1 – Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
Developer: Tripwire Interactive | Release Year: 2011 | Genre: Tactical First-Person Shooter
Can someone explain to me why it has been 15 years since Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad came out, and we haven’t had a new one? Because I do really wish to know, and now that I think about it, I’m getting upset, because this is one of my favorite World War 2 multiplayer shooters of all time, in fact, the second best right after Hell Let Loose, and I’m not even sure if it’s not the first. RO2 is an uncompromising monument to the grim reality of the Eastern Front, and still remains arguably the most realistic and psychologically intense multiplayer tactical shooter focused on World War II, completely rejecting the heroic, fast-paced design tropes of mainstream shooters. The game features realistic ballistics, bullet drop, breathing mechanics, and a complete lack of an on-screen crosshair, several modes of walking, and something that I just love that might sound silly, which is that your character isn’t constantly holding its weapon as if it were in an action movie; if it’s running, it grabs the weapon with one hand. Small details like that make RO2 come alive like no other title. Having said that, this is a brutally difficult shooter, and most of the time you won’t even see who killed you, or where the bullet came from. It just happens, and that’s it.
Conclusion
Thanks for travelling with me to some of my favorite World War 2 games that have since become forgotten gems that we might never see again. The landscape of World War II interactive media is truly vast, and looking past the dominant blockbusters reveals a world of unique and special games that put all their money and effort into creating unique designs that never really panned out or became long-term heavy hitters. However, it’s this same nature that makes them so interesting, and why I keep coming back to most of them every couple of years, even if just for a fortnight.
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