Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm Review

Rising Storm from Tripwire Interactive takes Red Orchestra's bullet ridden battlefields to the far-east as we wage war on a new front. Gone are many of the bugs and stability issues that plagued Red Orchestra on release, leaving behind a tight, chaotic, team-based shooter where death is never far away.

In Rising Storm, as with its predecessor you are a weak, fragile soldier. There are no regenerating demi-gods here, just men and their deadly weapons. As with any FPS, your gun is an extension of your self - it's the thing poking out of the screen in front of your very eyes. But what Rising Storm does so successfully is make you rely on and master the particular weapon in your hands, knowing its quirks (such as the M1 Garand's familiar ping that signals an empty clip), and learning how to utilise it successfully is key to not dying every two seconds.

Katana Versus Flamethrower – A battle for the ages

Once you've mastered the arms at your disposal, it should be a simple case of point and shoot, but it's difficult to make much headway in Rising Storm without a solid team and good leaders backing you up. You're still just a man with a gun and seeing as the game is chock full of those, to be successful, you'll really need to work together with your team-mates to progress through Rising Storm's large maps – which accommodate up to 64 players. Squad Leaders and Commanders are vital to a successful team, able to lay down smoke screens, direct squads and call in artillery. Effective leadership can turn an unruly mob of gun-toting reprobates into a lean fighting force and a team without leadership can really suffer against a co-ordinated ally.



Because of the way the game is designed to focus around team-work, it can suffer when you're stuck with 31 John Rambo's, charging around aimlessly, or focusing on kills rather than objectives. Sadly for Rising Storm, the community isn't yet what the game deserves and if you're not playing at peak hours, finding other players - let alone a co-ordinated team – can be something of a struggle. When players are absent, bots make up the numbers, but they're a little mindless and no substitute for the real thing. If there's one major factor holding Rising Storm back it's this, it's a game that absolutely relies on its players banding together and it suffers when you find yourself on an ill-coordinated team with lame-duck leadership.

Man versus bunker filled with men – a battle to forget

One of Rising Storm's departures from your average FPS is the asymmetrical design, meaning that not all men – or indeed armies- are born equal. This amounts to the Allied forces having superior fire-power, with semi-automatic weaponry lacking for the Japanese soldiers. However, to make up for this deficit the Japanese soldiers have a number of tricks up their sleeve, such as the ability to bury grenades as traps and the fearsome banzai charge, which suppresses enemy soldiers as you're confined to your melee weapon. It's a dangerous ploy - leaving you and your allies vulnerable - but there's nothing quite like charging with your squad-mates into an enemy encampment and stabbing all your foes to death and it's a unique mechanic for Rising Storm.

While Red Orchestra allowed players to take control of tanks, Rising Storm is an all-infantry affair. If you're wandering in from the likes of Battlefield 3, it can make the game feel a little less dynamic, you can't for instance transition from mobile infantry, to a jet pilot to a tank gunner – instead you'll be making your role your own. Fortunately there are a pleasing number of classes available that require you to tailor your style to their traits. From bread and butter rifle infantry, to the Japanese Mortarman and Allied Flamethrower unit. Each class has their own challenges and play-style, machine gunners will want to be relatively static, using their powerful but heavy weaponry to control a corridor of fire and suppress enemies. Flamethrower units on the other hand will want to try and flank around to get as close as possible to fortified enemy positions, before letting loose and causing havoc as they set the world ablaze.

Man versus an overwhelming desire to shoot that other guy up the backside unless he moves his ass - literally

Combat requires patience, accuracy, quick reflexes and strong nerve. It can be intensely frustrating to have painstakingly crawled forwards to a great position, only to be spotted and killed instantly. But the rewards for those kinds of risks can pay off to great effect. Because of the fragility of all classes, if you successfully flank or find yourself in a position where you have superior cover to exposed enemies, you can practically wipe a whole squad out as long as you keep your nerve (rather than unloading a full clip in one burst and missing everything). I'm a sucker for big machine-guns personally, setting my gun up in one spot leaves me vulnerable, but I can control the flow of the battle and punish enemy troops who try to rush at my location with a swarm of hot-metal kisses. Though it should go without saying – I rely on my team-mates to watch my flanks.

Rising Storm is a great antidote to the - let's call them 'console influenced' shooters out there. It rewards precision and team-work, rather than bunny hopping, quick-scoping and all that other nonsense. With some really strong maps that do a great job of funnelling the action, a varied line-up of classes and the team-focused game-play Rising Storm is a real treat for those who like their shooters large scale and tactical. While there is a bit of a learning curve – you're likely to spend your first few games getting instantly killed by cunning unseen enemies – it's worth persevering with. The realistic aspects to the game like bleeding, and quick death by bullet, give it a unique feel among the majority of today's shooters.

It has to be a group Banzai Charge – closing in on a desperate Yankee soldier, Katana in hand as he desperately tries to reload.