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"We will bury them!"
Soviet tanks

The fourth main game in the Command & Conquer series and the last fully developed by Westwood Studios. The second entry in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert Series and released in October 2000, Red Alert 2 is set during the 1970s, when the supposed puppet-Premier of the USSR leads a world communist alliance in a surprise invasion of the United States, with the help of the mindbending psychic Yuri.

The expansion, Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, was released in October 2001. Turns out that Yuri had his own plans set in motion, and right as the Allies believe they've beaten the Soviets, Yuri reveals that he's still ready to fight — and ready to end the fight with Psychic Dominators, massive structures that can permanently mind-control the entire planet. When an airstrike to destroy the device in San Francisco only manages to temporarily knock out its power, a desperate gamble is undertaken using another of Einstein's inventions: a time machine.


This game and its expansion contain examples of:

  • Action Girl: Tanya continues the precedent set by the first Red Alert, being superior to all other infantry barring Boris (who is able to more safely take out base defenses with MiG airstrikes, but in return is more vulnerable to vehicles).
  • A.I. Breaker:
    • The Allied Prism Tanks outrange every static defense except one and their attacks leap to nearer enemies so the tanks easily and quickly level up when properly micromanaged. The AI doesn't realize the deadly threat and sieges against CPU bases often turn into a massacre while the armored units of the defender sit idly by on the other corner of the base.
    • On the Soviet side, V3 Rocket Launchers do much the same thing, though they are much more vulnerable against enemy units. On the downside, their slow rockets can be shot down by anti-air defenses.
  • Airborne Artillery: Zig-zagged with Soviet Siege Chopper in the Yuri's Revenge expansion. It is a Dual Mode Unit - while airborne, its assault cannon's range is rather short. To deploy its artillery piece, it needs to land and thus become vulnearable to all weaponry.
  • The Alliance: The Allies, as usual, though this time the game focuses on the US due to the setting. Fully demonstrated during Dugan's conference with the other Allied leaders, who are chomping at the bit to attack the Soviets — especially after Chicago is nuked — but must stay their hands for fear of nuclear retaliation on themselves. Once those nukes are taken out of the equation, though, they inflict a crushing vengeance on the Soviets.
  • Alternate Continuity: While Red Alert 1 was originally meant to lead into Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn regardless of whether the Allies or Soviets won, Red Alert 2 and its follow-ups take place in a different timeline (or rather timelines), diverging at an unknown point after the previous game (this divergence was to be explained in the initial version of Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, but it was scrapped). As it stands, Red Alert 2 and 3 essentially function as standalone stories with virtually all references to the Tiberium saga gone.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Viruses, a group of all-female mercenaries from Yuri's Revenge that serve Yuri as support snipers.
  • America Saves the Day: Inverted, as getting the European Allies to enter the war against the Soviets is of prime importance to the United States. The USA also has to set up a Government in Exile in Canada until Washington DC is retaken. The French President appears to be stereotypically uppity at first, though the actual fact of the matter is they want to push back against the Soviets just as much as America - they simply can't unless someone takes care of several nuclear missiles in Poland pointed right at them to intimidate them out of the war, with the French President even reminding the USA that they're not indifferent to their plight. In the intro cutscene of Yuri's Revenge, though, the desperate Dugan points out to Yuri that it in fact was the United States who won the war, even if he doesn't specify who all else won it with them.
    Dugan: You can't threaten us! We're the most powerful nation on Earth! We did win the war, you know!
    Yuri: Did you? Indeed? I think not... (Transmission cuts out)
  • And I Must Scream: Yuri's fate in the Allied ending of Yuri's Revenge, where he is captured, strapped down to what amounts to a metallic coffin, with something like a dentist's lamp right over his head, and kept there for a life sentence, all to prevent him from using his psychic powers. And it's nothing less than he deserves.
  • Anonymous Ringer: The player character in the Allied campaign is invited to a video conference with the "European Council" after the Chicago mission, with participants being Expies of Margaret Thatcher, Charles de Gaulle and a generic German chancellor.
  • Anti-Frustration Feature:
    • In Yuri's Revenge, placing a base defense structure will now display a semi-transparent visual circle that shows the structure's attack range. This is very handy for positioning base defenses more efficiently and effectively (especially the Allied Prism Towers so they can use their coordinated prism beam attack).
    • Red Alert 2 is the first game in the Command & Conquer franchise where you actually receive an alert when a player (or A.I.) builds a superweapon. The game even reveals the shroud above the superweapon, gives you a countdown timer, and even gives you a voice alert when the superweapon is built ("Warning: [superweapon name] detected"). And also, using a superweapon in Yuri's Revenge will show you a semi-transparent visual circle representing the "blast radius" or area of effect so you can aim the superweapon properly.
  • Arbitrary Gun Power: All over the place. The GIs when deployed use a 7.62x51mm NATO M60 machine gun which should be the most powerful gun used by infantry, but instead Tanya's dual Colt M1911A1s (a .45 ACP handgun) and the Navy SEALs' MP5s (a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun) can one-shot infantry, while the GIs M60 cannot (although their M60s can chew up tank armor, especially at Elite veterancy, which Tanya and the SEALs' guns can't do). The Conscripts packing PPSH-41s (firing a 7.62x25mm Tokarev round) are drastically weaker than the SEALs even though in real life the muzzle energy difference between 7.62 Tokarev and 9mm Parabellum isn't that drastic. On some maps civilians have handguns that would likely fire the same kind of bullet as the Navy SEALs or Tanya's weapons, but they do pathetic damage. Of course, it's all in the name of Rule of Fun and gameplay balance, as otherwise the commando units would be incredibly weak and outclassed by basic infantry.
  • Arbitrary Weapon Range: A particularly jarring example is Tanya's Colt M1911 and Boris' AKM far outrange any other anti-infantry gun in the game, save for the sniper rifles. This is the mechanic that truly provides commando units superiority over all infantry - none of their targets can get into the range to land a hit.
  • Artificial Brilliance:
    • If you go against an AI opponent (Allied or Soviet) of medium or higher difficulty in skirmish mode, it will train Attack Dogs to counter any Spy attacks you might attempt.
    • Ditto if you build Flying Discs (as Yuri) or Kirovs (as the Soviets). A medium or higher AI opponent will build lots of anti-air units to counter those units (Gatling Tanks, IFVs, or Flak Tracks).
  • Artificial Stupidity:
    • Allied AI players know full well to disguise a Spy as an infantry unit of the opposing faction, then send him to infiltrate... except that, if there are multiple enemies, they may disguise a Spy as one enemy's unit to send him to another enemy's base. Needless to say, you don't even need Attack Dogs to kill those Spies.
    • When all production buildings and the construction yard of an AI player are destroyed and/or if they lose enough units over a long enough period of time to run out of money, they will sooner or later sell all their remaining buildings to send everything they've still got as an all-or-nothing attack. Thing is, they try to do this even in Short Game mode, where players are defeated if they have no buildings left - so destroying the AI's Construction Yard and unit producing buildings becomes a not-so-Instant-Win Condition.
  • Artistic License – Biology: Real life Giant Squids are mute, unlike in the game.
  • Artistic License – History: Due to historical reasons, it would be highly unlikely for a member of the Romanov family to make it all the way to the office of Premier of the Soviet Union. The overview during the game's installation says he was imposed on the USSR by the Allies as sort of a puppet leader to ensure they didn't give the world war business another shot, and unfortunately for them turned out to be a true-red communist despite his background. Amusingly, in Real Life, a Romanov nearly became leader of the USSR instead of Gorbachev around 1985, but not one related to the royal family.
  • Artistic License – Space:
    • The moon is featured as having no resources (i.e no ore to mine for money). In real life there is interest in returning to the moon to extract resources, including resources that are virtually non-existent on Earth like Helium-3 note .
    • The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Module "Eagle" on the moon is featured "whole", instead of having only the descent stage left on the moon. This would only be possible if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were stranded on the moon.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The use of proper names as surnames that occurs somewhat frequently in the Anglosphere is rare or nonexistent in Russia, which has other naming conventions. This makes "General Vladimir" an odd-sounding name to Russian players; something like Vladimirov would have been more natural. Alternatively, those really could be their first names, but their surnames are never given and are referred to informally on a regular basis.
  • Attack Drone: A few are found here. The Soviet Terror Drone, Allied Robot Tank and Yuri Chaos Drone being the most directly obvious. According to game lore, the fighters launched by Allied Carriers are drones as well.
  • Autobots, Rock Out!: Produced by Frank Klepacki, Red Alert 2 has one of the most badass soundtracks you'll find in a video game.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Allied Prism Towers can converge their beams to fire one super damaging one, but it comes at the cost of slow fire rate and only a single target taken out at time since the towers all fire in sync and prefer to focus their attack on a single unit instead of picking up multiple targets.
    • Allied Destroyer's Osprey as an anti-submarine weapon is capable of taking out the Soviet Typhoon in a single strike but takes long time to recharge, can be easily shot down by any Anti-Air unit and is doomed if its Destroyer is sunk. Also the target picking system is not the cleverest which means multiple strikes are wasted on a single target while other subs happily keep wasting the destroyers away without repercussions. Generally an encounter of equally numerous fleets of Typhoons and Destroyers nearly always ends up with the Typhoons emerging victorious - unless the allied commander utiliyes extensive micromanagement.
    • Apocalypse Tanks might seem intimidating to beginning players and seem very difficult to kill, but experienced players can exploit their pronounced weaknesses. They also ended up being on the wrong side of Power Creep in the expansion Yuri's Revenge and are a especially good example of a Skill Gate Character in this case. Among the new ways for the Allies to counter tanks, Guardian GIs can fight them (deployed) by themselves or up to five may load into Battle Fortresses to battle the tanks on the go. Meanwhile, the Yuri faction has abundant Mind Control powers to steal the massive tanks and turn them against their makers. In multiplayer their lack of speed is also a major downside that ensures they will almost never be built in serious matches; the baseline Rhino Heavy Tank may seem Boring, but Practical, but it isn't heavily offset by slow speed, still packs a respectable punch and acts like a double-barrel mini-Apocalypse at Elite Veterancy. That being said, a group of Apocalypse Tanks will wreak havoc if given the opportunity be built and gain promotions.
    • Brutes are gigantic, heavily-muscled mutants that can cause heavy damage to vehicles and infantry. They're fairly quick, immune to mind control and unique among infantry for being immune to dogs. However, they're melee-only, so they're sitting ducks for aircraft and most ground vehicles could fire and move at the same time, often letting them dance around to attack brutes from safety. Also, they aren't that much tougher than standard infantry, so any weapon that cuts apart infantry will just as easily cut them down. About the only time you'll want any produced is if you use the Genetic Mutator on a group of enemy infantry to get free Brutes.
