Red Orchestra 2 review

There’s a subtle grace in a fired bullet. The rifling in the barrel making it twist just so as it rushes to put an end to someone’s life. But such precision is incongruous with much of the rest of Red Orchestra 2. Alongside the simple, sudden deadliness of the bullet is the constantly present clumsiness of war. That’s no bad thing: war is clumsy, full of pointless deaths and stupid accidents. That’s what Red Orchestra is about, distilling the essence of the unfathomably wasteful Eastern Front, and then shoving you into the poorly fitting, barely held-together shoes of a Russian conscript. Or, if you’re luckier, those of the badly rationed, woefully outnumbered but better equipped Germans, playing out their conflict over 64-player servers. Originally born out of an Unreal Tournament mod, this is Tripwire doing things with a fuller budget.

Red Orchestra 2 is a game that understands that a bullet is dangerous. Being hit with that sliver of metal isn’t going to make your screen flash red, and it isn’t a problem that a few seconds behind some waist-high cover is going to solve. A bullet is something that’s meant to kill you.

And more often than not, that’s exactly what it’s going to do. If you’re very, very lucky, it might only clip your arm, meaning that you’re a few seconds away from bleeding out if you can’t get a bandage around it right away. But that means you’re no longer shooting at the guy who put that bullet in you, so you’re probably dead anyway.

Even the bullets that miss you do damage - psychologically. Suppressive fire has a tangible effect, keeping you pinned, your vision blurring and accuracy wildly deviating from intention. It encourages a stealthy mentality in which you avoid being shot at as much as you avoid getting shot. When that fails, though, you can have squadmates cover you with suppressive fire of their own, creating an essential window for you to run from one bit of cover to the next.

Returning fire is equally deliberate. Being able to hold down R to check your ammo rather than reload (because reloading will cost you whatever rounds you have left in the clip) is equal parts mechanic and dramatic device. Pinned down behind cover, you pull back the chamber on your rifle and realise that you’re nearly out. Suddenly, you’ve got to decide whether to stick with the few rounds left, or spend time reloading when the enemy could rush you at any moment.