Well I wrote this review but I've got no where to post it, so I figured why not Tek Syndicate? Rising Storm is finally in beta for those who pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition, and so naturally, I had to get it. Even if I didn't want to, with the 40% off deal Steam is having, I had no way to talk myself out of it. So a few hours of gameplay later, and I think I’ve experienced enough of the core game to give it a fair review. Obviously the game is still in beta, and things will change, maps and guns will be tweaked, but those are minor details that if history is any teacher, won’t affect the core gameplay, and the overall experience.
Before I get started, just a little information about performance:
System:
- Intel i5 3570k @ 4.6ghz
- Gigabyte Z77X UD4H
- Nvidia GTX 660 Ti SC
- 8 GB DDR3 1600
- 1080p Monitor
The first thing to note about Rising Storm, especially if you’re not familiar with it, is that it’s a standalone, Pacific WWII expansion for the well received FPS Red Orchestra 2. It was originally meant to be a mod but it was kind of “adopted” I guess you could say, by the Tripwire team. It’s been in development since Red Orchestra 2 was released, and all that time really shows since the initial experience is a very complete one. Nothing is missing, everything feels like it’s working great, the game runs smoothly, there’s no noticeable placeholders, and so the presentation just really feels like a game. In fact I’d say it’s even improved over Red Orchestra 2. Instead of that terrible mouse lag and jittery UI that RO2 gives you to this day, the user interface in Rising Storm feels smooth and functional, and I’ve had no issues with it. Other than that, the presentation feels more or less the same as Red Orchestra 2, which is befitting when you consider that it is a standalone expansion of it.
The game is very detailed and authentic looking.
Now let’s get to the game itself, and how it plays. The game ships with three game styles. These are not to be confused with game modes. These styles are Action, Realism, and Classic. When Tripwire made Red Orchestra 2, they found that there were several factions of fans, and none of them were happy with the current merger of all three styles of play. As a result, they separated them, and instead of one mediocre game that incorporated all three, we now have the same game, with three different and very good options. These have all been incorporated into Rising Storm so it’s necessary to talk about the game in general, and then a bit on each style.
The game is a multiplayer, somewhat competitive FPS. It’s immersive and it’s exciting. It’s a sandbox of authentic combat and the tales that unfold from it seem more real than in any other game I’ve played, maybe with the exception of DayZ. It takes place in the Pacific theater during World War 2, and it’s America vs Japan. The team ran into some balance issues when they were setting the game up however, because the Americans have all semi-auto and automatic weapons that the Japanese simply cannot match with their bolt action rifles. Bolt action rifles, while accurate and damaging, have a tough time keeping up with the fully automatic fire that a Browning Assault Rifle can offer. As a result they’ve added a few perks to encourage players to play as the Japanese. This includes knee-mortars, devastating little bombs of fury that fly at your face and make it go away. Getting shelled by these is seriously terrifying, as cover is ineffective against them. Japan can also plant grenades in the ground as a sort of landmine for Americans to run over and lose a limb to. And then there’s the Banzai charges.
That’s right. Banzai charges.
When a group of Japanese decide to say “screw it” all at once and just all out charge the Americans, it’s absolutely terrifying. They gave all the Japanese officers katanas, so that, combined with bayonets is seriously one of the scariest moments in video gaming. You wouldn’t think it, but the game is so authentic in feel that I witnessed many Americans turn around and flee from the Japanese that were charging them, because they just couldn’t shoot them, or enough of them, quickly enough to survive.
Trench gun. The best defense against a Banzai charge if your aim's as bad as mine.
The authenticity in Rising Storm is amazing. It spawns moments that you just can’t even imagine. I found myself in one end of a building, firing my M1 Garand at a Japanese soldier on the other side. I ran out of ammo, and failed to kill him, but because the game replicates the pinging sound of an M1 Garand reloading so well, I knew that if I reloaded he would hear me, and rush in to bayonet me before I was finished. (Eventually you can unlock something that lets you make a fake ping as an American.) As a result I was forced to flee the house, and we ended up losing that capture point to the Japanese. You wouldn’t think that these little bits of authenticity would affect the overall game, but they do.
