A game that has been nailed to the coffin board, actually rushed to the hot search?
On the last day of 2021, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 ushered in a new life! The "Corona" MOD, which was built by domestic players for three years, officially opened the public beta, and the boiling emotions of players were comparable to the New Year.
This game, which has been cold for 7 years and even the EA official has given up, has been saved by Chinese players.
Red Alert 3 was launched in 2008 and closed in 2014
In the Corona MOD, the production team not only optimized the original game content of "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3", but also joined a new camp based on China - "Shenzhou".
Shenzhou camp
In the promotional video, both the architectural style and the combat unit are very Chinese characteristics, coupled with the Chinese flavor of the unit naming, so that domestic players have goosebumps.
Shenzhou faction unit model and name
At the same time, the production team also optimized the models of the other three factions in the original version, upgraded the special effects, and most importantly, made major adjustments to the combat unit system of the three factions, making their unit movements, ranges, and rate of fire more reasonable, and the game more balanced.
Soviet camp rhino tanks
Allied camp light prism tanks
Imperial camp blade destroyer
How big is this update? It's like "Overwatch" adding 15 new heroes and 20 new maps at a time, but in the 6 years since Overwatch was launched, a total of 11 new heroes and 16 new maps have been updated, so it is no wonder that some players say that "Corona" is teaching the big factory if it makes a qualified RTS (real-time strategy game).
With such a large number of updates, Corona is not so much a mod of Red Alert 3 as a brand new version of the game.
Some players may wonder, isn't MOD a patch for freedom of dressing? How can you still make so many lives?
In fact, MOD is not only a change of clothes, a change of model, but also some new gameplay based on the game itself is also a mod. For example, the familiar "Counter-Strike" was originally a mod of "Half-Life", and one of the most successful esports games in recent years, "DOTA2", was originally just a mod of "Warcraft 3".
Therefore, in everyone's eyes, "Corona" is a mod that goes beyond the "Red Alert 3" game itself, which can be seen from the "Corona" MOD promotional film full of bullet screens.
And the reason for the "Corona" MOD fire is not only that the game joined the "China" camp and can still insist on updating even if the official server is shut down, which is worth admiring in itself.
Looking back at history, this is not the first time that the "Red Alert" series has appeared in the "China" camp mod, as early as the "Red Alert 2" period, there was the "Glow of the Republic" MOD that swept the country at that time.
The mod adds the "China" faction and the related plot to the original game. However, the producers have made the "China" in the mod too powerful, combining all the advantages of other countries, even the same unit "China" camp will be more powerful.
In the game, as long as you choose the "China" camp, you can fancy other countries, which makes it unnecessary for players to choose other countries in the game.
Player reviews
The "Chinese" camp is not only half stronger than other countries in terms of setting, but also has "black technology" means, and players ridicule such a setting is basically equivalent to "cheating", which shows its strength.
In the official setting, soldiers will rise to the stars after destroying powerful targets, and ordinary soldiers will be upgraded to one-star soldiers and then three-star soldiers, which is a very difficult process.
But the "training camp" in the "Chinese" camp in the mod can directly upgrade soldiers to "three stars", who can stand it?
There was no bootcamp in the original version
There is also a "spy" mechanic in the game, that is, the "spy" can steal the enemy's technology, so that the combat unit we created is "one star" from birth, but it is very difficult to steal the enemy.
The "spies" of the "Chinese" camp in the mod can "steal themselves" and effortlessly make their own combat units born "one star".
The original version only has an effect if you steal enemies
Therefore, the only reason why many players choose the "Chinese" camp is to challenge more opponents, and challenge the seven strongest computer players at the same time.
True one dozen seven
Although this extremely unbalanced experience has further increased the popularity of the "Glow of the Republic" MOD, its popularity has even far exceeded the official original, and once became a must-have "hot game" for every Internet café.
Cover of the original game
The original game options interface
But it is also because of the high popularity, so that many players mistakenly think that the "Republic of The Glow" MOD is the original "Red Alert 2" game, such an information gap makes the original players and mod players make a lot of unpleasant, and even become hostile.
Therefore, the "Glow of the Republic" MOD became the most popular mod in the "Red Alert 2" period and the most controversial mod, and people who liked it loved it and hated it to the bone.
But overall this mod was a success because most players remember its brilliance.
Know the problem
Since Red Alert 2 has such a successful mod, why does Red Alert 3 have to wait until the game is closed before starting to make mods?
In fact, as early as 2011, that is, the third year after the launch of "Red Alert 3", domestic players joined the "Chinese" camp mod "Dragon World" in "Red Alert 3".
The Chinese camp of "Dragon Overlord"
However, in the production idea to take the "Red Alert 2" MOD "Glory of the Republic" of the old road, the same "China" camp gathers all the advantages of other camps, the same "China" camp is much stronger than other camps, the same other camps have no need to choose, but the ending is very different from the "Glory of the Republic".
The four camps of the "Dragon Overlord World"
Because "Red Alert 3" has a smaller audience than "Red Alert 2", the vast majority of players who can stick to play "Red Alert 3" are the official original players of "Red Alert 2", plus there is an "irreconcilable" contradiction between mod players and original players.
In this way, "Dragon Overlord World" not only did not regain the glory of "The Glory of the Republic", but also received many bad reviews from "Red Alert 3" players.
In the following years, the "Dragon Overlord World" weakened the "Chinese" camp again and again, and eventually balanced the game, but at this time, the player's enthusiasm for the "Dragon World" has long dissipated.
It turns out that the "Red Alert 2" and "Glow of the Republic" sets do not work in "Red Alert 3".
However, "Dragon Overlord World" has illuminated the future path of "Red Alert 3" MOD, and in 2017, two years after the closure of the "Red Alert 3" official uniform, another "Red Alert 3" and "China" camp mod "Corona" was approved and began internal testing in 2019.
For three years, we don't know what the production team of "Corona" went through, how much bitterness we can't empathize with, but fortunately they finally persevered!
The emergence of "Corona" has drawn a surprise to the game circle in 2021, and I hope that there will be more such surprises in the future.
Like our article, welcome to a wave of re-evaluation, look forward to our next encounter ~
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