Although Uprising doesn't require the original Red Alert 3 to play, it's clearly intended for players already familiar with the game. This small expansion is designed specifically to emphasize the single player experience, so there are no multiplayer features, not even a co-op mode that was so central to the main game. Its story takes place right after the war and the Allied faction emerged as the victor. Now the defeated factions are working to break out of Allied occupation, each hoping to one day rebuild superpower status. Also lurking behind the scenes is the company FutureTech, which supplied the Allies with high technology, which has its own agenda. Each mini-campaign, comprised of small handful of missions each, don't take up much time. They do a good job of setting up a variety of scenarios and progressing the story and offer up a fair challenge to both experienced and new players. One campaign is focused specifically on the Rising Sun psychic super unit, Yuriko, which details her history as a weapons experiment as she seeks to find her equally gifted sister. This campaign plays out a little like an adventure role playing game, since players upgrade Yuriko's repertoire of abilities instead of commanding armies. Again, it's a very short experience, but a fun excursion for those interested in her story. All the mini campaigns include new full-motion video footage sequences that feature celebrities like Malcolm McDowell and Ric Flair, the Nature Boy.

The all-new Commander's Challenge mode truly puts players' skills to the test by offering a wide variety of creative scenarios but only a limited amount of technology. Players can choose to play any faction for each scenario, and winning acquires new units to add to their arsenal. Starting off with a scant handful of basic units and hardly any resources is the main challenge, but each scenario comes with its own unique properties. Sometimes you'll march into an ongoing battle between two AI players, another scenario places you right in the middle of an island surrounded by hostile forces. One of the more creative scenarios includes an island with space junk constantly raining down on it. Completing each mission adds money to a special cash reserve and beating missions under par time adds more bonuses, so it's worthwhile to revisit some past completed scenarios using a bigger army to plow through them faster. When the challenge gets a little too intense, a Red Alert button will pop up and infuse players with a boost of resources at the cost of invalidating their score, so they'll have to decide whether or not to take advantage of this last ditch effort. The Commander's Challenge provides a refreshing and new approach toward Red Alert 3.

Additionally, the new Uprising units provide some fantastic ways to further pulverize the enemy. Units like the Allied Harbinger Gunship play to the faction's strengths by furthering its domination over the skies. The Rising Sun's Giga-Fortress, a navel attack platform that transforms into a giant flying robot head, leaves nothing but a wake of destruction in its path. There are no limits to how many of these devastating units can be built in skirmish mode, so it's pretty easy to build a handful of Giga-Fortresses and completely wreck an enemy's base. Although these units are tough, they all have specific weaknesses and can be overcome. Units like the Archer Maiden make up for factional weaknesses, like the Rising Sun's vulnerability to aerial assault early on in the game. The Soviet Mortar Cycle is a fast moving infantry unit that can dish out damage from a distance, just out of range of most defense towers, so they can soften up a base right before an armored invasion. Unfortunately, Uprising doesn't allow you to unleash these units on fellow players.

As mentioned earlier, Uprising doesn't have any multiplayer capabilities at all, which is its most disappointing aspect. Emphasis on the single player experience and exclusion of co-op is one thing, but having no multiplayer at all is a different matter altogether. Uprising only has a skirmish mode against the computer, and installing the expansion doesn't update the original game with new units. So, players that wanted some kind of expansion for multiplayer completely lose out.

Another area of disappointment is the limited means of distribution. Uprising is currently available only through digital distribution, which is fine. However, at the time of this writing, digital retailers are limited to a small handful such as the EA Store, GamersGate and Direct2Drive. Steam is mysteriously missing from the list, even though it sells Red Alert 3. Players looking to keep their games associated with their Steam accounts are out of luck for now.

Still, if you enjoyed the original Red Alert 3 single player experience, there's a lot to like in Uprising. The campaigns are short and sweet, but this is balanced out the Commander's Challenge mode. We were really disappointed by the total lack of multiplayer, which severely limits interest and longevity, but the low price helps us to forgive this oversight. However, as it stands, there's not much incentive to keep playing Uprising after beating it. We would have liked to see some kind of link between the Uprising and Red Alert 3 so that this expansion would be quite so stand alone. If it somehow rewarded owners of both games, like by unlocking the new units in multiplayer, then it would be that much more worthwhile to be a loyal Red Alert 3 fan. Despite our issues with the expansion, Uprising delivers a satisfying (albeit short) single player experience, which is what it sets out to do. We just wish it could have reached just a little further.

Check out the Red Alert 3 Uprising downloads