History VideoGame / RedOrchestra

The next title in the series, videogame/risingstorm2vietnam is set in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, departing the World War II setting of the past games. It pits the American military, with later updates including the ARVN and Australian Army, against the North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front (Viet Cong). Expanding on the asymmetrical gameplay of the first ''Rising Storm'', the Americans have access to several types of airstrikes, including napalm, along with helicopters of both attack and transport types, while the North Vietnam forces have several types of {{Booby Trap}}s such as punji sticks and tripwire traps. Their squad leaders also have the ability to dig tunnels in open ground, allowing reinforcements to pour into areas away from the front lines.

''Rising Storm 2: Vietnam'' [[http://www.tripwireinteractive.com/news/rising-storm-2-vietnam-officially-announced!.aspx has been announced]]. It is set in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, departing the World War II setting of the past games. It pits the American military, with later updates including the ARVN and Australian Army, against the North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front (Viet Cong). Expanding on the asymmetrical gameplay of the first ''Rising Storm'', the Americans have access to several types of airstrikes, including napalm, along with helicopters of both attack and transport types, while the North Vietnam forces have several types of {{Booby Trap}}s such as punji sticks and tripwire traps. Their squad leaders also have the ability to dig tunnels in open ground, allowing reinforcements to pour into areas away from the front lines.

** ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' features the [=MKB 42(H)=], an early prototype of the [=StG44=] assault rifle. While it is not impossible for a few to have been issued in Stalingrad in field trials, there is currently no evidence that any were.
** ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' also features the [=MP 40/I=], a MP-40 with two side-by-side magazine holders and can manually switch between the two, doubling the gun's capacity. This experimental variant proved unreliable and unpopular.
* SequelEscalation: Inverted with ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' compared to the first title, where the focus is entirely on the Battles happening just before, during, or around the same time as the ones taking place in Stalingrad, rather than the Eastern Front as a whole.

* InstantDeathBullet: An AvertedTrope in ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' onward - if you are fatally wounded, you may conk out instantly (likely from a BoomHeadshot), but occasionally instead you may still survive some seconds more to continue firing before your character blacks out. As well, being non-fatally wounded requires your character to bandage themselves before they bleed to death (you get two). The kill messages appearing on the top right also coordinate with this, taking a bit longer after a kill is scored as opposed to instantly.
* IWantMyMommy: In ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' onward, many soldiers will cry out for their mothers as they lie dying on the ground, usually terrified and sometimes crying. It's very much played as a TearJerker.

* ExcusePlot: Don't buy ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' for it's singleplayer campaign unless you want to be very underwhelmed. Although that's still a step up from the first game: your only non-multiplayer option was practice mode, which was exactly the same as multiplayer except with bots instead of human players, and that was assuming you only wanted to play the base game and not either of its free mod/expansions.

* BlinigualBonus: Played completely straight in Rising Storm 2; there is no option to use exclusively English voices, and every line except the announcer is in native languages. This can cause problems for North Vietnamese commanders, as it will be impossible to tell if an order failed to go through unless you've studied or already know which voice line means what.

* BreakMeter: ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' onward has a a suppression meter shown for yourself. When it depletes, your screen greys out making it impossible to see (and therefore shoot) very much past twenty feet and prevents you from zooming in and focusing while using iron sights.

* ChargedAttack: Melee attacks in ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' onward can be swung fast to do some damage or have the button held down to ensure a kill with a hit.

** Heroes of Stalingrad has the basic Soviet & German bolt-action rifles behave almost identically for balance reasons. Classes in HoS are the same between the two factions, but there are minor differences in their equipment. Notably, the two factions have tanks which behave very differently.

* ConcealmentEqualsCover: AvertedTrope in ''Heroes of Stalingrad''. The standard high-powered rifles easily pierce through the thin walls of houses or sheet metal to OneHitKill the poor bastard behind it. Think carefully about firing and potentially exposing your position... being unable to see and shoot at someone isn't necessarily mutual.
** Anti-tank rifles are even capable of destroying some light obstacles or trees.
* DeathFromAbove: Commanders in ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' can call in mortar, artillery and rocket fire missions on positions marked by themselves or allied squad leaders - proper use of these are vital to attacking and defending alike, obliterating enemies hit by them and strongly suppressing the survivors close by.