    • The Allied Chrono Legionnaire, they can teleport around and use their BFG to "erase" a unit, with the time required proportional to the target's strength and number of Legionnaires zapping the target. However, they are not cheap (1500 credits, more than most tanks) and are vulnerable while erasing a target from time. If a human player is paying attention, then they're easy to counter by quickly building an anti-infantry turret in said player's base or escorting lone targets so that Legionaires can't snipe them. In a pinch, they do have debatable utility because they can target your own buildings to save key structures from superweapons, but this is pricy and it is usually much better to use your force shield (zero cost to deploy once unlocked save for temporarily knocking out your power while it's active).
    • All of the Stolen Tech units, which are the Chrono Commando, Chrono Ivan, Psi Commando, and (in the base game) Yuri Prime. The Chrono Commando and Chrono Ivan gives the Chrono Legionnaire's teleport device, allowing them to teleport around the map in an instant. You'd think this would make them terrifying as they could long-range snipe buildings on the map, but they suffer from the same "phase in" drawback that Chrono Legionnaires have, rendering them actually inferior to their normal counterparts (who could at least defend themselves enroute to the location) without heavy micromanagement. The Psi Commando is a Yuri Clone that also carries C4s at the expense of not having the psy blast ability. However, Yuri Clones are not fast and poorly suited to demolition jobs, especially since they have no way of taking on base defenses if they can't mind control something. Yuri Prime and Chrono Ivan also have the second drawback of requiring you to also own a Soviet Barracks; As the Soviet can't train Spies, this would require the player (regardless of faction) to obtain the other faction's barracks, get an Allied Battlelab, then get a spy into yet another enemy battlelab to obtain these two. In Yuri's Revenge, they instead assigned each one to a battlelab (Chrono Commando to Allies, Chrono Ivan to Soviets, and Psi Commando to Yuri, while Yuri Prime became Yuri faction's commando) but even this generally is still a hassle to deploy them.
  • Awesome Personnel Carrier: The Battle Fortress and IFV are awesome in their own way. The IFV can change armaments depending on the troop type it is carrying, though at the cost of only being able to carry one person; in contrast, the Battle Fortress carries full squads, letting them use their heaviest weapons from the firing ports, and is so large it can crush other vehicles.
  • Back from the Dead: Ben Carville gets assassinated by a Crazy Ivan in the unexpanded RA2. Still being dead somewhere in the near future, Carville hops back on the train when the Allied forces travel back in time to dispose of Yuri. By the ending of Yuri's Revenge, the timelines of RA2 and YR merge, which lets Ben stay alive for real, much to Dugan's bemusement.
  • Badass Bystander:
  • Bad Boss:
    • In the Allied "Last Chance" mission, upon the player's success, an enraged General Vladimir will nuke Chicago with his own troops still inside the city.
    • Subtly referenced when the Mastermind unit is introduced in each of Yuri's Revenge's campaigns. While Eva strongly advises staying far away from Masterminds lest they be controlled, Zofia points out the Mastermind's weakness in controlling too many units at once, suggesting the idea of sending expendable units to overwhelm them.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed in the Soviet ending of Yuri's Revenge, where Chummy Commies is in full effect and the Soviet victory leads to humanity spreading "communism" (read: colonizing) to the solar system.
  • Bald of Evil: Yuri. Also his clones, in the expansion pack.
  • The Battlestar: Allied Destroyers, which pack a direct-fire cannon for ship-to-ship combat, along with a V-22 Osprey, which they can launch to counter submerged units.
  • BFG:
    • Best exemplified by the French Grand Cannon, a giant static artillery piece with massive range and damage output that can make bases pretty much immune to ground assaults.
    • The Chrono Legionnaires' RetGone gun is about as long as their power-armored wielder is tall. The same can be said of Flak Troopers, Desolators, and deployed GIs and Guardians.
  • Big Bad: Soviet Premier Alexander Romanov is the one who starts the war to get revenge on the United States. Played straight in the Allied campaign, but in the Soviet campaign it turns out that Yuri is in fact The Man Behind the Man for Romanov.
  • Bilingual Bonus: A few in the soundtrack. For instance "Destroy" has "Détruir tout: c'est une obligation" ("Destroy everything: It is an obligation.").
  • Bland-Name Product: McBurger Kong, a spoof of McDonald's and Burger King.
  • Book Ends: Yuri's Revenge starts with the White House receiving a surprise message from Yuri, who resurfaced following the Soviet defeat. The Allied Campaign ends with the White House receiving a surprise message from General Carville, who avoided death thanks to time travel.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • Tank Rushes, using each side's bog standard tanks, are some of the most economically efficient strategies in the game.
    • The Soviet Conscripts, believe it or not. They are cheap and quick to train (half the cost or time of the Allied GI), making them an ideal choice for garrisoning civilian buildings, a Battle Bunker (in Yuri's Revenge), or (if you acquire Yuri's tech) filling up a bio-reactor to power a base. Also, the Conscript's quick training time and cheap cost make them an ideal unit for swarming (or at least distracting) Yuri's Masterminds and Psychic Towers. note 
    • In general, each of the factions' basic infantry (the Allied GI, Soviet Conscript, and Yuri's Initiate) fulfill this trope, as damage typing is rather flimsy when it comes to raw power, which allows these humble soldiers to dish out damage to infantry (as intended), armor, and structures alike in high enough numbers. They are the only soldiers who can actually garrison structures as well, and without a proper counter to this that would be introduced in later games, only air units and artillery would be able to level garrisons without diminishing returns (especially in the case of Initiates). To top it all off, sold structures and paradrops provide more of these men exclusively, with scripted campaign events taking things up to eleven.
    • Yuri's Tank Bunker structures. You can garrison a Lasher tank inside of them and they will be mostly protected from damage (though the Allied Harriers can still destroy tanks inside the bunkers). Furthermore, since mind control units are helpless against robotic units, a defensive wall of Lasher tanks in Tank Bunkers is arguably a Yuri player's best defense against the occasional Allied Robot Tank rush (which even an easy A.I. opponent will use against you).
    • The Allied IFV. They are cheap, quick to train, and available very early in a game. They also have a handy rocket attack by default that's pretty decent against aircraft. A group of IFVs can challenge even the Soviet Kirov Airships or Yuri's Floating Discs. The IFV's main schtick, however, is that it can combine with all sorts of infantry from any faction for a variety of attacks and uses - perhaps most importantly, a mobile repair unit with an Engineer, which can keep your units alive when they're away from your base's service depot and easily negate a Terror Drone infestation, giving the Allies a huge advantage over them compared to the other factions.
  • Brain in a Jar: Yuri has some of them in his lair. In the Soviet campaign, he uses them to cheat death.
  • Brick Joke: In the first Soviet mission in Yuri's Revenge, after capturing Einstein's Time Machine, it is accidentally overcharged and brings the whole army to prehistoric times, and the Soviets have to fend off against dinosaurs before being able to return. The final mission involves Zofia intentionally overcharging it to bring Yuri into the same time period, except he's completely defenseless against them. She even invokes this trope by reminding the Comrade General about what had happened back then.
  • The Butcher: When you finish a mission you get a description of the results of it which are better and more badass if you finish under par time. If you finish the Soviet mission in France to turn the Eiffel Tower into a giant Tesla Coil, electrocuting men and destroying buildings around it under par time, it states that they fear your command more than Soviet tanks and that you are known as "The Butcher".
  • Camp: In spades, from the units to the costumes to the accents.
  • Canada Eh: The American government briefly takes refuge in Canada. The mooseland, icy and forestal version:
    Gen Carville: I know, Canada... more cows up here than people.
  • Cannon Fodder: The Soviets tend to treat Conscripts and Flak Troopers as utterly disposable, as for every one of them that dies (horribly), more can take their place. It's implicitly encouraged with Conscripts by having them cost half as much to train as a GI.
  • Capital Offensive: In the Soviet campaign the Reds hit Washington DC first to destroy the Pentagon in a Decapitation Strike. Later in the same campaign, the Soviets attack their own capital to remove a traitor from power. It's used in an especially interesting fashion in the Allied campaign, where they use the Chronosphere to teleport a strike force straight into Moscow to take the Kremlin and avoid a scorched earth campaign by the retreating Soviets.
  • Cartoonish Supervillainy: Pretty much the entire premise of Yuri and his faction, which ups the somewhat ridiculous RA arsenal up to eleven with the addition of genetically mutated Hulk look-a-likes, psychically powered infantry, UFOs, and so on. Then there's the expansion campaign, which features such gems as weaponized Moai statues, an Arctic/Moon base, and a gothic Transylvanian mansion headquarters. Regardless of which campaign, all of Yuri's plans end up failing spectacularly and then Yuri himself eventually being submitted to some humiliating fate. General Carville and Premier Romanov lampshade this ridiculous arsenal in different occasions.
  • Casting Gag: Barry Corbin, who plays General Carville in RA2, is basically reprising his role as General Berringer from WarGames.
  • Chain Lightning:
    • The fully-promoted Tesla Trooper gains this ability. It is awesome.
    • The Prism Tank's light beam is refracted towards a few more spots close to where it hit. When fully promoted, that refraction becomes one of the largest and most damaging area-of-effect attacks in the game.
  • Chair Reveal: In one of the cinematics halfway through the Soviet campaign, Yuri is revealed to be sitting in Premier Romanov's desk chair when he turns around to face the player, having already usurped his boss.
  • Charm Person: Yuri and his mind controllers take the Enemy Exchange Program to new levels. The US government is successfully Brainwashed (just briefly in the Allied campaign before a group of immune troops destroys the beacon responsible).
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Poked at with the multiplayer taunts for the French subfaction ("Surrender! No, not 'I surrender', you surrender!") but averted in the in-game story, in which it is the representative of France who reminds the US that You Are Not Alone and is ready to take command of Tanya and the forces accompanying her. The only reason France (and the UK and Germany) don't immediately rush to help the USA is because they have Soviet nukes in Poland aimed at them and are understandably lukewarm about rushing in to help under these conditions. In the Soviet campaign meanwhile, the Germans and French are much more proactive and are mobilizing their units on the Polish border, until a commando attack in Paris forces them to withdraw to concentrate on homeland defense. This trope is even lampshaded by Premier Romanov, who says they "overestimated" the cowardice of the French.
  • Chummy Commies: The Soviets mellow out after seeing Yuri's horrors in the expansion pack. Even their conquest of the world is toned down in violence, and the surprise attack on Einstein's Lab results in Allies' defeat with relatively low impact. After Yuri's defeat, the Soviet Union funds research, colonization and exploration bases across the solar system.
  • Cold Sniper:
    • Playing as the British sub-faction of the Allies gives access to these powerful anti-infantry specialists. They outrange anything that isn't an artillery unit and can kill all but a few infantry units in one shot, though in turn they're slow to move, slow to fire, and terrible against anything other than other infantry.
