Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Westwood's Command & Conquer series -- born into a great tradition of like RTS experiences first established by the seminal Dune 2 -- has always offered a robust sort of real-time strategy. But while the original C&C often found itself contending with Blizzard's Warcraft brand for supremacy, Red Alert really had no equal. 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.

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 bases.