by Scott Parrino - April 6, 2006

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 takes elements from most online FPS games and removes the Rambo-style, movie-like gameplay and replaces it with a gritty, realistism-centered theme that would make any hardened player take cover.

This Time it is War

The first thing that players should take note about Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is that it isn’t like many other online first-person shooters on the market. Players will notice that there isn’t any crosshairs for their weapon; instead they must rely on their ironsights for accurate aiming. Another aspect of Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is that not just any player can control a vehicle or call in artillery strikes; you need to select that certain class before respawning. Bunny-hopping? Not in there. Zooming with ironsights? Only if you’re a sniper. Rambo machine guns? Rare as Dodo’s. Basically, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 strives to be about as realistic as an online FPS can be, and rather than scaring players away, it makes for a very fun and engaging gameplay experience.

The great thing about Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is that it focuses on a theater of World War II that is rarely seen: the Easetrn Front (Ostfront). This side of the great conflict presents an interesting and varied taste for those who love WWII games. You won’t see any Sherman tanks or Garand rifles here, but Mosin-Nagants and T-34s. Each weapon and vehicle, German or Russian, has a specific purpose, strength and weakness and unique feeling.

Of course, players can’t use these weapons of war in a void, so Tripwire Interactive packaged Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 with 12 rather large and varied maps. These maps range from a snow-covered battlefield to a fall-season farm and even a map that takes place on a large bombed-out airfield. Objectives are usually of a control-point variety, while some custom settings could be made to change the gamestyle. Some servers allow for certain class restrictions or even remove some classes altogether. Generally, I found that the regular servers are just as fun, if not better than the custom servers, since the maps were designed in just such a way. The more open maps allow for tank battles while the cluttered and close-spaced maps are great for infantry combat.

Combat in Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a harrowing experience. Since there are no real crosshairs or zoomed-in views, you must rely on your skill of using your sights to take down the enemy. The action can vary from up close to long-distance, depending on your weapon and your style of play. Some weapons are suited for each situation and you’ll actually feel like you’ll have the upper hand when you bring a sub-machine gun to close-quarters fight against a rifleman.
One aspect of WWII that some games have had a problem re-creating is suppression; nothing is going to stop a player from risking his unlimited lives charging across open land or hiding behind a box and expecting that incoming fire to have no effect on him (like in the excellent, though less realistic, Call of Duty 2). Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 decided to have incoming fire affect the player by blurring his vision to the point where it is difficult to see where you are and where you are being shot at from. This also allows strategy to come into play, when you direct your fellow soldiers to flank a pinned-down group of bad guys while you pour on the lead, making the gameplay both exciting and challenging.

On to the vehicles and tanks. Since the maps are large, there will be some troop transports around and of course tanks to blow stuff up. While the tanks themselves are powerful, they are slow and vulnerable to infantry. Infantry can use Panzerfausts, anti-tank rifles, artillery and demolition charges to take care of the armored beasts. Of course, this should only be a real problem for a tank if it is not fully crewed by an alert crew: players cannot shoot and drive at the same time or keep an eye out in all directions of his tank, which is solved by } "crewing" it. The only problem is finding someone online who wants to drive a tank, since it's not nearly as exciting as being the gunner. The trick is to find a good server that has players on it that are into the teamwork aspect of Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 and not just to drive their Panzers into a barrage of tank rounds.

How War Should Look

No one ever said war was pretty, and Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 definitely lives up to that statement. The graphical engine is based off of the Unreal 2.5 engine, and it looks wonderful even at its lower settings. Lower-end systems should be able to comfortably ride the 30 plus frames per second at low settings, allowing those who have more recent systems to increase the eye-candy without affecting gameplay. Probably one of the best-modeled objects in Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 are the vehicles. They each feature a detailed interior and an authentic exterior. Seeing a huge Tiger tank lumber by will give players a chill down their spine.

Other graphical effects that are sure to wow the players are the modeling of tracers and ricochet effects. Sometimes you’ll have a tank round or some machine-gun fire ricochet and bounce around. While it looks great, those rounds are still just as deadly and I recommend not putting your head near them. Players will also be pleased to see some realistic rag-doll physics when players are killed or even hit by an explosive round or grenade. There is nothing to capture the feeling of watching a soldier hit by a sniper round slump and fall over a railing and plow into the ground below.

Your Ears Will Love You

The sound in Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 can be summed up in one word: Amazing. The crack of rifles, the chatter of machine guns and the rolling of tank treads erupt from your speakers. Pumping up the sound is sure to wake up some neighbors at night when you are in the middle of an artillery barrage. What impressed me the most, however, was the professionalism and authenticity of the sound of the weapons. Never do you ever feel like your sound experience is cheapened by mediocre gun sounds or cheesy voice affects, but they instead enhance the experience, as they should.

Is Realism the Answer?

The realism factor for Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is what makes the game. Without it, it would be just another Call of Duty 2 or Battlefield 1942 clone with no single-player. It definitely changes the mindset of most players, who are used to fast-paced gameplay and near Rambo-like abilities. By giving a heavy dose of realism and gritty combat, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 can force players into a teamwork-orientated style of gameplay. Unfortunately, there will be times when this doesn’t happen and you are left just scratching your head with what to do, but when you come upon that magical server with organization and likeable people, you won’t be let down.

The Ugly Facts

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is not perfect. There are some problems that may turn away some players and can have an impact on the gameplay. First off, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 has a ridiculously long load time for maps. I tried turning down my settings to the lowest, but I was still waiting and staring at the loading screen for a few minutes. This can be a huge problem when you pick a server and while it is loading a map, the current map ends and guess what? More map loading! While the chances of this happening aren’t common, when it does, you’ll find yourself sitting around, twiddling your thumbs and thinking about games that don’t take so much time to load. I found my average time to be almost five minutes, which is almost an eternity when you are used to faster games. Take into account that some servers have maps with a time limit of 20 minutes per map and you have effectively just used up a potential one-fourth of in-game time staring at a load screen.

There are other problems, such as the height of jumping (apparently you can’t hop over a waist-high fence) and lag-based quirks that would drive a player crazy. If your connection is a tad spotty, you can expect some warps in your steps or even your tank to start sliding even if you haven’t touched the controls.

For the Mother/Fatherland!

No matter which side you choose, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is an intriguing and challenging online FPS. The unique setting, the realism and the effects are enough to make any WWII game addict to drool all over his keyboard. Aside from some problems, I recommend giving Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 a go. That is, if you can handle it.