    • Yuri has his Viruses, female snipers with slightly shorter range than their British Spear Counterparts. They compensate with toxin bullets that make the victim explode in a cloud of green poison gas, which in turn deal high damage to passing infantry and inflict the same fate on them if they die from the poison, potentially causing self-sustaining chain reactions of exploding soldiers.
  • Colonized Solar System: The ending of the Soviet campaign in Yuri's Revenge implies that the Soviet Union will use the space travel technology that they took from Yuri to expand communism across the solar system.
  • Competitive Balance: Following the expansion's release, consensus seems to be that the Allies and Yuri are both viable factions (though considerable debate surrounds Yuri's "cheap gimmicks"), while the Soviets are criminally underpowered to the point of irrelevance, although playing as Iraq allows Soviet players to build Desolators to even the score thanks to their potent and cumulative area damage radiation.
  • Conscription: If you haven't played as the Soviet Union, take a wild guess.
  • Contrived Coincidence:
    • The whole reason Yuri's plan to mind control the whole world in Yuri's Revenge can even be stopped. A downed Harrier crashes into the Nuclear Reactor that powered the Psychic Dominator on Alcatraz Island, preventing it from activating and mind controlling (at least) the US's West Coast. This lets both the Allies and the Soviets start their own campaigns:
    • San Francisco happens to be the place where Albert Einstein was building his Time Machine, giving the Allies the chance to use it (and the Soviets to steal it) to go back in time, wrap up the Third World War faster and defeat Yuri.
    • While the actual time frame between the introduction video and when the first Soviet mission begins, and the coverage of the Psychic Dominators is unknown, Lieutenant Zofia, the Soviet Commander and an entire battalion manage to set foot in San Francisco while the Psychic Dominator is offline. Zofia says in the briefing that the Allies wanted to reverse the events that happened "in the last few hours", implying the Soviet forces were close to San Francisco... for whatever reason they had to be there.
  • Convenient Weakness Placement: In "Tomb Raided", there's a group of Lasher and Gatling Tanks right in the middle of Yuri's base, tidily placed in a 3x3 square. You get to sabotage a Psychic Dominator for a single use in this mission. The Psychic Dominator permanently mind controls units in a 3x3 square. Yuri's forces are weak to units that cannot be mind-controlled. Put these last three points together and you realize the meaning of that suspicious group of tanks.
  • Cool Airship: KIROV REPORTING! Either the Most Wonderful Sound for the Soviets, or absolute Nightmare Fuel (especially when in large numbers) for the Allies.
  • Cool Boat: Everybody has some, culminating in the Allied Carriers and the Soviet Dreadnoughts. Yuri's Boomers from the expansion are no less cool, with the added bonus of being submarines.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: With the Soviets fully mobilzed, the Allies eventually resort to teleporting a strike force into Moscow itself in a desperate attempt to end the war as swiftly as possible.
  • Crippling Overspecialisation: Outside of some core workhorse units, most units in the game are hyperspecalized. Between infantry, vehicles, structures and air units, expect most units to be good against two at best, often just one. For example:
    • Attack dogs are fast, cheap, and One-Hit Kill infantry. However they can't attack any other unit types.
    • The Navy SEAL (and Tanya, a hero version of the unit) massacre infantry and can instantly destroy any structure if they get right next to it (meaning they can't do anything against base defenses on their own), but barely scratch vehicles. In the expansion Tanya can C4 vehicles as well, and as a "hero" unit they can't just run her over, but she remains at the mercy of base defenses or garrisoned structures. Boris (her Soviet counterpart) has a laser designator to call in airstrikes on base defenses, but maintains the weakness against vehicles (he does get a bit better when fully-promoted, but anti-infantry ones still shred him).
    • The German Tank Destroyer does Exactly What It Says on the Tin, dealing massive damage to tanks and other vehicles, but essentially nothing to buildings and infantry (although it can still run over them). Even against tanks, it's vulnerable to flanking thanks to its fixed turret.
    • Prism tanks level structures and Mirage tanks are deadly against infantry or vehicles, but have rather sad performance against the opposite. It's possible the intention was for players to use them to cover each other's weaknesses, since they're at the same tech tier.
    • The Allied Aegis Cruiser and Patriot Missie defense, as well as the Soviet Flak Cannon utterly destroy most air units but can't attack anything else. The Soviet Flak Troopers and Flak Tracks can at least shoot both ground and air targets, but their ground damage is pretty worthless against anything but infanstry.
    • The expansion didn't change this either, as Yuri's faction in general is full of overspecialization. Gatling Tank shreds infantry and air units, but cannot stand up to armor. Lasher Tanks can stand up to armor, but can do little against infantry (although to some extent this is true of all tanks). Magnetrons act as siege weapons, but can only lift vehicles up to move them (which doesn't damage them). The Virus sniper insnatly kills most infantry, but can't harm vehicles or structures. Masterminds mind control infantry and ground vehicles, but are helpless against air units and robots. Using the right unit combination is a necessity as Yuri.
    • The expansion also added Allied Robot Tanks specifically to counter Yuri's mind control, plus they hover over water. Outside of that they're inferior to Grizzly Tanks in almost every way. On top of just being generally weaker, they can't be promoted and require an additional tech structure to build. Plus if at any point said building is destroyed or loses power, all Robot Tanks you own are disabled until it's replaced or has power restored.
    • All of the base defenses are this. Every faction usually has one cheap, fast firing turret, a large tower that deals ludicrous damage but have a slow firing rate and can be shut down by lack of power, and an anti-air only turret. Funny enough, Yuri has the least specialized turret despite the rest of his arsenal being hyperfocused; the Gatling turret can attack land and air and it's rev-up mechanic means that sustained fire can threaten even tank armor. It's only drawback is that it is the only low-tier turret that requires power.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: Almost all of the superweapons get a chance to show off real destructiveness in a cutscene. The Soviet Nuclear Silo is a Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke in normal gameplay (dealing heavy damage to what it actually hits, in fairness, and leaving enough radiation behind that any infantry that took damage but survived from it won't stay that way for long if they don't get away, but generally not nearly as a missile of its size should be), while in a cutscene a single one of them is enough to completely destroy Chicago. The Psychic Dominator can control an entire continent's worth of people in cutscenes - bad enough that the plot for the expansion has to involve time travel to well before they're ready to be activated for either side to stand a chance against Yuri - while in gameplay it can only do so within a 3x3-tiles squarenote .
    • Actually Justified to a degree. The Psychic Dominators used by Yuri in the opening are likely a a more powerful early model of sorts based on their incredible energy requirements. The nuclear reactor that gets destroyed would power ten in-game Psychic Dominators by itself, and the cutscene mentions that there were multiple reactors powering that one.
  • Danger Deadpan: The Allied Harrier Pilot's voices have the sound of a very smooth operator. Averted when they get destroyed, as they are franticly shouting "EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!".
  • Death from Above: The Soviets lose the tactical aviation advantage they had in RA but they instead have the Kirov zeppelin-bomber.
  • Decapitation Strike: The Soviet campaign opens with a strike force landing near Washington DC and destroying the Pentagon to send the US military into disarray. While they come pretty close in the Allied campaign as well, they're pushed back by the player.
  • Defiant to the End: After the Allied Player wipes out Romanov's Praetorian Guard and captures the Kremlin:
    Soviet soldiers: We will never surrender! Death to the Allies!
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • McBurger Kong restaurants feature a giant ape statue/sign on the roof. When the building is garrisoned, the ape gains a commando-style headband, and when the building is damaged into the red the ape covers its eyes as if cowering in fear.
    • An Allied mission of Yuri's Revenge, which takes place in Sydney, Australia, instead has the McRoo Burger restaurant, complete with a giant kangaroo on the roof in place of the usual ape.
    • If you somehow lose Tanya in the first Allied mission of the expansion, it doesn't end in a failure. Instead, a fleet of Aircraft Carriers arrive to finish the job.
    • There are additional lines of in-game dialogue if Boris is killed in the first Soviet mission of the expansion, as he later reappears thanks to the time travel scheme. He finds the welcome odd, since from his point of view he was never gone in the first place.
    • What happens to temporarily mind-controlled units in skirmish mode if their original 'owner' player has been defeated and then the mind control is reversed? They become white-coloured Always Chaotic Evil civilian units that attack everyone.
      • However, this also opens the way for a Game-Breaking Bug: whenever the AI receives an MCV for the first time in a match, the game initializes the appropriate faction's base building routines for that AI player. Problem is, the civilian AI has no base building routine defined, causing the game to crash instantly if a civilian side ever acquires an MCV by way of relinquished mind control over one belonging to a defeated faction.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Yuri. Sure, he's part of a villain faction, but he's Obviously Evil even compared to the other characters, and nobody but the brainless General Failure suspects him of treachery until it's too late.
  • Destructible Projectiles: Missile artillery (V3 rockets, and missiles from the Dreadnought ship and Boomer submarine) can be destroyed by any Anti-Air-capable unit note  as a counter so artillery isn't a Game-Breaker. Smaller missiles like those from IFVs, Patriot missiles, deployed Guardian GIs, Aegis Cruisers and the Apocalypse's "Mammoth Tusk" Anti-Air missiles cannot be destroyed.
  • Did Anastasia Survive?: Alluded to where the Soviet Premier is Alexander Romanov. And to put any guesses that his surname is a coincidence aside, when President Dugan is confronting him over Soviet aggression against the continental United States, Romanov states that he's no mere puppet leader appointed by Dugan, stating that "We Romanovs have a legacy to consider." In this timeline where Adolf Hitler was removed and Germany was a part of the western Allies united against the Soviet war machine, it's possible that Anastasia survived Red October and one of her descendants became a Bolshevik.
  • Difficult, but Awesome:
    • The Allied Spy. It takes quite a bit of micromanagement and supervision on your part to get them to safely infiltrate an enemy building.note  However, when an Allied Spy does infiltrate a building, he can provide a myriad of benefits to you. The Spy can steal credits from a Refinery, reset a superweapon's timer, reset the shroud, or temporarily disable the enemy's entire power grid. The biggest benefits, however, come from infiltrating a barracks or war factory which allow you to train veteran units from the get-go. Also, infiltrating an enemy's battle lab grants you access to special, powerful units (like the notoriously dangerous Chrono Commandos).
    • Chrono Legionnaires are rather fragile and mechanically unusual and it's very easy to get them to die and waste your money if you don't know what you're doing, but properly managed they can inflict a lot of damage. They can also be forced to attack your own units or structures, as a way of protecting them (units and buildings being "phased out" by Chrono Legionnaires are utterly immortal) though care should be taken that they don't accidentally make them disappear.
  • Dirty Coward: Yuri's gatling tanks and Magnetrons: they certainly like to dish out punishment at long range but flee at the first whiff of a counterattack.
  • Disaster Dominoes: Prone to happening to Terrorists and Demolition Trucks, especially if they're bunched up, as their explosions will start a chain reaction through the whole group. Often enough, this is invoked as a handy way to counter them.
