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5	!![[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]]:
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7	%%* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Smx1IK99Oo Grinder]].
8	* BreatherLevel:
9	** With a certain strategy, the final mission of the Allied campaign, "Chrono Storm", amounts to this. The player is leading the full scale attack on heavily guarded Moscow, and the mission objective is to eliminate the elite Black Guard around the Kremlin (which ''must not'' be destroyed), so that Premier Romanov can be captured and brought to justice. Nevermind that the Soviet have their whole arsenal available, including nuclear weapons and the [[ImmortalityInducer Iron Curtain]], nevermind how the Soviet bases protecting the Kremlin send non-stop attacks to the Allied base, to complete the mission it's enough to teleport [[TeleportSpam Chrono Legionnaires]] behind the enemy walls and use them to erase the Black Guard, ''simple as that''. Technically there's no need to eliminate any other Soviet structure or unit, only those in black color. The only concern for the player should be protecting the Allied base from attacks and micromanage the Chrono Legionnaires around the Kremlin so they're not killed. Once the Black Guard is gone, Tanya will be teleported right in front of the Kremlin to capture Premier Romanov, and the mission is completed even with the entirety of Soviet bases still standing.
10	** The ''Yuri's Revenge'' Soviet mission "To the Moon" is a more puzzle-oriented quick operation compared to "Escape Velocity" that came before. As the mission takes place on the moon, the types of units available are consolidated greatly, with the only infantry trainable being the unique Cosmonauts which act as a heavier-hitting Rocketeer, and the Desolator which doesn't see much use. Yuri's base garrisons suffer from CripplingOverspecialization, with one base being protected by only Gattling Cannons and one being protected by only Psychic Towers. As mind control cannot affect air units, it's simply a matter of abusing each of these bases' weaknesses with Cosmonauts and Tanks. There is a lack of ore, making losses permanent, but the ''huge'' amount of starting credits and the cash prizes rewarded for destroying each base render this condition moot.
11	* CatharsisFactor: Yuri's fate in the Soviet Ending in ''Yuri's Revenge''. After spending the entire game as an unflappable, sadistic, emotionless bastard, it's satisfying to see him freak out and scream when attacked by a T-Rex.
12	* CheeseStrategy: A common Soviet "Noob Killer" strategy is to send a flaktrack full of engineers into an enemy base. The AI is aware of this tactic and ''will'' use it against you.
13	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: You'd be forgiven of thinking there is only one Soviet nation in ''Red Alert 2'', as competitive players almost never use anyone other than Iraq thanks to its Desolators heavily eclipsing all other Soviet national units. The Allies have a bit more variety but America is often the preferred pick because of its free Paradropped [=GIs=].
14	* CompleteMonster: [[SoftSpokenSadist Yuri]] is a powerful {{psychic\|Powers}} and aspiring overlord initially serving the USSR, but [[DragonWithAnAgenda soon reveals his ulterior motives]]. In the Soviet campaign he supports the invasion of the United States and later the rest of the world, building [[MindControlDevice devices]] to turn the conquered peoples into mind-controlled drones. He assassinates Premier Romanov and [[FrameUp frames General Vladimir]] to [[TheStarscream usurp the Soviet leadership]], before attempting to kill the player because his continued success has made him a potential threat to Yuri's position. ''[[ExpansionPack Yuri's Revenge]]'' reveals that he was just using the Soviets to establish a network of [[DoomsdayDevice Psychic Dominators]] to enslave the planet so there will be no will but his own. Yuri's subsequent plots include harvesting the entire population of Los Angeles for raw materials; holding a software company ransom and nuking Seattle until they give in; secretly assassinating world leaders and replacing them with clones; and planning to level all coastal cities in the world. Yuri's army also uses horrifying components such as using slaves to mine their ore; genetically altering soldiers and civilians alike into obedient, mutated freaks; grinding up civilians, captured enemies, and his own units for spare parts or draining them for bioelectricity; and is built around mind controlling his adversaries.
15	* DemonicSpiders:
16	** Yuri's Boomer Submarines (from the ''Yuri's Revenge'' expansion). Obviously an {{Expy}} of the Soviet Missile Subs from ''Red Alert: Aftermath'', the Boomer is a submarine that can fire missiles at on-shore targets. These missiles are similar to those used by the Soviet Dreadnought and can be shot down, but they inflict '''BIG''' damage if they do hit a target. Also, the Boomer Sub is a stealth unit, much like the Soviet's Typhoon Attack Sub, which allows them to sneak up on unsuspecting opponents. And speaking of the Soviet Typhoon, the Boomer can also fire torpedoes to attack water-level targets. While Boomers are expensive and slow, they are pretty durable and devastating and are worth their price tag. Even just one Boomer can be a very serious threat to your base if you don't have a reasonable amount of anti-air defenses.
