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TWB PlayTest
Imagine if Red Orchestra: Ostfront was a great song you played on your stereo with the volume on 10, Red Orchestra2: Heroes of Stalingrad is the same song, but with the volume on 15. I was recently invited to visit the offices of Tripwire Interactive to play their latest game in development; Red Orchestra2: Heroes of Stalingrad. In this preview, I will be speaking to the core of RO2 and how it measures in comparison to RO. I will also be giving my impressions on items that matter, to me, regardless of the title. Specifically, how the weapon interacts within the environment, how my avatar interacts within the environment, and the overall immersion level of the game.
I believe a small amount of my background is needed so you can make a reasonable assessment of this preview. I started playing PC games with Rainbow6: Rogue Spear. I found the danger of realistic bullet effects immersive. One shot is all it took to be the hero or the villain. The thrill of the danger pulled me into the game like nothing else. I eventually moved on to games like Tribes and Unreal Tournament and found them very fun and enjoyed many hours of fragging, but I wasn’t pulled into the environment by the fear and thoughtfulness required by a dangerous game.
I discovered Red Orchestra around the 2.0 version of the beta. Three days later, I finally got a kill in the game. The game had a steep learning curve, not in keyboard layouts or feature mechanics, but in the level of tactical thinking required. Weapons had realistic damage, a large caliber rifle wound in the chest will kill with one shot so you had to be careful or spend a lot of time re-spawning; I was hooked. In RO, you cannot simply run past a corner of a building, you cannot just sprint across an open alley, you have to be observant and think about what you are doing. If you just run around and charge senselessly, on your own, you will be an easy target for the enemy. (It says a great deal about a realistic game when reading a WWII manual dramatically increases in-game skills.) I have been playing the game since and have yet to find a similar experience elsewhere.
In regards to weaponry, how a weapon interacts in the environment is very important to me due to how much immersion can be ruined. A weapon has to feel as if it has a presence or it subtracts from my total immersion. If a gun moves like it has no weight, no real effect from firing, just a generic recoil animation, I feel disappointed. I want to feel as if I am there so I expect my avatar to have to raise, sight, and fire a weapon in order to make an accurate hit. I want to know my weapon is deadly and reacts realistically. Having a gun fire lasers in a sci-fi game is awesome, however, not so great in a “realistic” ball and powder game.
RO2 delivers a very realistic experience in regards to weapons. The recoil and overall feel of the weapons are substantial. You feel the weight of the gun in your hands, the accuracy of the weapon, and most importantly, the kick of the trigger. Recoil is very realistic, making each weapon very deadly under the right circumstances. The sounds are very well done and add to the immersion very nicely. The ballistic characteristics of the weapons appear to be spot on, speaking as both a hunter and as hunted. Overall the weapons are the best I have felt in a game that is trying to be realistic. Consequently, the weapons are very dangerous.
In consideration of movement, the way my avatar interacts with the environment can make or break a game for me; I need to be able to move in a realistic manner. RO2:HoS is a very realistic experience, my avatar walks, runs, and jumps in a life-like fashion. I got the sensation of needing to get somewhere quick when I was running, and the feeling of confidence when rounding a corner in iron-sights. I could move about the map in a realistic manner, over obstacles and through windows with ease and fluidity thanks to the mantling system. I felt in full control of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.
I was still in a dangerous environment though, so I had to think about what I was doing. Being mindful of the Sun, aware of what I was using for cover, and what enemies I was facing were some of the questions going through my mind after initial contact with the enemy. It is difficult to just hold the trigger down and pray in this game, if you want to survive you have to be quick witted, if you want to kill you have to be tactical. You cannot use the cover system to peek in areas you really couldn’t see. If I wanted to see over a sandbag, I risked getting a new hole in my helmet. Therefore, the environment is very dangerous.