  • Downer Beginning: Yuri's Revenge's intro depicts Yuri announcing to the US the activation of all of his Psychic Dominators, which will mind control the entire planet, and then the US sends Harrier squadrons that fail to damage the Psychic Dominator in San Francisco. However, one crashes into Yuri's Nuclear Reactor and damaged it, delaying the activation of the Psychic Dominator and giving both the Allied and Soviet forces in the zone the chance to travel back in time.
  • The Dreaded Dreadnought: Soviet Dreadnoughts, the best Soviet naval unit and most heavily-armored naval unit in the game.
  • Dual Mode Unit: Allied GIs can deploy behind sandbags to increase their range, power, and defense at the cost of movement. The expansion adds Guardian GIs, whose deployment allows them to attack armor and air units, as well as work as an uncrushable wall. There are others as well, such as the Soviet Siege Chopper in the expansion, acting as a regular anti-infantry helicopter normally and able to deploy into an immobile siege cannon that wrecks vehicles and buildings.
  • Dumb Muscle: Yuri's Brutes. Enormous muscle-bound humanoids with the literal mentality of a schoolyard bully (one of their "attack quotes" is "Give me your lunch money!".
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Many people don't realize that General Carville (and his actor) appeared in the second expansion of Red Alert 1, making him the only actor to appear in multiple Red Alert titles and the only character other than Einstein to do so. This may have something to do with his only appearing in the Playstation release of the game under the Retaliation name.
  • Easy Level Trick:
    • On the easiest difficulty settings, the second Allied level can be beaten by skipping your base building and using your starting forces to destroy the level's target.
      • In fact large potions of the campaign can be beat no base building on easy. While some levels do requires some, speedruns are mostly just rushing the objective or enemy base with starting units and whatever reinforcements can be quickly built along the way.
    • The fifth Allied mission is a stealth mission that tasks the player with sabotaging two Soviet Nuclear Missile Silos using only Tanya and a couple of Spies. There is a pile of barrels along the southeast wall of the first Soviet base that leads to a squad of friendly troops including Engineers. With the Engineers its possible to capture the first Silo instead of destroying it and using its missile to destroy the other silo. The Nuke Attack will charge up even without base power.
    • On the second-to-last Allied mission, using a Nighthawk to hug the left or right side of the map and fly south brings it to a clear space in which it can land and unload SEALs and spies in peace. From the left, a spy can easily access the leftmost nuclear missile silo, resetting the timer. Also, there's a nuclear power plant in the bottom left corner, which the Soviet base's power is dependent on.
    • The final Allied mission in the original campaign can be made a lot easier if you use Chrono Legionnaires to erase all the Nuclear Reactors in the map. Likewise with the four black Apocalypse Tanks. On that latter, if you're willing to wait in-between uses, you can simply use the Chronosphere to drop the Tanks into the drink.
      • It's also relatively simple to permanently de-power the Soviet bases with spies. By taking out one of the outlying bases, capturing its barracks (or another building so you can build your own nearby) and leaving a power plant alive, you can constantly send spies in to deny the Soviets power for the rest of the mission, including disabling their super weapons. Plus if you also leave an Ore Refinery alive, excess spies can steal loads of cash. For whatever reason the Soviets always have ample money for you to steal no matter how much you do this, giving you an essentially unlimited cash reserve to beat the mission with no time pressure from the Soviet Nukes and Iron Curtain.
    • The fourth Soviet mission in the original campaign can be done much faster if one positions a number of Terror Drones to the Allied landing site. Should a Terror Drone manage to infect the enemy's MCV, the mission then becomes a matter of hunting down stragglers as the enemy was denied the chance to build their own base!
    • The second Soviet mission in Yuri's Revenge, "Deja Vu", can be won in less than 10 minutes. Gather all the units you are given at the beginning, and instead of destroying the German bases, sneak through the south and you will find an almost entirely unprotected Chronosphere.
    • The seventh Allied mission, "Deep Sea", is a very ship-intensive mission where if you don't pressure the Soviets quickly enough, they'll eventually build a Nuke and punish you from it. Or you can build as many Rocketeers and Harriers as you can as soon as the mission start, find a lone Sentry Gun near where the Soviets are going to build their base, and destroy it before they can deploy their MCV. Mission Accomplished.
  • The End... Or Is It?: The Soviet campaign in Red Alert 2 ends with the reveal that Yuri is still alive after his physical body was destroyed along with the Kremlin, and transferred his mind into one of his brains-in-a-jar.
    Yuri: It would have been good to see inside your mind, General. I still may get a chance.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • The Allies and the Soviets team up against Yuri in the expansion, although it's not as benevolent as the temporary alliance between GDI and Nod in Tiberian Sun's expansion - one side still defeats the other to win the war, just faster so they have more time to focus on Yuri, and not as hard so that the loser is in the proper state to do anything military-related. While the cooperation is official (through a treaty signed in London) in the Allied Campaign, it is Played With in the Soviet Campaign - the Allies think they are working together with the Soviets to defeat Yuri, the Soviets don't think so, and are merely using the Allies whenever needed.
    • Thanks to mind-control, the final Soviet mission in the expansion features Yuri having brainwashed Soviet and Allied forces working with him to take down the player. The player can free them so that they can help him take down Yuri.
  • Everything is Big in Texas: One Soviet mission has you hunting down the U.S. president in San Antonio. All of the male civilians wear cowboy hats and fire handguns at you. The U.S. base is actually around the Alamo, though they don't garrison it, which you can do.
  • Evil Laugh: Crazy Ivan and Tanya.
  • Explosive Overclocking: Happens with Yuri's Mastermind unit. It can mind-control more than one unit at a time, but if it tries to take more than three its health will steadily start to decrease from the strain.
    Mastermind: Brainwave overload!
  • Expy: Yuri somewhat resembles the legends (but not the actual truth) of Rasputin.
  • Faction Calculus: In the vanilla game, there is less difference between the two sides than in previous C&C games but the Soviets still qualify as the Powerhouse to the Allies' Subversive. In Yuri's Revenge, with the Soviets losing their psychic units and the Allies gaining some more specialized ones, Yuri's side is Subversive, the Allies are Balanced and the Soviets are Powerhouse.
  • Fake Difficulty: The campaign speed is fixed and set to fast. For a varied challenge, this can be made customizable as in previous games and like during skirmish with a command line switch.
  • Fake Ultimate Mook: The Secret Service are operatives tasked with protecting the President of the United States with their lives, and are generally individuals, hand-picked, from special forces operatives who are trusted with said task. Although they are supposed to be on-par with a SEAL in combat, they prove to be very weak, losing to a Conscript (barely trained soldiers drafted from civilians) in a one-on-one gunfight.
  • Fantasy Landmark Equivalent: The game fictionalizes the names of some real life monuments and landmarks.
    • In the Paris levels, The Louvre Museum is rendered simply as "Generic World Famous Museum" while the nearby Eiffel Tower is rendered as the "Paris Tower" with three pillars and a round base instead of the four pillars and a rectangular as it exists in our world. This actually creates a mild Continuity Snarl with Command & Conquer: Red Alert, as a cutscene there displayed the real-life Eiffel Tower. Beta screenshots show the tower was supposed to look much closer to the real-life version before being altered.
    • Other real life monuments mostly avert this, but their presence is heavily downplayed. The Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, the Smithsonian, the British Houses of Parliament, Golden Gate Bridge and others all appear but are not mission critical unlike the Paris Tower. The Twin Towers do appear in a Soviet mission and do have some mission relevance, but their destruction is optional and they lack any identifying label in-game, as they are simply marked as "Building".
  • Fast-Killing Radiation: The Soviet nuclear missile leaves behind radioactive fallout that kills almost any infantry and even lightly armored vehicles that survived/avoided the blast in mere seconds. There are also Iraqi Desolators equipped with rad cannons and the Libyan Demolition Trucks that carry nuclear bombs, and the radiation from these has a similar level of near-instant lethality (though considerably smaller in scale). It does only Scratch Damage to heavily armored vehicles, though.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Ironically Yuri's fate in the Allied ending is this, where he's essentially locked in a coffin to stop his mind-control powers, though you'd be forgiven for not particularly being sad for him. His fate in the Soviet ending is a more mundane case of being eaten by a dinosaur.
  • Fission Mailed: The fourth Allied mission has you destroying a Soviet Psychic Amplifier in Chicago. When you complete the mission, the Soviets proceed to nuke Chicago.
  • Fog of War: Removed permanently from a zone after it is explored. No line of sight mechanics are present. The Allies can launch a GPS to reveal the whole map and their spies can reset the enemy map. Some buildings can generate fog, but the AI has no need to explore (even if they feel the need to send a constant line of recon planes over your base) and has full tactical awareness since the beginning.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Yuri's defeat only became possible because of a Harrier plane crashing into the Nuclear Reactor that powered up the Psychic Dominator on Alcatraz.
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • If somehow the civilian (white) faction gets an MCV, the game crashes because it attempts to load the nonexistent civilian base building AI routine.
    • In early versions of Yuri's Revenge, if Yuri Prime mind-controlled an MCV and it tried to unpack, it would vanish, and Yuri Prime would get killed. In later versions, this was patched by preventing mind-controlled MCVs from packing, and Construction Yards from unpacking.
  • Game Mod: Several, the most famous probably being the "Flipped Missions" mod, which swap the Soviet and Allied missions and significantly increase the difficulty.
    • Mental Omega is easily the most ambitious of the mods, being a nearly complete remake of the game with a rewritten and expanded plot, a fleshed-out Yuri faction and campaign, several new units and buildings with their own graphics, thorough rebalancing of the game and a fourth faction.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • "Deja Vu", the second Soviet mission in Yuri's Revenge, is about trying to destroy Einstein's Lab and the still-in-development Chronosphere. However, and unlike "Mirage" from the vanilla Allied campaign (the mission it mirrors), the Chronosphere is not only fully operational, but if you get an Allied Construction Yard, you can build your own fully operational Chronosphere.
    • In the mission "Trick or Treaty," Eva is taken out of commission after she was brainwashed by Yuri to revealing the location of a secret meeting between the Allies and Soviet in London. However, she continues to be the Allies's Mission Control for basic transmission and warnings, though a few of the transmission are from General Carville.
  • Garrisonable Structures: The first instance of this feature in the franchise, as Tiberian Sun lacked it despite having the same engine. And man, what an instance. Despite GIs, conscripts and initiates being the only units that are able to garrison civilian buildings, one urbanized map can fit just about twenty infantry divisions in it. And it's not the boiling point yet: the Soviet battle bunkers sure can increase this number a lot. When Yuri gets his own faction to play with, it gets even more flexible: the bio reactor's capsules can be stuffed with five initiates/mind control victims in order to get more power, while a tank bunker, akin to its' name, can fit a whole tank in it.