17	** This is the first game in the ''Command and Conquer'' franchise where infantry garrisons are a thing, and boy is it a doozy when it comes to balance. There's no cost-effective way of neutralizing garrisoned buildings without smashing up said building from afar or above, which means that any structure filled with soldiers is a massive stone wall in way of your progress. Initiates, in particular, are an immediate melting death sentence to any unfortunate bastard that gets too close. And there's little to stop said soldiers from occupying the next building over...
18	*** On a related note, the ''Yuri's Revenge'' expansion introduces the Battle Bunker for the Soviets. Unlike civilian structures, the bunkers can be manually built and placed anywhere within your building radius and are reasonably cheap, too. Another advantage is that the bunkers can be manually repaired with the wrench icon instead of spending $500 on an engineer. While Battle Bunkers can only hold a maximum of five infantry, they still take full advantage of the game's garrisoning mechanic and can be peppered around a base to give you some headaches (especially if they are garrisoned by the aforementioned Yuri Initiates).
19	* EvenBetterSequel: Red Alert grows beyond being an expy of the Tiberium Saga with this installment and many interesting gameplay additions are introduced. The LighterAndSofter camp elements add charm without completely derailing the game. The invasion of mainland USA scenario is as good as it gets. Stalin [[spoiler:(and Kane/the Brotherhood of Nod)]] is hard to replace as a villain, however, though at least Yuri is a close second.
20	* FridgeBrilliance:
21	** Each faction's AntiAir weapon systems are tailored perfectly to counter whichever method of air attacks the opposing faction prefers:
22	*** The Allies use slow-firing, powerful missiles. The Soviets' only relevant air unit is the slow, heavily-armored Kirov Airship, as the Siege Chopper is mostly used in its grounded mode, the [=MiGs=] require Boris target-painting ability. The V3 Rocket Launcher fires rockets slower than Patriot Missile systems fire, so they have it covered as well. The Spy Plane support power is the only air unit the Allies have no specific defense against. Guardian [=GIs=] and [=IFVs=] show this trait well as they are used as anti-ground armor despite having an equally-strong anti-air attack.
23	*** The Soviets use fairly-fast firing flak guns that deal SplashDamage. The Allies have a significantly higher amount of air units, but most of them fall into the same category: {{Fragile Speedster}}s. Flak Cannons, Flak Tracks, Flack Troopers and Sea Scorpions can damage several air units at the same time with their attacks, forcing the Allies to bring support to take those anti-air defenses down or ZergRush to overwhelm them.
24	*** Yuri's faction goes GatlingGood with Gatling Cannons and Gatling Tanks. They are much better against frail air units than against heavily-armored ones as they rev up to max speed to have a chance to take them down (whereas Yuri doesn't have such a problem against ground armor thanks to Psychic Towers). This fits perfectly to counter Allied air strikes but not against Soviet Kirov assaults, and when you consider the Allies won the war in the vanilla game...
25	** Why are the enemy attacks ''far'' more relentless in the mission "Deja Vu" despite this essentially being the same mission as "Mirage", where the enemy assaults were scripted and easy to counter? Because in "Deja Vu", you're essentially fighting a version of yourself, who likely would have steamrolled the Soviet army in the original timeline. Did you expect a fight with the Allied PlayerCharacter to be ''easy''?
26	* GameBreaker: The game's balance model uses something along the lines of "balance through the abundance of unbalanced units." This leads to some units being very dangerous without a game-breaker counter to that unit.
27	** Yuri's entire faction. It's so bad that Yuri is usually banned from online play.
28	*** In particular, the Floating Discs. 2 of them can entirely shut down a bases power and slowly drain your credits away, zapping any anti-air infantry/vehicles that try to shoot them down. If these little bastards shut down your base, your only hope is pretty much to have enough anti-air units to take them down, or have an ally help you.
29	*** The Grinder structure especially becomes this in the late game being the only decent means of economy gain when the ore and gem fields are all used up. All it takes is mind controlling a couple tanks and sending them directly into the Grinder, and suddenly, you have money to do stuff compared to the enemy. It's even worse if Superweapons are allowed where you Genetic Mutate a bunch of infantry, usually your own Initiates or Slave Workers into a large army of more expensive Brutes, and then send them into the Grinder for a return on a buttload of cash.
30	*** The Magnetrons for their insane ability to crowd control mechanical units. A pro Yuri player can easily bounce around multiple tanks at once keeping them unable to move or attack, which leaves the rest of the Yuri army engaged in what remains of the enemy army not being Magnetroned.
31	** The Soviets. The Iraq subfaction stands out strongly as Desolators alone make the Soviets competitive:
32	*** The aptly-named Apocalypse Tanks can dish out twice the damage of a standard Rhino Tank, and if not disposed of quickly will easily mow down any Allied attacks with their volatile salvos. Albeit, they are a {{Skill Gate Character\|s}} in higher levels of play with the ''Yuri's Revenge'' expansion pack, as the Allies gained additional anti-armor measures, while Yuri's army has multiple ways to mind conrtol the juggernauts.
