To give some background, I am 27 years old with a wife, a kid on the way in less than a month, going to work full time and going to school full time. I started playing computer games back in 1994 when Command HQ and Drakkhen filled most of my time. I eventually gravitated to Day of Defeat as the staple game I will always play. I have made the move to DoD: Source. BF2, EQ2, EVE, FFXI, Quake, Doom3 and other are all passing fads. DoD:S is something I have always returned to.
When I initially loaded Red Orchestra: Ostfront (RO) I didn't experience any issues ordering, pre-loading, and then unlocking. My hopes were high having seen the amazing trailer. And given my background, I was really hoping for a DoD type game set in my favorite historical events (WW2) with an amazing amount of detail. My complaint about DoD is that it is limited to a small map with fast tactics typical in the arcade arena. Game like Battlefield were so poorly implemented in my opinion because they failed to capture any notion of strategy, teamwork or realism. RO was my answer and I embraced its release with zeal.
Upon my initial play I have to admit I was very very dissapointed. In a time where high end graphics were standard, switching from say DoD:S to RO was intially dissapointing. The animations are stiff and at times very unrealistic. Clipping, for example, was terrible when driving through a wheat field because the wheat would appear in the tank. Certain levels seemed to be dominated by those with ample experience keen on inflating their egos decimating noobs like myself. The interface itself seems haphazardly designed. The menu seems old and reminiscient of DOS games. I griped and complained a lot. I was sad to see another wonderful concept get killed by gaming with people not willing to work together. I suppose this would all be the bulk of my complaints. I was resolved to wait for RO:2 if something like that ever came out on an updated engine.
I browsed the forums and got a wonderful idea. I maxed out all my graphics settings except HDR bloom and quite frankly, most of my graphics complaints about quality have been silenced. Sure it may still not look the best but man, I finally started seeing some scenes and stared how good things looked at times. But that's not everything. The moment that turned me into a fan was when we were on the German side trying to cross a frozen river. Our tanks fought off the tanks trying to cross the bridges and I made my way over to the Russian side of the river. By now I learned all the cool features like the lean and how to aim. I run crouched to the trench and pick off a couple Russians and then jump the wall to the objective. I turn around and there were 3 other Germans with me following me. In that moment, I fell in love because I realize the huge potential in teamwork this game had. We had all worked together and took out the tanks, captured key areas around an objective and then captured it together.
Since then, I have been playing almost every night. It runs a little slow on my machine in between levels and the frequent VPU crashes I keep getting from my video card are making playing less enjoyable but these are things that aren't the game itself. You see, RO is what I always wanted DoD:S to be. RO is where DoD was supposed to go with Source. Instead it became an arcade shooter. Don't get me wrong. I still love DoD:S. Its just that I don't get a level of satisfaction playing any other FPS than I do playing RO. The sound is unbelievable. The options for all the firearms are awesome. It was all so very well thought out and planned. Being able to butt people with your rifles, attach bayonets, select fire where applicable, iron sights, artillery strikes, driving in and outside the tanks, etc etc. The mechanics are awesome. It does take more time to get into a RO map. Its one of the things I like about DoD. Load the game, select a server and start shooting. I don't mind the extra time but it can get frustrating because sometimes the combat situation is so chaotic and with the lack of teamwork at times, your play experience can be miserable.
I think the developers should focus on bugs and as the game becomes more widely played and they are ironed out they should fix graphics issues like animations and clipping. Then maybe revamping the interface or polishing it up. After that, I would introduce new maps and vehicles.
I suppose I don't know the community very well and have no idea how much the developers listen to us players, but I hope that improvments and fixes make this even better. I play as Mean_Mr_Mustard on any Seattle area server with people playing on it.
Anyway, the game is great for the reasons I listed above. Needs some polishing and a larger player base. The best experience (most satisfying, that is) comes with teamwork.
Thank you for reading my review.
When I initially loaded Red Orchestra: Ostfront (RO) I didn't experience any issues ordering, pre-loading, and then unlocking. My hopes were high having seen the amazing trailer. And given my background, I was really hoping for a DoD type game set in my favorite historical events (WW2) with an amazing amount of detail. My complaint about DoD is that it is limited to a small map with fast tactics typical in the arcade arena. Game like Battlefield were so poorly implemented in my opinion because they failed to capture any notion of strategy, teamwork or realism. RO was my answer and I embraced its release with zeal.
Upon my initial play I have to admit I was very very dissapointed. In a time where high end graphics were standard, switching from say DoD:S to RO was intially dissapointing. The animations are stiff and at times very unrealistic. Clipping, for example, was terrible when driving through a wheat field because the wheat would appear in the tank. Certain levels seemed to be dominated by those with ample experience keen on inflating their egos decimating noobs like myself. The interface itself seems haphazardly designed. The menu seems old and reminiscient of DOS games. I griped and complained a lot. I was sad to see another wonderful concept get killed by gaming with people not willing to work together. I suppose this would all be the bulk of my complaints. I was resolved to wait for RO:2 if something like that ever came out on an updated engine.
I browsed the forums and got a wonderful idea. I maxed out all my graphics settings except HDR bloom and quite frankly, most of my graphics complaints about quality have been silenced. Sure it may still not look the best but man, I finally started seeing some scenes and stared how good things looked at times. But that's not everything. The moment that turned me into a fan was when we were on the German side trying to cross a frozen river. Our tanks fought off the tanks trying to cross the bridges and I made my way over to the Russian side of the river. By now I learned all the cool features like the lean and how to aim. I run crouched to the trench and pick off a couple Russians and then jump the wall to the objective. I turn around and there were 3 other Germans with me following me. In that moment, I fell in love because I realize the huge potential in teamwork this game had. We had all worked together and took out the tanks, captured key areas around an objective and then captured it together.
Since then, I have been playing almost every night. It runs a little slow on my machine in between levels and the frequent VPU crashes I keep getting from my video card are making playing less enjoyable but these are things that aren't the game itself. You see, RO is what I always wanted DoD:S to be. RO is where DoD was supposed to go with Source. Instead it became an arcade shooter. Don't get me wrong. I still love DoD:S. Its just that I don't get a level of satisfaction playing any other FPS than I do playing RO. The sound is unbelievable. The options for all the firearms are awesome. It was all so very well thought out and planned. Being able to butt people with your rifles, attach bayonets, select fire where applicable, iron sights, artillery strikes, driving in and outside the tanks, etc etc. The mechanics are awesome. It does take more time to get into a RO map. Its one of the things I like about DoD. Load the game, select a server and start shooting. I don't mind the extra time but it can get frustrating because sometimes the combat situation is so chaotic and with the lack of teamwork at times, your play experience can be miserable.
I think the developers should focus on bugs and as the game becomes more widely played and they are ironed out they should fix graphics issues like animations and clipping. Then maybe revamping the interface or polishing it up. After that, I would introduce new maps and vehicles.
I suppose I don't know the community very well and have no idea how much the developers listen to us players, but I hope that improvments and fixes make this even better. I play as Mean_Mr_Mustard on any Seattle area server with people playing on it.
Anyway, the game is great for the reasons I listed above. Needs some polishing and a larger player base. The best experience (most satisfying, that is) comes with teamwork.
Thank you for reading my review.
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