  • General Failure: General Vladimir, the incompetent glory hound who's your superior in the first half of the Soviet campaign. He gets you into trouble in the second mission by assaulting the vastly superior American fleet with only his personal command ship, and then leaving you to deal with them as he flees the battle. Then when you have completed the destruction of the U.S. East Coast fleet, he takes credit for your accomplishments by returning to Moscow before you can. His one saving grace is being savvy enough to see through Yuri, but it feels rewarding when you finally remove him from command.
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Literally. Yuri's "Genetic Mutator" superweapon instantly converts a bunch of people into massive musclemen. It's even his superweapon equivalent to the Soviets' nuke.
  • Glass Cannon:
    • The Allied vehicles tend to be of this design: relatively fast, cheap and powerful but lightly-armored.
      • The Prism Tank is the epitome of this - incredibly destructive versus structures, but if infantry and vehicles manage to get a shot in, they can fall very quickly.
      • The Grizzly Tank is no exception, and unless it is a veteran unit it must rely on its great speed to survive a prolonged engagement.
      • The worst offender though may be the Infantry Fighting Vehicle, possessing armor as effective as tin foil and even when deployed in large numbers will be easy prey for the Soviets' heavier units.
    • The Soviet V3 Launcher is also this, being a classic artillery piece.
  • Giant Squid: A Soviet naval unit, they're apparently mind-controlled, and curiously remain in the Soviet arsenal even after Yuri betrays them and takes his psychic technology with him. They're a stealth unit that attacks by grasping most ships and "shaking them" until sunk and "punching" whatever amphibious or sea unit can't be grabbed.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: After the fourth mission of the Allied campaign (following the destruction of Chicago), Dugan holds a conference with the leaders of the other Allied nations specifically for this purpose.
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: The Allies, the Soviets and Yuri (and his faction).
  • Guilt-Based Gaming: After winning a mission in the campaign mode, you are treated to a debriefing screen that shows whether or not you beat the par time and offers a little in-game commentary. If you don't beat the par time, you'll get some rather demoralizing commentary because you took too long to accomplish your objective (i.e. heavy military casualties, heavy civilian losses, enemy discovers classified info, etc.).
  • Hammerspace: GIs somehow carry a machine pistol, a M60 machine gun and a couple dozens of sandbags on their own persons and can remain mobile (and reasonably fast). Taken even further by the Guardian GIs in Yuri's Revenge, who carry a M60 machine gun, a Javelin missile launcher and steel barricades instead of sandbags, though as a nod to realism they are slower.
  • Happy Ending Override: The Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge does this to the base game. Although the Allies won the war originally, the remnants of the Soviet military seize the time machine and use it take out Einstein's Black Forest lab, winning the war. It's not that bad.
  • Healing Factor: Apocalypse Tanks and Kirov Zeppelins slowly replenish their health bar up to green levels ,i.e. around 66%. Giant Squids also slowly regenerate health, Elite units and those affected by a tech hospital or machine shops regain full health.
  • Hero Unit: Tanya and Boris, two boasting badasses with a rivalry.
    Tanya: What? [laugh] Yeah, right, Boris is skilled. Look at me, I can call in an airstrike! Please.
  • Heroic Dolphin: The Allies use specially trained attack dolphins as underwater scouts and counter unit to Soviet mind-controlled Giant Squid by sonic weapons.
  • Historical In-Joke:
    • It plays the Cuban missile crisis, in an alternate history: to achieve the best results, the Chronosphere had to be built in a specific place in the Earth's magnetosphere or the Allies can't use it to invade Moscow from across the globe. Problem is, said place is in the Florida Keys, well inside the range of the Soviet nukes in Cuba. Since the US and the USSR are already at war and Romanov won't negotiate as Khrushchev did in real life, the Allies say "screw negotiations" and instead chronoshift some troops into Cuba to blow the missiles sky-high before they could be launched. Cue the Villainous Breakdown from Romanov.
    • And the invasion of Pearl Harbor too, this time with Soviets as aggressors and the US anticipating the attack via U-2 spy planes. The USS Arizona Memorial is even present, even though the Japanese attack that sunk the Arizona never took place in this timelinenote . This battle can be played from both sides, though the Soviet version has a South Korean fleet moving in to assist the defenders.
    • The iconic acknowledgment "We will bury them!" from the Soviet tanks paraphrases a famous (and misinterpreted) quote by Nikita Khrushchev.note 
    • In the final Soviet video, the Soviets have taken over the entire world. One of the locations shown celebrating the foundation of the Global Soviet Union is of Soviet tanks driving down the streets of Paris in a victory parade. The newscaster comments that "it has been decades since we've seen anything quite like this", either referring to the German occupation of Paris in World War II (which in the altered timeline never even took place) or the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 which ended with a foreign occupation of Paris (according to the campaign progression maps in Red Alert 1, the Soviets reached France in the first war before being beaten back, but not Paris).
    • During the Cold War, there was a conspiracy theory that the Soviets had a military base in Siberia containing psychic children who could kill people anywhere on the planet with a thought. The Soviets having psychic units in the game was probably inspired by this conspiracy theory.
    • Then came Yuri's Revenge, taking this trope to the logical extreme by making an in-joke on its own history: one Soviet mission had the player re-doing - via time travel - one of the vanilla game's Allied missions... from the other side. Bonus points because said mission enabled the Allies to win the war with the aforementioned re-take of the Cuban missile crisis... which this re-take mission, appropriately named "Operation Deja Vu", retcons into the Chronosphere prototype being destroyed and the Allies surrendering.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Managed to take a Kirov Airship down? Get out of there quickly before it crashes - the explosion it creates upon crashing is powerful enough to kill most infantry.
    • In "Dark Night", it is possible to capture a nuclear missle silo once you manage to train an engineer and get him to one of the enemy bases. Lt. Eva would then suggest the player to use it against the other silo—the captured nukes are significantly more powerful than the ones in Skirmish mode and Multiplayer, and thus can destroy the enemy silo with just one hit.
    • In "Tomb Raided", if you rescue Einstein without destroying the Psychic Dominator, he will sabotage it and give you control over it. Cue you realizing Yuri's army is very weak against his own superweaponnote .
  • Hotline: President Dugan contacts and calls Premier Romanov out on the Red Phone during the intro.
  • HULK MASH!-Up: One of Yuri's units is the Brute, a giant muscular brute with grey skin who communicates largely in grunts and "Smash it!" catch-phrases. The Genetic Mutator, one of that faction's super weapons, forcibly mutates enemy soldiers into Brutes.
  • Human Resources: Yuri's Bio-Reactors from the Red Alert 2 expansion. They don't generate much power on their own, but "garrison" infantry in them and they become some of the best power plants in the game.
  • Hypnosis-Proof Dogs: Dogs are immune to being mind-controlled by Yuri's Psychic Commandos.
  • I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: After the Soviet player saves an Allied base from Yuri's mind control in the London mission.
    Special Agent Tanya Adams: I never thought I'd say this to a Commie, but... thanks.
  • Immune to Mind Control: Several units are completely immune to Soviet (and later Yuri's) mind control, including air units (perpetually out of range), hero units like Tanya and Boris (specially trained to resist), Terror Drones and Robot Tanks (machines), Attack Dogs (the controllers are trained to specifically control human minds), and Brutes (too stupid).
  • Insistent Terminology: The Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge has characters making a recurring tendency to refer to the traitor Yuri.
  • Invaded States of America: The main scenario of the vanilla game, taking around two thirds of each campaign.
  • Intercom Villainy: When you go up against Yuri, he will frequently taunt your moves. It's implied he's actually transmitting this telepathically.
  • Ironic Echo: Fairly early in the Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge, Premier Romanov celebrates the war against the Allies ending in victory, with Dugan being the one humiliatingly captured instead of himself in the original Allied campaign's ending.
  • Isometric Projection: In contrast to the first Red Alert and in a more refined version of Tiberian Sun, the game really goes for a "2.5-D" perspective.
  • It Has Only Just Begun: When the Soviets have shut down the entire US Missile Command.
    Romanov: Is it done, Yuri?
    Yuri: No, Comrade Premier, it has only begun.
  • I Want My Mommy!: Soviet conscripts will sometimes shout "Mommy!" when they come under fire.
  • Kaizo Trap:
    • In the vanilla Allied campaign, Tanya must survive. If she gets killed after the mission is complete but before the score screen shows up, you lose.
    • "The Fox and The Hound" has the mission objective of mind-controlling President Dugan as an Instant-Win Condition... but it also features two Instant Defeat Conditions which are your two Psi-Corps Troopers dying or Dugan himself dying. Which can very well happen if you don't kill all the Navy SEALs that are near the President - they'll either kill your Troopers or they'll kill Dugan... and you're getting the "Mission Failed" screen right after the "Mission Accomplished" one, forcing you to play the mission again.
  • Kick the Dog: General Vladimir gets a rather nasty one in the Allied campaign. After the Allies destroy a massive mind control device built by the Soviets in occupied Chicago in the nick of time, he announces that with the weapon destroyed he has no further use for the city. He proceeds to detonate a nuclear bomb, killing everyone in the city, the Allied attack force and even his own remaining troops.
  • Kill and Replace: One of Yuri's plots in Yuri's Revenge involves replacing world leaders with clones. The Allies put a stop to it by destroying his cloning facilities in Sydney.
  • Large Ham:
    • Premier Romanov seems to be trying to win a contest in "thickest Russian accent".
    • General Vladimir "Behold the power, OF MOTHER RUSSIA!"
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The expansion, Yuri's Revenge, makes it no secret that the game's namesake has become an enemy of Allied and Soviet nations alike, which makes his Evil All Along twist in the base game's Soviet Campaign this trope, even if the expansion pack takes place after the Allied campaign's ending.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: In the final Allied mission, as well as the regular red Soviets defending Moscow, you have to face Romanov's Elite Guard around the Kremlin... their team colour is jet black.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the 'affirmative' lines spoken by Yuri's Engineers is "Needs a paint job", noting how buildings change colour when captured.
  • Lighter and Softer: Unlike its darker and more serious predecessor, Red Alert 2 has a rather campy and light-hearted tone while still retaining some graveness. The expansion takes another step with Yuri's cartoonish faction, a mission on the Moon etc. The over the top elements aren't fully flanderized until EA's Red Alert 3.
  • Living Dinosaurs: In Yuri's Revenge, the Soviets commandeer the Allied time machine in their campaign but accidentally travel too far back in time to the Cretaceous, where they're attacked by Tyrannosaurs. It's possible to acquire one of them as a unit and take it back to present-day San Francisco.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Heroic-ranked IFVs have the firepower to take down any threat in seconds and keep the fast speeds they're known for.
  • Mad Bomber:
    • Crazy Ivans and Chrono Ivans. Full of one-liners to match. "I lost a bomb... do you have it?", "Here, hold this!". They are also the only units in the game that can attack (plant bombs) on allied units without holding the force fire key.
