The ranking NCO was screaming for someone to flank the gunner. Walker peered over the top of the dugout and saw a way around. He moved to a more tactical position and began to lay down cover fire as more troops advanced. It was then he heard one of the most feared cries on the battlefield, "Sniper!" Private Walker picked up his binoculars and scanned the horizon. He noted some movement in a building and shouldered his rifle to fire. Alas, it was too late as all he saw through his sights was the muzzle flash of the enemy sniper.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 (http://www.redorchestragame.com), winner of NVIDIA's "Make Something Unreal" contest, comes to us through Steam as a stand alone game using the Unreal engine and was released this past Tuesday. With a reasonable price tag of $24.95, many of you have been asking how it stacks up to Valve's title Day of Defeat and are just wondering if it's worth the investment. If my opening narrative wasn't a big enough hint, I'll give you the in's and out's of this newly released Steam game along with a few experiences I had while playing.


Overview & Mechanics
Most would consider the WWII video game genre to be dead now as the recent influx of new games and modifications focusing on this era of warfare have crowded the market. To truly succeed in this overpopulated field a game needs to bring something special to the table; in Red Orchestra's case it's realism. Almost every aspect of Red Orchestra is as true to life as possible. Bullets drop over distances according to their velocity and how stable the round is, being winded from sprinting too far will affect your accuracy, and you have to manually operate the bolt action rifles. As a realism fanatic myself, these are among my favorite game elements.

With no crosshair and the near total inaccuracy of a rifle fired from the hip, the 'run-and-gun' style of play has been completely eliminated. This is where Red Orchestra takes a dramatic turn away from Day of Defeat. The pace of Red Orchestra is significantly slower and is more focused on shooting at your enemies from behind cover. Where capturing a sector in Day of Defeat can consist of throwing grenades and then charging the flag, it is typically a drawn out process in Red Orchestra by slowly advancing your position. If you want constant action and the ability to pick off three enemies flawlessly, Red Orchestra is not for you.

Team orientated fighting is a must for succeeding on the battlefields of the Eastern Front. While assaulting or defending a position, it is always better to do it with force. The more lead you can put in the direction of the enemy the easier it is to take them out. Red Orchestra does not lend it self well to the 'Lone Wolf' style of play — especially while commanding a tank. Without a team inside of a tank, it can become almost impossible to hold your own in battle.

Class Distribution

Another great part about Red Orchestra is the weapon distribution. In Day of Defeat it's not uncommon to see a server limit the number of sniper rifles or machine guns per team. In Red Orchestra, servers automatically have restrictions in place to properly mirror the situations that arose in WWII. With a 16 player team, only a few are allowed to have a SMG or deployable machine gun and the rest all have a rifle. Though it may be frustrating at times not being able to select your weapon of choice, it can add another challenging level to the game.

I was also very pleased with the overall variety of weapons to pick from. When choosing a class, there are typically a few different weapon arrangements to select from — especially on maps set later in the war. You are allowed to mix and match your primary and secondary weapons to your heart's content and even discard it in-game and swap it for a more valuable weapon. When in need of quicker firepower, I found myself on numerous occasions searching for a dropped semi-automatic rifle to replace my sluggish bolt-action one.

Firing & Damage

All weapon functions are completely manual in Red Orchestra. After taking a shot with a bolt-action rifle, you must click again to eject the casing. Since there's no crosshair, each weapon features its own iron sights. Many of the manual operations may alter your movement speed as well, which led to the controls reacting a little stiffly. When you do get the rifle shouldered and are looking down the sights, it's possible to steady it using the objects in the world around you to secure a more accurate shot. When firing over sandbags from the crouched position, there is an icon that appears on the HUD that tells you that the rifle is being steadied. The same system is in place for deploying and firing any of the larger machine guns. This is quite convenient and compares to the feature in Day of Defeat allowing you to place MGs on nearly any stable surface.

The damage that a certain weapon does all depends on where you the hit lands and how fast the bullet was moving. A direct hit to the chest or head by nearly any bullet is pretty much an instant kill. This may sound a bit drastic but the only time I really found I sustained a direct hit was while moving from cover to cover. A good portion of the bullet strikes occur on the limbs and each have their own effect. Falling from a great height or being shot in the leg will slow your soldier down as he recovers from the impact. A hit to the arms or hands will result in dropping your weapon. This was one of the most interesting features when it first happened to me. While about to fire upon an enemy I was shot in the hand and lost my rifle. At that point I was completely stuck behind sandbags with my weapon out in the middle of the street. These effects are a testament to the level of realism put into Red Orchestra.

Graphics & Battlefields
When looking at the visuals presented in Red Orchestra it is important to take into consideration the engine running the game. For operating on an improved version of the Unreal 2.5 engine, Red Orchestra has its share of impressive graphics techniques. As shells explode over the landscape, earth is spewed up into the air and bodies are hurled about and dismembered.

The landscapes and battlefields traversed throughout Red Orchestra are all well detailed and contain their own color palette. From vast fields to destroyed German cities, Red Orchestra really covers all the bases of the Eastern Front. One of the areas I found disappointing, though, was the ambient gunfire. After getting used to Day of Defeat's sound system where all the shots you heard are actually made by players, it was quite difficult to differentiate between the real and atmospheric sounds effects. This led me on a number of wild goose chases towards sound origins on the map.

Mobile Warfare

A large part of Red Orchestra I have yet to fully address are the battles fought almost completely with tanks and trucks. It takes more than one person to efficiently operate one of these mammoths, as the driver, gunner, and machine gunner all play pivotal roles in a successful operation. While driving, I found it near impossible to make a direct spot of an enemy tank past a certain field of view. This is where the gunner's position comes in handy. The gunner is able to use up to four views (down the barrel, in the turret, out the top hatch, and with binoculars) to spot and destroy enemy armor. This is easily the most fun and exciting part of the entire game. I found it fairly simple to estimate the targets distance and then line up a near perfect shot. The final and sometimes optional position is the hull gunner's seat. Manning the mounted machine gun, the third person in the tank team can keep any infantry from getting to close. Certain engineer-based classes allow satchel charges which can easily disable a tank very similar to the Battlefield 2 'Special Forces' class.

The damage system for the tanks is very similar to the one for individual soldiers. The graphical icon in the corner will turn yellow or red depending on the overall status of the tank and may also show any engine damage. Having to shoot where the tanks are the weakest (typically in the rear or underneath) is a key to destroying the enemy before he destroys you. It is not uncommon to watch your round bounce right off the armor of a tank and go flying up into the air.


Command System

Though there are ranking NCOs (non-commissioned officers) on the field, I didn't feel they had enough influence on the direction and command of the troops. It seemed that if they weren't actively engaged with voice communication they were almost useless as no one obeyed their commands. This is the one system that could use some improvements. There is an objective map that shows your position in relation to each capture point, ammo dump, vehicle station, and other places of interest. The map system is comparable to that of Day of Defeat or Battlefield 2 but it does not show you friendly positions — making friendly fire all the more likely.


Red Orchestra's Grade

Overall, Red Orchestra (http://www.redorchestragame.com) receives a conservative 'A-' from me. As a realism fan I strongly appreciate the all of the true to life characteristics of the game. While the controls may feel a bit stiff at some points, the diverse battlefields and variability make up for it. I think this game has much potential and can see myself playing it for quite some time. In the end, Red Orchestra was definitely worth my $25 investment.

Related Links

• Red Orchestra Homepage (http://www.redorchestragame.com)
  
• More Red Orchestra Media (http://www.redorchestragame.com/index.php?categoryid=5)
  
• Red Orchestra Forums (http://www.redorchestragame.com/forum/)