And now that the update is out and it's 20% off on Steam, it's now or never. Give me the pros and cons. I've been playing DoD and DoD:S. Are the maps in RO that much bigger and open? Is the realism any higher?
The maps are much bigger overall. Although it depends on the type. Infantry maps are medium\medium-large, combined arms maps bigger, and tank maps are bigger still. There aren't really any 'small' maps, except maybe Entweichen, but that's rarely played.
As for the realism, I have to say it's the most realistic FPS I've ever played. Long ago in the deep dark past, I only played Call of Duty: United Offensive online. It was a fun game for it's time, but the best moments were always when you got playing with a few friends tearing the battlefield up together, coordinating your efforts. But these moments were precious few, because the problem was, unless you
team up with friends, that kind of teamwork almost never happened. This was because most people were only interested in going lone wolf, doing whatever it takes to get lots of kills.
In Red Orchestra: Ostfront, great teamwork moments happen almost every time I play. In many ways RO forces it's players to act realistically. You move at a realistic speed (considering you're a WW2 infantryman carrying a load of gear), bunny-hopping simply doesn't work and if you get shot in a vital area, you're pretty much done for. There is no armor, there are no health packs, there is no ammo counter, there is no crosshair.
And you can't leap around corners, aim down the sight of your rifle and pop someone in the head while in mid-air, either. (*cough* CoD2). Careful aiming and clever movement win the day here.
Ballistics are properly modelled, meaning that a bullet's journey to it's target is not instantaneous, as it is in most other first-person shooters (see:
hitscan), but exists in time. This means that over considerable distances you have to 'lead' moving targets to hit them. Ostfront also made a technical innovation when it was released, in that you can rest your weapon on the environment to steady it against the recoil. Window sills, doorframes, ridges, ledges... any solid object. Just like soldiers are trained to do in real life. All you have to do is find a solid object at the appropriate height and you'll automatically rest your weapon on it. It's an excellent, easy to use implementation of this feature.
Red Orchestra has nearly everything you could possibly wish for in a multiplayer WW2 shooter. Combat in all sorts of environments and at all sorts of ranges, tanks, apcs, artillery, bayonets, dozens of infantry weapons of all different types... And finally, in all my time playing I've only encountered
one confirmed hacker.
