A soldier silhouette on the screen indicated which part of your body was lame, and you could bandage yourself to keep on moving. Most often, one shot to the torso or head could kill you outright, but fortunately the respawn time was quick. A limb shot, while not usually fatal, did slow you down, with a leg shot causing you to limp and an arm shot expelling your weapon from your hands. Whenever you were hit, you were either hurt or dead. There were no supersoldiers in this game, so you could forget any hopes of shields or regenerating health. Even reload animations were authentic, as was recoil, giving this game a steep learning curve. Combined Arms factored in real-world elements like bullet drop and spin, as well as flight time, which applied wind and gravity after the bullet had left the barrel. Even with a perfect headshot in your sights, there was no guarantee you'd hit the mark. You could crouch or go prone for increased aim, but still wouldn't be completely steady. Shooting from the hip was far less accurate. Marksmanship also required a good deal of study there were no crosshairs (except while using the sniper rifle), so lining up a target required the use of the weapon's iron sights. The clip capacity was all true to life, so you wouldn't find a 200+ rifle magazine in Combined Arms. However, your total clips remaining were listed on screen. That's right, if you wanted to avoid the empty "click" of your weapon during a standoff with the enemy, you had to keep a running tally of ammo used in your head. There was no radar, no enemy indicators, and no ammo count. The first obvious omission when starting the game was its lack of a heads-up display. With geographically accurate maps, most battles were waged outside, between ruined villages, through sparse plains and grasslands, and in the abandoned streets of cities.Īlthough the accuracy of the background was an important element for the developers, it played second fiddle to the dedication involved in the gameplay, with many elements putting players as close to being a WWII soldier as virtually possible. The game actually took us to the Eastern Front, but the sides were static, with players controlling either Nazi or Soviet troops. The Red Orchestra, composed of anti-Nazi resistance and Soviet espionage rings within Germany, was a name given by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (I hope I never have to spell that again), the head of the Gestapo (the Nazi secret police).
The basis of Combined Arms stemmed from its historically accurate title.
Despite the graphical prowess of any current FPS offerings from series like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and even Brothers in Arms, they can't hold a candle to the raw grip of Red Orchestra. Five years later, we are at the cusp of a new release, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, using current programming technology, but keeping the integrity of the real war simulation intact.Ī total conversion mod, Red Orchestra: Combined Arms was highly praised for its authenticity and realism, which few WWII shooters have ever dared to embrace. After Red Orchestra: Combined Arms won the contest, the developers formally became Tripwire Interactive and created Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 in 2006. Essentially a Cinderella story for perspective indie developers, the Red Orchestra series was born from a victory in the Make Something Unreal contest using Unreal Tournament 20.