    • Tanya also counts, carrying all the C4, one-liners and her iconic laugh from the previous game. And then she ups her ante by being able to blow up vehicles in the expansion.
  • Made of Explodium:
    • Not only barrels, but pretty much every scenery prop explodes (albeit harmlessly), even if you only ordered a GI/Conscript/Initiate to shoot at it. A bunch of tires is passable, but beach towels?
    • Yuri's "Psychic Dominator" weapon permanently mind-controls a few enemy units (even those that are already mind-controlled, even if by another Psychic Dominator). It also, for some bizarre reason, makes all nearby buildings explode.
  • Master of All:
    • The Battle Fortress and a Heroic-ranked Apocalypse Tank. The Battle Fortress starts off with a machine gun (which it always has no matter what configuration) to deal with infantry and it can run over almost any vehicle (including the Apocalypse Tank). What makes it a master of all, is that you can place 3-5 Guardian GI who carry powerful, long-ranged rocket launchers and perhaps a Sniper or two. This combination will destroy aircraft, ground vehicles and infantry with ease. The Apocalypse Tank starts off as a monster with regeneration, powerful twin cannons and medium strength anti-aircraft missiles. Every time an Apocalypse Tank gains a rank - its damage per shot, rate of fire and health level goes up. If it gets enough kills to reach Heroic, it gets a boost to its regeneration and its cannons change so that they do a four-round burst which causes a small Area of Effect explosion that does devastating damage against infantry (so now it'll mop the floor with infantry) and its anti-aircraft missiles will now be a heavy threat to aircraft instead of being somewhat of a hazard.
    • Boomers in the expansion. They have all the advantages of a standard submarine and have torpedoes that are only a little less damaging individually than the Typhoon Attack Sub's, but the Boomer fires two of them compared to the Typhoon's one. In addition they fire ballistic missiles that are only a bit less effective than the ones on a Dreadnought, and Boomers had even more health. Yuri has a really tough unit that dominates the water, can only be affected by certain attacks unless detected, and launch devastating siege attacks on enemy units and buildings. The only thing it doesn't do is dealing with aircraft.
  • Master of None: The Russian Tesla Tank unfortunately falls into this trope - its weapon is effective against both infantry and vehicles, but not impressively so compared to the Rhino Tank workhorse or the Flak Track APC. The electric bolts can arc over walls, though.
  • Mighty Glacier: The Soviet war machine tends to be this - compared to the Allied vehicles, they are slower and more expensive, but sport stronger weaponry. For instance, the Kirov Airship is an armored zeppelin that takes a long time to get in position, but once it is, it wreaks havoc on structures. The epitome is the Apocalypse Tank - the slowest vehicle in the game, but it sports two powerful anti-armor cannons (that also do fairly well against infantry) and side-mounted missile batteries for airborne adversaries.
    • The sole exception is the Sea Scorpion, their equivalent of the Allies' Aegis cruiser, which is smaller, cheaper, faster, and deals less damage, but makes up for that with the ability to attack ground and (non-submerged) sea targets as well as those in the air.
  • Mind-Control Device: The game features mind control with Yuri and more elaborately in the Yuri's Revenge expansion pack. Units change side (and color) and start fighting against you so long the mind control guys are alive and not controlling someone else instead. Furthermore there are two kinds of mind control: direct, puppet master mind control that involves units temporarily commandeering others and less specific, broadcasting Psychic Beacon mind control culminating in the Psychic Dominator doomsday devices that won the game for Yuri half a minute into the opening cinematic if not for both a lucky fighter crashing into a Dominator power source and Einstein conveniently pulling a functional time machine pretty much from hammerspace.
  • Mind Rape: Yuri is all about this. In fact his expansion pack may as well be called Command & Conquer Mind Rape 2: Hooray for Mind Rape. Mind Rape base defenses, Mind Rape soldiers, Mind Rape tanks of several flavors, and they each jizz themselves over being able to do so.
  • Mobile Shrubbery: The Allied Mirage Tank takes on the appearance of a tree when idle.
  • Monumental Battle: There's a famous monument on almost every single level. Most of them can be garrisoned and used as fancy-looking bunkers, while others can be repaired for cash bonuses or, in the case of the Eiffel Tower, used as a giant city-leveling Tesla coil.
  • Monumental Damage:
    • The Soviets demolish the Statue Of Liberty, the Pentagon and lots of other landmarks. This later led to some unfortunate implications due to 9/11, since the Twin Towers were destroyable structures in the game (and doing so actually rewarded the player with powerups). The games were pulled, several covers were changed and later editions avoided calling the buildings by any names at all - however, in the NYC mission the buildings are still there, destroyable and garrisonable, and the video briefing still mentions "the pathetic capitalist shrine known as the World Trade Center."
    • The second to last mission of the Soviet campaign requires the destruction of the Kremlin, while the final Allied mission is a notable inversion; the Kremlin should only be captured as destroying it leads to a failed mission. This is because in the Soviet campaign, it is being occupied by a traitor; in the Allied campaign, the original Premier is still in charge and the Allies want him to order a ceasefire.
    • Inverted in one Soviet mission, where you electrify the Eiffel Tower into a gigantic tesla coil, which proceeds to lay waste to the entire city. Just about the only thing that wasn't destroyed was the tower, because it was doing all the destroying!
    • The moon landing module Eagle and the US flag planted by the Apollo 11 mission are a destructible structure right at the beginning of the Moon mission note 
  • Mood Dissonance: The game's cheery atmosphere gets a bit more serious when Carville dies.
  • Multinational Team: Although both the Allies and Soviets have always comprised numerous countries, this game is the first to turn their diversity into an actual gameplay feature by giving each nation a unique unit that can radically alter the player's tactics.
  • Mundane Utility: The Chrono Legionnaire is capable of using his chrono gun thing to "erase" units or objects, which has useful applications for safely clearing out explosive barrels or ammunition crates that could be a hazard, or removing a building without leaving behind rubble that can't be built on.
  • Musical Nod: Of several flavors—
  • Musical Spoiler:
    • "Operation: Last Chance" has "Blow It Up" as the track of choice for the first song that plays when you start the mission. This gives away the ending where Vladimir becomes upset over losing control of Chicago and nukes the city to spite the Allies.
    • "Operation: Fallout" features the track again, only this time, the mission briefing and the mission titles spells-it-out that you may have to deal with Soviet Cuba when setting up your Chronosphere in the Florida Keys. Sure enough, after setting down your Chronosphere device, "time is running out" as you must neutralize the nukes ready to launch at your base.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The skirmishes against dinosaurs from the original Command & Conquer are given a brief nod in the expansion when the Soviets travel back in time millions of years by mistake and have to defend against T-Rexes. It becomes a Brick Joke in the Soviet ending.
    • A reference to the Orca Aircraft from the Tiberium series when Eva comments on the absurdity of the Attack Dolphins - doubly so given that Lt. Eva's actor had previously appeared as a crewmember aboard the Kodiak in Tiberian Sun.
      Eva: Intelligence informed me that effective countermeasures involves specially-trained dolphins which are now at your disposal. What's next, killer whales?
      • Eva herself is a callback to the EVA (Electronic Video Agent) computer AI that acted as your aide in the Tiberium series.
  • Near-Villain Victory:
    • In the meaningfully-named Allied mission "Last Chance", the Soviets almost succeed in using a Psychic Amplifier to mass mind control all of North America. When the device is destroyed, the Soviet commander in charge of that part of the front is pretty darn livid, immediately detonating a nuclear missile to wipe out Chicago.
    • In the opening of Yuri's Revenge, Yuri activates his Psychic Dominator network, successfully mind controlling most of the planet. It's only due to one of them getting temporarily damaged that a time travel device the Allies built can be activated to undo Yuri's plan. In the Allied Campaign, the Dominator in question actually gets repaired MOMENTS before the time machine activates. Yuri even takes his time to explain that "it will be quite painless, and life will be so much simpler for you with no freedom or will."
  • Nerf:
    • The Soviet Tesla Tanks are slower, more frail, and have shorter firing range than their RA: Aftermath predecessors. Their electric charges still pack quite a sting, however.
    • Attack dogs can still One-Hit Kill infantry and can detect Spies, but the dogs are now noticeably slower and their attack range (lunging) is also smaller. Tanya being able to take the initiative by shooting enemies on sight helps factors this too.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: As RA2 uses a different build of Tiberian Sun's engine, several visual effects have been recycled: the Magnetron's beam appears to be a recolored version of the Disruptor tank's sonic beam in Tiberian Sun while Allied Prism beams appear to be a higher-resolution Nod laser beam. The similarity is so close that the two games' models and textures are near-completely cross-compatible with each other to the point it's possible to make one game use the other's engine.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: General Vladimir completely destroys Chicago and everybody in it when the Psychic Amplifier is taken down by the Allies. Unfortunately, this attempt at intimidation backfires massively when Europe, alarmed at the Soviets' willingness to utilize nuclear weapons appeal to the Americans to destroy the others the Soviets have deployed along their borders in exchange for massive amounts of aid and reinforcements.
  • No Campaign for the Wicked: Yuri in Yuri's Revenge does not have a campaignnote 
  • No Canon for the Wicked: Yuri's Revenge story picks up after an Allied Victory.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • No Indoor Voice: Allied GI's never drop below an enthused shout, contrasting with the utterly bored sounding Soviet Conscripts.
  • Non-Combat EXP: Sneaking an Allied Spy to the enemy Barracks or War Factory allows any units produced from your equivalent production structure to start off with one level of veterancy. However, taking one spy to said point is quite difficult though, and it only works once per building.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack:
    • Allied Chrono Legionnaire's attack doesn't deal any real damage. It just stunlocks its target in stasis and after a certain period erases it from existence.
    • Yuri's Mind Control units don't deal any damage by their "attacks". They instantly convert enemy units to your side for as long as the mind controller is alive or doesn't mind control another unit.
  • Noodle Incident: In the fourth Allied campaign mission "Last Chance", you start out leading a small naval and air force into Chicago and your first obstacle is a pair of Grand Cannons under Soviet control. Thing is, the Grand Cannon is an Allied defensive structure (specifically, France). It's never really explained why/how the Soviets acquired the two Grand Cannons.
  • No-Sell: Several units are completely immune to certain mechanics. For instance Brutes cannot be bitten by dogs, while Boomer submarines cannot be grabbed by Giant Squids. Hero units like Tanya and Boris and the "action movie stars" from the second Allied mission of Yuri's Revenge are also Immune to Mind Control.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo:
    • Justified in the Allied side, since their supply is completely neutralized at the start of the game.
    • Averted by the Soviet Union. Romanov assures the player in one mission that "After you feel pain from my nuclear bombs, you will WEESH for ANOTHAIR chance!" and the Allies have to counter the Soviet silos in the campaign. Chicago is destroyed by a nuclear bomb after the player destroys the psychic amplifier and the USSR has no further use for the city. A technical Fission Mailed too.