When looking at immersion, most games that try to simulate real life scenarios do their best to pull you in and immerse you in the game. However, every game requires you to suspend belief in many ways in order to simulate the larger point of the game. You respawn, you can pilot a plane or tank without training, all the way to not having to eat; compromises have to be made. This is where developers really stand apart; how deep can they pull you in and how easily? As an aside; I was able to step in and feel comfortable within 15 minutes, and I witnessed two new players to RO get kills in about 30 minutes. However, I found this was done without compromising the integrity of the game-play of RO.
RO2 made me feel as if I was a part of the battle. I felt urgency when attacking, confidence when defending, fear under fire, and happiness to see a teammate. From my movement, to what I was seeing around me, everything felt natural, organic, and fluid. The animations, lighting, shadows, and textures all come together to really put you in the boots of your avatar. Nothing stuck out or screamed, “This is a video game!” My mind’s eye was inside the game, I did not feel as if I was piloting an R/C car, I felt inside of a real car.
I was not inundated with relentless info or complicated mechanics, I had everything I needed just a keystroke away and everything just made sense. My screen was devoid of all but vital information. With a button push I would get every bit of tactical information I needed, it was there when I needed it and out of sight when not needed. I felt as if I moved through the environment realistically and that the environment, from bullets to sunlight, was a realistic threat to me. Everything came together well, making the immersion level very high.
In conclusion, RO2:HoS is everything RO:OST is and more. It is more accessible, more immersive, more tactical, more realistic, more dangerous, and more rewarding. I felt like I was in a battle, the sights, sounds, and emotions were all there just taken to a new level. I had very high expectations for this game and they were greatly exceeded. I would like to thank everyone at Tripwire Interactive for their dedication, support, and care for the Red Orchestra franchise. Their integrity and commitment has shown through once again.
TWB*JimMiller
Continued....
Jim Miller and I had the opportunity, as you all know, to play test the new Red Orchestra game, Heroes of Stalingrad. Unfortunately Jim is a bit camera shy so all you can see in the photos is the back of his head. The visit with Tripwire went great our visit coincided with a visit from Slashandbash and Georgi, a reporter from a Russian gaming magazine.
In any case I know you all want to know my thoughts on the game. As I put in an earlier post, It is everything the Red Orchestra Ostfront (RO) wanted improved without taking away from the “realism” and yet fixes, at least in my opinion many of the issues I have found playing Call of Duty and Medal of Honor.
First and foremost, graphically the game is outstanding. I noticed while watching Ramm-Jaeger run through some parts of the game play for us, that the muzzle flashes varied. After chatting the the lead for that part of the game, I was right, they have made multiple animations for something as simple as a muzzle flash and then randomly assign the flash you get for each round. This kind of attention is everywhere in the game and when watching someone else play, is truly amazing. I admit to not noticing it while getting killed by among other, Ramm-Jaeger, Dr Guppy and Redeye. (Thanks guys for shooting me so much if you read this.) The game has a very realistic feel to it, probably from the background work by the team. Maps are real life scaled. It really became apparent when we played Fallen Fighters, the HOS version of Fallen Heroes from RO. At first I looked at the map and went, “Oh yeah, I got this.” I go running out to the square and the next thought was, “Holy cow, this is huge” Thought after that was a bullet from Redeye in my head... Lesson, don't stop unless you are behind something, preferably concrete, because bullets can get you through lighter materials, depending on many factors. Let me make one thing clear, the videos do not do the game justice, it is so far better than the videos show that you just can't really compare them.
Where do I start and where can I go on game play itself? Maybe I'll hit this in two parts, first what the RO players will look forward to and then for the CoD and MOH players.
For the RO players, HOS is a cure for the things that bothered me from RO. You can climb over things, and it doesn't take forever to do, very smooth, much like CoD. The PPSH does not kill the sky, you can actually hold it on target, give or take a bit. You can predict the muzzle sway, and it's not that bad in the first place, it moves with you breath, which you can control, or as Ramm-Jaeger put it, “You don't hold you breath and then suddenly turn into a meth addict.” Close enough may not count but it will sure do in a pinch – Suppression, a great effect that is hard to explain; but trust me -- you fire your weapon in the general area of the enemy and not only will he know it, he will prefer to be somewhere else. No one is going to stare down an MG and live. Personally, I preferred running when the suppression got to high, usually to somewhere safe, where Dr Guppy then shot me and I died slowly.
