Being a fan of Command and Conquer Generals for about 15 years now, I had always thought that game was the overall best in the entire series and one of the finest in the strategy genre. Generals isn't a perfect game, since it has lots of balancing issues, and some factions are clearly superior to others, but the reason why I think it's my favorite is because of the modability of the game. Mods allow members of the community to create entirely new experiences running off the same game, often to the point where it resembles an entirely new one. The best mods are able to improve upon games to such a degree that they can be counted as separate games altogether, and this is the case with Mental Omega. Like stated earlier, I'm accustomed to Generals, so when I heard about this mod in December, I questioned how good it actually is. All I can say is I am pretty mad with myself for not knowing about this earlier. Mental Omega is an insanely good mod which runs off of Red Alert 2, usually considered the best game in the C&C franchise. More specifically, it's an unofficial addon for RA2's one and only downloadable expansion, Yuri's Revenge, and acts as a non-canon sequel to said game.
Whichever team you finished as in YR, Yuri no longer exists by the end of it as the timeline he was in gets overwritten. This is where Mental Omega comes in, as the makers behind this work of brilliance undoubtedly had a lot of excitement and new ideas that they didn't get to express before. Mental Omega, plot wise, takes place in the early 80s, about a decade ahead of RA2's storyline. The mod's plot has a large amount of content and is confusing, so I probably won't cover everything, but the basics are that the mod follows an altered version of the Third World War, which is the same war fought between the Allies and USSR in Red Alert 2. Following this war is the Mental Omega War, in which Yuri, leader of the Psychic Corps (which defected from the Soviets and is now called the Epsilon) tries to enslave both the Allies and Soviets (alongside everyone else on earth) via the Mental Omega Device: a huge tower in Antarctica with global mind control range. The Soviets, already in possession of most of Europe, try to beat back Yuri, as do the Allies. I won't spoil the story modes, especially because I have only finished one so far, but eventually, the Mental Omega Device manages to enslave most of the world until a faction called the Foehn Revolt gets formed towards the end of the war. Founded by Yunru, a teenage girl scientist affiliated with China (which is part of the USSR in this mod). Foehn possesses the most advanced weapons, technology, and vehicles ever seen in the war, and prefers to rely on highly capable and powerful units that can perform different roles well, technically making them the strongest faction in the game. Introduced into the mod in 2016, some technologies used by the Revolt include plasma weaponry, wind and weather manipulation (which allows them to create violent storms), nanotechnology, weaponized sound waves, and a heavy focus on artificial intelligence. Because of their mastery over wind, Foehn aircraft don't ever need to land. Aside from the ambitious move of adding a whole new faction to play as, Mental Omega also improves on Red Alert 2 by making additions and changes to the 3 teams from the first game. The mod has 4 teams altogether, Allies, Soviets, Epsilon and Foehn, but technically 12 teams total because each faction has 3 subteams. For instance, Yuri's team was mostly known for its use of mind control in the base game, and he still has that, but now, Epsilon has a subfaction with less of a focus on mind control, and more focus on things like fast vehicles, toxic weapons, and stealth, making them similar to the terrorist GLA forces from Generals. Russia, now not really the steamrolling, brute force faction it once was, specializes in decently mobile tanks that balance armor and firepower, mobile war factories that can churn out tanks right on the doorstep of their enemies (Stalin's Fist), and experimental Tesla weapons that disintegrate soldiers and vehicles alike. The Allies are mostly the same as they've always been, and are very capable on the battlefield due to their use of vehicles and units that can perform several different tasks. All Allied teams get the Cryocopter, a helicopter armed with a freeze ray that deals no damage whatsoever, but makes vehicles more brittle and susceptible to damage the longer it is fired.
Last but definitely not least, we have Foehn, who boast the most advanced technology in the game and are, in my opinion, the most fun team to play. Many will complain that their technological supremacy makes them unfair, but Foehn vehicles are expensive and take a long time to build, meaning you can't throw them away carelessly in the same manner as Epsilon (and to a lesser extent) Soviet ones. The Foehn, like the other teams, has 3 subfactions that each cater to a specific style of warfare. Quick note, MO also features what are known as epic units, which are extremely powerful vehicles capable of killing entire armies of ordinary vehicles. The Allies are the only team that don't have one, although they do have something comparable in their story mode (Paradox Engine). My favorite Foehn subfaction is Wings of Coronia, who prefer to have total control of the skies, and their arsenal reflects this. Coronia uses units such as the Pteranodon, which is a huge, flying vehicle resembling a spaceship that can kill tanks with its two pressurizer batteries. Just because they prioritize in flying weapons doesn't mean Coronia is caught unprepared on the ground. They also use Draco tanks, which are tanks that gain a substantial speed bonus when near a structure called a Spinblade. Draco tanks jettison their turrets as flying drones when they are destroyed. Finally, there's Coronia's killer app, the Harbinger gunship. These huge aircraft come in every 10 minutes or so in order to bombard everything in their field of fire with huge cannons firing enormous blobs of plasma.