    • In the expansion, the mission Power Play revolves around the player trying to stop Yuri from nuking the city every ten minutes. It doesn't help that Yuri tends to use his first nuke to destroy the War Factory and you don't have a Construction Yard in this mission. Thankfully there is another Allied War Factory elsewhere on the map available for takeover with an Engineer. And with some clever play you can use the weather control device you have been provided to destroy Yuri's bio-generators and then rush one of his Tech Power Plants to destroy or capture it, thereby cutting off power to his nuclear missile silo.
  • Obvious Rule Patch: The Allied Guardian GI, who is purpose-built to counter armor, seems to have been introduced solely to undercut the power of the Soviet Rhino Rush strategy.
  • Older Than They Look: Einstein in the 1970s would be almost 100 years old, assuming the genius in the game is native of this timeline. He looks in his late sixties.
  • One-Man Army: Boris. Immune to mind control, regenerates health, kills tanks and infantry alike with his gun and calls in Death from Above on buildings from quite far away.
  • Only One Name: Of the entire Soviet cast, only the Premier himself has two names. Everyone else is referred to by their first name.
  • Oral Fixation: In most cutscenes General Carville and his toothpick are inseparable.
  • Palette Swap: Yuri's hover transport is nothing more than a recoloured Allied hover transport vehicle.
  • Piggybacking on Hitler: Yuri aided the Soviets in their rise to power, but has his own plans and was using the war as a smokescreen so he can set up his Psychic Dominators to mind control the world when the Allies and Soviets aren't looking.
  • The Player Is the Most Important Resource: The video cutscenes after the final mission acknowledge that the success of the final battle was due to your leadership.
  • Playing with Fire:
    • Yuri's Initiates are pyrokinetics who attack by igniting fires with their powers. Initiates are an unholy terror when garrisoned into buildings, wiping out entire tank battalions in seconds. Their only real flaws are that they are more fragile and shorter-ranged than the basic infantry of other factions.
    • The Mirage tank appears to be armed with an infrared laser cannon. It can ignite infantry with a maximum of two shots and is highly effective against vehicle armor.
  • Power Glows:
    • Starting with Red Alert 2, any unit that makes it to Heroic (max veterancy) status will find their weapon fire glowing red, either in the form of a large red muzzle flash, the projectiles themselves glow, or the explosions they create are bright red mushroom clouds bigger than the unit itself. Heroic-level Grizzly, Rhino, and Apocalypse tanks launched two miniature nuclear shells per barrel, and Heroic-level V3 Launchers and Dreadnoughts launched V3 rockets with small nuclear warheads. Kirovs also got tesla bombs, at least doubling the area of effect with a blue electrical glow.
    • Allied Prism Towers, when having their firepower boosted by chaining shots, fire much more brilliantly colored beams.
  • Praetorian Guard: In the final Allied mission, you have to defeat Romanov's elite guard surrounding the Kremlin in order to win. Even if you take out the nuclear reactors that power the Flak Cannons and the Tesla Coil, dealing with the four Elite Apocalypse Tanks is extremely hard. Unless you use the Chronosphere to teleport them right over those lakes to the east.
  • Puppet King:
    • The Allies originally put Romanov in as Premier of the USSR, believing that he's harmless and a friend of the free world. As it turns out, he's neither.
    • Played straight once Yuri starts using his powers to control Romanov's mind. He also has several plans that go something like this in his expansion.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Yuri's Brutes are hulking gray-skinned humans with the mentality of a schoolyard bully. They're also incredibly violent and can literally punch tanks into scrap metal.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Finishing campaign missions above the par time sometimes gives Flavor Text that the victory was this, though this has no impact on subsequent missions or the plot whatsoever.
  • Red Baron: In both the Allied and Soviet campaigns the player is told that their actions have caused the terrified enemy to give them an intimidating nickname. The Allied commander is dubbed "The Ghost" for the use of stealth to destroy Soviet bases, while the Soviet commander is named "The Butcher" for the destruction of Paris by transforming the Eiffel Tower into a giant tesla coil.
  • The Remnant: The Allied forces near the end of the original Soviet campaign become this, as their respective home countries have officially surrendered to the Soviet forces but their remaining troops fight on in isolated regions through the use of superweapons. A rare non-villainous version of this trope.
  • Resignations Not Accepted: A rare positive example. During the mission briefing for the sixth Allied mission in the expansion, Yuri interrupts Lt. Eva and forces her to divulge where the peace conference between the Allies and Soviets is to take place (the Palace of Westminster in London), forcing the Allies to scramble to stop Yuri from destroying it and killing the heads of state who are meeting there. The Allies are successful, but the guilt from jeopardizing the security of the conference leads Lt. Eva to offer her resignation at the start of the mission briefing for the seventh Allied mission - General Carville will have none of that, as she's hardly the first person to have been affected by Yuri's mental manipulations.
  • Resigned in Disgrace: Lt. Eva in Yuri's Revenge, though only she felt disgraced, General Carville chewed her out for trying to resign more than anything.
  • Ret-Gone:
    • Using the Time Machine to escape Yuri's Mind Control scheme so you can Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
    • On a more literal note, this is stated to be how the Chrono Legionnaire's attack operates.
      Chrono Legionnaire: Never existed.
  • Revenge of the Sequel: The expansion pack Yuri's Revenge.
  • Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Compared to most of the other Command and Conquer games, tanks in Red Alert 2 have a lot more firepower relative to their hitpoints, resulting in tank battles where both sides will maul each other very quickly.
  • Rule of Cool: Relies on this more than its predecessor.
  • Sapient Tank: The Mastermind tank.
  • Safely Secluded Science Center: The Soviets have hidden the Battle Lab with their plans for the new Apocalypse Tank in a remote base in the Ural Mountains. Unfortunately, the Allies have recently perfected their own teleportation technology with the Chronosphere, so the player is ordered to fend off waves of Allied assaults.
  • Schmuck Bait: In the penultimate Soviet mission, Yuri taunts you with this little gem when you build a Terror Drone (it also doubles as a clue: the Terror Drone is immune to mind control)
    "Terror Drones are such mindless beasts. Why don't you try an Engineer instead?" Hint: Don't!
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
    • In Yuri's Revenge, both the Allies and the Soviets in their respective campaigns go back in time to stop Yuri before he can complete his Psychic Dominators.
    • The Soviet campaign in Yuri's Revenge, however, plays with it further. As on top of stopping Yuri, Romanov tasks the commander with altering the course of the war itself to Russia's favor. Effectively setting right, from their perspective, what had otherwise been denied in the "canon" timeline.
  • Shoot the Dangerous Minion: Yuri assassinates Premier Romanov to seize power and then orders you to kill General Vladimir, who was already suspecting Yuri's motives and had been framed for the murder. The Player General continues to serve Yuri for a while until his continued success makes Yuri wary of a new threat. Lt. Sofia reveals Yuri's treachery before you can take him up on his invitation to visit him in Moscow, however, instead bringing half the army with you.
  • Shoulders of Doom: It can be hard to notice on tiny infantry sprites, but some soldiers, namely Conscripts and Guardian GI wear rather large shoulder pads.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The first Soviet mission, the invasion of Washington DC, is called "Operation Red Dawn".
    • Yuri: "Soon, all your bases will belong to me".
    • Of all the bars in all the world, Romanov hides from Yuri in a bar/gambling den called Ricks.
    • Yuri's brute is an expy of The Incredible Hulk. Doubly so, since the Brutes are grey-skinned. They also quote The Thing.
      Brute: Is clobbering time, no?
    • A couple to WarGames. One is mentioned under Casting Gag. The other is that "Jerry" is the name of an American working in a missile silo who has to actually turn the key during the into video. This is the name of the missile operator in WarGames who refuses to launch his missile at the beginning of that film.
    • The intro of Yuri's Revenge has several aircraft flying under the Golden Gate Bridge during their attack run on Alcatraz, a scene taken from The Rock.
    • The second Allied mission of the expansion takes place in Los Angeles and features a T-Rex inside Westwood Studios' building, and a Take That! towards Jurassic Park, mixed with Follow the Leader and Self-Deprecation for sequelitis.
      Lt. Eva: Looks like Yuri's got the studio making another dinosaur movie, Commander. Yuri's not very creative, is he?
    • The sound clip (in the song "Blow It Up") "Gentlemen, it's a nuclear device. Time is running out." is sampled from the movie Evil Brain from Outer Space.
    • Multiple in two tracks from Yuri's Revenge:
      • Both "Brain Freeze" and "Drok" have quotes from The Brain from Planet Arous ("Brain Freeze" uses "Your fear of helplessness is your best friend, savage!", while "Drok" uses "The power of pure intellect!")
      • "Brain Freeze" also uses quotes from Mondo Keyhole ("The product of a tortured brain" and "The power to overwhelm and destroy") and The Creation of the Humanoids ("The creation of the Humanoids!")
  • Smooch of Victory: In the Allied endings, Tanya and Eva clean up nicely and hit on "the Commander", suggestive music and all. A more subtle example with Lt. Zofia, who displays a subdued interest.
  • Soft-Spoken Sadist: Yuri rarely raises his voice above a calm murmur.
  • Sore Loser: After the Allies destroy the Psychic Amplifier in Chicago that was about to mind control the entire country, the Soviet commander Vladimir interrupts the transmission to announce that he is wiping the city off the map with a nuclear bomb.
  • Space Base: Yuri singlehandedly develops spaceflight so he can built a fortified base on the moon. He plans to retreat to his moon hideout after the Psychic Dominator network has mind controlled the planet. You'd think he might want to rule over his world of slaves instead of invading space, but he is a cartoonish supervillain.
  • Spanner in the Works: The Soviets in their Yuri's Revenge campaign. They originally wanted to move to San Francisco and capture Einstein's Time Machine to prevent the Allied victory in the vanilla game. Yuri's announcement happened to occur at around the same time, so the Soviets set up to defeat not only the Allies, but also Yuri in the past.
  • Spinning Paper: In the Allied ending, the Soviet Premiere makes the cover of several mock magazines in an embarrassing fashion. A Mythology Gag in the Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge has the reverse happen to President Dugan.
  • Spiteful A.I.: The mind control tanks take damage if it mind controls more than 3 units. It will happily push forward and Mind Rape as many units as it can regardless of this until it is destroyed, which is pretty indicative of the driver being quick to getting Drunk with Power.
  • Stealth Parody: On mutual stereotypes of the Cold War, especially about the USSR. And although the game brings them to the point of absurdity and complete madness, it becomes only steeper and everyone enjoys it.
  • Stock Footage: Some of the cinematics such as military parades and scenes of buildings burning down were apparently taken off news and archive footage.
  • Stock Sound Effect: The nuclear missile warning siren used in the game was a stock sound clip from the Universal Studios Sound Effects Library, also used in countless media such as SpongeBob Squarepants and Downfall (2004) among others.
  • Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: Hospitals, Machine Shops(Healing Factor to infantry and tanks, respectively), civilian power plants (extra base power), Oil Derricks (a constant, small trickle of infinite money) and Airports (which grant a Paratrooper Drop Support Power similar to America's Subfaction Bonus). Some maps have abandoned structures from other factions, such as Satelite Uplinks or Psychic Radars.
  • Suicide Attack: The Cuban terrorist unit is the infantry variant, while the Libyan nuclear demolition truck is the vehicular variant.
    • Crazy Ivan can attach a time-bomb to virtually every unit, including friendly (or mind-controlled) units, thus it is possible to make any unit into a Suicide Bomber.
  • Supernatural Phone: Yuri uses one to mind control people, no matter how far they are.
  • Super Villain Lair: In Yuri's Revenge, Yuri has a secret island, a family castle in Transylvania, and even a moonbase. Lampshaded by Premier Romanov "He is like monster from movies" (while imitating Frankenstein / The Mummy gait) before he gives the Soviet commander the order to destroy the castle.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: While pre-release screenshots of the game used exact replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, these were altered in the final release. Later releases of Red Alert 2 patched this even further by giving them generic names e.g. "Paris Tower" and "Arch of Winning" in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. There is however a mod which restores the old Eiffel Tower complete with a custom destruction animation.
  • Symbology Research Failure: Red Alert 2 has Russian Orthodox Church architecture on Communist structures.
  • Tailor-Made Prison: The Allied victory in Yuri's Revenge has Yuri Prime being captured, escorted by mind-shielded guards, and put in a special capsule where he would be unable to use his powers. Nightmare Fuel for anyone who is claustrophobic. It's literally like a hyper-advanced coffin, with Dentist equipment near his head.
    General Carville: He won't be able to mind-control a fly.
  • Take Over the World: The Soviets and Yuri are trying to do this. In Yuri's Revenge, the Soviets take it to its next logical step after their victory: expansion across the cosmos. Yuri, in Revenge, does manage to take over the world, save for San Francisco, but Time Travel manages to sort that out.
  • Take Your Time: The game keeps track of the time spent on a mission and the aftermath briefing gives a message of praise or of tardiness depending on the commander's quickness. Difficulty levels change the par time, but gameplay-wise it doesn't make any difference despite the messages suggesting a shorter or easier war when the player is very successful, and the other way around.
  • Taps: Heard in the Allied campaign at Gen. Carville's funeral.
  • Teeth Clenched Team Work: At first, Tanya and Carville don't get along. The General tells the allied commander "You'd get along better with the Soviets".
  • Tempting Fate: Being an expert of his psychic craft, Yuri will also build his own superweapon if you ever build one yourself in a mission against him, be it in the semi-final RA2 Soviet mission or the final RA2YR Soviet mission, sometimes in a MUCH more advantageous variation than yours, especially during the final RA2YR Soviet mission in that, if you dare to build either of the two SWs, be it the support SW "Iron Curtain" or offensive SW Nuclear Missile, he responds in kind not just with his two mind-controlled Soviet and Allied forces doing the same with their own respective SWs along with his own, tripling the amount of offensive/support SWs you now have to deal with after building either SW, but also audibly comments on your built support/offensive SWs and says the following harrowing words...
    Yuri: Good thought, Commander. I think my puppets should follow your example and build their own superweapons. (chuckles) (cue Yuri having his mind-controlled Allied and Soviet forces immediately constructing three offensive SWs that then threaten your base after building either of your SWs)
  • Time Bomb: The superweapons' timer is shown onscreen. The Allies can reset it with a spy.
    • Crazy Ivans, Soviet bomber units who attack enemies by strapping time-bombs to them. These bombs looks like large chunks of dynamite with flickering fuse, accompanied with ticking sound. It takes a short time before they explode, and with the right timing they can be defused by a nearby Engineer.
  • Time Traveler's Dinosaur: In the first Soviet mission in the expansion pack, you can bring a T. rex into the present day. It is named 'Rexy' by the way.
  • Title Drop: In the final Soviet cutscene of Yuri's Revenge, Yuri drops the franchise title:
    Yuri: "The entire world and all of its history is mine to command and conquer."
  • Too Awesome to Use: Chrono Commandos and Chrono Ivans. Both are basically teleporting explosive charges, but there are stiff requirements in getting to use one in the base game, which were made slightly easier in Yuri's Revenge.
  • Took a Level in Kindness:
    • In the Yuri's Revenge expansion, Tanya is a lot more welcoming and loyal towards the commander compared to her Red Alert 2 personality.
    • Similarly, Romanov is shown to be friendlier and genuinely jovial towards the commander compared to the original game. Justified, in that without Yuri's influence or meddling, his true personality is much more evident.
  • Uniqueness Rule: In the Yuri's Revenge expansion, partway through the fourth Allied mission in Egypt you get one free use of the Psychic Dominator after you rescue Einstein from Yuri's clutches — he managed to sabotage it under Yuri's nose before your forces rescue him. He states it is unstable, though, and will self-destruct before you get a second use.
  • Unperson:
    • Yuri brands general Vladimir a traitor and a "non-person" after setting him up for Romanov's murder. Having known Stalin personally, he probably picked up the habit from the man himself.
    • The Soviets in their campaign in Yuri's Revenge similarly brand the titular villain as the traitor Yuri.
  • Veteran Unit: Beefed up from Tiberian Sun, some top veteran units become very near One-Man Army levels of power and Healing Factor.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • Yuri's faction has the Grinder machine, which you can send your obedient soldiers (or hypnotized enemies/civilians) into to be shredded into valuable scrap bits.
    • One Allied mission sees you trying to destroy a network of such devices Yuri's built in Los Angeles. There's no time limit on the mission, though, so you're free to watch brainwashed civilians walk into them for as long as you like while you build up your forces.
    • As the Soviets, nothing's really stopping you from attacking Allied civilians or destroying American cityscapes. Similarly, aside from the Kremlin, any Russian structure in Moscow in the final Allied mission is fair game for destruction, including St. Basil's Cathedral.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
    • You might be tempted to do so either as revenge for the Soviet invasion of the United States or because it was the actual objective in the penultimate Soviet mission, but destroying the Kremlin in the last Allied mission makes you fail the mission. You were supposed to capture Romanov so he can sign a peace treaty, not kill him.
    • You are rewarded with bonus crates for destroying monuments in Washington DC during the "Desecration" mission...except for the White House; you need to send an Engineer inside to apprehend General Vladimir.
  • Villain Decay: Yuri's Revenge marks the beginning of the Soviets' slide from being the primary villains to the second-stringers. It also doesn't help that competitively, they're regarded as a distant third in power for Multiplayer.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • Premier Romanov in Allies campaign, especially after the player destroys 3 nuclear silos in one of the missions.
    • By the Allied ending of Yuri's Revenge, Yuri is reducing to ranting at his prison wardens and demanding that they obey as they strap him into a device that would prevent him from using his power to mind control anyone else.
  • Violent Glaswegian: The crew of the Allied Battle Fortress in Yuri's Revenge certainly qualifies, though the accent is pretty bad.
    Battle Fortress: ROLLING THUNDER!!
  • Washington D.C. Invasion: The first Soviet mission has you destroying the Pentagon. This contradicts the Allied (canon) side, where you actually have to defend and attack with a lot more than just basic grunts. The eighth Soviet mission involves attacking General Vladimir's base near and capturing the White House.
  • Weaponized Landmark:
    • One of the Soviet missions involves turning the Eiffel Tower into a giant Tesla coil.
    • Yuri weaponizes The Moai statues in the expansion.
  • Weaponized Teleportation: One of the uses of the Allied Chronosphere is to instantly kill groups of enemy units by teleporting land units into water, or water units onto land. Virtually all infantry will die from being Chronoshifted, unless protected by a transport.
  • Weather-Control Machine: The Allied superweapon, designed by Einstein after the US loses its nuclear capability. How it works is simple: the epicenter receives a constant, rapid-fire barrage of extremely devastating lightning bolts for as long as the storm is active while it also randomly spawns lightning clouds across the area of effect. If placed correctly, it can wear down a good two-thirds of a Construction Yard's health. It also shuts down power on the target base until the lightning storm stops, which can allow for some devastating attack combinations.
  • We Have Reserves: It's established early on the Soviets are not philanthropists.
    Lt. Zofia: Pay no heed to casualties Comrade Commander, for every Conscript that dies in this glorious crusade, there are a thousand more eager to replace him.
  • We Will Meet Again: One of the more chilling parts of the base game in the Soviet ending. Yuri is still very much alive after you thought him dead, and makes his intent to return very clear. All he has do is find a suitable body to reupload his mind into. And given that Soviet technology includes cloning tech...
  • What the Hell, Hero?: While the Allies are supposed to be the "good guys" of the game, General Carville's actions during Soviet campaign mission 7: Chrono Defence are pretty much criminal. First, he uses propaganda to round civilians into attacking the Soviet secret military lab, something that get people shot in any country. Then he brings more civilians as human shields for his forces before semifinal attack wave. (That's what inside the three trucks that appear shortly before, should you let them reach Allied spy camp).
  • The Whole World Is Watching: In the final mission of the Allied campaign, Eva gives a word of encouragement to the Commander about how the entire world is waiting for you to put an end to Yuri's plans for world domination once and for all.
    Eva: We're rooting for you, Commander. The whole world is watching and waiting. Battle control online.
  • Would Shoot A Civilian: The Soviets do towards American civilians. They're also willing to mind control them and use them as cheap cannon fodder against the US military. During a mission in Saint-Louis civilians are corralled into a chainlink fence pen and melted alive by Desolators.
  • You Are in Command Now: After Carville's death the player character is given command of the entire United States Military.
  • You Are Too Late: Not quite on the level of Adrian Veidt, but Yuri laid low and used the confusion of the war to successfully build his array of Psychic Dominators, and only finally surfaced and announced his plan when his devices were mere minutes away from activating. He would have won if Einstein hadn't just finished inventing mass-time travel, and one of the Harriers hadn't crashed into his power plant on Alcatraz..
  • You Watch Too Much X: In one of the later Allied missions in Yuri's Revenge, the enemy forces suddenly start throwing Flying Saucers at your base. General Carville's reaction is that either they've got an Alien Invasion to deal with, or Yuri's been watching too much TV.
  • Zerg Rush: The Soviet's primary battle tactic, especially when it comes to infantry or early-game engagements. In the expansion pack, the tweaks made to the Soviets actually mean that this is now their only viable tactic, thanks to the loss of all their Yuri-related (and thus, truly high-end) gear.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Red Alert 2, Command And Conquer Yuris Revenge

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C&C: Yuri's Revenge

In a subliminal broadcast, the psychic Yuri brainwashes his viewers into serving him on the belief that only through his will alone can they be saved from the devastation brought by the war between the Allies and the Soviets.

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