Thank GhostWarrior its Friday!: Red Orchestra 2 (part 1)

Evenin' all,

Its Friday and I thought I'd dig through an venerable SB5 classic: Red Orchestra 2. RO2 is a first person WW2 tactical shooter and one of the best in my opinion.While the PC games industry is in no shortage of WW2 shooters the majority seem to feature scenes from classic WW2 films. Whether its the old sock grenade can knock out a Tiger tank trick from Saving Private Ryan (meaning that every American GI could knock out two Tigers) or a nod to Enemy at the Gates, they all seemed a little samey. Also, RO2 is set in what was at the time, quite rare setting of the Eastern Front.

It really is more of a tactical shooter than any previous game. For example; firing at anything on the move more than three feet away is a waste of ammo. Another feature is the aiming. You can set your iron sights and scopes to preset ranges (in increments of 100m) but you have no way of knowing the range to the target. At first this is frustrating as you can be emptying clips into people you think are 100m away and not hit anything. After time however, you start to get a better feel for the ranges and can usually adjust your sights after one or two rounds for mid range combat.

Tinglyed on the MG34, you can see the beautifully modeled weapons on this game

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the class system. Each class has its roll to play and it focus more on tactical doctrine form the time rather than a balanced game. For example MG's can dominate when used effectively, but require other squad members to support (including being handed ammo). Also a simple class and weapon upgrade system give nice rewards for persisting with a class.When I first began playing I was in my sniper phase and can honestly say it is one of the best sniper games I have played mainly due to the sight adjusting and bullet physics I mentioned earlier.

Me and Tinglyed back in the good ol' Sniper days