If all these huge changes still aren't enough to convince you to get MO, they also reworked the stolen tech system. In Mental Omega, each faction can gain access to 4 vehicles known as "stolen tech" ones. What this means is it's a vehicle that uses technology from both the faction it is used by and the faction part of it has been stolen from. For instance, if you are playing as Epsilon and sneak a spy into a Soviet tech building, you are rewarded with the Wormqueen; a tracked vehicle that can travel underground and also makes use of both Soviet and Epsilon technology. It uses Epsilon tech because it is subterranean, and it uses Soviet tech because it shoots electricity. Wormqueens are effective against all factions, but they're a huge headache for Soviets (particularly Russia) since electricity based attacks don't deal damage to them. This irksome trait of stolen tech units being able to counter the respective teams they are stolen from is not unique to Wormqueens. It is designed that way to reward players for stealing from their enemies, as sneaking a spy into your enemy's base is not easy. There are some other things I can mention about this mod, and one of the most noticeable is the soundtrack. The music in this mod is amazing. About half of it is done by Frank Klepacki, as both the Soviet and Allied soundtracks consist of songs he did but were never in any Command and Conquer game. The soundtrack for Yuri's team is done by a band called Black Ice 9, and the songs have a really mysterious and foreboding feel to them, which is fitting because of Yuri's role in the story. My favorite soundtrack by far is the Foehn's, which is all performed by a band called World Beyond specifically for this game. The Foehn soundtrack consists of powerful, fast paced and heroic sounding music which just really makes you feel like you can handle anything the game throws at you. None of them are bad. I have to admit, as a Generals player, I'm envious of this mod's soundtrack being so good. Generals' music is good, but it's nothing like this.
I am basically done here, so the last thing I will talk about is probably the most polarizing aspect of MO: the difficulty. Even as someone who is used to very hard mods for other games, the fact remains that MO is always going to chew you up. Even on the easiest setting, the campaign levels in this mod are often brutally hard, with little margin for error. You have to take every single part seriously because all it takes is one mistake and you're back at the beginning. At least it has a save feature so you can save the game before attempting something stupid, but this wasn't always the case. It's admittedly a very unforgiving game to play for new players, and this is the same case for the skirmish mode. The computer in MO is much smarter than it used to be and will attack you relentlessly with all the things at its disposal, as well as having access to infinite money. It's unfair, but it has to be because computers can't think intelligently like humans. My strategy is to bunker myself in my base with tons of defenses, and hold off on attacking until I have a good economy going. This applies to Generals too, but it's more important here. Mental Omega got nearly everything right, but when it came to difficulty, Speeder sure did make a lot of people mad. Still, if you're looking for a great mod for Red Alert 2 that adds literally months worth of new content such as vehicles, units, structures, multiplayer maps, game modes, and an interconnected, interesting story spanning over a hundred different levels, look no further than Mental Omega. Like I said at the beginning, I am sorry that I didn't know about this mod back in 2015 or so, because I would have loved it. At least now that I know, I can enjoy it at the height of its popularity, since it is officially done as of last November.
Whichever team you finished as in YR, Yuri no longer exists by the end of it as the timeline he was in gets overwritten. This is where Mental Omega comes in, as the makers behind this work of brilliance undoubtedly had a lot of excitement and new ideas that they didn't get to express before. Mental Omega, plot wise, takes place in the early 80s, about a decade ahead of RA2's storyline. The mod's plot has a large amount of content and is confusing, so I probably won't cover everything, but the basics are that the mod follows an altered version of the Third World War, which is the same war fought between the Allies and USSR in Red Alert 2. Following this war is the Mental Omega War, in which Yuri, leader of the Psychic Corps (which defected from the Soviets and is now called the Epsilon) tries to enslave both the Allies and Soviets (alongside everyone else on earth) via the Mental Omega Device: a huge tower in Antarctica with global mind control range. The Soviets, already in possession of most of Europe, try to beat back Yuri, as do the Allies. I won't spoil the story modes, especially because I have only finished one so far, but eventually, the Mental Omega Device manages to enslave most of the world until a faction called the Foehn Revolt gets formed towards the end of the war. Founded by Yunru, a teenage girl scientist affiliated with China (which is part of the USSR in this mod). Foehn possesses the most advanced weapons, technology, and vehicles ever seen in the war, and prefers to rely on highly capable and powerful units that can perform different roles well, technically making them the strongest faction in the game. Introduced into the mod in 2016, some technologies used by the Revolt include plasma weaponry, wind and weather manipulation (which allows them to create violent storms), nanotechnology, weaponized sound waves, and a heavy focus on artificial intelligence. Because of their mastery over wind, Foehn aircraft don't ever need to land. Aside from the ambitious move of adding a whole new faction to play as, Mental Omega also improves on Red Alert 2 by making additions and changes to the 3 teams from the first game. The mod has 4 teams altogether, Allies, Soviets, Epsilon and Foehn, but technically 12 teams total because each faction has 3 subteams. For instance, Yuri's team was mostly known for its use of mind control in the base game, and he still has that, but now, Epsilon has a subfaction with less of a focus on mind control, and more focus on things like fast vehicles, toxic weapons, and stealth, making them similar to the terrorist GLA forces from Generals. Russia, now not really the steamrolling, brute force faction it once was, specializes in decently mobile tanks that balance armor and firepower, mobile war factories that can churn out tanks right on the doorstep of their enemies (Stalin's Fist), and experimental Tesla weapons that disintegrate soldiers and vehicles alike. The Allies are mostly the same as they've always been, and are very capable on the battlefield due to their use of vehicles and units that can perform several different tasks. All Allied teams get the Cryocopter, a helicopter armed with a freeze ray that deals no damage whatsoever, but makes vehicles more brittle and susceptible to damage the longer it is fired.
