Red Orchestra

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The world has a host of retial World War II shooters, so why bother modding Unreal Tournament 2004 into yet another World War II shooter? Simple, people like World War II shooters, and there has yet to be one, that I've seen anyway, with this much reality.

Red Orchestra is the winner of best FPS in the "Make Something Unreal" challenge held by nVidia and Epic Games. After playing for a short time, it is easy to see why it won, and why it is so popular.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the game, is that there is no crosshair. I asked about this, like the n00b I am, and thankfully, the other players were understanding. That's the way the game is, no crosshair, just like in WWII. The only way to aim, is bring up your iron sight and put the enemy inside that little metal trough. Unless of course you have a sniper rifle, in which case you can look through a scope. Not everyone gets a sniper rifle though, I soon found out. The map I played only allowed one player on each team to be a sniper at any given time. And there are limits set for every other weapon class except the lowest riflemen as well. If you can only fit into the rifleman category though, just kill an enemy and hope he's got a better gun for you to take.

Speaking of guns, one unique feature of RO is that they can be shot out of your hands. Here I was standing at a window trying to line up a sniper in a sixth story building across the street, when I was pushed back a few feet and found I had no rifle in my hands. Lucky for my stunned self that a message popped up and informed me that my gun had been shot out of my hands. I then had to belly crawl back to the window and recover it, along with all my ammo clips, and then get out of that building before I was overrun by the sniper's buddies.

Grahically, the game is much like Day of Defeat, Call of Duty, or Battlefield 1942. I played the Stalingrad map, for comparison's sake, and found it to be very good. Fires blaze in several places, usually on wrecked automobiles or tanks. Buildings were bombed out, or shelled open, and rubble piles provided nice cover. The many "sniper holes" reminded me very much of Day of Defeat, which I think has been my favorite WWII game to date. Beating the feeling of a good game on Caen is hard. The map is small, much smaller than Battlefield's maps, with no drivable vehicles. Perhaps other maps have vehicles, I haven't had a chance to look.

Once you get the hang of aiming, the gameply becomes normal. You run to the nearest building, crawl in through a half burried window, and try not to be seen whilst chucking grenades down on the enemy fighting your teammates in the street. Oh, and beware of snipers shooting your gun out of your hands.

The game operates on a class system, with your usual snipers, sub-machine gunners, heavy machine gunners, riflemen, and officers as choices. Some classes have a choice of different primary or secondary weapons, some only have one option.

Overall, the graphics are good, the gameplay is nothing new, but fun none-the-less, and there are plenty of servers available to play on.

Below are some screenshots I took during my playtest of the Stalingrad map. If you wish to learn more or download the mod, find it here.

 

 

 

 

[Mk5]

Good review, I like the idea of no crosshairs on the screen and having to aim with the built in weapon site.

I might actually have to try this mod out this weekend...

[cutelittlerabbit]

ive tried this one.. its cool... id play it over battlefield or that magestic thing anyday...