06-06-2004, 07:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-06-2004, 10:15 PM by Power and Glory.)
Mod Website: http://redorchestramod.gameservers.net/
I will preface all of my reviews by saying that I am not a profrssional writer or review person. I apologize in advance for any punctuation and grammar errors. I am only doing this as a person who enjoys games. I only played this mod for a couple days so I can give a sort of quicky review to people. I do not have the time to play these games through and through. So I advise anyone to make there own decision and play it themselves cause I know I have left out alot due to time constraints.
This review is based on Version 2.0 of Red Orchestra. The reason I say that is I just found out they came out with a 2.1 patch today, but most changes were minor except for one big change for the better which I will add to the end of my review. It suprised me cause patches for games and/or mods rarely have weekend releases.
Red Orchestra is a mod based on the WWII Eastern Front which is differant since most other WWII games are based on the European Front. So that means there is no US or British in this game. It's the German forces against the Russian forces. If you have played DoD before then you will see some but not alot of the same type of stuff in terms of gameplay.
Just like in DoD you choose between Axis or Allies and choose your role. Depending on the spawn timer you might have to wait a few seconds. From the servers I have played on there seems to be a continuous 30 second spawn timer. So depending on when you die it might be a quick return into battle or a short wait. This is where most of the similarities end between DoD and RO.
RO is leaned heavily into realism moreso than you ever thought DoD was. In some cases too much for my taste. Because of this extreme realism is where some of its faults appear. The first thing you will notice is that there are no crosshairs for your weapon. This was done to add to that realism. Instead you are forced to use the iron sights of your weapon for any kind of accuracy. For the best accuracy it is best to be in the prone postion. Ducking is the next best option while standing is the worst unless someone is right in front of you.
Another thing you will quickly notice is that there is no way to tell how much ammo you have left. There is no visible gauge or number. The only number you have in your HUD about your weapon is how many clips or magazines you have left. So if you are in the middle of a firefight don't hesitate to reload(make sure you are under cover though) if you are not sure. Since I just brought up reloading I should inform you that this is not a fast task. Some weapons take more than 10 seconds to reload so it's best you take cover while doing so. If you choose to be a sniper you will see this agonizing process.
On to the gameplay. There are no flag caps like DoD instead there are capture points. From what I have played there were 3 objectives per team. Depending on what side you were on you will either attack or defend certain positions. Not too much variety sad to say in that department. Also hopefully they will make use of the vehicle code in UT2004 cause these maps are huge. Which brings up our next problem.
While there is a objective map to show you where the objectives are it is worthless. There is no indicator showing where you or your teamates are. So until you learn the maps expect long sessions of wandering around hoping to come upon them. Make sure you are with a few teamates though since most objectives need a few helping hands to capture. Which brings up our next problem.
Imagine playing the Onslaught mode in UT without any mode of travel but walking. Now I understand this is WWII and it is ground based fighting but a couple tanks or jeeps wouldn't hurt to move people around. It is hard to say in words how big these maps are. Which brings up another problem. Seeing a trend yet?
Spawn Camping. Yes that evil phrase heard in so many games. Well do to how wide open the maps are snipers and other sharpshooters have some good pickings (too good) imo. Luckily however there are multiple routes to go upon spawning to help. This all goes back to not having any sense of direction where to go or where the objectives are. What winds up happening is that the game just becomes a long deathmatch fight with no one caring about the objectives.
Before I forget I should mention that there are limited reinforcements. When you bring up the scoreboard there is a percentage next to each team. That is how many reinforcements your team has left. I do not know how this works as there is no mention of how in the manual.
One last gripe I have is the color of the models being too similar. Right now every server I have been on has friendly fire on. There is alot of accidental team killing going on due to this. Unless you are close to a teamate so his name appears it becomes quite diffacult at times to tell who is who. Someone has made a plugin though which servers use to forgive a tk. All you have to do is type np in the chat. That needs to be worked on though.
Graphically the game is sweet. Anybody with the ability to put the graphics on the high end will see very sharp visuals to help immerse yourself into the game. I have spent a few times admiring the view which proved costly due to me getting shot at.
The sound area is another great feature with very realistic sounds from the enviroment to the weapons. The sound in this game is very helpful when listening for enemies running by.
While the developers make no bones in saying that this is a realism mod I feel that this also hampers their effort in making a great game. I know this is only version 2.0 so I assume alot of things will be worked on. I'm all for not having the rambo in the game but there should be some leeway so the action can be more intense and more fun. They need to work on this to attract more people as currently there are only a handfull of populated servers with alot of empty ones.
Overall Score 75%
Edit: Well as I said they just released version 2.1. The major thing that they fixed was that they added new overhead map feature. Overhead maps now show the player's location and the real location of the objectives.
While I wish they showed where teamates are they at least show where you are. If I were to review it again I would probaly bump up the score to 80% due to this. This is a major feature and hopefully now people will work more as a team now instead of just ignoring the objectives since they could not find them before.
Pics to follow shortly.
