Rising Storm Preview

By – Carlin Au

Rising Storm doesn’t over-glorify anything about the Pacific theater during World War II.  It’s a multiplayer game that feels authentic with constant artillery going off in the distance and bullets whizzing by almost every second. Every inch of the battlefield was hard-earned by my fellow players.  That is how you create atmosphere.

The level of detail of the environments is amazing. The jungle bushes in Guadalcanal were spaced close enough that I could only see muzzle flashes, but far enough that I could see where I was walking.  In Red Orchestra 2, people told me to fire at the muzzle flashes.  In Rising Storm, those muzzle flashes could either be those of the enemies’ or those of my teammates’. It’s not easy to tell with all of the foliage in the map.  When I did fire, I always hoped that I didn’t just hit some guy on my team who forgot to fall back to our defensive line.  That feeling is not something I’ve had since Forgotten Hope 2 mod on Battlefield 2; that uncertain mindset of, “I’m not sure where the enemy is, but if it’s firing at me, I’m going to shoot back.” It’s that same unpredictability, that kept me wondering, where the enemy would attack next.

Knowing the Rising Storm community, that next attack could very well be a Banzai charge.  It’s effective as long as it’s done en masse, which happens almost every match because it’s fun. Charging into battle, armed only with bayonets, has always been something that Multiplayer WWII games failed to depict.  It’s a nice change of pace from the usual sneaking up, inch by inch, to take an objective.  These charges work by giving participants damage reduction boosts while suppresses the enemies around them.  It’s pretty scary to be on the receiving end since you can’t fire accurately.  The best way to combat these Banzai charges is with flamethrowers. As soon as a Japanese soldier so much as touches the flame, he’s toast. It’s an amazing weapon that can be very devastating for the other Japanese team.

Not just by killing enemy troops, but it has a more subtle effect on the American side. Every time a flamethrower has broken through and starts wreaking havoc across enemy lines, I noticed the Americans always seemed more aggressive with their attacks on the objectives.  There is no game mechanic that makes them more resilient to enemy attacks; everyone gets excited after seeing flames fly out through every window of a building Japanese soldiers were defending.

Weapons like the flamethrower feel powerful.  As a matter of fact, all the weapons look, sound and feel powerful. Each shot from any of the rifles feels challenging; lining up shots, steadying the rifle through constant artillery, and accounting for bullet drop takes a certain amount of skill. As long as a bullet hits center of mass, the enemy will go down.  Given the American standard issue weapon at the time was the M1 Garand, a semi automatic rifle, and the Japanese weapon was the Arisaka Type 99, a bolt action rifle, it would make sense that the Americans would have a clear advantage over the Japanese.

Surprisingly enough, this is not the case since the developers accounted for that, and gave the Japanese a bunch of benefits like the Banzai charge ability, a Submachine gun class, and a Knee Mortar class.  The Japanese submachine gun, the Type 100, is extremely accurate. Its rate of fire combined with its accuracy makes it a weapon that can suppress and kill at ranges over 100 meters.  The Knee Mortar class allows players to fire behind buildings and bombard Americans.  The Japanese have the ability to use Knee Mortars as well as their commander’s ability to call in artillery strikes to continuously shell American lines.  The Allied side’s firepower is superior to the Axis’, but I don’t know if its enough to justify the advantages the Japanese have.

Despite the balancing issues, I’m very happy with the way the Rising Storm Team and Tripwire used the Red Orchestra 2 SDK to create an authentic experience, while making the game enjoyable.  The amazing moments that I’ve had in the Beta version are among the best out of all the stories I could tell in my 9 years of gaming.  There was this one time where my team and I were getting Banzai charged and one guy had survived the initial wave of attackers. Two Japanese soldiers charge at the last American. He fires and misses every shot.  The two Banzai chargers lunge at him, but he dodges both attacks.  The lone American pulls out a stolen Katana that he picked off of a Japanese officer and kills both of them. Moments like that are awesome when they happen because they aren’t scripted, actual people do them.  Which is something I really enjoy about Rising Storm; there are many stories to tell.

Is it Worth Your Money?

Yes, if you enjoy a bit of realism in your shooters and Red Orchestra 2, Rising Storm is definitely worth spending $20.  The expansion manages to maintain the realistic feel Red Orchestra 2 had while giving it a new look. The gunplay feels the same, but the overall feel of the environment is different.  The new features like Banzai charges and flamethrowers breathes life into the battlefield.  The landscapes are different from the usual urban environments of Red Orchestra 2 in that there’s a lot of fighting in the jungles. It’s hard to tell what you’re shooting at because of all the foliage.  Those battlefields are what makes the experience amazing because it makes you alert at all times.  Rising Storm makes you tense and quite effortlessly too.