Realism at its finest.
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a World War II shooter and you may think "Ah crap! Not another World War II shooter!!!" or "Call of Duty 1 and 2 are wayyyyyy better!!!". But the game puts a twist compared to the sea of never-ending WWII games. Which is the realism in the game, and it is a definitely nails many aspects of realism so well it actually turns out to be really good, although, its best feature from the game is also its biggest flaw in the game.
Red Orchesta is a pure multiplayer game meaning the single player is just a map with bots and pits the Soviet Union vs Germany. The consists of a set of rounds that in order to win you have to take control of certain points in the map. This is practically what the game is but surprisingly enough there is a pretty solid community of player that play this game and the maps are fairly huge with a high player cap to boot so the action never gets to stale. However, the maps can become too big as you respawn in the same place and must travel pretty far in order to reach certain objectives. As you choose a choose which side you are on you can choose certain classes and thankfully certain classes have a limit which adds a very needed balance to the game. The classes are pretty much what you expect from rifleman to assault gunner and all that jazz.
The addition of realism in the game is its biggest strength and weakness. The realism in the game is so deep in many ways it was very refeshing surprisingly enough. For example, say you shoot you bolt-action rifle. Instead of the game automatially cock it, you have to press the left button again in order to cock it and then you can fire it again. Another example is that when you drive a vehicle you have limited visibility so you must move carefully. It even goes as far as adding friendly fire on there as well and yes they do have a system for those who team kill on purpose so thats also balanced in there as well.
While it can add to an entertaining experience, its learning curve is steep...so steep that if you were rolling straight into a cliff! It takes long time to get used to the controls but once you do get used to the controls they are quite solid, however, you will get frustrated at certain points. You will die many times but oddly enough every time I get a kill it feels for satifying I think its because it actually requires more skill than what some people are some used. There is no regenerative health system and one shot from a rifle is instant death.
What saves the game from being a total fail is the graphics and sounds. Graphics surprisingly hold up really well and this is on the Unreal Engine 2.5! When an explosive detonates near you, it starts a shell shock effect that makes it blur efffect and the sounds begin to feel muffled and it is a great effect that can send chills down your spine. The sounds of the game are just as excellent from the sounds of guns and shots from the tank to your character breathing when your sprint. It truly is a intense experience when you play it.
This game is not for players that play Halo, Call of Duty, etc. In fact it requires good sight and good ears and alot of luck. If you are looking for a shooter that is out of the norm compared to others out on the market, you may find this game pretty good if you invest the time in it. In the long run, I ended up returning many times to Red Orchestra. Realism at its finest!
