Per Wikipedia:
The Oxford English Dictionary defines grok as “to understand intuitively or by empathy; to establish rapport with” and “to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment”.
This week on I Grok – I look at Tripwire Interactive’s Rising Storm.
A friend of mine gifted me a key on Steam for beta access to Rising Storm earlier in the week. In case you haven’t heard of it, Rising Storm is an expansion to Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad (RO2). I have a copy of RO2 and played it a few months after the game came out in September of 2011. At the time, I was just getting my feet wet on the PC front and just didn’t “get” the game. It seemed pretty complex, and the combat was straight-out brutal as you were dead in one to two shots. In addition, the game had features similar to those found in the third-person shooter, Gears of War - you could blind fire and hop behind cover. The difference though, is that in RO2, it’s from a first-person perspective, so when you’re behind cover, you can’t see a thing.
Now purists enjoy Classic mode in this game. It’s similar to my favorite mode, Realism in a few ways, but differs in the way suppression, bullet drop, and spawn mechanics work. I won’t go into details on Classic mode – you can Google that – and it’s not my preferred game-type anyway. Purists of the series would probably kill me for such a statement, but hey – we all have opinions, right?
Anyhoo, in Realism mode, you have a minimal HUD. There are no cross-hairs and you can get dropped in one or two shots. My preferred game-type is Territories. Any follower of any kind of shooter will know what I’m talking about here. One team defends some spots, another tries to take those spots. It’s basically King of the Hill. Both teams spawn in squads that arrive every so often via “waves” to simulate troop reinforcements. Each squad has a commander, and members of that squad can re-spawn on their commander if he or she is alive, sort of similar to Battlefield 3. A commander can call in airstrikes or even recon planes that highlight enemy positions on the map for a few seconds. There’s also a suppression like Battlefield 3. While suppressed, your character flips out and can’t shoot too well. Firing from the hip can be done, but for the most part, being successful in combat requires aiming. And that’s where the game gets really crazy. When you aim, your field of view is limited, and you can’t see anything on the peripheral. Fans familiar with shooters would be like, “duh tyrus,” but coupled with one-hit kills, this mechanic makes firefights incredibly intense and rewarding.
The two factions in the game are the Americans (US Marines, US Army) and Japanese (Imperial Japanese Army, Special Naval Landing Force). Both factions speak in their native tongue, and the Japanese weapons are inferior to that of the Americans. To compensate for that, Japanese players can banzai charge, making them immune to suppression effects (and they actually suppress Americans) as they rush their opponents. In addition, Japanese players can rush Americans with a grenade and commit suicide without any penalty to their total re-spawns (tickets). While American players can do the same thing, they are penalized for suicides and their death deducts a ticket from their total re-spawn pool. Lastly, Japanese players can plant their grenades as booby traps.
Aside from generally having better weapons, Americans also have flamethrowers, which are incredibly deadly. Seeing a flamethrower go off from afar is an amazing sight. And there’s no greater thrill than dropping a Japanese player as he does a banzai charge with sword in hand.
The game is similar to Battlefield in many ways, and even sports a 64-player count as the Battlefield series traditionally has on PC. The difference here though, is the emphasis on infantry combat. There are tanks and troop transports, and while I have yet to face them, I look forward to the challenge.
The intensity of this game makes it so different from anything I’ve played. Running in the open is a HUGE risk, and you have to mentally weigh the benefit of leaving a heavily fortified position. Stay too long in one area though, and you’ll quickly be picked off or flanked.
Firefights mirror that of real life in that cover fire is laid down for allies to advance. Both sides feature various classes, and one of them is the heavy machine gunner. In this role, your gun is largely worthless up close, so while traveling about, it’s time to have that pistol out. But in a game where one shot (mostly) kills, that’s okay. Find some cover or lay down, and your character throws out his tripod if his machine gun is equipped. From there, you’re death incarnate. But even then, a well-placed shot from an enemy can end your killing spree.
Just the other day I was a heavy machine gunner laying down suppressive fire for my team. A bunch of my guys run into the blasted side of a factory. Seconds later, about six Japanese soldiers rush out, heading to my position. I was just moving up to join my team, then realized they were all dead! I immediately dropped down and threw out my tripod, gunning down all six Japanese troops as allies arrived on the scene. Needless to say, it was INTENSE! And for a few seconds, I was completely alone and outnumbered.
And that’s just one of many moments you’ll experience in Rising Storm. In another instance, me and my squad-mates were over-run by about eight Japanese troops. With no time to reload my Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), I whipped out my M1911 and started dropping guys. The last Japanese soldier to fall at my hands nearly killed my Commander with a banzai charge. In a rare moment, I fired without aiming at our oncoming foe. He died from my last bullet.
Out of five Americans, only my Commander and I survived. It was absolutely epic. And it was absolutely terrifying. But I understand what John Gibson, president of Tripwire Interactive meant when he said,
If there’s no fear, there’s no tension, the victory is shallow. We want there to be some fear.
Sometimes Rising Storm is incredibly brutal. Most of the time, you’re terrified. But when you’re successful at flanking an enemy, or drop a machine gunner in a bunker, that little victory is so much sweeter. And that makes Rising Storm something special.
-ty
