Fun. Red Alert 3 is all about having fun. The developers were obviously having fun, the actors in the cut-scenes are definitely having fun, and yes, as a result, you the player generally end up having fun too.

This is a game that does not take itself seriously. It’s set in an alternate history where first Hitler and now Einstein have been bumped off by time-travellers who can’t resist poking at the time-space continuum with something big and pointy. Apparently, to make up for this, LSD is a required supple­ment for scientific research, as demonstrated by the attack bears, amphibious walking boats armed with Tesla coils, transforming robots and time-travelling comm­andos that make up some of the game’s unit selection.

Red Alert 3 includes a new fact­ion, the Empire of the Rising Sun, created by the aforementioned temporal tampering. How and why remains unexplained, and if you worry too much about that sort of thing, you’re missing the point. The Empire’s units are wryly thematic; in addition to several kinds of transforming robot the game boasts an absolutely MASSIVE robot, and a schoolgirl – a schoolgirl with very impressive telekinetic abilities, naturally.

Expect to see a lot of familiar faces in the cut-scenes between missions, all of whom get into the spirit of things with wonderful gusto and a large side order of ham. The storylines themselves aren’t up to much, but they do their job of setting the scene and providing slightly more motivat­ion than “kill everything”.

All of this atmosphere would be entirely wasted, of course, if the actual mechanics weren’t up to scratch, but fortunately Red Alert 3 doesn’t disappoint in this regard, and even manages to be fairly innovative in a few places. The notable addition, and one that adds a lot to the game, is that of secondary abilities. Every unit – down to the basic infantry grunt or lowly guard dog – has one, which can be either a toggle (often between offensive or defensive modes), or a triggered ability, like the self-destruct on the Japanese dragonfly drones. Effective use of these abilities will make the difference between glory or defeat in closer battles, or allow a smaller force to wipe out a much larger one. These abilities ensure that every unit is useful in some way, and simply storming the enemy with as many tanks as you can fit on the screen is no longer an effective strategy. The other main innovation in missions is that of the co-commander, a computer-con­trolled army which will support you, help defend your base and can be given limited orders to allow co-ordinated attacks. They’re surprisingly good at this too, but if you really don’t trust artificial intelligence, it can be replaced with a friend, allowing you to play the whole campaign co-operatively. It’s this feature that really lifts the game above other current strategy titles, and it’s well worth the price of admission alone.

Yes, unit path-finding is still the bane of the strategy game, and the online connectivity can be unreliable under Vista, but these are minor niggles that never get close to spoiling the fun you’ll be having as you launch parachuting attack-bears into an enemy base while sucking up tanks with a magnetic beam before dropping them back down on the enemy’s heads.