| Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 | |
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| Developer(s) | Tripwire Interactive |
| Distributor(s) |  Valve Corporation (Steam) Bold Games |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 2.5 Build 3323-3369 |
| Released | March 14 2006 (Steam/Win) |
| Genre | Tactical first-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer, Singleplayer ('Practice' mode) |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) |
| Media | CD-ROM, Steam |
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.
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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. 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 SVT-40 and Gewehr 43 are also capable of killing in one shot. 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). Red Orchestra has also introduced several innovations now being seen in mainstream games, such as an advanced 3D scope for sniper rifles.
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.
Currently modelled small arms
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 shipped with 27 usable infantry weapons. This is the official list.
German
- P08 Luger pistol
- Walther P38 pistol
- Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle with and without scope.
- Maschinenpistole 40 submachine gun
- Maschinenpistole 41 submachine gun
- Gewehr 41(W) semi-automatic rifle
- Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifle with and without scope.
- Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle
- Mod.24 Stielhandgranate hand grenade
- Maschinengewehr 34 (MG34) machine gun
- Maschinengewehr 42 (MG42) machine gun
- Panzerfaust 60 Anti-tank rocket.
- 10 Lb Satchel Charge explosive
- Nebelhandgranate 39 (Nb. 39) smoke grenade
Soviet
- Tokarev-Tula TT-33 pistol
- Mosin-Nagant M1891/30 rifle with and without scope.
- Mosin-Nagant 1938 carbine
- Mosin-Nagant 1944 carbine with folding bayonet (Bayonet does not fold in-game)
- Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva-40 (SVT-40) semi-automatic rifle with and without scope
- Pistolet-Pulemet Degtyarova-1940 (PPD-40) submachine gun
- Pistolet-Pulemet Shpagina-1941 (PPSh-41) submachine gun
- Pistolet-Pulemet Sudaeva-1943 (PPS-43) submachine gun
- F-1 Fragmentation hand grenade
- Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyarev pakhotnyi-1928 (DP-28) machine gun
- PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle
- 10 Lb Satchel Charge explosive
- RDG-1 smoke grenade
Currently modelled vehicles
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 contains 19 vehicles. This is the official list.
German
- SdKfz. 141/1 Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf. L medium tank
- SdKfz. 161/1 Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. F1 medium tank
- SdKfz. 161/1 Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. F2 medium tank
- SdKfz. 161/1 Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. G medium tank
- SdKfz. 161/1 Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. H medium tank
- SdKfz. 171 Panzerkampfwagen V Ausf. G (Panther) medium tank
- Panzerkampfwagen T-34(r) medium tank
- SdKfz. 181 Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. E (Tiger I) heavy tank
- SdKfz. 142/1 Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. F/8 (StuG III Ausf. F/8) tank destroyer
- SdKfz. 251/1 Sonderkraftfahrzeug/mittlere Schützenpanzerwagen Half-track
Soviet
- BT-7 light tank
- T-60 light tank
- T-34/76 medium tank
- T-34/85 medium tank
- Kliment Voroshilov 1s (KV-1s) heavy tank
- Iosif Stalin 2 (IS-2) heavy tank
- SU-76 self propelled gun
- BA-64 armored car
- Universal Carrier
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.
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
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
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:
- Carpathian Crosses Team producing the Red Orchestra: Carpathian Crosses
- Sandstorm Productions Red Orchestra: Mare Nostrum
- Darkest Hour Team Red Orchestra: Darkest Hour: Normandy 1944
- Iron Europe Team
- After-Hourz Community After-Hourz
- Defence Alliance 2
See also
- Red Orchestra: Combined Arms — Total Conversion for Unreal Tournament
- Red Orchestra — Communist resistance movement in World War II era Europe
References
External links
- Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 Official Website
- Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 at Steam
- Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 at Bold Games
- Red Orchestra Wiki
- Darkest Hour: Normandy 1944 Website
- Mare Nostrum Mod Website
- Carpathian Crosses Add-on Website
- Reviews
