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I have to put some personal feelings aside for this one. I know one of
the Cncguild staff have an enemy in the Retaliation team. I shall name
no names here, and I will mark only the mod. I won't mark it down through
bias against those people. I shall mark the mod on how well it is accomplished.
So:
In my opinion this, strangely enough, is one of the best mods to date.
It concentrates not on improving entire sides with the same units, but
it gives different ones to different sides. There are also more replacements
to units that Westwood put in. In fact, most of the new shps and voxels
look practically Westwood. Some are obvious recolours and there is the
odd time you notice that it's a bit of a copypaste (Soviet airfield, MiG
fighter and MiG bomber, as well as some of the infantry). However, each
country now has massive enhancements to its own particular area of expertise,
or alternatively they have been given additions from real life or simply
to be remade to a certain style. Those who remember TS and RA1 will be
taking a trip down memory lane, with an awful lot of new speech packs
for many of the new units. My favourite for this is the Soviet Spetznaz,
because he uses the RA1 voices, which I am VERY fond of. The phlegm-gargle
in the Russian acknowledged is something I've laughed at for a while.
Most of the new units fit in to RA2 very well, and there has been plenty
of recolouring been done, even if the units were downloaded, so that they
fit in quite nicely.
Those who read my review on Eye Of The Phoenix, and those who have played
it, will be familiar with the 'research' building. However, the new Soviet
techs are a lot cheaper and are simply enhancements. Not to say they aren't
good. The Conscription tech shaves a sweet amout of cash off all the infantry,
much like the Industrial Plant does. However, this one can be built as
many times as you please. I haven't built enough to get free units yet,
though. A fun and very strategic Allied idea is the Fake buildings. These
come in three flavours: Construction Yard, War Factory and Power Plant.
These would be excellent for online play, as there is absolutely no way
to tell between the real and the phony, so if you want a quick escape
but don't want it to look like you're escaping, use these.
To be honest, I adore every single unit that has been added in this mod.
Each one is useful, and even some of Westwood's units can't hold that
candle without burning themselves. And this is a Beta. There are just
a couple of cameos to fix, the odd minuscule bug here or there, but for
a Beta, this thing is outstanding.
Yuri is the only real small point, with the least new stuff. This puts
the Yuri player at a bit of a disadvantage.
For best amounts of loony fun, set the Unit Count to 50 and go barging
into the AI's base there and then. It's very possible, if you're good
enough, to destroy the enemy's starting force and their whole base right
from the start, no matter who you're playing as. Even Yuri forces can
be beaten in this way. Be warned though, this sort of battle is high body
count, which just serves to make it all the more fun.
Rating: 9/10
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