Then there’s the maps. There’s a bunch of them and to further help offset the American firepower, and in good historical form, the Japanese are usually much better situated at the beginning than the Americans. Oftentimes the Americans find themselves charging into a forest from across a field, or attacking bunkers with their backs to the sea. This gives the Japanese an advantage because they have more cover, and are less visible. I’ve been killed many times by someone hiding in a bush that I just couldn’t see. To have any chance at all of success, this forces the Americans to work together, lay down cover and suppressive fire, and move up in squads. It’s not all bad for the Americans though, because they have the flamethrower. There’s only one per server and it basically lets you destroy everything by chucking this huge massive fireball at everything in sight. It’s very useful to clear bunkers because the flames can bounce off walls to get to enemies around corners. It’s just awe-inspiring to see it in action, wiping out a bunker and seeing people running from it, screaming and on fire. It is a truly frightening weapon, and I get legitimately scared when I’m up against one.
"It is better to light a candle...than to curse the darkness."
That’s another thing that the game does beautifully. I’m often disappointed at how stupid shooting in a shooting game can be. All too often, a game will have you with this awesome gun with 500 rounds of ammunition, just for you to continually round a corner, see a guy, quickscope, hear your gun go “pew pew pew” as you mag dump each other since it takes that many hits for a kill, and then one of you dies. In Rising Storm, it’s nothing like that. Squads of soldiers with riflemen, machine gunners, snipers, automatic rifleman, and squad leaders end up pitted against each other. This leads to some of the best firefights as the two teams just empty clip after clip into each other’s approximate location, suppressing and slowly picking each other off, sometimes ending with a room clearing grenade or bayonet charge. The weapons feel weighty and powerful and can kill with even one hit to the torso, and seeing your friends get shot next to you can be slightly shocking as their limbs fly off covered in blood and you hear them screaming. Rising Storm does a good job of making you afraid of the enemy, and forcing you to work as a team.
If you look closely, you can see these noisemaking traps. They're great to help find flankers.
Now, onto the game styles. As is probably reflected in the tone of this review, Rising Storm is a serious mature multiplayer shooter. As a result, even the Action style isn’t much of an arcade type game, but the major differences are that you can take more damage and survive, have less suppression, better accuracy, sprint better, zoom in more, and play more as a lone wolf. Truth be told, this isn’t really the target audience of the game, and while it’s nice of Tripwire to do them a solid and add this style, it really can’t compete with games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. If you’re looking for a casual FPS, you may enjoy Rising Storm, but there are games that do it better.
Realism is where the game truly shines. It strikes a good balance between fun and realistic. You can sprint, but your accuracy suffers afterwards. You can be suppressed easily by incoming fire, weapons do more damage, but you can bandage yourself. It’s a good mix of grounded in realism, but incorporating competitive multiplayer elements, like a leveling system and unlocks.
As you can kind of see here, you can adjust the scopes and sights to sight them in for longer distances.
Classic mode has no unlocks, has such a slow sprint that it’s painful, all the guns are unlocked, no zoom (unless you’re using a scope) and no bandages. It’s really more realistic than realism. I do enjoy classic mode, but I find myself eating ground up bits of what used to be my teeth when I play it for too long. It takes a toll on you because it’s so intense.
Overall, the game is absolutely great. I can’t get it out of my head. The epic battles and stories that unfold are a result of the absolutely intricate detail and authenticity that Rising Storm provides. Instead of a simple mechanic of a gun shooting a guy making a game, it’s a million small features like pinging reloads, authentic maps, having to sight in your gun to it’s proper range, being legitimately afraid of Banzai charges, manually bolting your rifle, and having to guess how much ammo you have left, that make the game what it is. Nothing in it is forced on you, nothing’s artificial. It’s so authentic that I’d say it borders on more of a tribute than a game, but it’s still a blast. If you’re looking for a good, immersive, competitive FPS, then look no further. I hate numbered rating systems, so I’ll simply leave Rising Storm with a rating of...Damned Good Fun.