Which brings me to death, you don't necessary die immediately, and you may have a few alternatives, you might be able to bandage yourself up and keep fighting, or if you have your weapon and run into you attacker someplace nice, like a hall, blast him before you die. At least you know you went out fighting. It sounds a lot like last stand in CoD, but you only have a matter of seconds and even less or none if your attacker was smart enough to fill you with lead.
Finally for the RO side, there is a new concept of “Cover” in the game, as you approach virtually all doors or openings an little icon shows on the bottom of the screen alerting you to the ability to use the object for cover. A single tap of a key engages the cover, it can break it as well, but why when you can just walk away instead. The idea is ingeniously executed, once in “cover”, you can simply peek over the top, blind fire, or pop up and take aim. While taking aim, you can use you “crouch” key to duck temporarily. Aiming is easy, push you mouse where you want to go, want to slide across a window, but stay in cover, just move left or right. You can even aim down or around corners, but be aware, you expose yourself the farther you go; and then DrGuppy shoots you and you die slowly, again.
Thinking back I blew the one great chance for blind firing, I had Ramm-Jaeger and Redeye, my mortal enemies down a hall and I had some piece of furniture to hide behind. RO overtook what I could have done in HOS, and I pulled my head and gun up and killed them, only to be killed by someone else. Had I been thinking, I could have killed them both with blind fire, they had no where to go. SO there will be a little bit of a learning curve.
For the CoD and MoH players of the crowd, unless you are just diametrically opposed to World War II based shooters, this game is great. Spawn issues, not here. You can choose to spawn on your squad leader, but if he is under fire, you will spawn safely near him, but not in the action. You can also choose from other spawn points that may bring you into the action from a direction needed. One caveat in the Fire Fight mode (sort of a team death match), you tend to spawn right at the action to keep the fight going, I did get a quick spawn/die, as I spawned in an open doorway, but I saved a comrade from being killed by Redeye, so I think of it as a wash. But it only happened once, so I take that as an anomaly, and a good one at that.
Oddly in HOS you guns kill things, and do so quite efficiently. No more wasting a clip to kill someone. You hit him and he will know it, and in all likelihood die from it. Hip shooting is still hard, although I did get a guy in smoke with a bolt action rifle, pure luck I think, but heck it counts. However, shooting you PPSH as I mentioned above is controllable even on full auto. So with any minor skill you should be ably to whirl around corners and blaze people down. Oh and especially for Kingy, you can carry your MG34 and hip shoot it quite easily, not too accurately but good enough. Now brace it and that is a fine weapon.
On the subject of accuracy, oddly pistols don't kill people across maps, nor do SMGs. Strange that a weapon can have an actual accuracy, but if the hints were interpreted correctly, it is simply the accuracy, not the bullet itself that gives out. You might catch a stray which was not intended for you.
Game types are far more plentiful that in RO, there is even a “Sabotage” style map, where you only have one life, but if you cap the objective, everyone comes back and can continue the fight. There are the territory capture maps which sway back and forth from one side to the other, and there is a full campaign mode. I didn't really follow how it works, but in a very morale crushing Pyrrhic victory, we won a round and loss half our reinforcements ultimately causing our defeat for the campaign. Which is set in a series of fight chosen by the winning side from the last round and much like the board game risk, the object is to force the other side out of Stalingrad, or our of people to fight.
The game is truly amazing, I am certain my wife will hate it, as I already spend too much time playing games, and even in the 3.5 hours we played yesterday, time just stood still. It is a thoroughly engrossing and captivating game, once you get rolling especially in the campaign mode, you just want to keep fighting until you win.
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