Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Gameplay

Red Orchestra 2 is a realistic first-person shooter. Guns behave realistically, with bullet drop and spin taken into account. The game also takes away many of the elements of a traditional HUD, like an ammo counter, forcing players to remember, or manually check, the approximate number of rounds that are left in the gun's magazine. When reloading a weapon, the character checks the weight of the new magazine and determines if it is heavy (full or close to full) or light (empty or close to empty). The game's first-person cover system allows players to hide behind all objects in the world to avoid gunfire. While in cover, players can peek out to take more accurate shots or fire blindly. However, the shape, size and, composition of the object changes its effectiveness at protecting the player. Smaller objects may not cover the player's entire body, and some may not stop bullets. Health does not regenerate over time or by use of medical equipment, but non-fatal wounds must still be bandaged so no more health is lost through blood loss.

There are tanks in Red Orchestra 2. The interiors of each tank are fully recreated with either a human or AI manning each station. The level of detail was described by Tripwire's president John Gibson as rivaling or exceeding tank simulation games. Because of the extensive work required to recreate each vehicle, which Tripwire estimates to take three months each, the game launched with two tanks: the German Panzer IV Ausf. F2 and Soviet T-34. In April 2014 the Game of the Year addition was released with a new game mode search and destroy, new maps and two armored personal carriers were added into the game for the German and Soviet sides respectively. These are the German Sd.Kfz. 251 and the British Universal Carrier with a mounted DT machine gun used by the Soviets. These additions gave infantry more protection and a quick alternative for moving around the battlefield. Two more tanks, the German Panzer III Ausf. M and the Soviet T-70 along with the MG42 German machinegun were added in the Armored Assault free DLC.

Development

In June 2011, Red Orchestra 2's developer, Tripwire, announced they would be taking an aggressive, three-pronged approach to proactively deal with cheating. Red Orchestra 2 would be using a combination of three anti-cheat services; VAC along with Punkbuster and a related service called PBBans. Server operators can choose to use any or none of these services. Tripwire later clarified that Punkbuster for Red Orchestra 2 will have three levels of protection so server operators can optionally make it more or less aggressive in kicking players. A Beta was initiated early on the development process with several phases. First, the Family and Friends Beta for family members and friends of the Tripwire Interactive staff. Then the Beta moved on to include long time clans from Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 and clans new to the game. After this stage, the Beta was opened for anyone that had pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game, which gave the added bonus of participating in the final stage of the Beta.

Mods

Some mod teams were given early access to the SDK and have been developing mods. These mods include Iron Europe: 1914-1916, a mod about World War I, In Country: Vietnam, a mod about the Vietnam War, and Karelian Front, a mod about the Continuation War. There is also the CGT mod that adds classic gametypes such as Capture The Flag and Search & Destroy to the game. The full SDK was made available in January 2012.

Music

Composer Sam Hulick, one of the principal composers for the Mass Effect series, was chosen to score the game. The game features dynamic music system, which will cue different music depending on the state of the battle. The Russian and German sides will have their own separate soundtrack.

Rising Storm

Rising Storm was released on May 30, 2013, for a cost of 20 US dollars or regional equivalent. An optional Digital Deluxe edition is available for an extra 10 dollars, and a Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad ownership bonus discount of 25% are available on the Steam store. A 15% preorder discount was also available. Owners of the original Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad received free access to the rifleman class, whilst buyers of Rising Storm were given the original game as well.

Rising Storm features in context of the Pacific war between the US and Japan. Both sides have distinct weaponry and abilities so as to create an asymmetric gameplay. The Americans have access to high firepower weapons such as semi-automatic rifles, machineguns and flamethrowers. The Japanese are instead equipped with bolt-action rifles, hand-held mortars, mines, katanas and the ability to banzai charge: causing the enemy to be suppressed for the duration of the charge.

Reception

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.