Westwood's alternate history RTS presented unparalleled strategy that perfectly married currently-applicable RTS interface conventions with diverse units to create some utterly compelling gameplay. When taken online or played over LAN, Red Alert simply excelled. Broken alliances and heedless harvester rushes still bring tears to our eyes. It didn't start the genre, but it probably started the craze.

Although still set in the future, the game is set on an Earth where time travel has eliminated Hitler from history and the Second World War never happened. As a result the Western Allies are left facing a powerful USSR with both sides equipped with futuristic technology. The game consists of a series of timed missions. Scenarios and objectives are varied. Objectives range from overrunning the enemy force to more subtle missions such infiltrating