Imagine yourself pinned down in a bombed-out house in the middle of a Soviet village. Your comrades are being slowly picked off by German snipers and machine gunners while you hear their infantry shouting orders and slowly advances and your reinforcements have no hope of reaching your position in time. You’ve found your way into the cold, harsh environs of Red Orchestra: the latest attempt to win the ‘War to End All War;’ only this time the carnage takes place on the Eastern Front.

Developed from the UT2004 engine for the Make Something Unreal mod development competition this mod has very true-to-life physics and the nearly one-hit-kill aspect of the game is very accurate. If you find yourself falling too far or getting shot in your extremities you’ll notice that you don’t move too quick to find cover and your jumping ability is taken away. You won’t find too many soldiers that get bit in the leg diving out of the line of fire. Your character can sprint (you can tell when your stamina is wearing when your breath becomes heavy), crouch, and go in prone position to fully utilize your surroundings and weaponry.

Fight as a part of Hitler’s Wehrmacht or as a member of Stalin’s Red Army. Both forces’ uniforms and weaponry have been painstakingly recreated with stunning attention to detail. Each side has a selection of different roles to take on. You can be an officer equipped with a rifle or sub machine gun, a pistol, and grenades; a sniper equipped with a sniper rifle, pistol, and grenades; a machine gunner packing a fully automatic machine gun, pistol, and grenades; or your common grunt with a rifle and grenades. Like knowing the exact number of rounds left in your clip? You’d better learn to count your shots. The HUD only shows how many clips you’re carrying on your person. Are you one of those FPS fans who swear by the crosshairs? You’ll find yourself horribly disoriented in the world of Red Orchestra as there is no magical set of crosshairs floating midscreen. This game utilizes the iron sights on each rifle or pistol. The only weapon you’ll find with crosshairs is the sniper rifle.

The maps are equally well-done: each location appropriately representing the most crucial fights in clash between the Soviet Union and Germany. Exchange fire across the deep ravines of the Caucasus Mountains. Relive the ‘Enemy at the Gates’ scenario in Stalingrad. Struggle to gain dominance in close-quarters combat in Warsaw or Berlin. There are endless custom maps as well. Even your personal map displays your objectives and position in real-time; the one daunting part missing is the position of your allies on the map. Sadly, when the server settings are set to Friendly Fire On this can lead to many a team kill if your allies lack in the communication department. Map builders have paid as an enormous attention to detail in the various maps as they have in the character and weaponry development. You can take cover among grassy plains, in various tree lines, or in bombed out houses in the middle of the major cities you’ll explore. To say that the sound effects in this game are amazing would be a gross understatement. Ambient sounds of far-off gunfire, comrades or enemy soldiers shouting commands in their native tongue, and the nerve-wracking sound of heavy machine gun fire ignite your already tried and tested nerves. The sound effects are very crisp taking full effect of Dolby surround systems so much that if you don’t have surround sound you are at a severe disadvantage. Red Orchestra also features a haunting theme song that you’ll discover while you explore the menu and look for a server to play on.

This game is entirely multiplayer; much to the dismay of the one-man-army fans of the Medal of Honor series. There are countless servers available and the Quick Launch feature you know from UT2004 functions the same here finding you the most active server first and foremost. You’ll find many players are willing to help out if you’re new to the game. Many of the servers I joined had its fair share of inexperienced players and the members that had knowledge to share were pretty good about it.

The one major gripe I have with this game is the lack of vehicle support. While the Red Orchestra Official website mentions that it’s being worked on I wouldn’t expect it any time soon. Another point about this game is that there is a tremendous learning curve. Taking the floating crosshairs out of a game is daunting to any classic FPS fan and it takes a bit of time to get used to the iron sights that are so vital to success. The Red Orchestra development team is really good about creating patches for bugs that show up and since its main launch it has already had 3 patches as of mid-June. Red Orchestra is one WWII experience that should not be overlooked.



The Good
- Amazing sound effects
- Great visuals
- Very fluid game play
- Intuitive Controls

The Bad
- Very high learning curve
- No vehicle support