We all want Command and Conquer Red Alert to come back, but not like this

Command and Conquer Red Alert is one of the best videogame sequels of all time. Westwood follows Tiberian Dawn with a complete aesthetical turn – the embellished, pseudo sci-fi style of the original C&C is replaced and reimagined completely with a borderline dark comedy version of the Cold War. Oh, and it’s got Hell March. The Command and Conquer series, for the most part, is missing in action right now. But the RTS does, in fact, continue to limp on, via an obscure spin-off that’s just gotten a new beta. Starring Yuri, Tanya, and dozens of recognizable buildings and units, Command and Conquer Red Alert is officially back today. Kind of.

If you haven’t heard of Command and Conquer Legions, it’s a mobile version of the strategy and RTS game that’s currently still in development. It looks like C&C. But the gameplay is very truncated. Building and battling basically involve just tapping the screen – there’s not really any strategy whatsoever. Combine that with all the usual trappings of a free-to-play mobile game and, even for the most devoted C&C fan, Legions becomes hard to love. Nevertheless, as part of a new beta, it’s reviving Red Alert.

The first season of Legions is based on an alternate timeline where Yuri was never defeated and the Command and Conquer version of the Cold War is still raging on. Buildings, units, and characters from the beloved subseries return, and there’s a new roguelike-style mode, as well as skirmishing and UI improvements from earlier versions of the game.

The Command and Conquer Legions closed beta is available from today, Friday July 5. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can register and join right here. I really, really want Command and Conquer to come back – the Remastered Collection was so wonderful, and the idea of a new, Westwood-style C&C is more exciting to me than GTA 6 or Fallout 5. Maybe it will happen. Maybe it won’t. I live in hope.

In the meantime, you can still enjoy some of the other best strategy games, or maybe the best 4X games ever made.

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