Shout Out / Rise of the Reds

General (multiple references to one work or miscellaneous lore)

• The backstory puts its own spin on certain aspects of the Modern Warfare series. Namely in that an attack by ultranationalists on Moscow's airport was averted in 2016, as well as the presence of a General Shepherd Expy on the American's side who's not evil. Beyond that, the American Vanguard infantry is basically a walking parody of Call of Duty multiplayer with a powerful shotgun, a vitriolic attitude and various combat drones that might as well be straight from the series. Also, the ECA hero, Frank Jaeger, is basically a German Expy of Captain Price.
• One would be forgiven for thinking that the ECA's Pandora is an updated version of the Shagohod. Or that the GLA under Sulaymaan's leadership, now based in Africa looks like a more evil, perverted version of Outer Heaven. Furthermore, the name of the ECA hero Frank Jaeger is also the real name of the Metal Gear character Gray Fox.
• The South African security contractor Pieter Coetzee owes his name to Hardy Kruger's character in the late 70s action flick The Wild Geese.
• References to Tom Clancy's EndWar:
  • The American Sentry Drone's official in-universe nickname is Rottweiler, just like the combat drone that is employed by the American JSF.
  • General Aleksandr's MBT, the Ogre, is based on the tank with the same name, which is employed by the Russian SGB.
• Many units have quotes that reference Dawn of War unit quotes.
  Propaganda Airship: "Today the enemy shall know fear!"
  Volunteer Squad: "SQUAD BROKEN!"
  Conscript: "Enemies of Russia, beware!"
  Golem Tank: "The armored fist of Aleksandr!"
  Leopard Tank: "Victory is assured!"
  Valkyrie Venom: "Walk softly, and carry a big gun."
  Viking Venom: "A sound tactical maneuver."

GLA

• The GLA Recycler is chock full of hilarious (and sometimes, waxing lyrical) shout outs. It even has unique lines for each salvage upgrade (all of which can be heard here):
  • Normal:
  "You have my undivided attention! Ooh...shiny..."
  "You talkin' to me?"
  "Hey, you want me to pimp your ride?"
  "What's my secret? Duct tape, of course!" *Evil laugh*
  "Aww, it's never an Arc Reactor!"
  • USA Tier-1 tech:
  "Say hello to my little friends!"
  • USA Tier-2 tech:
  "I love it when a plan comes together!"
  "Born in the USA! Born in the USA!" *Evil laugh*
  • China Tier-1 tech:
  "I'm just a twisted firestarter!"
  "I am the god of hellfire!"
  "I suppose this makes me a bit of a wizard... Fireballs, wizard...ah, forget it..."
  "Some people just want to watch the world burn."
  "Great balls of fire!"
  • China Tier-2 tech:
  "Ugh, it ain't no GoldenEye, but it'll do..."
  • Russian Tier-1 tech:
  "I! Have! The power!"
  "Ah, Nikola was such a noob!"
  • Russian Tier-2 tech:
  "Now I am Heavy Weapons Guy!"
  "I like big guns and I cannot lie!"
  "Hell... it's about time!"
  • ECA Tier-1 tech:
  "I am the Road Warrior!"
  "Quad damage!"
  "Time for a bit of Carmageddon!"
  "Let's get ready to rumble!"
  • ECA Tier-2 tech:
  "I'mma firin mah' lazor!"
  • GLA Tier-1 tech:
  "Wot're ye buyin?" *laughs*
  "I'll trade you for one of the Power Nine!"
  • GLA Tier-2 tech:
  "Thrax's legacy lives on!"
  "Time to get down with the sickness!"
• The updated and upgraded version of the Marauder Tank now functions similarly to the Soviet Heavy Tank of Red Alert 1. ^Note Unlike the Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon of the old Marauder in the vanilla game, the new Marauder now has a rotating turret

China

• An anonymous whistleblower in China calling out the ruling regime's increasingly militarist policies and surveillance work is basically a Race Lift of Edward Snowden. Though in this case, Chinese society in-universe does little to disprove this to the world at large.
• The Chinese Hopper Tank is quite obviously based on the eponymous tank from Metal Slug. And one of the unit's voiced lines is a paraphrased reference to the ubiquitous memetic line from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
  "I used to drive an Overlord, then I took a shell to the treads."
• The Chinese Shenlong Tank is also fond of listening to Arthur Brown's "Fire" on the radio:
  "♫Fire! I'll take you to burn...♫ Ah, I love this song!"
• And we can't forget the Easter Egg Propaganda Airship with trollfaces and the "Trololo" song.
• The Sunstorm Cannon is based on the Asia-Pacific Alliance unit of the same name from the cancelled Command & Conquer (2013).

USA

• General Griffon's pilot nickname "Guile" is an obvious reference to Street Fighter which is appropriate, given that most of the Generals by this point in time would have grown up in the 1980s and 90s.
• The Vanguard sometimes refer to himself as a Master Sergeant shooter person.
• The AT Drone is clearly based on the Soviet Terror Drone.

ECA

• The populist Hope and Glory Party, which plays a crucial role in Britain's exit from the EU in the 2020s, is an Expy of Norsefire, complete with a Prime Minister called Susan Adams. Unlike Norsefire however, it isn't a fascist organization and is significantly more sensible in its policies and beliefs, including support for the UK's membership in the ECA and an increased cooperation with the Commonwealth.
• A Royal Navy battlecruiser by the name HMS Thunderchild seals the deal on the Russian landing in England.
• The ECA Grenadier fires lots of grenades, and has a Scottish accent. One would wonder if he has an eyepatch.
• The European Manticore Tank is driven by a blatant Arnold Schwarzenegger parody who even references many iconic lines from his movies to boot.
  • He also might mention that "This is the Panzer Elite!"
• The ECA hero unit references the Maroon 5 song "Moves like Jagger", which is quite similar to his name:
  Frank Jäger: "I got the moves."
• A part of the Region Command, specifically the area around the gate where Excavators come out, looks like a Construction Yard from Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
• Anvil Bots may select the phrase "Stop! Hammertime."

Russia

• Russia's hero, Boris Bikov is essentially Boris from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, even reusing his sound clips from the same game.
• Another exported unit from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is the Tesla Tank (the previous version of the vehicle looked similar to the model from the first Red Alert). It also borrows the Brotherhood of Nod's Badass Creed in one of its voice lines:
  "Peace. Through. POWER!"
• Judging by its name, the 'Handheld Tesla Device' might as well be an Aperture Science patent and its basic design is clearly based on the Tesla Gun from Wolfenstein.
• Not to be outdone by the GLA Recycler when it comes to funny responses, the Russian Construction Crane is one rolling reference to this video.
  "Trust me, I'm an engineer!"
  "I drive my truck like a boss!"
  "I shall build in expert mode!"
  (When ordered to repair a structure) "What the *bleep* did just happen here?"
• The Russian Golem Tank delivers this epic Title Drop to the game that started it all:
  "Command me, and I will Conquer!"
• Stop me if you've heard this one: malevolent, masked, Sociopathic Soldiers wielding assault rifle/rocket launcher hybrids. Oh yes? Did we just describe the Death Corps of Kreig, or the Russian Federation's Shock Troopers?