Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 Game Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 review

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The battlefield is silent, yet the carnage serves as a reminder of what's to come. Feet crunch on the snow, while the distant gunfire echoes eerily around the bombed-out city. A deep roar grows, coming from everywhere at once...

The earth seems to split as a shell explodes nearby. A convoy of tanks roll into view and begin to blast everything, their huge guns forming a black screen of smoke and destruction that defies all efforts to resist. The air is thick with the stench of gunpowder. Everyone is shooting and the sounds of destruction echo louder and louder, drowning out anything else. The soldiers are cautious; they stay behind walls, bushes, anything to put a barrier between them and the enemy; they throw their grenades and get in position to fire a Panzerfaust at a nearby tank.

They'll fight back, they have to.

The Red Orchestra mod for Unreal Tournament 2004

This is Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, a game that signifies success for many modders. Red Orchestra's widespread success from its humble mod beginnings has given it the attention of both the modding community and the gaming industry as a whole.

For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the past few years: Red Orchestra started as a single player Soldier of Fortune modification based around The Red Orchestra, a famous World War II communist spy ring. The mod then moved on to the Medal of Honor engine, before finally becoming a realistic multiplayer mod for Unreal Tournament 2003, then later, Unreal Tournament 2004. The mod was a roaring success, winning nVidia’s Make Something Unreal competition that had a $1,000,000 cash prize, along with a retail Unreal Engine 2 & 3 license as the prize. Since then, it has made its way into a fully fledged retail title that is being sold on Steam and in retail stores worldwide.

Very few games start as mods. Fewer make the transition from a mod to a full retail product without the help of a publisher. Given this, it’s nearly impossible not to be impressed by Red Orchestra. It’s a true success story; a source of inspiration to much of the modding community. It is widely respected, it's revered and to a certain extent, it has even become synonymous with success itself.

But is it that good a game?

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Off to war we go!

Red Orchestra begins like most World War II shooters: players can choose a team - in this case, Germany or the Soviet Union; a class - which determines what loadout they'll get, and a weapon, from a nice little arsenal of 28 period weapons. In addition to the standard classes, there are two commander classes for each team. These commanders can call in artillery, which players have to then position by using radios that are scattered around the map. Once everything has been selected, it's off to war with a refreshingly spin on the standard World War II formula.

While the objective of Red Orchestra is pretty simple, actually winning a game can get quite tricky. Players are supposed to work as a team to capture strategic points around the map. Unlike other games that employ this system, these points in Red Orchestra are well chosen, giving the team that controls them better cover in the choke points, better access to vehicles and a good place to fall back to if combat becomes to intense.

Infantry combat is paced in such a way that players can potentially spend a long time searching for battle without seeing anything hostile. Even in full servers, I could sometimes spent ten minutes just walking around, looking for something to shoot. However, when I did find a battle, it was fast, brutal, intense, and more importantly, a lot of fun. Tactics are essential and players really need to use cover, teamwork, and a certain amount of shooting skill just to stay alive. Red Orchestra has many nice little features that keep infantry combat fresh. For example, when the player isn't aiming down the iron sights, they are below most cover. However, when they look down the barrel of their gun, they rise slightly to be able to see over most of the cover in the level. Red Orchestra is full of little details like that, and while they can be passed off as gimmicks, they really help the combat become more involved, faster and have a certain flow that is unmatched by other games in the genre.

The controls are fairly well thought out, although they are different to what most FPS fans would be used to. Right clicking will perform a melee attack and the middle mouse button brings up the iron sights. This almost forced me to reconfigure my controls, but I decided to leave them for a while and see if I could get used to them. After a couple of hours, I realized that they actually allow for faster paced conflict, because many controls are more accessible than in regular configurations. And fast is good, because once Red Orchestra throws vehicles into the field, staying alive against these means mastering the control of every single feature you have at your disposal.

Another beautiful day on the battlefield

Red Orchestra has 14 vehicles currently in the game, each serving a different purpose; from infantry transport to huge armoured tanks. These vehicles play a large part in combat, both as primary assault and support. Most vehicles can be used by more than one person, which encourages teamwork to an extent. There are different seats in each vehicle which can be entered, allowing players to do anything from driving to manning an ultra-powerful machine gun turret. A vehicle with a squad of four is a very powerful force and can take out a huge amount of infantry. In one particular game I played, some of my teammates and I were manning one of the Russian tanks. We were cruising towards the next capture point when we encountered a bunch of enemy infantry. After a brutal battle, we won. Suddenly an enemy anti-tank trooper came up from behind and took us all out with one rocket. However, this kind of occurance is very rare.

Vehicles were a big part of World War II, and they were pretty hard to take out, even with specialized equipment. Unfortunately, this translates into Red Orchestra. It is almost impossible for a few players to take out a tank. The turrets on most vehicles deal insane damage, and have similar recoil to the average SMG. This makes it really difficult for infantry to defeat vehicles and really detracts from the fun – especially if you’re the only one on your team left on foot.

However, on some maps, there just aren't enough vehicles, and if just about every member of a team jumps into the first vehicle they can find and drive off before thinking about picking anyone up, then it can take several minutes of walking around slowly to find any combat. Because the maps are big enough for fairly large scale vehicle conflict, walking to the battle can take forever and really gets quite frustrating. Though they are well laid out, the effects of the war mean that every single map looks like Godzilla went on a rampage through it. The maps are mostly cities - which creates plenty of cover, mazes and choke points for players. Most maps come with an overview, so it's a good idea to spend some time getting to know the location of capture points.