33	*** While expensive, Demolition Trucks under the effect of an Iron Curtain are unstoppable nukes. The best you can do is delay them until the invulnerability fades out. It is interestingly lampshaded in-game as the best way to take down Yuri's base in the fourth mission of the expansion's Soviet campaign, as it's otherwise too cramped and protected to get through with ground units. [=IFVs=] piloted by Crazy Ivans amount to the same thing, but are even faster!
34	*** Chrono-ing Demo Trucks / Crazy Ivan [=IFVs=] directly into enemy base. While it requires a lot of effort to pull off it's an insta-kill tactic if aimed precisely and ''there is '''no defense''' against this''.
35	*** Tank Rushes in the vanilla game. Practically unstoppable unless your foe counters with tank spam of their own. If your enemy is playing as the Allies, they lack a clear counter them (besides spamming cheaper Grizzlies even faster and micromanaging them well). If you are playing as Soviets, Rhino Tanks ($900 ea) are too strong to be countered by another direct rush unless you're outnumbered. Even the Allied Tank Rush isn't to be taken lightly, as their cheaper $700 Grizzly tanks are very quick and can quickly speed around the battlefield to hit vital targets in an enemy base, and flee when they're out-matched. This is partly why Guardian [=GIs=] were introduced in the expansion for the Allies.
36	*** Only available to Iraq, the [[WalkingWasteland Desolator]] single-handedly takes the Soviet faction from underpowered to just under Yuri. While they have a decent attack that instantly kills infantry and deals decent damage to vehicles, its real power comes from its deploy ability, poisoning a large area around it and dealing damage to all units in the area not immune to radiation (Robots, Miners, but not their slaves, other Desolators, and air units), liquifying infantry nearly instantly, and dealing decent damage over time to all other foes (except the aforementioned ones immune to radiation). Furthermore, they can stack, increasing the damage dealt in their overlapping areas of effect. This makes them without a doubt, the best area denial unit in the game. Not to mention, they only cost $600 and require a radar tower and Barracks to build. This makes them basically overkill against the [[ArtificialStupidity Dumb AI]] as a few of them can blockade a base as shown in one of Yuri's Revenge campaign maps.
37	** Each of the Allied nations had a GameBreaker unique unit/ability in some form, sans Germany, with their dubious Tank Destroyers.
38	*** The British subfaction has Snipers, who could insta-kill any infantry unit in the game at a distance. Placing them into an IFV or Battle Fortress negates their slow movement speed weakness.
39	*** The Americans can deploy paratroopers free of charge via the Air Force Command. These provide more [=GIs=] than the amount provided by an Airfield. Speaking of which, capturing an Airfield provides a ''separate'' paratrooper ability cooldown, making it possible to double deploy paratroopers given the opportunity.
40	*** The French Grand Cannon can be considered this from a turtle-strategy standpoint, as it has massive range compared to other defensive structures.
41	*** The South Koreans go for a more BoringButPractical approach with the Black Eagle jet replacing the Harrier. It's a straight upgrade with more firepower at no extra cost.
42	*** Prism Tanks, if properly micromanaged, are damn near unstoppable and can flatten a base in seconds with what appears to be a laser rave from hell. Their prism beams tear through even the heaviest of structures like paper, meaning that they can take out a Construction Yard in seconds.
43	*** Navy [=SEALs=] too. Take Tanya, make them a bit weaker (but not enough to be unable to decimate infantry squads or make buildings explode) in exchange of them being available at Tier '''2''' and being able to be mass-produced. Combine with the above Prism Tanks and nothing stands a chance!
44	*** Chrono Commandos can be described as teleporting Navy [=SEALS=]. For double the price of a [=SEAL=], you have vastly improved Chrono Legionaries who can FlashStep between buildings with C4 and with careful micromanagement, make a base disappear in seconds. Their main weaknesses are their inability to target vehicles like Tanya can, stiff unlock requirements (infiltrating an Allied Battle Lab, which is something that can't be done in the campaign proper), and their significant price tag of $2000, but your main army can help finish off what they couldn't handle, such as a group of the aforementioned Prism Tanks & supporting vehicles.
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46	* GoodBadBugs: Even after multiple patches, the game regains quite buggy:
47	** The amount of extra damage Prism Towers receive from being assisted by another Prism Tower is defined in the game files as a straight multiplier the game converts into a percentage by multiplying it by 100 before applying. Maps can override this value for that one map only. However, if the [=[General]=] section containing this value is declared in the map file (most official maps do) but the value itself isn't, the engine falls back on a default value of 100 that's erroneously declared as a percentage already, resulting in the engine multiplying it by 100 again to make all assisted Prism Towers inflict 10,000 times their normal damage per shot.
48	** If a production building is walled off, units that are trained in them would be cancelled upon ending production, refunding all the credits you spent of them. There was an oversight on this in early versions of the base game in which a Soviet player could wall off a Barracks but not their Cloning Vats. The unit that came off the Barracks would be removed and Credits would be refunded... but a clone would still appear anyway, essentially getting any infantry unit for free. This would be fixed so units would not come from the Cloning Vats if the player's main Barracks were walled off.
