Red Orchestra : Combined Arms 3.2 review - Unreal Tournament 2004 Game

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Red Orchestra : Combined Arms 3.2 - World War 2 Total Conversion - Unreal Tournament 2003
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Finally I was able to pull myself away from Red Orchestra: Combined Arms 3.2, a total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004, after Axis got sent tail between our legs twice in a row on Hedgehog, with a note to self : prone good always triumphs over standing evil. If you've never heard of the Make Something Unreal Contest Grand Prize Winner and PC Gamer and Computer Games Magazine Mod of the Year, well, there are reasons #1-3 for why you should've heard long ago, and it amazes me you'd still want to read instead of downloading it right now...well? For those of you who found a suitable mirror and are waiting for the download weighing in at 700mb to finish, or aren't drawn in by awards, well perhaps flowery speech will help convince, since I've been back to playing RO six times now since starting this review...and actually counting.

Now to begin, modern realism warfare is far from a favorite genre, World War 1, World War 2, Vietnam, Desert Storm, etc., all tend to run together spouting the most realistic and immersive experience of war in interactive entertainment. Though, the reason the genre turns me off is those two words tend to bring with them a washed gameplay, where the intensity of war is replaced with tedium and boredom or blind rushes and tactless assaults. RO breaks this concept by providing what I can only describe as the essentials for any game attempting to take their current pedestal of "Best War Game Ever", and do it with such polish and quality that you'd be hard pressed doing anything but creating much of it again, though shamefully are still problems to be found. It can't all be flowery.

Red Orchestra is a completely multiplayer experience centering around the combat between the German Axis and Russian Allies, amidst numerous historical and fictional fields of battle. Because of the lack of singleplayer, a few may be turned off, though for those of us who could care less about a game without multiplayer emphasis, we did purchase UT2004 afterall, it means uninterrupted gameplay. Beyond this though, the feeling gained from standing inside of the masterfully crafted and highly detailed levels, amidst the roaring artillery and firefights rife in the city streets and fields of battle, is both awe and fear. A few people watching over my shoulder have believed it on the Source Engine for Half-Life 2, great praise considering its own graphical reviews, better when I barely have the details turned up to half, and if anyone can find another FPS with such powerful, clear, and realistic sounds that makes every other game sound as though they feature capguns and firecrackers, I'd love to hear it.

From the moment you hear the combat in the background but seeming still so close, heavy artillery fire laying out a field of soldiers, rifles and machine guns firing with abandon, the dead silence that seems to gather as a grenade rounds it way down to the ground infront of you, or bullets literally tearing the air beside your ear, you'll understand my praise of the sound. All of it comes so well that there is a smooth passing between ambience noise and sounds of true combat, with similar heavy fighting happening both within as from outside the boundaries, and you get the sense that yours is the true battlefront. Truly it is difficult to find much to listen to beyond the constant stream of explosions and gunfire, but, it sounds so well that it doesn't become a constant droning even as it continues through an hour.

Joining the level of quality and ability of the sound design is that of the maps, all have beautifully rendered areas of wartorn cities and rolling plains, massive lands with high detailed textures, carving out each section of the map as well as the last so they seem filled to bursting. There are masses of swaying shrubs and trees, piles of shattered rubble, ruined vehicles and equipment, small houses and barns settled about, railroad tracks, bridges, trenches, etc., creating everything you could ever expect to find in these fields of battle. Combining this with the level of sound quality makes a very vibrant, wartorn world with which to fight over.

More important than the detail of the battlefields themselves though I believe is the design and structure of these, which I've got to give a well deserved nod to the mapping team here, especially Original9 and Sasquatch, as it moves in the direction I believe all team-based FPS' should be. That of massive, sprawling cities and lush, open environments, with the ability to flank your opponent from every angle, opening up with thousands of windows, winding corridoors, intersecting city streets, rolling plains with riverbeds, and so forth. This creates what the game truly is, positioning and movement, where every little piece of rubble, broken down vehicle, strewn box, becomes cover from a mass of possible enemy positions, and equal oppurtunity to ambush unaware opponents. Not only this, but each level is truly different in style of play, even as many of the objectives remain similar, often giving nod to capture and hold positions or destructible areas such as roadblocks.

