Red Alert 2: How to play online for FREE

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is an old but classic PC game from the year 2000 that is often remembered as one of the best real-time strategy games of all time. But despite its age, there remains a community of fans who keep the game alive and well by maintaining free servers for online multiplayer matches.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 Game Information

Red Alert 2 was developed by Westwood Pacific and released on October 25, 2000, with an expansion pack called Yuri’s Revenge released in October of the following year. It has the same core design as the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert but also features a lighter visual style, more full motion video cutscenes that starred professional actors, and new types of units to control.

The story in the game is set in the same alternate history depicted in Red Alert, in which a time travel mission to remove Adolf Hitler from history resulted in a stronger Soviet Union that opposed the Allied forces in the second World War. In Red Alert 2, the story begins with the Soviet Union invading the United States.

Red Alert 2 enjoyed commercial success and was among the best-selling video games in 2000. On review aggregator Metacritic, the game has a general favorable score of 84/100 based on 29 critic reviews and 8.9/10 based on user ratings.

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Play Red Alert 2 Online for Free

You can play Red Alert 2 for free on your browser via ChronoDivide, which claims to be a non-profit fan project with no affiliation with the game’s publisher Electronic Arts. This method is for multiplayer only, so you won’t be able to play the campaign nor on skirmish mode.

To play, visit game.chronedivide.com. Locate the original game assets (a download link is also provided if you don’t have a copy) in your local directory. Wait for the archive to extract. The game menu will appear once all the necessary resources are loaded.

To start or join a game, click Custom Match, and create or log into an account by choosing a server (Europe or Southeast Asia), nickname and password. Once logged in, join or create a game in the custom match lobby with other online players.

Red Alert 2 Multiplayer Gameplay and Mechanics

Before joining one, you might want to refresh your knowledge on how multiplayer matches work on Red Alert 2. If you join an available game, remember to select a country of your preferred faction. If you want to be in the Allies, choose America, France, Germany, Great Britain, or Korea. If you want to be in the Soviets instead, choose Cuba, Iraq, Libra, or Russia.

If you’re hosting, you can customize more settings. These include the game speed, the starting credits, and maximum unit count. You can also enable the ability to build super weapons, select a game type to adjust the objectives or limit what players can do, and pick a battlefield map.

EA Purchase Options

Depending on the method you’ll use to play Red Alert 2 online multiplayer matches, you may be required to have a copy of the game installed on your computer. The trouble of finding a physical copy of the game and managing to install it on modern Windows operating systems may not be worth the time. Fortunately, the game can still be purchased online.

Head to EA’s Origin website and get the Command & Conquer The Ultimate Collection, which includes Red Alert 2 and its expansion Yuri’s Revenge. The collection can be purchased separately or as part of the EA Play subscription (similar to PC Game Pass). It’s also possible that it will be re-released as part of a “remastered” edition, as is the case of two other C&C games.