RA3 was a lot better.

There was absolutely no balance in RA2, the Allies got everything while the Soviets got tanks.

The Allies had long range units with a decent rate of fire, high damage and a "chaining" effect to hit multiple buildings while the Soviet's counterpart was slow as shit rocket that could be completely countered by any sort of anti-air capability.

The allied naval units were all multirole except for one (incidentally, that one ship was the absolute best anti-air unit in the game) while the Soviets' were specialized in only one target type.

The campaigns were loads of fun for both RA2 and the expansion. They did make a few tweaks to balancing in the expansion and added a third faction led by Udo Kier himself.

Didn't like RA3, thought it was gimmicky and stupid, it did the camp elements right but having the campaign as co-op was a dick-move and the game-play was just tiring.

All of the Red Alerts are good.

All are good, but IMHO, each one was better than the last. I mean, by RA3 you had Tim Curry, Jenny McCarthy, Mister Sulu, and a flying psychic Japanese schoolgirl who went off all Akira-style on the Gaijin.

How can anyone complain about gameplay when you've got a flying psychic Japanese schoolgirl going off all Akira-style on the Gaijin?

RA3 was a bit too hectic, it just wasn't my thing. I do admit that the RA3 expansion with Ric Flair did a lot of things right but it just didn't hook me like the previous one did. I'm not saying it's horrible, just not my taste.

RA3 wasn't really any more hectic than 2, though the "must have alt fire on EVERY unit" mechanic was obnoxious.

It was also a hell of a lot more balanced. Lobotomy mentioned the ridiculous gap between prism tanks (slaughtered everything but tanks) and V3s (slaughtered only buildings with no anti-air nearby). There was also the weather control being vastly superior to the nuke, and then there were the special national units. Allies got all awesome shit like snipers or para drops or overpowered jets or the extremely cheap grand cannon while the Soviets got worthless crap.

The one advantage the soviets did have was if you captured an allied barracks (extremely easy if you had a partner) and snuck a spy into a battle lab to get Yuri Prime, who could mind control units from halfway across the map.

Damn straight.

Yuri don't give a fuck.