So, you’ve seen that Steam is having this sale on Red Orchestra, it’s from the guys that gave us Killing Floor. There’s also a shiny new mod out for it that’s free and adds a lot of content. Now, you’re wondering — I’ve heard of Red Orchestra, but what is it really about? For 5 bucks you could easily find out for yourself, but I’ll save you that and give you a light touch on the game.
Originating as a mod for UT2k4, this game brings a bit of realism to the WW2 themed FPS genre.
The first thing you’ll want to do if you’ve never played RO before is give the practice map a go and get familiar with the game. Think of it as a tutorial, and yes you need to do a tutorial. I’ve taken all the screenshots in this post from the practice so it’s what you’ll see in your first time through (and because taking screenshots while having firefights with real people is not gonna be done by me).
Trench Combat
The first thing you’ll notice is a pretty minimalistic HUD. Starting from the bottom left you have your health (no numbers, you just see where you’re injured), your stance (as in standing or crouching, etc), the number of clips you have left (of note, you don’t get an exact ammo readout, either you know how many shots are in your gun from experience or you just run out), and a compass to let you know what direction you’re going. You also get a map that you can open up, though it’ll take up the whole screen, to show objectives and where you are. Objectives? Yup, this is a capture and control type of game. Of note: there is no cross-hair, just like Killing Floor, to aim do thus:
Aiming
It’s the only way to shoot accurately, so don’t think about running and gunning or bunny hopping very easily. You may note that my character is a Russian and is using an MP40, you can take items and weapons off fallen enemies or comrades. You can also drop your own for others to use. Also in the picture is the timer for taking control of the point — it fills when no enemies are around and stops when it’s contested.
Classes
There’s several different load-outs to choose from, each with different equipment and positions. You will want to try some of these out in practice first to get an idea of what they do and your role in the battle.
Tanks
Also in RO is tank combat, and other vehicles. As you can see here the driver of the tank sits in a very realistic… cockpit? Drivers seat? Eh, whatever… It’s realistic and quite good. It is quite an experience to drive these, especially with the limited view — trying to in a video game was hard and confusing enough for me, I can’t imagine how they did it in real life, with real enemies. You can take one of these out solo and swap between the seats on the fly — so it’s not entirely realistic… but close enough. Shooting:
Firing
You’ve got different rounds to choose from, and it takes time to load them either when changing or between shots. So, plan your shots carefully and make every one of them count — or you’ll be dead (yes, obvious…). Firing is pretty straightforward, take the range into account, other factors like hills or trees or whatnot, and line them up and fire. This can be done as a single person tank crew, as stated before, but in that case you’d be left a sitting duck and easy fodder for any enemy tank — you can only reload while sitting in the turret, so you’ll have to stay there for the full… 10 seconds? or so that it takes to reload before you get another shot. You can hop down to the drivers seat and try running away before that though — might work out well.
And there’s the basics to the game. The Darkest Hour mod is the same deal, only with the Americans and Canadians (British too?) being played against the Nazis. For the money, you get a lot of content. Well worth it if you want something a tad different in your TF2/L4D/CS:S/CoD4 usual line-up.
