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Dissing Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 for not being what we like in a game is like kicking the crap out of some kid’s sand castle at the beach. He worked really hard at it, so what kind of angry pathetic critic would take it upon himself to destroy it?

Let’s be honest, Red Orchestra just isn’t our particular cup of tea. Hard core realism is something to be admired, but not necessarily enjoyed. We could take the time to understand the complex bullet physics in the game, or perhaps pick up some books on early 20th century Russian combines to learn how many rounds their clips hold, but we would rather just shoot people in the face. Really.

Better Off Dead

Red Orchestra tries to recreate the technical aspects or WWII combat – especially as they played out between the Germans in Russians on the Eastern front – down to the dirty details of war by leaving out a lot of the clichés and abstractions that we’ve become so used to in games. There is no crosshair, you must aim your weapon through the iron sights and compensate for recoil. There’s no little indicator telling you how many bullets are left in your clip, you have to mentally keep track. And if you’re shot, you’re shot, in fact you’re probably already dead. There are no health packs.

We appreciate that that was what war was really like, but that’s why they say war is hell; games are supposed to be fun. But if you want to not enjoy yourself playing a game as much as you would in real combat – minus the trenchfoot and headwounds – then Red Orchestra may be for you.

To compare it to other games, Red Orchestra fits rather uncomfortably in the Battlefield mold. You choose between different character classes, each with their own historically accurate weapon and equipment loadouts. Vehicles are a crucial part of a game, but of course the realism demands that you can’t just drive a tank and shoot all the guns by yourself, so you’ll have to hope that the people you’re playing with know what they’re doing. The bots are a little too dumb to be of any use.

The Little Game That Could 

The story behind the game is a charming one though. Originally created by independent developers as a total conversion mod for the Unreal Tournament engine, Red Orchestra won a prestigious award for mod makers given out by nVidia and Epic Games (developers of the Unreal engine) which resulted in its being picked up for distribution over Valve’s game download system, Steam. The devs are very deserving of huge kudos for their efforts, but the end product really only appeals to a niche market of gamers.

The biggest problem with Red Orchestra though is what they choose to focus their realism efforts on. Sure, the weapons and ballistics are right out of a textbook; but the wide-open levels themselves, and the capture point style gameplay reveal the game’s true roots as an Unreal mod. If you want to recreate a realistic experience, it has to cover every aspect of the game, not just some of the specific mechanics. Other games like Call of Duty may be far less realistic, but succeed much more greatly in creating an immersive experience. And when it comes down to it, that’s more important to transmitting the real sense of being there than weapons that are impossible to shoot.

If effort counts, then Red Orchestra is not a bad game, and it might even be a very good one. But playing games is about having experiences, and the experience of playing Red Orchestra will leave 95% of the gaming community out in the cold. That other 5% will have the time of their lives though.

Article By: Tom Price

Video Produced By: Michael Benson