The city streets of Berlin require a steady watch of every window, shattered rubble, the rooms behind you and the buildings down the road, while Hedgehog requires you to crawl hands and knees through just high enough shrubbery over to the next rise while making sure enemies aren't sheltered in the copse to your right waiting for you to put head from the brush, the constant uphill battles of Kaukasus where as many men must be ready to fire as must be moving to secure anything against the losses, or the uncertain battlefronts of the village of Donets where stealth can play a great role among the numerous open houses and alleyways. Unfortunately, without proper knowledge of the numerous areas people can hide, or the doors able to be breached oropened, various excess pathways to be used, and the style of play best suited, the maps pose a problem for the unseasoned player, even with the help of the ingame map which shows position, missions, and and objectives, though it is worth it to take time to truly learn the maps.

At the heart of the gameplay rests the concept of positioning, designed to give the obvious advantage to those with patience or tactics, and provide actual defensive areas. This is accomplished through the necessary use of ironsights and the prone position, providing a move, set, move, set, pattern that a soldier needs to become familiar with. Unfortunately, one of my biggest necessities in gameplay is fluidity, I hate stiffness between crouching and standing, or a jerked throwing of grenades, and Red Orchestra suffers from this, if merely to retain that level of positioning needed. It sometimes feels like a burden to even try combating someone you know has you beat, since trying to evade enemy fire is difficult when you're caught even slightly exposed, though this may be my own tastes talking, the stiffness is certainly there if the movements are forcefully weighted.

As for vehicular combat, few people seem to vote for the maps, and fewer still are willing to hop into such a vulnerable position, though the RO developers do stress their vulnerability is more realistic, and it does work out quite well. A good tank crew can eliminate transport, roadblocks, and dug in soldiers, though the first person view inclosed tight in steel can lead a driver easily off track and unaware of his surroundings, a stray cannon round can lead to precious lost time and a vehicle ready to be struck, and a poor gunner without the proper reactions and ability to aim with the movements of the driver will leave you open to anyone who dares. Still, no one ever enjoys facing down a tank as they are often met with death, and the transports available for both sides are quickly used to storm a small compound and take it over, meaning there is no overpowering but still possessing a ready use.

The community and servers do need to be noted, as much of it is filled with friendly-fire, and most of the people are not spiteful when it happens, since it can become difficult to tell axis from ally when everyone is amidst rubble and prone with a gun pointed at you. Most people are nice enough to help you out, losing and death doesn't seem to send people off the handle, and all in all there are enough people to find an active server, I just wish there were more, which means more people really need to start playing.

With 3.2 itself came the inclusion of the Iosef Stalin 2 tank, designed more specifically to eliminate enemy armors, which I've seen put to great use and strayed from whenever one is active and well piloted on the few maps possessing these. As well, the exposure damage model to grenades seems an oddity in that I wonder why this wasn't included before hand in every game, as the name implies, damage is based on your exposure to the grenade, being behind short cover is still better than nothing here, and seems like a great new step. what many have probably noted, the shellshock or motionblur effect grenades and artillery have, a near constant which shakes your screen depending on how close you are an gives a misted look, which can help disorient foes who are bunkered in, and while a few people have been annoyed at it, it creates a great immersive quality that requires adjustment to similar to recoil. Plus new into the fold is Stalingradkessel, which is looking very well done in the screenshots I've noted but I haven't had the pleasure of playing, as most of the votes tend toward the same maps, don't ask me why it is just how it works. Finally on the more notable area, is bot support, though most people don't care and they tend to be fodder on each server I've seen a few in, playing with them is easy, though never give them a vehicle as they attempt to fire right through you and run you over, it is a balance to not make them too strong but, a real person can't be replaced here. Not to mention there is a laundry list of bug fixes and small changes to help cpu load and VOip, though I don't know the specifics, suffice it to say the RO team said it was there, they are there.

The small stiffness and the indept drivers aside, Red Orchestra : Combined Arms 3.2 certainly continues the award winning abilities of RO, and is a worthy addition in the hopefully long line of the game. Infact, I sat down to write this finally only because I knew at the end I could return to playing RO without adding anything mark up top.