Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Commander's Challenge Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Commander's Challenge box art

System: X360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN)	Review Rating Legend
Dev: EA LA	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Electronic Arts	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Sep. 25, 2009	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Teen	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

Territories will be clearly displayed on a map. Not only can you see the overview of your empire at a glance, but during battles you can zoom right in on the action, affording you the best view of you and your opponents' units and the terrain. Selecting units is a crapshoot. You can adjust the sensitivity of the cursor to be more or less magnetic to units in close proximity. You can use the D-pad to instantly select a particular unit, and you can use the X button to select all specified units onscreen. Units can be selected, moved, commanded, and deselected as required. The ease and accuracy of these commands, however, is inconsistent.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Commander's Challenge screenshot

Commander's Challenge is a very colourful and nicely detailed game. It doesn't push the envelope as far as graphics are concerned, but you'd be hard-pressed to see a game this good looking on a PC five years ago. You don't even lose detail when you zoom in. Excellent shading technique lets you instantly determine relief from a crater to a hill and all levels in between. The in-game animations are virtually flawless with smooth movements and nicely rendered explosions and real- time damage. The live-action cutscenes are good but not great. They are a little jarring, and they don't necessarily fit with the overall style of the game. The sound effects and music are prefect, but nothing that we haven't heard in past versions of this series.

Commander's Challenge is a game that requires a tremendous amount of patience, skill, determination, trial and error, and plenty of luck. It's very frustrating to lose a mission because you pressed the wrong modifier button or because the cursor didn't go where you intended it to go. It's about as good as a console version can be at this time, but it's still far from perfect. At the end of my time with this game I had encountered equal amounts of hate and love for it. Things balanced out in the end, but overall I can't say the experience was worth the anger I experienced. I recommend this game only to very serious fans of the series that can overlook the idiosyncrasies and imperfections of a PC game trapped in the body of a console.

By Cole Smith
CCC Senior Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

3.5

Graphics
Colorful and cartoonish in-game graphics. Live action cutscenes don't necessarily fit with the style of the game.

2.5

Control
A console controller is no substitute for a mouse and keyboard. Expect loads of anguish.

4.5

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Great sound effects and musical score. Some voiceovers are unintelligible.

4.2

Play Value
Very difficult game to learn for newbies, but it's very deep and involved for the experienced.

3.6

Overall Rating - Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Commander's Challenge offers more than classic Red Alert action gameplay and will allow players command their forces by air, land and sea, as introduced by the award-winning Command & Conquer Red Alert 3.

Players face fifty increasingly difficult challenges, unlocking tech, units, and missions as they go.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Commander's Challenge throws the player into 50 intense challenges against a set of nine different commanders, including 16-time world champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.

As players progress throughout the gauntlet, they gradually unlock more units, technology, and new challenges.

Commander's Challenges delivers over thirty hours of RTS entertainment.