History YMMV / CommandAndConquerRedAlert2

** 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.

** The Desolators, who employ nuclear-powered weaponry to ''melt enemy soldiers and civilians'' into radioactive oblivion.

** Yuri's basic infantry unit, the Initiate, attacks by setting enemies on fire with his mind. Imagine being burned to death by a thought.

*** 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 SkillGateCharacter 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.

** The Soviets:

** 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 SkillGateCharacter 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.

** 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.
** 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!
** 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.
** 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!
** 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''.
** 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.
** 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.

** 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 vander 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]].

** 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 them. 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]].
** 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 video of military parades with the music of the game.
** In this game there is a unit of "Libyan terrorists" who ride around in a truck and can be pierced into buildings or a group of units. This is not so much fun after a series of similar acts of terrorism in Belgium and France.

** 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 the [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 the sequel]], the Empire of the Rising Sun joins the fray as the third world power.

** The music from the game, especially the Hell march, has become so strongly associated with the Soviet and Russian parades that Website/YouTube is almost overwhelmed with commercials, where the music from the game is added to the video with 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.

The Brotherhood of Tortured Brain\\
YOUR FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND SAVAGE!

** [[spoiler: The destruction of Chicago by General Vladimir's nuclear missile. There's even a cutscene showing the attack with Chicago's famous skyline being obliterated.]]

** Soviet nations in skirmish mode include Russia, Cuba and, less logically... Iraq and Lybia, of all countries. 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 Lybia made good fodder. This is not the case as of TheNewTwenties, since both countries are no longer considered "rogue states", and in general the concept itself has been discredited by many.

* EvilIsSexy: And so is good -- the actresses playing both faction's MissionControl chicks got started in sexploitation.

* HollywoodHomely: Lt. Eva Lee, who serves as the Allied MissionControl. While she's clearly beautiful, she's much less obvious {{Fanservice}} than her [[EvilIsSexy 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.

** 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 base's 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.