* CharacterClassSystem: Present in its games.
** Heroes of Stalingrad has these (limits may vary based on the given map):
*** Rifleman: Armed with a bolt-action rifle and anti-personnel grenades, this class is a filler one that always has a limit equal to the team's highest possible player count (in other words, really none). Serving as the JackOfAllStats, they aid more specialized members with whatever is needed - accurate covering fire, guarding flanks, providing more bodies into a capture zone and the like. While their equipment isn't as impressive as other classes, a high-powered rifle bullet in one's torso will easily kill anyone, leaving them to still be feared regardless.
*** Elite Rifleman: A limited class, using a semi-automatic rifle and anti-personnel grenades, this is essentially strictly a superior version of the Rifleman class, with their higher fire-rate leaving them a more potent threat to more individuals at once and in closer combat.
*** Assault and Elite Assault: A limited class, using a handheld automatic weapon and anti-personnel grenades, the Assault class seeks to close with enemies to engage. Their weapons' high fire-rate and decently large magazines easily give them the advantage of shooting first in close-combat and killing multiple enemies in quick succession. Lacking accuracy at range, they rely on maneuvering and teamwork to get to the close distance they want to be at with the enemy. The Elite Assault is a specific variation of the Assault being capable of getting an automatic rifle instead of just a sub-machine gun as well.
*** Engineer: A very limited class containing some overlap with the Assault class due to also using a submachine gun, the Engineer's real unique advantage is the satchel charges they carry to destroy walls and defenses to aid their comrades' attacks, and their anti-tank grenades.
*** Marksman: A usually highly limited class, they use a bolt-action rifle with a scope (they can also use a semi-automatic rifle with a scope in some game modes) to shoot accurately from farther away, though they also have a pistol and anti-personnel grenades. Also strictly better than Rifleman, their long-range scopes combined with their limited numbers make them best deployed to strike at valuable targets (such as commanders, squad leaders and machine gunners) instead of aiding frontline offense or defense with much greater risk to the individual.
*** Anti-tank: A limited class only available on certain maps with tanks on them, they use a large-caliber anti-tank rifle and anti-tank grenades to destroy enemy tanks. While their rifle is perfectly usable against infantry, its requirement to be set up against ground or cover before firing makes the weapon a lot less easy to deploy compared to other rifles and an anti-tank rifleman getting their position exposed to die fruitlessly can cause enemy tanks to ''really'' tear through their team, making the class require a lot of discretion. They also have a pistol to defend themselves against closer enemies and while moving to a better position.
*** Machine gunner: A usually highly limited class, they use a heavy machine gun to serve as their team's larger source of static firepower. Machine guns can fire much more slowly while moving or standing still, but may fire much faster while set up against ground or cover. A well-chosen position while set-up lets them distribute death in copious amounts to enemy infantry in their sights, but they lack grenades and the necessity to set up causes them a certain predictability leaving them vulnerable to flanking or marksmen.
*** Squad leader: A limited class, these non-commissioned officer have command of squads to order them, have clearance to mark positions for fire support at the decision of their team's commander, count as extra inside objective zones, and squad members can elect to respawn at their position. While armed with anti-personnel grenades and another gun, their class' most valuable "weapon" is their smoke grenade which can be used to screen allies so they have clear routes with which to run by enemy positions and attack. They also have binoculars to aid in spotting enemies and finding desirable coordinates for indirect fire missions. Squad leaders can elect to use a sub-machine gun to aid in attacking with other Assaults or hang back with a semi-automatic rifle to provide covering fire (and more safely provide a spawn point closer to the front).
*** Commander: The most limited class in that your team always can only have one, these commissioned officers can command the team's squads and are the only ones with the clearance to use a radio to call in mortar, artillery or rocket fire support on positions. These require a mark on a coordinate set by the eyes/binoculars of the commander himself, or the team's squad leaders. The radio can also be used to call in aerial recon to report enemy positions to the entire team, or instantly respawn all allied players waiting on the queue at the cost of using up more reinforcements to do so. The radio's options all have cooldowns associated with them, requiring decisive and appropriate use to them - a commander must watch the battlefield and work with their team and vice-versa to ensure victory. While armed similarly as squad leaders (even having an extra smoke grenade) and also counting twice in objective zones, it is certainly risky for the team to be without the support sent by the radio should their commander be dead, and so commanders are better off staying alive in most cases to call in support for their team with the radio and laying down smoke rather than shooting at the enemy themselves.
*** Tanks: Operated by a commander and crewmen - a driver, a hull gunner, main gunner (commander and main gunner are overlapped by the Russians) and an AI to do the boring job of loading the main gun. Should any of the crew die, the survivors must cope by taking time to swap seats as necessary to perform the dead's duties.

** In Heroes of Stalingrad, even with the default English voices, the enemy will still speak their native language, though. Therefore, speaking German or Russian will be of much use.
** Played completely straight in Rising Storm 2; there is no option to use exclusively English voices, and every line except the announcer is in native languages. This can cause problems for North Vietnamese commanders, as it will be impossible to tell if an order failed to go through unless you've studied or already know which voice line means what.

!! Note: Tropes for the first ''VideoGame/RisingStorm'' now go on that game's own page. This video-game provides examples of:

* AndThisIsFor: Characters in ''Red Orchestra 2'' sometimes comment in this manner upon killing an enemy. From the base game:
-->'''German:''' That was for my camarade.''\\
'''Russian:''' That one was for my brother!''