49	** In early versions of the base game, if you had a damaged building, you could exploit a Waypoint Mode oversight so that you could have your Spies infiltrate ''your own buildings'', giving you all the bonuses you'd have by infiltrating the opponent. This made getting Chrono Commandos ridiculously easy.
50	** While the Soviet Industrial Plant reduces all vehicle costs, it does not affect the amount refunded when said vehicle is sent into a Grinder. This can be abused for infinite money.
51	** For single-player, saving and reloading a game while there are Chrono units moving will remove their cooldown. This is particularly effective if you have access to Chrono Commandos.
52	** The EasterEgg dinosaur you can get in the first Soviet mission in ''Yuri's Revenge'' isn't properly recognized as an enemy by the AI, allowing it to reach the Soviet base and the Psychic Dominator with no effort at all.
53	** Several multiplayer maps in the expansion feature neutral/civilian combatants. You read that right - white tanks, soldiers, whatever are affiliated with civilians. AI doesn't target civilians but the neutral units have no qualms about targeting any player's (including computer controlled) units that wander into their field of vision. Which means that if even a single neutral tank finds their way into any base they can and will happily proceed slowly raze it to the ground and [[KarmaHoudini the AI won't mind it a single bit]]. This can be exploited for [[https://www.deviantart.com/p3rsh1ng/art/White-Apocalypse-Motivator-806721820 hilarious outcomes]].
54	** In the base game, sending infantry units into the Hospital would count as if they were trained again. Players with a Cloning Vats could exploit this by constantly sending infantry to the Hospital to get more clones for free. This is not possible in the expansion ''Yuri's Revenge'', where the Hospital grants a RegeneratingHealth bonus to all troops rather than being a place where you send your soldiers for instant healing.
55	** The penultimate Allied mission in ''Red Alert 2'' sets you on a small island, reachable only by destroyable bridges, which allows you to give yourself some breathing room from ground attacks by destroying them; however, the Soviets will immediately send a plane to airdrop an engineer to repair the bridge. The thing is, the game is set to send out a plane whenever a SEAL plants C4 on the hut to demolish the bridge, without checking for whether the bridge is even still up, meaning it's perfectly possible to send a SEAL into a patrol loop of constantly setting C4 on the hut and eventually spawn tons and tons of Soviet planes dropping tons and tons of engineers.
56	* HarsherInHindsight:
57	** Cool as it is in-game, the destruction of Washington and New York evokes tragic real life events after 9/11.
58	** Destroying the World Trade Center Towers in the third Soviet level of ''Red Alert 2''. Of course that is entirely up to the [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential player]] to do, since you can also garrison the towers. However, destroying the Pentagon isn't. And that's ''the first Soviet mission''. To further hammer the point home, ''Red Alert 2'''s original box art featured a burning New York City skyline, with the WTC on fire. After 9/11, Electronic Arts recalled all of the unsold units, and for a month, you couldn't even buy the game. What did the new, less offensive box art feature? No NYC, but the American flag in the Soviet commander's monocle was replaced with a [[NukeEm mushroom cloud]].
59	** Depending on your attitude to politics, the plot of how the USSR is going to capture the whole world will obviously not sound very good. Especially videos of military parades with the music of the game.
60	** The Libyan special unit is a demolition truck that rides around and can be set to [[SuicideAttack blow itself up]] to take out enemies. Useful if you can get it in place, but not so much fun after a series of similar acts of terrorism in Belgium and France.
61	* HilariousInHindsight:
62	** ''Yuri's Revenge'''s allied campaign features a mission where you have to protect the [[Fiction500 Massivesoft]] building in Seattle from Yuri. You get this mission after a distress call from their CEO, an obvious Bill Gates lookalike whose name is [[https://www.bing.com Bing]].
63	** In the intro cutscene, two of the direct phone lines of President Dugan are shown. One is to Moscow and the other is to Tokyo. Obviously, the Soviets are opponents in this game, but come [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 the sequel]], the Empire of the Rising Sun joins the fray as the third world power.
64	** Twofold for the Soviet ''Yuri's Revenge'' campaign ending, where Yuri (played by Creator/UdoKier) is killed by a ''T. rex'', and the Soviets expand their ideology across the Solar System. In ''Film/IronSkyTheComingRace'', the Soviets are expanding across the Solar System and Hitler (played by Creator/UdoKier) is ''riding'' a ''T. rex''. And Udo Kier potraying Hitler is doubly ironic since the PointOfDivergence of the ''Red Alert'' timeline is precisely the premature death of Hitler before he could rise to power and form Nazi Germany.
65	** A Command and Conquer game with many missions (and even a multiplayer map) taking place in Washington D.C. becomes this when the city's football team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins, changed due to cultural sensitivity) became the Washington ''Commanders''.
66	** One of the cut units for the Soviets was a Hydrofoil intended as an anti-aircraft naval vessel. Come ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 Red Alert 3]]'', that would come to fruition... as part of the Allied Forces arsenal, their sworn enemies.
67	** The use of live streams to communicate with leaders and commanders all at once around the world is a very good prediction of how widespread live streams would become on the internet for similar public and private discussions.
68	* HollywoodHomely: Lt. Eva Lee, who serves as the Allied MissionControl. While she's clearly beautiful, she's much less obvious {{Fanservice}} than her latex-clad Soviet counterpart and even on her own team her looks are far more downplayed compared to [[ActionGirl Agent Tanya]]. When SheCleansUpNicely for the final cinematic of the ExpansionPack, it's a genuine surprise.
69	* LowTierLetdown:
70	** Germany gets a lot of flak in multiplayer because its unique unit, the Tank Destroyer, is only good against tanks and can only deal ScratchDamage to everything else. They stand out a bit more compared to the non-Iraqi Soviet nations because all the other Allied nations' unique units (or Defense and Ability, in the case of France and the USA) are far superior compared to the Tank Destroyer.
71	** For the Soviets, Cuba gets what is often considered the least helpful perk with their [[SuicideAttack Terrorists]]. The trouble is that this was before ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' where these units were able to get on dirt bikes to effectively deliver their payload, and would only explode when they reached their target (as opposed to here, when a single Terrorist death can cause a chain reaction in a crowd). They also require tier 2 to train, so you can't rush them out as quickly as an Engineer rush if you're hoping to harass your opponent. It doesn't help that Iraq is normally the superior pick because Desolators contribute so much to the Soviet army. The other Soviet suicide unit, the Demo Truck, at least gets a larger explosion and can benefit from the Iron Curtain (Terrorists could be placed in a Flak Track which can be affected by the Iron Curtain, but there's nothing stopping someone from simply massacring the Terrorists once they exit the vehicle).
72	** The Allied Destroyer ends up becoming nigh-useless when facing a balanced navy. Its only means of attacking submerged enemies is with its built-in VTOL, which can easily be shot out of the sky by anti-air. It's common to face off against Typhoon Subs and Sea Scorpions in groups, with the subs attracting the attention of the [=VTOLs=] which are quickly shot down by said Sea Scorpions. It takes a while for a Destroyer's VTOL to respawn. The Destroyer's main cannon isn't all that powerful either. The Attack Dolphin ends up being a more reliable anti-vessel unit, but requires a Battle Lab to produce.
73	** The Allied Aegis Cruiser is a bit too specialized in its field to be worth producing in greater numbers. While it ''is'' a powerful anti-air vessel that can bring a Kirov Airship down in seconds, it ''cannot attack anything else whatsoever''. It's also has a mediocre sailing speed, where a group of Sea Scorpions can serve as a reliable scouting force or emergency countermeasure against infantry. With the general lack of enemy air units, the Aegis is usually a deterrent against ballistic missiles and little else.
74	* MemeticBadass: In the Allied mission "Time Lapse", Tanya has been noted as a badass who can survive a nuclear explosion with relatively mild injuries. To elaborate, she can be "killed" by the Alcatraz Nuclear Reactor explosion when she blows it up, but a cutscene plays showing she only had a bump on the head.
75	* MemeticMutation:
76	** The music from the game, especially "Hell March 2", has become so strongly associated with Soviet and Russian parades that Website/YouTube is almost overwhelmed with commercials, where the music from the game is added to videos of real parades. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTCkuHc__ZQ Especially in the context of]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jVjKJk0wmc the Crimean events]] in February 2014.
77	** This game is so strongly associated with the Cold War, that at the time of its popularity, some schoolchildren in the US and Russia took on faith some of its moments.
78	** Grinder being the theme for [[Memes/TeamFortress2 Seeman.]]
79	** [[LadyMondegreen We captured, we captured! We captured Harry Potter!]]
80	** If Nicholas Worth has appeared in a different Westwood game, such as in ''[[Videogame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun Tiberian Sun: Firestorm]]'' and ''Videogame/EmperorBattleForDune'', there will be at least one Youtube comment about how his character has a legacy to consider.
81	* MemeticLoser: The lowly Soviet Conscript often acts as a punching bag for being massacred in droves, usually by a dedicated anti-infantry unit.
82	* NarmCharm: This is a ''Red Alert'' game mixing solemn and wacky elements, so take your pick:
83	** A slightly overweight Einstein with a hammy, atrocious German accent but somewhat grandfatherly and trying to keep it serious is a prominent example.
84	** As usual, Frank Klepacki deserves a top place in the trope's hall of fame
85	--->Creation of the Humanoids\
86	Power to overwhelm and destroy\
87	The product of a tortured brain\
88	YOUR FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND, SAVAGE!
89	** Nicholas Worth as Premier Romanov is absurdly over the top, and it adds oh so much.
