So I got in the Beta for RA3 yesterday, and even though it's closed right now, I'll field whatever questions I can answer. When the game's released, I'll turn this topic into the RA3 General Topic for people challenging each other and stuff.
I'll post some screenshots later, but go ahead and ask your questions. I'll let you know. But, I'll only be on sporadically this weekend, so I might take 12 hours or so between answering.
But my first impression is absolute happiness. The game is fantastic, in spite of some glitches, it's very well done so far.
Some facts to report -> But these are only as of the Beta, some changes might be made.
The way the factions build is different:
Allies build and THEN place.
Soviets Place, and it builds.
And The Empire of the Rising sun buys drones, which take little time, and then the drones go out and deploy.
But yeah, friend is asking to play some Smash Bros, so adios for now.
I loved Red Alert and Red Alert 2, this looks amazing too.
So the allies play (or at least build) like traditional C&C, which I hate because you have to wait for stuff to build BEFORE finding a place to put it. The soviets play the starcraft way, which I like, except without actual builder units. Japan has builders?
The good thing about the tradition 'build the place' mechanic is that your building can't be destroyed while it is building.
So, how do you like the more 'unique' units like the grizzly bears and psychic school girls?
So, you're playing the Beta? How's Tanya & Natasha? the new units? everything else?
I'm honestly so hyped up for this game!
Interestingly enough I haven't tried the Hero Units yet. I will make a few more points and if I remember to, I'll get some screenshots for ya.
- King Onis - The Empire's Large Mecha, is a pain in the BUTT to kill, they are heavily armored, their lasers chew through most everything, and if you have a fleet of 5, they can mow down opposing armies easily. Not joking, fighting them sucks. Thankfully they are NOT amphibious. So when they start breaching my base, I suddenly shift to the water-side of the base. (The Beta always starts your MCV in the water, along the shoreline)
- The Allies are just fucking dicks in every sense of the word. Their idea of fair play is if they don't have something, you don't have it. With things like Chrono Rift General Powers (Not sure they're called that, but they are most similar tot he General Powers of C&C Generals) that take a section of your troops and make them dissapear for up to a minute, things like the Cryocopter, which STOP ANYTHING ON THE SURFACE IN IT'S TRACKS, and then there's the awesome Prisim Tech (Now called Spectrum Towers, Prisim tanks are merged with Mirage Tanks) which chews through armor. Back to the Cryocopters, these are the asses of the allied fleet. They fire a blue beam that if it hits a unit for a few seconds freezes it solid. If you purchase a certan general power, said freezing makes it brittle: I have shattered an invading army with nothing but 10 cryocopters and a very overzealous tank. It's brutal.
- The Soviets, savage brutal power. With powers that drop decaying orbital satellites, randomly causes Terror Drones to burst free from your tanks when they die and give your larger tanks the ability to grind infanty into a soylent green paste with spiney treads, they look at everybody else and say "Fuck you, We're Russia, we grind your bones to make our soups." The Apoc Tank is a slow-roving GOD, but it no longer has the ability to defend itself from Airborne attacks, the Tesla Trooper costs $750 and is right next to Natasha in the Infantry tab, being the last standard infantry to get access to, but sweet Jesus these guys remind me of Big Daddies. Big Daddies with 10,000 volts of sweet sweet arcing soldering doom. They can go toe-to-toe with any tank, but are classified infantry, so what that means is if your foe has a bunch of tank-ripper vehicles, send in the Tesla Troopers and kick ass and chew bubble gum, but forget the bubble gum.
- The Empire gets this cute little drone for $300 that your barracks can build, but it's sole job is to attach to enemies vehicles. It's secondary power is self-detonation. This is great for spying and for being rude when the enemy is forced to fire on it's own unit to get rid of the spying toy. Also, the Empire has this very neat little mech, on the ground is rapes Air-Units, press the F key and it becomes a jet, and mauls the stuff on the ground. Very flexible and powerful tools. Their Tsunami Tanks are handy too, being fast on land and sea, they can easily pursue a fleeing naval base when your Oni Tanks don't do the job.... damnit.
- The Grizzlies are nice, fast but not really overall much different than dogs. They can take a few more hits but that's it.
- OK GOOD GOD THAT JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. She's gotta be nerfed, her whole strategy is moving things telekineticly, which is nice right? Wrong, I was juggling tanks, slamming Kirovs into the ground, and popping infantry, crumbling infrastructure. This guy sent two Kirovs at her. I'm like "Well, she's probably dead, but lets see if she can hit air uni- DID SHE JUST SLAM THAT KIROV INTO THE GROUND AND 1-SHOTTED IT?! AND AGAIN?! THERE'S NO RELOADING SPEED OR ANYTHING?! Then I was attacked by four Apoc Tanks. Sure, no way I'm going t win, these things have more armor than god. I click one, it's in the air, and then it's dead. Wait, what? I click on the next three in rapid succession. They're all floating, juggled. Ok, I thought to myself, there's no way I can be all powerful, so I send her at his base. She floats over water, but not over cliffs, she ranks up, and when I targeted the MCV, it had about two seconds to say goodbye. Yes, THE CONSTRUCTION YARD TOO TWO SECONDS TO KILL FROM FULL HEALTH. Then, ho ho,I hadn't even tried her power. It's this cone of FUCK YOU, pretty much, and I wailed about twenty red infantry coming at me. All in all, with her, the King Onis backing her up, a fleet of five units can obliterate a base. NOT BALANCED AT ALL.
- Now lets get into the units of the Empire. Half the units are Amphibious, the other half can turn into jets it seems. So I unless you have a balanced army, you can't kill Rising Sun. As usual, Allies and Soviets are Balanced against each other. But the Rising Sun basically puts it in the cornhole of whoever they face, if the user has any brains.
Now, back to my vacationing & gaming while my comrades wake up. More info later guys. If you wanna know anything specific, just ask.