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  • Subject: Red Orchestra 2 Heroes of Stalingrad [My Review]
Subject: Red Orchestra 2 Heroes of Stalingrad [My Review]

OMGZZ!!!!!!

"It's Afghanistanimation!"

It has been a year now since the release of Red Orchestra 2. It is a hardcore WWII FPS that manages to blend realistic, brutal, tactical gameplay with a faster pace and great feeling of place.

This game is predominately a Multiplayer title, but it does pack in a Single Player portion. The creators at Tripwire had their sites set on telling a story from both perspectives on the Russian, German front of the war. It gives them plenty of room for producing something very special and interesting in terms of historical significance.

But sadly, the Single Player turns out to be nothing more than a training simulator for the fantastic Multiplayer. Which is very sad since the single player had the opportunity to bring us a rather unexplored side of the war. I would have LOVED to take place in the battle for Stalingrad from both perspectives. Even when the Russians push the Germans back to their homeland and we can see both sides of their retreat!

That right there has potential to bring us something great. But sadly it is a missed opportunity for the developers. Maybe they will try something more if they decide to make another game.

The main reason that you should buy this game is for its multiplayer. It almost perfectly sells the intensity and brutality of this particular front of the war. You hear your teammates characters cry in fear when they are pinned down by enemy fire, or when you are trapped in a room and you hear their footsteps creep closer to you while you struggle to reload that Mosin Nagant.

They scream things like "I'm scared brothers," in believable, passionate ways. Even when you get shot they will scream in pain as they slowly bleed out. Heck, when your teammate gets shot in the head right next to you; your character will go into a suppressed state and freak out. It really sells the brutality and desperation of this war to a great end, and in turn it sucks you into the combat.

When you jump in a server, you have to pick what class to be. They range from Elite Assault, Elite Riflemen (oh yeah), Riflemen, and all the way down to Commander. Each one has its own weapons that will give you a slight edge in combat during a certain situation. The commander can call in strikes, Anti Tank classes have a huge rifle that can disable tanks, and assault classes are for that adrenalin pumping charge to take an objective.

You can cater each one to your play style, but I do recommend changing up the tempo when situations change. Provided that the classes have slot available. There cannot be a whole team of snipers and commanders due to a set number of how many there can be on a team. There may be like, 20+ riflemen, 10 elite riflemen, 5 squad leaders, and 3 snipers... It does suck when you join a game, and all of the classes are taken except for a Machine Gunner or Engineer.

It balances out the combat terrifically and nearly eliminates a one sided battle due to lots of the same class. It more or less turns out bad for you when they have lots of men who are high on moral, and all are gunning for you. It elevates tension as you struggle to get out of the hot zone while being fired upon by lots of enemy soldiers.

I want to stress that this game is not a run and gun by any means! You will die many deaths if you try and go crazy on the enemy. You can be killed with only one shot anywhere on the body. Sometimes it will kill you instantly, sometimes you will slowly bleed out if you do not bandage yourself. If you are bleeding out, hit the Ctrl button to bandage yourself. It gives you a chance to stay alive and kill your attacker. That also means that your kills can come in later than usual due to the bleeding effect.

So do not be all "what! how did that not kill him?" He may have bandaged himself, or is in the process of dying.

Each weapon has its own feel of power. They are accurate at their proper ranges, and very deadly when ever they hit their mark. If you have a Machine Gunner class; you can mow down an entire squad with one clip full of ammo. There is also a decent cover system that can properly shield you from incoming fire. You can peek over it to find a target, or even blind fire.

Game modes range from your standard Deathmatch, and Control Points. But you can play them in two different style modes. One is Realism and the other is Action. Action has the game play more to the less hardcore player and keeps their gun pinned to one spot on the screen like any other FPS.

Realism give your greater damage and greater vulnerability. You gun also pans across the screen when you look around. It gives you a greater field of view and lets you know that you are not a disembodied camera.

All of this is housed in a great looking version of the Unreal 3 Engine. Everything looks rich in detail from the decimated battlefields, destroyed buildings, even the snowy and summer like maps look great. The lighting also takes good effect with its God beams, and shadows. Sometimes you can use the shadows to learn of a lurking enemy. It is all pretty well optimized and does not really need a beefy system to run it a max settings. I use a 460M GTX and I run everything at 50+ FPS with everything turned up.

The only bad thing, is that the games community is pretty small. You don't see loads of full servers due to many people not knowing what this game is. Steam recently had a free to play weekend and the game was also on sale for $4. Now it is back to $19.99 and it is still worth the purchase.

Red Orchestra 2 is a great hardcore multiplayer game that can suck you in to its brutality of combat. The single player is a missed opportunity that could had given us something special, but turns out to be just an extra. All of this is housed in a great looking game that does not need a beefy rig to play on.

FINAL VERDICT: Red Orchestra 2 gets a B-.

Like what you see? Check out Brute Reviews for more.

  • 12.17.2012 12:37 PM PDT