90	* NightmareFuel:
91	** While often PlayedForLaughs, the idea of being forcibly mind-controlled into serving the oppressive Soviet Union by Yuri and his Psychic Corps is certainly an unsettling prospect, as is the notion of being forced to fire on your own countrymen.
92	** The Desolators, who employ nuclear-powered weaponry to ''melt enemy soldiers and civilians'' into radioactive oblivion. Even fellow Soviets aren't safe, as the Desolator's deploy ability emits a massive radiation field that ''kills indiscriminately.''
93	** Most of Yuri's forces. Take your pick from the psychic brain tanks, the devices which render anything shoved in them down into usable resources (including your own troops or mind controlled enemies), mind rape by the truckload, or the device which scrambles your DNA into a hulking brute, loyal only to Yuri.
94	** By far the most disturbing of Yuri's insidious devices is the Grinders, massive machines that literally ground brainwashed victims into resources to build into Yuri's personal army. As if you needed any more reason to beat this maniac into submission. This is even PlayedForHorror in the Allies' second mission in ''Yuri's Revenge'', where Yuri used his Grinders to ''mulch'' the mind-controlled civilians of Los Angeles to build his forces.
95	** It's also worth mentioning the horrifying death infantry suffer when killed by Yuri's Virus snipers. The victim basically turns into a giant, staggering Chia Pet for a second before their body explodes into a giant cloud of toxic gas. Also, the gas itself can damage units and infantry killed by the gas will also suffer a similar fate.
96	** Yuri's basic infantry unit, the Initiate, attacks by ''setting enemies on fire with his mind''. Imagine being burned to death by a thought.
97	** The infantry in the game generally have some delightful fates to choose from. Aside from being melted by Desolators and exploded by the disease-riddled Virus sniper rounds, they can be hunted down by specially-trained attack dogs, obliterated by the fists of Yuri's Brutes, annihilated by the psychic mind-blasts of the Psi Cops and Yuri Prime, and burned to death by explosions or Yuri's Initiates.
98	* ObviousJudas: [[spoiler: Yuri, for the Soviet Union]]. There's something suspicious about him from the very beginning, and he only gets more suspicious as the game goes on. By the time it gets the point that [[spoiler: Premier Romanov]] is murdered, it's already blatantly obvious that he has an agenda. Then comes his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=U2eRHyQnVSU#t=201s 'proof']] that [[spoiler: General Vladimir]] is responsible. Miraculously, the player character still seems to see nothing wrong (or alternatively, he did, but felt powerless due to not having any solid counter-proof). Alternatively, the player character saw through it long ago, [[LetsYouAndHimFight let it all happen]], and was simply biding their time until they felt they had the initiative and could sweep up what was left. [[HistoryRepeats Just like the first Red Alert]].
99	* ParodyDisplacement: Ask anyone who played ''Yuri's Revenge'' what lines are spoken in the background of the song "Brain Freeze"- they'll remember. Now ask them what movies those lines came from- they won't.
100	* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: While the story is quite elaborate and [[WordOfGod developers themselves say]] that Red Alert series is more about TimeTravel and its consequences than any actual combat, many players prefer to ignore it as it drives the attention away from all the fun the gameplay alone provides.
101	* PortingDisaster: The version included in ''The First Decade'' [[ItOnlyWorksOnce refuses to launch more than once]], and even then, you have to run it as the Administrator-even when you HAVE an admin account. The only way around this? Copy-pasting the entire disc into an alternate file setup. After you've performed this little bit of Technosorcery, it's version 1.0, so it chugs like it's drinking a cement milkshake when more than 1 unit is onscreen.
102	* ScrappyMechanic: In both ''Red Alert 2'' and ''Yuri's Revenge'', air units actually adjust their altitude to go over buildings. While this is meant to be an element of realism, it can cause problems for some units. Many battlegrounds take place in urban settings with lots of tall office buildings. This means that air units have to go ''all the way up'' and then ''all the way down'' to go over those buildings. And while it's not too problematic for fast air units like the Harrier, it can be ''very annoying'' for slow-moving aircraft like the Soviet Kirov or - to a lesser extent - Yuri's Floating Discs or the Allied Nighthawk Transport. In addition to longer "commute times" for air units, all that up-over-and-down makes them easy targets for any nearby enemy anti-air units/structures. A Kirov slowly going up and over an office building is a ''very'' big sitting duck for any Allied [=IFV=]s, Soviet Flak Tracks, or Yuri Gatling Tanks. Of course, you can have slow-moving air units go around the tall buildings, but that takes micromanagement.
103	* {{Tearjerker}}:
104	** [[spoiler: General Carville's death]] at the hands of a Soviet suicide bomber is certainly this. He didn't even see his attacker and the void created by his murder is immediately felt by the entire Allied chain of command. As President Dugan presides over his funeral, he passes the torch along to you, the Commander, saying you must finish what was started for the good of the world. No doubt to the joy of many gamers, [[spoiler: he's saved thanks to time travel in ''Yuri's Revenge'']].