Last but definitely not least, we have Foehn, who boast the most advanced technology in the game and are, in my opinion, the most fun team to play. Many will complain that their technological supremacy makes them unfair, but Foehn vehicles are expensive and take a long time to build, meaning you can't throw them away carelessly in the same manner as Epsilon (and to a lesser extent) Soviet ones. The Foehn, like the other teams, has 3 subfactions that each cater to a specific style of warfare. Quick note, MO also features what are known as epic units, which are extremely powerful vehicles capable of killing entire armies of ordinary vehicles. The Allies are the only team that don't have one, although they do have something comparable in their story mode (Paradox Engine). My favorite Foehn subfaction is Wings of Coronia, who prefer to have total control of the skies, and their arsenal reflects this. Coronia uses units such as the Pteranodon, which is a huge, flying vehicle resembling a spaceship that can kill tanks with its two pressurizer batteries. Just because they prioritize in flying weapons doesn't mean Coronia is caught unprepared on the ground. They also use Draco tanks, which are tanks that gain a substantial speed bonus when near a structure called a Spinblade. Draco tanks jettison their turrets as flying drones when they are destroyed. Finally, there's Coronia's killer app, the Harbinger gunship. These huge aircraft come in every 10 minutes or so in order to bombard everything in their field of fire with huge cannons firing enormous blobs of plasma.
If all these huge changes still aren't enough to convince you to get MO, they also reworked the stolen tech system. In Mental Omega, each faction can gain access to 4 vehicles known as "stolen tech" ones. What this means is it's a vehicle that uses technology from both the faction it is used by and the faction part of it has been stolen from. For instance, if you are playing as Epsilon and sneak a spy into a Soviet tech building, you are rewarded with the Wormqueen; a tracked vehicle that can travel underground and also makes use of both Soviet and Epsilon technology. It uses Epsilon tech because it is subterranean, and it uses Soviet tech because it shoots electricity. Wormqueens are effective against all factions, but they're a huge headache for Soviets (particularly Russia) since electricity based attacks don't deal damage to them. This irksome trait of stolen tech units being able to counter the respective teams they are stolen from is not unique to Wormqueens. It is designed that way to reward players for stealing from their enemies, as sneaking a spy into your enemy's base is not easy. There are some other things I can mention about this mod, and one of the most noticeable is the soundtrack. The music in this mod is amazing. About half of it is done by Frank Klepacki, as both the Soviet and Allied soundtracks consist of songs he did but were never in any Command and Conquer game. The soundtrack for Yuri's team is done by a band called Black Ice 9, and the songs have a really mysterious and foreboding feel to them, which is fitting because of Yuri's role in the story. My favorite soundtrack by far is the Foehn's, which is all performed by a band called World Beyond specifically for this game. The Foehn soundtrack consists of powerful, fast paced and heroic sounding music which just really makes you feel like you can handle anything the game throws at you. None of them are bad. I have to admit, as a Generals player, I'm envious of this mod's soundtrack being so good. Generals' music is good, but it's nothing like this.
I am basically done here, so the last thing I will talk about is probably the most polarizing aspect of MO: the difficulty. Even as someone who is used to very hard mods for other games, the fact remains that MO is always going to chew you up. Even on the easiest setting, the campaign levels in this mod are often brutally hard, with little margin for error. You have to take every single part seriously because all it takes is one mistake and you're back at the beginning. At least it has a save feature so you can save the game before attempting something stupid, but this wasn't always the case. It's admittedly a very unforgiving game to play for new players, and this is the same case for the skirmish mode. The computer in MO is much smarter than it used to be and will attack you relentlessly with all the things at its disposal, as well as having access to infinite money. It's unfair, but it has to be because computers can't think intelligently like humans. My strategy is to bunker myself in my base with tons of defenses, and hold off on attacking until I have a good economy going. This applies to Generals too, but it's more important here. Mental Omega got nearly everything right, but when it came to difficulty, Speeder sure did make a lot of people mad. Still, if you're looking for a great mod for Red Alert 2 that adds literally months worth of new content such as vehicles, units, structures, multiplayer maps, game modes, and an interconnected, interesting story spanning over a hundred different levels, look no further than Mental Omega. Like I said at the beginning, I am sorry that I didn't know about this mod back in 2015 or so, because I would have loved it. At least now that I know, I can enjoy it at the height of its popularity, since it is officially done as of last November.
