Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad Game Review


Theme of the game

First person shooter (FPS) games have been a staple for gamers since the 8 and 16-bit days of the early nineties, with games like Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom. It’s an excellent technique that put you literally in driver’s seat of the action, giving us that “in the moment” experience that other games could not. Since those early days, the games have only gotten better, in terms of graphics and storytelling. It’s brought us titles such as Half-Life, Quake, and how can anyone forget the unstoppable juggernaut that is Halo?
With the inclusion of the Internet, we can now literally interact with just about anyone on the planet — well, anyone with a decent Internet connection and suitable bandwidth. FPS games have taken us from the farthest reaches of the galaxy to the front lines of the wars of yesteryear. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other shooter games, which would fall under the larger umbrella of any other shooter action game. However, from the inception of the genre, FPS have led the charge when it came to challenging the advancements of graphics, interface and hardware development, 3D or otherwise. They made the advent of multiplayer gaming an integral part of the gaming experience.This is the same think-tank that brought us the first Red Orchestra as well as 2009’s The Killing Floor.

Volgograd a major battle

So those of you gamers who prefer a controller to a keyboard, you’ll be out of luck here.

Red Orchestra’s reality

Red Orchestra’s realistic take on the World War II first-person shooter is meant to be played with others. So if you’re looking for a single-player experience, then this is not the game for you. However, the single-player campaigns can be a useful training tool for a player, as long as you can forgive the weak AI of your teammates in 1-player mode.

An outstanding game

Be that as it may, as a multiplayer game experience, Red Orchestra 2 can be quite outstanding. It’ll be challenging to find a more intense, rewarding style of play than this one the market to date. And that is saying a lot.


There is an almost OCD level of detail when it comes to the authenticity of warfare, that often had the game feeling much more like a combat simulator than a video game. And unlike other bullet-hail shooter games, Red Orchestra truly embraces the “one shot, one kill” philosophy of gameplay. One bullet is often enough to kill, so you need to take extreme care during every second of online play if you want to score points and survive.
And don’t count on any fancy scopes or cross-hair sights to help you pick off your enemies.

Red Orchestra 2 Heroes of Stalingrad Game Review

Effort to complete a mission

Due to the effort involved, kills aren’t frequent, but all the more rewarding when you manage to score one. A first-person shooter that focuses on quality instead of quantity? Who knew?
There’s no instant respawning during a campaign either. If you get killed, you stay dead until the mission is complete. You’ll have trouble even finding a target, let along managing to stay alive for significant stretches of time. At no point can you afford to cowboy up your game like you can in other titles.