Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
- September 13, 2011
- Tripwire Interactive
Satisfying, suspenseful multiplayer is more than the sum of its parts, but marred by bugs. Ignore the awful singleplayer.
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad is a warfare shooter game that offers both single-player and multi-player modes. The game utilizes the Unreal Engine 3 to provide cutting-edge graphics and audio, with a focus on streamlined realism and inventive features to deliver an unrivaled tactical shooter experience set in World War II. Players can expect intense combat and strategic gameplay in this next-generation game.
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Red Orchestra 2 offers a highly realistic and immersive WWII shooter experience, with detailed graphics and authentic weapon mechanics.
- The gameplay is intense and requires strategic thinking, as the lethality of combat makes every encounter feel significant.
- The multiplayer mode is engaging, with a focus on teamwork and tactical gameplay, providing a satisfying experience for players who enjoy realism over arcade-style action.
- The single-player campaign is criticized for being lackluster and filled with bugs, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- AI behavior is often poor, with squadmates acting ineffectively and failing to provide meaningful support during missions.
- Despite patches, many players report ongoing technical issues, including crashes and performance problems, which detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
- graphics11 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their realism and historical accuracy, providing a visually impressive experience, especially on higher-end systems. However, some users report performance issues on midrange setups, with frame rates dropping significantly, and note that overlapping NPC graphics can obstruct gameplay. Comparisons to other titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield highlight a divide in graphical quality and gameplay experience, with some feeling that the graphics do not meet expectations.
“The graphics of this game are top notch.”
“But once you see how amazing the game really is with the realism and graphics combined, Red Orchestra 2 is a real treat.”
“The game is lovely, with awesome graphics, sound, and modeling.”
“Graphic pieces of your squad mates are frequently in your way, blocking your view.”
“The program isn't shy about screwing up your view or position with overlapping NPC graphics.”
“When it did run, I found the graphics to be sub-par.”
- gameplay7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
Gameplay experiences vary significantly across titles, with some like Red Orchestra 2 emphasizing realism and tension, particularly in its depiction of historical conflicts, while others like Team Fortress 2 offer a more casual, cartoonish immersion. However, single-player modes in certain games may lack depth, and franchises like Call of Duty are criticized for prioritizing casual mechanics over authentic gameplay. Overall, the effectiveness of gameplay is often tied to the balance between realism and player engagement.
“The gameplay is immediately made more serious and tense with this increase in firepower.”
“The Red Orchestra series is the most realistic FPS on the market.”
“RO2: Heroes of Stalingrad upholds a deep commitment to realistic gameplay to match its unique real-world setting, the bloodiest and most interesting infantry conflict of all time, the Battle of Stalingrad.”
“The single player is not entertaining enough standalone to satisfy gameplay.”
“Call of Duty, on the other hand, takes a realistic graphic/settings approach, but keeps gameplay highly casual (i.e. health regen, invincible humans, no recoil, unbelievable events, etc.) and fails utterly!”
“Graphics and gameplay can't compare to Battlefield 3 and the Call of Duty series.”
- optimization6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed reviews; while some players report significant performance issues and bugs, others note that it runs smoothly on a range of systems, including those meeting minimum requirements. The developers have shown a commitment to ongoing improvements, suggesting that future updates may enhance performance further.
“This means that it has been optimized for a wide range of PCs to run.”
“The game is very well optimized now, so a system meeting the minimum can probably play it on low settings.”
“The game loaded without a hitch and runs smoothly on my Core i5 2500K, NVIDIA GTX 570 1280MB, 16GB PC3 12800 RAM, Windows 7 64, Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 board.”
“I read many of the reviews saying that it is bugged and has very slow performance.”
“Knowing that I waited for it to be optimized and built myself a reasonable PC to run it at its highest quality settings.”
“The game was pushed out early, which means lots of bugs and critical reviews that are less praising than it deserves.”
- story6 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game features two campaigns with a total of 24 single-player missions, but players have noted that some missions, particularly mission 10 on the German side, are excessively difficult, leading to frustration and a sense of unfairness. Additionally, many multiplayer maps are derived from these single-player missions, which some users find disappointing.
“Each side's campaign comes with 12 missions (24 total single-player missions in the game).”
“Its practically trolling... one single player mission on the German side, mission 10 is next to impossible to defeat.”
“This last mission is when I gave up on this game.”
“I discovered that most of the multiplayer maps were all based on the single-player missions.”
- stability5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability has improved since its initial release, which was plagued by significant bugs and issues, including frequent freezes and crashes. However, many users still report ongoing problems, indicating that it remains somewhat unstable. Overall, while there has been progress, the game is still considered buggy by a considerable number of players.
“I was fooled when I got this game because I had initially stayed away from it since its initial release after having read the reviews on how unfinished and buggy it was.”
“Freezes and drops me into Windows.”
“Was very buggy but now is only slightly so.”
- music1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users suggest disabling the music and enabling the native voices for a better gaming experience, indicating that the music may not enhance the gameplay.
“I highly recommend that before you start playing, you turn on the native voices and turn off the music.”