I will preface all of my reviews by saying that I am not a profrssional writer or review person. I apologize in advance for any punctuation and grammar errors. I am only doing this as a person who enjoys games. I only played this mod for a couple days so I can give a sort of quicky review to people. I do not have the time to play these games through and through. So I advise anyone to make there own decision and play it themselves cause I know I have left out alot due to time constraints.
This review is based on Version 2.0 of Red Orchestra. The reason I say that is I just found out they came out with a 2.1 patch today, but most changes were minor except for one big change for the better which I will add to the end of my review. It suprised me cause patches for games and/or mods rarely have weekend releases.
Red Orchestra is a mod based on the WWII Eastern Front which is differant since most other WWII games are based on the European Front. So that means there is no US or British in this game. It's the German forces against the Russian forces. If you have played DoD before then you will see some but not alot of the same type of stuff in terms of gameplay.
Just like in DoD you choose between Axis or Allies and choose your role. Depending on the spawn timer you might have to wait a few seconds. From the servers I have played on there seems to be a continuous 30 second spawn timer. So depending on when you die it might be a quick return into battle or a short wait. This is where most of the similarities end between DoD and RO.
RO is leaned heavily into realism moreso than you ever thought DoD was. In some cases too much for my taste. Because of this extreme realism is where some of its faults appear. The first thing you will notice is that there are no crosshairs for your weapon. This was done to add to that realism. Instead you are forced to use the iron sights of your weapon for any kind of accuracy. For the best accuracy it is best to be in the prone postion. Ducking is the next best option while standing is the worst unless someone is right in front of you.
Another thing you will quickly notice is that there is no way to tell how much ammo you have left. There is no visible gauge or number. The only number you have in your HUD about your weapon is how many clips or magazines you have left. So if you are in the middle of a firefight don't hesitate to reload(make sure you are under cover though) if you are not sure. Since I just brought up reloading I should inform you that this is not a fast task. Some weapons take more than 10 seconds to reload so it's best you take cover while doing so. If you choose to be a sniper you will see this agonizing process.
On to the gameplay. There are no flag caps like DoD instead there are capture points. From what I have played there were 3 objectives per team. Depending on what side you were on you will either attack or defend certain positions. Not too much variety sad to say in that department. Also hopefully they will make use of the vehicle code in UT2004 cause these maps are huge. Which brings up our next problem.
While there is a objective map to show you where the objectives are it is worthless. There is no indicator showing where you or your teamates are. So until you learn the maps expect long sessions of wandering around hoping to come upon them. Make sure you are with a few teamates though since most objectives need a few helping hands to capture. Which brings up our next problem.
Imagine playing the Onslaught mode in UT without any mode of travel but walking. Now I understand this is WWII and it is ground based fighting but a couple tanks or jeeps wouldn't hurt to move people around. It is hard to say in words how big these maps are. Which brings up another problem. Seeing a trend yet?
Spawn Camping. Yes that evil phrase heard in so many games. Well do to how wide open the maps are snipers and other sharpshooters have some good pickings (too good) imo. Luckily however there are multiple routes to go upon spawning to help. This all goes back to not having any sense of direction where to go or where the objectives are. What winds up happening is that the game just becomes a long deathmatch fight with no one caring about the objectives.
Before I forget I should mention that there are limited reinforcements. When you bring up the scoreboard there is a percentage next to each team. That is how many reinforcements your team has left. I do not know how this works as there is no mention of how in the manual.
One last gripe I have is the color of the models being too similar. Right now every server I have been on has friendly fire on. There is alot of accidental team killing going on due to this. Unless you are close to a teamate so his name appears it becomes quite diffacult at times to tell who is who. Someone has made a plugin though which servers use to forgive a tk. All you have to do is type np in the chat. That needs to be worked on though.
Graphically the game is sweet. Anybody with the ability to put the graphics on the high end will see very sharp visuals to help immerse yourself into the game. I have spent a few times admiring the view which proved costly due to me getting shot at.
The sound area is another great feature with very realistic sounds from the enviroment to the weapons. The sound in this game is very helpful when listening for enemies running by.
While the developers make no bones in saying that this is a realism mod I feel that this also hampers their effort in making a great game. I know this is only version 2.0 so I assume alot of things will be worked on. I'm all for not having the rambo in the game but there should be some leeway so the action can be more intense and more fun. They need to work on this to attract more people as currently there are only a handfull of populated servers with alot of empty ones.
Overall Score 75%
Edit: Well as I said they just released version 2.1. The major thing that they fixed was that they added new overhead map feature. Overhead maps now show the player's location and the real location of the objectives.
While I wish they showed where teamates are they at least show where you are. If I were to review it again I would probaly bump up the score to 80% due to this. This is a major feature and hopefully now people will work more as a team now instead of just ignoring the objectives since they could not find them before.
Pics to follow shortly.
![[Image: b_560x95.png]](http://cache.www.gametracker.com/player/Power%20and%20Glory/208.43.4.58:27015/b_560x95.png)