"I've got armour in my sights. Now what?"

The weapons are equally realistic, and are based on their World War II counterparts. The only problem is, in World War II, there were some extremely powerful weapons and some exceptionally poor ones. This is transferred in to Red Orchestra, as some guns are so powerful it's stupid, and others are next to useless. A good example of this is the PPSh. The Russians used this SMG widely in the later years of the war and it had a large clip, good accuracy and little recoil, even for modern standards. This is directly transferred into Red Orchestra, and the fact that a SMG is better than a bolt action rifle at long range - and even some sniper rifles - can get really frustrating.

To some extents, Red Orchestra goes further and actually exaggerates reality. The weapons are insanely inaccurate when fired from the hip. While this might be true to life, it seems unlikely that a trained soldier would be unable to hit the side of a barn from ten feet away. On a similar note, when a player turns around quickly, the weapon takes a while to follow, coming round slowly and more smoothly. This is exaggerated to the point of stupidity, especially considering that it actually changes very little: if you fire while turning, you still fire at what you're looking at, regardless of whether the weapon is pointing the same direction or not.

While the playerbase is better than most, there is little in Red Orchestra to really promote teamwork. Except when using vehicles, there is little incentive to stick with your teammates. This means that many people, especially those new to the game, run off and get lost or killed very easily. This isn't particularly good for those new players and lends itself to a steep learning curve, especially for those coming from games that don't require teamwork or much thought put into tactics.

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It's a tank versus tank bonanza!

The graphics aren't quite up to modern standards, but they’re good enough for it not to be an issue. Fantastic use of textures adds atmosphere to the levels. The character and vehicle models are very well done, as are all weapon models. Particles and fire effects are nice, but not overdone. The graphics are similar in quality to Unreal Tournament 2004, which is based on the same engine as Red Orchestra. However, the textures and models really add to the graphical quality, and it all comes out looking better than most other World War II games. While the graphics aren't cutting edge, they mix great performance with enough eye candy to give a real sense of atmosphere to the game play.

The sound in Red Orchestra does its job well enough. The weapons sound chunky and realistic, and there is a Call of Duty-esque wartime soundscape in the background that never lets you forget about the battle. Sound travels, and with many players, you'll be able to hear a whole host of things, like a grenade two blocks away, or someone reloading in the next room.

Red Orchestra can handle up to 32 players in any one game, even then exhibiting little or no lag. It can even be played with a ping of 200 before lag becomes an issue. This allows for fairly large scale battles which can really get the heart rate up, particularly on maps with lots of vehicles. The game plays well, and there are no apparent bugs. However, Red Orchestra promotes realism first and foremost, which doesn't come without its problems.

In some places, there is the feeling that the game was rushed, and that not everything is implemented properly. Many maps have anti-tank weapons scattered in them which seem impossible to use. While the retail version does add a lot of new features, there is very little to distinguish Ostfront 41-45 from the Red Orchestra: Combined Arms total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004. There is a distinct lack of content and a feeling that, while it is polished quite nicely, it still feels like a total conversion.

The age of the engine peeks through in some places

Graphics:
The graphics are fairly crisp and the textures and models are amazing. High-end features like HDR are missing. The option to control anti-aliasing has also been left out, so you're stuck with whatever desktop anti-aliasing setting you have. This is a pity, because without any anti-aliasing, there have been pixel doubling issues recorded on various graphics cards.

The graphics aren't exceptional but very detailed textures and models make up for some of the weaknesses.

Sound:
The sound in Red Orchestra is well done and leaves little to be desired. Weapons and tanks sound authentic and surround sound really adds to the game. The sound of a player's footsteps change depending on how they are moving or what surface they’re on. The soundscape sounds exactly like Call of Duty's, but that isn't a bad thing, as it adds a lot to the game.

Gameplay:
Theoretically, Red Orchestra is the perfect realis-based World War II shooter. The game targets itself at a specific group of people and delivers an intense, realistic World War II experience. It includes weapons for just about anyone, the maps are complex and detailed, and the vehicles sets it apart from similar games in the genre. However, if fails when it becomes too realistic, making it worth questioning whether World War II was actually that much fun. This probably isn’t what everyone is after and many will find Red Orchestra frustrating and boring.

Red Orchestra is a excellent mod and a more-than-decent game. For those who found Call of Duty to be all deathmatch, Battlefield 1942 to be too unrealistic and Medal of Honor to have shoddy multiplayer; Red Orchestra delivers a World War II experience that is full of atmosphere and intensity.

If realism is even remotely your thing, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is well worth a try. However, if you want all the weapons to be balanced, and don’t enjoy getting killed without even seeing anyone, you should probably give this game a very wide berth.

Time to win back the war!

Official Red Orchestra Site

Pros:
- Exceptional mod support
-Intense realistic World War II combat.
-Lots of weapons and vehicles.
-Great textures and models.
-Large and well designed levels.
-No lag, even with lots of players.

Cons:
-Serious balancing issues due to realism.
-Levels can be hard to navigate.
-Only one game mode.
-Limited graphics for modern standards.
-Infantry are almost useless against vehicles.