* {{BFG}}: Treated realistically in ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' - machine gunners need to be prone or on cover to place their weapon down to fire it fully automatically. It may be fired from the hip, but very slowly. Anti-tank rifles in both games have an even stricter requirement by being impossible to fire when not set up.
* BilingualBonus: Averted by default in Heroes of Stalingrad, using TranslationConvention instead, but if you turn the native voices on, then it happens every line.

** ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' originally featured an anachronistic winter trigger guard upgrade for the Karabiner 98k before it was removed in a patch. The Gewehr 41(W) rifle has an unlockable 4x scope that was actually deployed ''after'' the Battle of Stalingrad as part of the package for its successor, the Gewehr 43. The Nagant M1895 revolver has an unlockable suppressor that is based on a post-war model, and the marksman version of the Mosin-Nagant rifle includes a 3.5x PU scope by default, which was first introduced during the Battle of Stalingrad and would have been a very rare sight in Stalingrad itself.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_orchestra_heroes_of_stalingrad_cover.jpg]]

The sequel, ''Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad'', was released in September 2011. Focusing on the infamously brutal Battle of Stalingrad and the surrounding area instead of spanning the entire Eastern Front, the sequel adds a first-person cover system and a leveling system that gives players weapon upgrades as they become more experienced.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: There's a sizable amount of surplus WW2 and earlier equipment in ''Rising Storm 2: Vietnam''. South Vietnam has the M1897 Trench Gun, M1917 Revolver, M3 "Grease Gun", Australia's Owen submachine gun, and ARVN's almost everything. On the North Vietnamese side, there's the Mosin-Nagant rifle, TT-33 pistol, DP-28 LMG, and PPSh-41 Submachine gun.

** ''Heroes of The West'' is a community-made mod for ''Red Orchestra 2'' / ''Rising Storm'' that takes the action into the Western European theater, pitting the US forces against the German Wehrmacht. It also introduces a new faction, the British.

* FireBreathingWeapon: The Americans of ''Rising Storm'' have a class called "Flamethrower", which predictably uses a flamethrower as its main weapon. Also an option for the South Vietnam engineer class in ''Rising Storm 2: Vietnam''.

* ConcealmentEqualsCover: AvertedTrope in ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' and ''Rising Storm''. The standard high-powered rifles easily pierce through the thin walls of houses or sheet metal to OneHitKill the poor bastard behind it. Think carefully about firing and potentially exposing your position... being unable to see and shoot at someone isn't necessarily mutual.

* DeathFromAbove: Commanders in ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' and ''Rising Storm'' can call in mortar, artillery and rocket fire missions on positions marked by themselves or allied squad leaders - proper use of these are vital to attacking and defending alike, obliterating enemies hit by them and strongly suppressing the survivors close by. The Japanese team in ''Rising Storm'' also has a ''Light Mortar'' class which includes a small mortar for the class to direct-fire or over an arc onto a location.

** ''Rising Storm'' gives the Japanese the Nambu Type 100 sub-machine gun as a common weapon to the Assault class, despite the fact that only a small amount were produced or put into service (mostly used by officers and special forces in real life). In the latter's case this was likely done for game balance, as otherwise the Japanese would have no answer to the American sub-machine guns.

!!This video-game provides examples of:

* {{Determinator}}: In ''Rising Storm'', enough Japanese players performing a Banzai Charge together render its participants more resistant to damage, which gets further enhanced with even more players.
* EasterEgg: [[http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/630782139759166594/B47CE356A6FB45F16B59AABC545705456A6E743A/ Statues of Stalin]] from ''Heroes of Stalingrad'' can be found hidden around maps in ''Rising Storm''.

* JungleWarfare: Both ''Rising Storm'' and ''Rising Storm 2'' have maps set in jungle environments. And fighting in these places is close-quarter, no-holes barred, and brutal.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Officers of the Japanese in ''Rising Storm'' have a katana they can use as a melee weapon - to give the trope what it expects, it has the bonus of better inspiring the participants of a Banzai Charge to resist more damage and intimidating enemies to suppress them more severely.

** In Rising Storm, the [[TruthInTelevision Americans often refer to the Japanese as Japs, Nips and Tojos.]] In Rising Storm 2, it is now instead that the references to the Vietnamese are now Charlie or VC.

* SuicideAttack: A game mechanic for the Japanese of ''Rising Storm'' - being killed by your own grenade will not cause your team to lose a ticket as long as the grenade killed at least one enemy.

* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: AvertedTrope by the one of ''Rising Storm'' - while its short-range is a certainly noticeable drawback and it only carries one tank of ammunition, the weapon is nearly unstoppable within that range by nigh-instantly killing any targets hit by its flames, the flames' area of effect allows success with less precise shooting than other weapons to give the user an easier time shooting first before enemies, and the fuel tank is fairly deep considering its impressive killing power which will make it unlikely you'll run out in a desperate close-up fight with careful bursts. There is simply no better weapon to be used on an enemy's flank in close-quarters, clearing a tight room... or stopping a Banzai charge cold (or rather not very cold ''at all'').

** Rising Storm also added a few classes:
*** