Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Most WWII first-person shooters are little more than themed shooting galleries. They may look like the real thing on the surface, but they pay very little attention to the little details most WWII buffs crave. Day of Defeat and its prettified successor Day of Defeat: Source disrupted this trend by offering up a much more realistic version of team-based WWII combat, but engine limitations kept the beautiful maps relatively small and prevented the inclusion of vehicles and armor. Fortunately Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 includes all of that and much more, taking WWII multiplayer games to the next level.

Red Orchestra is almost as deadly and unforgiving as the era it covers. Death lurks around every corner, and the days of casually shooting enemies from several hundred yards away are over. Vehicles, tanks, and artillery are added to the mix, and they are just as frightening and deadly as their real-world counterparts. Loners tend to die alone, while those who work together achieve victory. While it can't compete with WWII Online in terms of depth, it certainly competes in terms of accurately portraying WWII combat.

This game is all about multiplayer, with two teams of up to 16 players each vying for control on objective-based maps. Single-player matches are possible against bots, but the bots are so inept that the only real way to play is to hop into a multiplayer fray.

Few games have ever handled the differences between infantry, vehicles, and armor so superbly. Foot troops offer maneuverability and a low profile, but as soon as a tank lumbers into view you'll know what an ant must feel like when it is in the shadow of a descending shoe. This sense of vulnerability is lacking from most other games, and it takes only a few respawns before you're pressing up against every wall, tree trunk, and destroyed hulk for cover as you make your way across the battlefield.

Vehicles like armored personnel carriers are cannon fodder for tanks and serve mainly as a quick way to deliver a lot of troops to a crucial location. Some have machine gun turrets that are terrific for suppressing enemy infantry, but as soon as a tank appears in the tiny view slit it's time to bail out, dig a hole, and pray.

The raw power tanks bring to the battle is mitigated by the fact that they need an entire crew of people to operate effectively, and also by the fact that visibility from inside is virtually nil. Drivers see only a small slice of the world through a tiny viewport, and there is no third-person view to help provide bearings. It is possible for one person to drive a tank and serve as gunner, but doing so requires hopping between stations, leaving the tank immobile and vulnerable when aiming and shooting. Getting into a tank at all requires selecting a specialized role at the start of the match, forcing fully-armed infantry troops to stick to their historical duties.

The combat in this game is simply outstanding. Guns are inaccurate and difficult to control, so don't be surprised when you and an enemy unload an entire clip at each other from five feet away without hitting anything. On the other hand, all it takes is a single shot to take you out of the match, so even inaccurate fire helps suppress the enemy. Aiming is only possible by switching to iron sights mode, which hinders maneuverability, and it's possible to rest your weapon on nearly any flat surface in the game to steady it. This gives defenders a slight advantage over attackers, just as it should be.

There are only thirteen maps included with the game, but all of them are large and there isn't a dud in the bunch. Everything from urban combat to battles in rural wheat fields is covered, and there is plenty of room to maneuver and coordinate flank attacks. Where maps in most other WWII shooters get stale quickly because they are designed to funnel troops into the same linear series of chokepoints, these maps rarely get old because their size makes so many different tactics possible. Much of the game's tension stems from trying to predict what direction the enemy will come from and how you'll position your forces to cover as many approaches as possible.

The unforgiving nature of combat and focus on specialization are Red Orchestra's greatest strengths, but they are indirectly responsible for its greatest liabilities if players on the server haven't taken the time to learn their way around. Even telling friend from foe takes many players so long that friendly fire casualties are commonplace, and many action-oriented characters who expect to carry a heavy weapon yet still be able to drive a tank are quickly turned off by the role restrictions. Lone wolf players soon find that death comes swiftly from any direction when you don't have someone covering your back and also find themselves frequently caught in friendly-fire artillery barrages when prowling behind enemy lines. The game needs experienced players willing to cooperate on a team to realize its true potential, and unfortunately that rarely happens.

The graphics for the mod version of Red Orchestra were already good, and they are vastly improved in this standalone version. The large maps are full of hills, dips, and other elevation changes for tanks to take advantage of, and there is plenty of cover for infantry on most of them. Weapons are highly detailed, as are vehicle models, and the animations for soldiers are particularly good. Smoke and explosion effects are handled very well (especially the artillery barrages), and a ballistics model that accounts for bullet drop and ricochets also adds to the visuals as glowing tracers scatter all over the place during combat. This isn't the prettiest WWII shooter by any means, but considering the size of the maps some tradeoffs in terms of fine details are acceptable.

Sound effects are excellent, from the creaking rumble of a moving tank to the earsplitting thunder of an artillery strike. Weapon noises are beefy, ricochet noises are excellent, and sound cues in general are indispensable for getting a read on the current battle situation.

Red Orchestra is available as a direct download via Steam, or as a boxed retail product. The Steam version was tested for this review and installed without a hitch. It's even usable on multiple computers, provided it only runs on one of them at a time, and patches are installed automatically so the client is always up to date.

Documentation is minimal, but this is really a game where no amount of reading can substitute for actually playing. The best way to do this is to play offline matches against bots until you get a feel for how the weapons and roles work, and also learn map layouts and objectives.