Red Orchestra 41-45

[Lynne Pruskowski]

Seton the Eastern Front during World War II between 1941 and 1945, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 depicts the struggle between Soviet and German forces.[1] The game's creators, Tripwire Interactive, developed the game out of the previous Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Red Orchestra: Combined Arms.[2]

Red Orchestra is notable for its emphasis on realism in comparison to other World War II-based FPS games. There is no "crosshair" for a player to aim with in the middle of their screen; instead, the player must either aim down the three-dimensional iron sights, or aim from the hip using the game's free-aim system. The former requires compensating for the breathing of the character and natural sway from holding the gun, while the latter is much quicker but accurate only at very short range. The player must also keep track of their ammo usage mentally unlike many other FPS games, most of which use an ammunition counter. Additionally, the player's health status is not represented by "health points" as many other games use, but by a diagram of the player's body with reddened sections that show where he has been wounded; there is no way to recover from wounds, although after a brief period of time, the player will function at 100% again. Receiving wounds will temporarily slow the player down, especially if they receive a wound to the legs or feet; receiving a wound to the hands causes the player to drop their currently held weapon on the ground. Rifles usually kill players in one shot if they connect with the torso or head.

Vehicle support is also a prominent feature of the game. The player can operate the combat vehicles as one of the crew members. Most tanks, for example, can accommodate up to three crew members (a driver, a commander and a machine-gunner) to make them fully effective in close city fighting, however it is easy to crew a tank solo and simply switch to different positions as needed. When grouped together in a vehicle, all players in the vehicle receive points for their actions and for the actions of their fellow crew members; for example, if a player is driving a tank and the tank commander destroys an enemy tank, both the player and the commander will receive the appropriate number of points for that kill. When operating a tank solo, the player can only perform one of the roles at a time; this prevents a solo player from being able to fire, move and reload all at the same time (reloading is a task performed by the commander). The game also features artillery support in some maps which can be utilized by both squad leaders and tank commanders.

Red Orchestra features 16 official maps and 10 community-made maps supported by the developers. The Red Orchestra SDK, though never gone beyond beta version, has allowed the production of hundreds of user-created maps.

Red Orchestra features several different map types. Infantry maps focus on infantry combat, but can occasionally include APCs. Tank maps focus on tank combat. Combined Arms features gameplay which makes the coordination of infantry and armor its focal point. However, in many maps only when something on the map such as a wall or a fence is part of an objective or blockade can it be interacted with. The maps feature many broken buildings and vehicles as well as propaganda posters and resupply areas to add to the realism.

Red Orchestra: Combined Arms is a tactical first-person shooter total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004 and previously for Unreal Tournament 2003 originally developed by an independent international mod team, set on the Eastern Front during World War II.[2]

The Red Orchestra developers, Tripwire Interactive, entered the NVIDIA Make Something Unreal Contest, with a grand prize of free Unreal Engine 2.5 and 3.0 licenses.[4] The Combined Arms aspect of the game in version 3.0 was brought about by heavy suggestion that vehicles should be included to secure progression in the MSUC. Further refinement of the Red Orchestra total conversion led to version 3.3, the last version of the mod.

On Monday November 21, 2005, Tripwire Interactive announced that they would be releasing Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 over Steam, Valve's digital content distribution platform.[5] The game was released on Tuesday March 14, 2006, on the Steam network.[6]

Loki installers for Linux gamers supplies a Linux installer for the original Red Orchestra: Combined Arms modification. It is made to work with the Linux port of Unreal Tournament 2004, and has an installer for both the original mod and the Summer Offensive Map Pack Addon.[7]

