Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

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Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Developer(s)	Tripwire Interactive
Distributor(s)	Valve Corporation (Steam) Bold Games
Engine	Unreal Engine 2.5 Build 3323-3369
Platform(s)	PC (Windows)
Release date	March 14, 2006 (Steam/Win)
Genre(s)	Tactical first-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer, Singleplayer ('Practice' mode)
Media	CD-ROM, Steam

Reichstag with Russian IS-2 tank

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a tactical first-person shooter computer game developed by Tripwire Interactive. Set on the Eastern Front during World War II between 1941 and 1945, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 depicts the struggle between Soviet and German forces. The game's creators, Tripwire Interactive, developed the game out of the previous Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Red Orchestra: Combined Arms.

1 Gameplay
2 Critical reception
3 Background
4 Map List
- 4.1 Default Tripwire Interactive Maps
- 4.2 Other Default Maps
5 Mods
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Red Orchestra concentrates mostly on the multiplayer aspect of the game, although there is a singleplayer 'Practice' mode available. Red Orchestra features an advanced ballistics system for both small arms and tank rounds - incorporating bullet drop, flight time, and tanks with more realistic armor properties than most games ( featuring: penetration and deflection, in relation to range and projectile trajectory angle). The player's movements are realistically modeled, giving them the ability to lie and move prone, sprint (while standing or crouching) and to deploy machine guns on objects while prone.

SdKfz. 142/1 Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. F/8

Red Orchestra is notable for its emphasis on realism in comparison to other WW2-based FPS games. There is no "crosshair" for a player to aim with in the middle of their screen; instead, the player must aim down three dimensional simulated iron sights, compensating for the breathing of the character and natural sway from holding the gun. 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 or she has been wounded; there is no way to "recover" 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. The bolt-action rifles in the game can often kill a player in one shot if it connects with any part of the torso or head. Semi-automatic rifles such as the Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva-40 (SVT-40) and Gewehr 43 are also capable of killing in one shot.

German sharpshooter with a Zielfernrohr 41 fitted Mauser Karabiner 1898 (K98k) rifle

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, require three crew members (a driver, a commander and a gunner) to make them fully effective machines, although they can be operated solo. 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 amount 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 a limited amount artillery support in some maps but this option can only be used by commanders and such.

Red Orchestra has also introduced several innovations now being seen in mainstream games, such as an advanced 3D scope for sniper rifles.

[edit] Critical reception

The game received generally favorable reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game had an average score of 78% based on 22 reviews.^[1] On Metacritic, the game had an average score of 81 out of 100, based on 22 reviews.^[2]

[edit] Background

Red Orchestra began development as a single player game based on the Red Orchestra spy ring, during World War II. During development, Red Orchestra moved from the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault engine to the Soldier of Fortune II engine (both powered by id Tech 3), before it evolved into a multi-player realism based first person shooter, based on Eastern Front warfare, as a total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2003, and later for Unreal Tournament 2004.

The Red Orchestra developers (now "Tripwire Interactive"), entered the NVIDIA Make Something Unreal Contest, with a grand prize of free Unreal Engine 2.5 and 3.0 licenses. 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 21 November, 2005 Tripwire Interactive announced that they would be releasing Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 over Steam, Valve Software's digital content distribution platform. The game was released on Tuesday 14th March 2006 at 7pm GMT over the Steam Network. Pre-Purchasing and Pre-Loading began one month prior on 14th February. Bold Games published the retail boxed version worldwide.

[edit] Map List

Red Orchestra currently features 16 official maps and 10 community-made maps supported by the developers. The Red Orchestra SDK, though never going beyond beta version, has allowed the production of many 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. The maps in Red Orchestra are intended to be very realistic and they are in many ways mainly because of its accuracy and detail. 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 (Usually meant to be blown up). The maps feature many broken buildings and vehicles as well as propaganda posters and resupply areas to add to the realism.

[edit] Default Tripwire Interactive Maps

Arad - Combined Arms
Baksan Valley - Infantry
Barashka - Combined Arms
Basovka - Infantry
Bondarevo - Combined Arms
Danzig - Infantry
Hedgehog - Combined Arms
Kaukasus - Infantry
Königsplatz - Combined Arms
Krasnyi Oktyabr - Infantry
Krivoi Rog - Tank
Lyes Krovy - Infantry
Odessa - Infantry
Ogledow - Combined Arms
Rakowice - Combined Arms
Stalingrad Kessel - Infantry

[edit] Other Default Maps

Berezina - Combined Arms
Black Day July - Tank
Kryukovo - Combined Arms
Kurland Kessel - Infantry
Leningrad - Combined Arms
Mannikkala - Combined Arms
Smolensk Stalemate - Infantry
Tcherkassy - Infantry
Tula Outskirts - Infantry
Zhitomir 1941 - Infantry

[edit] Mods

Red Orchestra has a strong modding community, that creates various content, ranging from custom maps to total conversions. There are 6 major groups at the moment producing content: