Hands on with Command & Conquer: Red Alert on iPhone

Talk of epic real-time strategy gaming on iPhone is enough to prime our scepticism rockets, yet Command & Conquer: Red Alert may force us to surrender if our hands on with the game is any indication. Solid controls and nice visuals provide a base for what could end up the first great RTS on the platform.

The potential for intuitive control makes Command & Conquer a promising proposition, particularly given our experience playing a brief demo of the game. Units can be individually selected with a tap, while groups are lassoed using a selection box.

Tapping the selection box icon and then sliding a finger across the screen creates a box that grants controls of any units enclosed within the selection area. You're even able to assign units to groups by dragging your finger to the left side of the screen, dropping highlighted units onto any of the four numbered groups listed there.

Multi-touch zoom ensures easy adjustment of the camera, which is vital to keeping a good perspective on the battlefield. A mini-map in the upper-right corner also provides an overview of unit positions and can be used to quickly move the camera to the farthest reaches of a given map.

Commissioning units and raising structures are both done via collapsible menus located in the lower-right side of the screen. A tap slides the menu out and you're able to select the desired items with a touch.

The range of units and buildings will likely be conservative, though we noted basic units including infantry and tanks were available with enough resources. Exotic units, such as war bears, will also be offered depending on which of the game's two factions you play.

Base building will play a role, but in an effort to ensure accessibility on the device expect it to be streamlined to the essential elements. Command & Conquer has long been on the active side of real-time strategy with its various PC incarnations and this iPhone extension promises to continue that legacy.

The tedium of laying down a dozen buildings and mining several different resources is thankfully absent here: instead, the goal is to provide a more energetic, faster paced strategy experience.

What we've seen thus far is pointing in the right direction. The mechanics appear solid, though the scenarios and gameplay modes layered atop these fundamentals will make or break the game.

A satisfying single player campaign needs to deliver challenging missions, as well as explore both factions in playable form. Additionally, multiplayer has to appear in some shape whether it be head-to-head battles via Bluetooth or statistical tracking online. Plugging in achievements could also add value to the game.

Even without some of these features, we're fairly confident that Command & Conquer will yield solid real-time strategy gameplay. The core is there and we're eager to see what will be done to embellish upon these basics when the game releases to the App Store sometime before the year's end.