It is notable for its emphasis on realism in comparison to other World War II-based FPSs. Unlike most FPSs, there is little on-screen information. There are no crosshairs in the middle of the screen; instead, the player must aim using simulated three-dimensional iron sights, compensating for the breathing of the character and natural sway from holding the gun. The player must also mentally keep track of ammo usage, unlike in games such as Counter-Strike which use an ammunition counter. Health status is not represented by points, but by a diagram of the player's body with reddened sections that show where they have been wounded. The bolt-action rifles in the game can often kill a player in one shot if rounds connect with any part of the torso or head. Semi-automatic rifles, such as the SVT-40 and Gewehr 43, are also capable of killing in one shot.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a 2006 first-person shooter developed by Tripwire Interactive. It is a revamped and improved version of Red Orchestra: Combined Arms, a 2004 total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. Set across various battles of the Eastern Front of World War II, the game is noted for its emphasis on slower-paced, more realistic gameplay compared to other shooters of the time. Systems and features intended to increase immersion and realism include ballistics simulation, ammunition counted via magazines rather than loose rounds with no numerical indicator of remaining ammunition, and the ability for every small arm to kill in a single shot- players also do not have health points, with the lethality of shots depending on where bullets impact on the player character's body.

The Walther P38 is also available in-game, used as an alternative to the Luger by the same classes. Like the Luger, it loads from an 8-round magazine, and when running the player decocks the hammer before holstering it.

The MP 40 is avalaible to German squad leaders, tank commanders, and a small percentage of infantry. It is an effective submachine gun that features low rate of fire and low recoil, which makes for great accuracy and control, an excellent advantage over the Soviet PPSh-41. Like the PPSh, the MP 40 became an icon of the German war machine, despite the Karabiner 98k being issued in greater numbers.

The MP 41 version is nearly identical to the MP 40 aside from the replacement of the folding metal stock with a fixed wooden stock; this was only used in small numbers and mostly issued to police and other rear-line units, so it is unclear why Tripwire included it in the game. It is generally carried by the same classes that use the MP 40, if not in lesser numbers.

The Karabiner 98k appears in-game as the standard German battle rifle, a bolt-action weapon loading from five-round stripper clips. It is accurate and powerful to great distances. Both the standard and scoped sniper variants, the latter fitted with a Zeiss ZF42 telescopic sight, are featured in the game, with the bayonet available only on the standard version. The in-game texture for the rifle features a prominent serial number on the stock just ahead of the buttplate, something that was not done by the Germans, indicating that the reference rifle was at some point captured by the Soviets.

An early German semi-auto battle rifle, the Gewehr 41(W) appears in earlier maps. Unlike its contemporary, the SVT-40, its magazine was fixed and its gas system uses a gas trap with an annular piston, rather than the more usual (and reliable) gas port with regular piston. As a result, the G41(W) was not very reliable, although this is not represented in the game since malfunctions aren't simulated. Reloading is performed via the top of the weapon via single rounds or five-round stripper clips. The in-game rifle can only be loaded with five-round clips, and only after at least five rounds have been fired. The (W) indicates it was manufactured by Walther and not Mauser. Despite both G41 versions being fitted with bayonet lugs to accept the standard Kar98k bayonet, it is not available in-game.

The Gewehr 43 appears in-game as the successor to the G41(W), using 10-round detachable box magazines. In the game, the player can equip either the standard version or the scoped sniper variant fitted with a ZF4 telescopic sight. The G43's gas system was actually a reverse-engineered copy of the SVT-40's, leading to greatly improved reliability. However, the rifle's gas system used so much power to cycle that the G43 had an unfortunate habit over time of "beating itself to death" as per its Soviet cousin; this is not modelled in-game and was seldom even a concern until encountered by post-war owners. The scoped version allows the player to sustain a greater rate of fire than the scoped Kar98k, at the cost of somewhat reduced accuracy.

The Sturmgewehr 44 is a weapon that combines the power of a battle rifle with the close-quarters effectiveness of a submachine gun. It fires from a 30-round magazine and is featured in later war maps. The game allows the player to use a selector switch to alternate between semi-auto and full-automatic fire.

The MG 34 is the standard early-war machine gun for the German faction and the world's first true general-purpose machine gun (GPMG). It fires from a side-mounted 50-round drum magazine and the ability to quickly swap barrels upon overheating is replicated in-game. It can be fired from its bipod or from the hip, although the latter method is extremely difficult to control due to the heavy recoil and rate of fire. It is also featured in nearly every German vehicle in the game, including the SdKfz 251 halftrack (turret-mounted), Panzer III (co-axial and radio operator), Panzer IV F1/F2/G/H (co-axial and radio operator), Panther (co-axial and radio operator) and the Tiger I (co-axial and radio operator).

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