105	** [[spoiler: The destruction of Chicago by General Vladimir's nuclear missile. There's even [[https://youtu.be/Chujcn1gVu0 a cutscene]] showing the attack with Chicago's famous skyline being obliterated.]]
106	** [[spoiler:In the base game's Soviet campaign, the death of Alexander Romanov at the hands of Yuri, who later blames it on General Vladimir. Essentially the only friendly Russian Premier in the whole franchise gets abruptly killed by the cast's ObviousJudas, who makes you kill off a scapegoat while he's at it. It's probably all the better that the Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge goes with the Allied ending where he's still alive, and acts as your benevolent boss once you travel back in time]].
107	** Some units' scared and dieing quotes may sound quite heartrending (especially if they're belonged to you). Special mention goes to the pathetic cry of the Nighthawk Transport pilot and the distressed "Mayday! Mayday!" of the Siege Chopper pilot.
108	* ThatOneLevel:
109	** "Liberty", the sixth level of the base game's Allied campaign is a huge DifficultySpike compared to what came before. As opposed to the levels with a direct objective that can cut through mission time like a hot knife through butter, here there's no such option. Resources aren't exactly plentiful from your starting position at the Pentagon, and the Soviets will send in waves of infantry and tanks from both the brown forward base (which, unlike the previous brown base in the last mission in DC, has lots of anti-air coverage) and from the bridge to the north. It is possible to capture the hospital there and use it to wall off the bridge, but that requires committing more resources into defenses. The damaged monuments that yield cash bonuses are fewer in number and are much harder to get to as well. No matter how you slice it, it's a slog of a mission that will likely have all of the ore miners consume all the ore on the map long before you get any significant progress.
110	** "Fallout", the penultimate level of the base game's Allied campaign, turns the macro game from previous levels into overdrive. In addition to a small base, the Allies start with two extra Refineries, both of which are vulnerable to constant Soviet attacks. The starting Naval Yard is blocked by a bridge between the main base and the extra Refinery, necessitating the act of blowing it up and isolating said Refinery for ships to move south where most of the actual naval Soviet attacks will come from. Other attacks are constant throughout the map, requiring hard counters to fend off the raiders who would rob you of much-needed money. The level has an internal timer that causes the map to expand, revealing the nukes that will annihilate the Allies to oblivion lest they be stopped (building the Chronosphere also triggers this). The Soviet base in Cuba is heavily defended, requiring some heavy cheese strategy to stop the offensives for good.
111	** "Red Revolution", the penultimate level of the base game's Soviet campaign. You are completely surrounded by Yuri's Soviet forces (supported by Psi-Corps Troopers) that are constantly pouring units into you, and will freely use the Iron Curtain to break through your defenses. Your best bet is to quickly take over a cliff next to your base to get the high ground, but even then you'd stand a better chance building a Nuclear Missile Silo and take out the Kremlin in two hits than trying to break through Yuri's base, where the only cost-effective solution is to focus on producing tanks and Kirovs for the purpose of ZergRush through a backdoor so you can destroy all the Nuclear Reactors with Apocalypse Tanks while letting Kirovs take out the Kremlin.[[note]]This time you are not required to defend your base and you can still complete the mission by destroying the Kremlin even if the only remaining unit you have is a lone Kirov Airship.[[/note]] The key is not to be caught in open terrain fending off 3 armies; if the Nuclear Reactors that power most of the defenses in the area are destroyed early, the Kirovs can be used to create a bottleneck situation that nullifies most of Yuri's attacks.
112	** "Polar Storm", the final mission of the base game's Soviet campaign, is a more mundane, tedious example. Though the Allies don't overwhelm you as quickly as Yuri's insurgents, resources are scarce on the map, and the Chronosphere is heavily defended with trenches of Prism Towers and Patriot Missiles. You also need to take the long way around a cliffside to mount a ground assault, unless you think you can pump out enough Kirov Airships to survive the Patriot Missiles. The enemy also periodically teleports divisions of tanks your way, for more unpleasant harassment.
113	** "Clones Down Under" becomes ''far'' more difficult in higher difficulties. Yuri sends all of his Boomer submarines against you pretty much immediately, and you need to scramble what naval forces you have against him. After this, he'll send Initiates to start hunkering down in practically every building in the city. Given that they're DemonicSpiders in this form, it's difficult to smash your way through these fortifications and kill the Initiates before they move onto another building. All the while resources remain extremely limited, you don't have access to Snipers, and Yuri has control over an Airport, dropping more Initiates in your way!
114	** Without a proper strategy, "Brain Dead" can spiral downhill pretty quickly. While the mission starts out calmly as only building a Soviet Radar Tower will initiate the more hefty part of the level (in the meantime everything up to the Soviet Service Depot can be built at a leisurely pace), the moment the Allies establish a base in Antarctica proper, Yuri will have a fully operational Psychic Dominator and Genetic Mutator deep in his base, and will send in attack waves to keep the Allies on their toes. Failing to destroy these superweapons in time results in a CycleOfHurting with mind-controlled units and Brutes smashing up things. The Chronosphere is crucial to destroying them as quickly as possible, bypassing Yuri's lines of defenses and concentrating as much damage to these structures as possible.
