Heroes of Stalingrad

[Shifty.py]

Its not the first time we are amazed by details that american developers put into game about russians Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad. This is an authentic multiplayer action dedicated to Battle of Stalingrad. But exactly how good is the gameplay of the new Red Orchestra remained unclear until we could get our hands on it.

• The fountain "Kids and crocodile was already featured in game Commandos 3 and in movie Enemy at the Gates

Game of nerves.

Closest definition of HoS is - nervous shooter. Something needs your attention every secod. Learning curve is very steep. You may adjust to not having the crosshair or that the recoil of only few shots is huge or that your SMG reloading takes eternity. But you will definitely fall while trying to run a narrow girder (soldier is no acrobat) or break your neck jumping from one balcony to another (you know your batte gear? its heavy!). Our advice is to expect to be killing your teammates at first. A couple stray bullets shot at a distant german are sure to hit an Ivan happening to run nearby.
If you may recall in previous game you could accidentally kill yourself with ricochet from a steel post (?). In sequel we couldnt notice any dramatic ricochets, but ability to shoot through thin walls is being used fully. You may often see some soldier manically spraying the wall of a traincar and laugh at him... until you see a body riddled with bullets falling from behind it.

• Dont even think of shooting from MG while standing. You will more likely hit yourself before hitting your mark.

Battle drama

Or take grenades for example. Multiplayer of Call of Duty taught us that grenades are a precision weapon. You need to hit your enemy literally in the face for grenade to do any damage. Its completely different in RO:HoS. When we bravely rushed a room full of germans we werent worried about a grenade one of them threw past us. But a more experienced 1C employee was dead serious saying "Back!". We scrambled to jump out of the nearest window and did fly out of it - dead - when grenade exploded.
Quite cinematic was the next episode also. We got our hands on the legendary M-60 MG (?) impressive and scary. It could be aimed only in deployed state - game is realistic, we knew that. But nothing stopped us from shooting it from the hip. In a narrow corridor we met a german face to face. Opened at him a long burst. Hit the walls, the ceiling a few times, even room next to us. Almost shot ourselves probably. But not once did we hit our target. The nazi was quite stunned from this "performance", but gathered himself enough to shoot a few bullets from his pistol - hitting us of course.
Such confusion happens to new players on every corner. For professionals Heroes of Stalingrad is a real multiplayer battle drama. For newbies - a tragedy.

• 1. MG and other weapons can be rested on any surface, even while sitting behind cover. Relocate, rest your gun, aim - all takes enough time that everyone around you will aready shoot eachother.
• 2. There is no crosshair and the shootouts are quite ranged. If you run carelessly in someones view be sure you'll be shot, not necessarily by an enemy.
• 3. Minimap contains the objectives, but there is no time to look at it. ITs easier to memorize whole location by distinctive landmarks.
• 4. So far healing is not limited as long as you werent hit in a vital organ. Whether higher difficulties will have limited aidkits is still not decided.

But then again there is no deliberate tactics or characteristics. All thats required is to pay attention and stay focused. Rules are simple - capture objectives on the map, give orders to your subordinates (command interface is limited). In Tripwire they introduce details that are somewhy skipped in other titles. For example you can rest MG on any surface - be it a window, sandbags or a piece of rubble - and your accuracy will increase. Every soldier - not only snipers - can hold his breath while aiming. The cover system in Red Orchestra allows you to shoot blindly while trying to stay safe behind an object. Dont hope to restore your health while sitting there tho. Healing non-critical wounds is all you can do. On an indicator lower left you see the bullet wound locations. When you're hit at the chest, stomach or head thats it.
We only played one level - Stalingrad railyard (other levels arent yet finished) and it looked very realistic. Apart from weird labels on crates and boxes. "Machine details", ok we can take it. But 1C producer pointed out boxes saying "cups"...

• In this demo most objects were not interactive. We couldnt drop even this samovart. We will be able to by time of release.

After playing second Red Orchestra for 40 minutes it felt as a shooter versatile and complicated in a good way. Still most interesting parts are behind the scenes. For example at Tripwire they weigh an option of introducing morale. The vehicles that were an important part in first game are sill in development. Main thing is that Red Orchestra allows you to play for the german side. Its not a rarity in multiplayer shooters, but in this case theres real screenplay built around nazi characters, with a plot and cutscenes. They say that an american producer refused to work with the game at first because of this.
The questine whether the storyline will show moral problems of a nazi soldier, realizing that his is a murderer, was not commented by 1C. But you heard it here first!

Looking forward:
Shooter where you could fire an entire clip and not hit your enemy once.
Where grenade explosion is 50 megatons in Call of Duty equivalent.
Completeness level: 50% (!)