Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge for Windows

First released in 2000, Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 is a real-time strategy game that remains beloved. It had an expansion, but with Yuri’s Revenge, it added new gameplay mechanics, characters, and more missions. 

As a result, it continued gaining ground. Yuri’s Revenge gives its players both titles. It offers a deep, strategic gameplay experience, where you play as the Allied or Soviet forces, and Yuri and his specific set of powers and units as the new enemy.

When we think about strategic depth, titles like Command Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge are known for not giving you one single way to go at the attack, but many. The game is based on resource management, base building, and tactical combat; fortunately, both titles focus on that. Like in other titles like Age of Empires II, the game focuses more on real-time combat instead of resource gathering or slow development. The AI opponent is a lot harder. It makes us think about how we respond to the battlefield conditions to beat it.

New factions and units that add complexity are introduced in Yuri’s Revenge; the Yuri faction can mind-control with its new units, including the Yuri Prime. Unfortunately, it differs from Red Alert 2, where everything is junior Red Alert, Ald, and Soviets with distinct units and strategies. Adding these new elements in Yuri's Revenge changes the multiplayer game dynamic so that the game is extremely replayable.

Players can also compete online in both games. Even though Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 was released a decade ago, and Yuri’s Revenge five years ago, the game still has plenty of active fans, thanks to the CnCNet community support platform, making the games accessible online daily. Compared to StarCraft’s similarly long-standing multiplayer community, Red Alert 2’s multiplayer experience seems simpler, with more streamlined setup times and a smaller initial wall to overcome.

The original online multiplayer also gets some serious improvements in the form of CnCNet. Online matchmaking and support for modern OS allow players to play competitively with Windows 10 or 11. This is a substantial improvement over other older RTS games, which have had difficulty keeping compatibility with newer hardware and software.

Incompatibility with modern operating systems is the greatest problem with old games. No matter, Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge do not run as they should on Windows 10 or 11, and a bit of tricking is needed to get things to work. However, the patches used by the CnCNet tools make it easy to install and run the game with minimal problems. The Red Alert 2 series is very different from just about any other vintage titles that you might need to tweak to no end to work properly, with relative ease being part of the package.

A good, solid tactical combat and resource management style of gameplay is what you can find in Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge. And the games themselves have aged well–by far, better than average for an RTS title to enjoy such lasting appeal. The multiplayer modes aren’t dead. The community still supports them through mods and patches to keep the game fresh for new players. For someone seeking a good old-school RTS experience on Windows, Red Alert 2 with Yuri’s Revenge is still a sound option.