115	** "Escape Velocity" is a massive slog where the Soviet navy needs to take the long way around Yuri's island base to destroy his Submarine Pen and win the mission. The big issue is the lack of resources immediately available and Yuri's Slave Miners wasting no time in attempting to secure them before you do. The only viable landing zones are at the beachheads where Yuri's base defenses and forward structures have a height advantage. While the newly-introduced Siege Chopper is handy for scouting out the cliffs, their cannons are pretty much rendered moot due to Yuri having modified easter island statues as makeshift Prism Towers. It's impractical to attempt to capture these for your own as they'll vaporize anything that gets close (the Iron Curtain helps a little bit, but not much). The best way to get through this mission is to simply make a beeline towards the ocean bay into the base (thankfully pointed out at the start of the mission) and use a fleet of Typhon Subs and Dreadnoughts to annihilate the Submarine Pen, and ignore the rest of the base entirely.
116	** "Head Games", the final mission of the Soviet ''Yuri's Revenge'' campaign, is an example of EarlyGameHell. It starts as a 1 vs 3 mission where Yuri does not wait at all to start throwing hordes of infantry of all three factions into your base to make you use what little resources you can harvest into making base defenses. And when the vehicles appear, the enemy AI actually bothers to combine Allied IFV with Soviet and Yuri infantry (something they actually don't do in Skirmish), with particularly nasty sneaky Crazy Ivan [=IFVs=] that will punish you dearly if you didn't wall your base off, and then the attacks keep ramping up to Masterminds, Apocalypse Tanks, Kirovs, Battle Fortresses, or Prism Tanks, so you can't exactly turtle. Oh, and if you try to build a Superweapon, Yuri will get one built per faction (the flip side to this is that not doing so effectively prevents Yuri from deploying any Superweapons, as opposed to "Brain Dead", where he has both of his deployed immediately once the Allies set up shop in Antarctica). The mission gets dramatically easier once you destroy either the Soviet or Allied Psychic Beacon, but on a first try it might be quite difficult to get anywhere close to them.
117	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
118	** The fact there was never a campaign for Yuri's unique faction seemed like a missed opportunity, and could have been a way to introduce more named characters working under Yuri.
119	** Boris only appears in two missions during the Soviet Campaign, and is never seen in the Allied Campaign even after the Allied-Soviet pact is signed. There are more than a few other missions where he would have been useful.
120	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
121	** The original game's Soviet campaign that focuses on world takeover leaves a lot to be desired. Especially when it comes to the invasion of the United States' mainland after the first 3 missions focused on invading the east coast. Other than one mission where you're hunting down the President in Texas, any battles that took place in taking over the central and western United States mainland are completely glossed over.
122	** Despite Yuri's main threat being mind control, the player only gets to face mind-controlled bases exactly twice among the game's four campaigns (and both happen in the Soviet ''Yuri's Revenge'' campaign).
123	* UnderusedGameMechanic: During the campaigns, you'll notice this with some of the units.
124	** The Soviet Desolators for example show off the usage of their radiation field ability in a scripted event during the eighth Allied mission, "Free Gateway," to kill a group of civilians. Yet the enemy never uses this ability ever again within the mission, or any other mission for that matter. Similarly they are only ever available in one Soviet mission, "Desecration", where you storm the White House against Vladimir, deemed a traitor. They make a few more appearances in the Soviet campaign of ''Yuri's Revenge'', but in "Romanov on the Run", there are only three of them granted to you and cannot produce more, "Escape Velocity" has them available only when capturing the heavily-defended Tech Lab when a naval assault is the easiest way to complete the mission, and on the moon, they are practically useless against the Cosmonauts that make up the vast majority of infantry battalions on both sides.
125	** A similar case happens with Yuri's Chaos Drones. Their hallucinatory gas attack is shown off in a scripted event when one uses it close to your base at the start of the expansion game's fifth Allied mission, "Clones Down Under" to confuse your units into attacking other friendly units. Like with the Desolators, it's never used by the enemy again, even in the mission it was introduced in.
126	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
127	** The 3rd Soviet mission features the Twin Towers, marking this game as pre-9/11.
128	** Soviet nations in skirmish mode include Russia, Cuba and, less logically... Iraq and Libya, which aren't exactly the first countries people would think of when talking about historical allies of the Soviet Union. ''Red Alert 2'' was made in the late [[TheNineties 90s]], when the topic of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_state rogue states]] was in vogue and countries such as Iraq and Libya made good fodder. This is not the case as of TheNewTwenties, since both countries are no longer considered "rogue states" due to foreign intervention and ensuing civil wars, and in general the concept itself has been discredited by many.

Context YMMV / CommandAndConquerRedAlert2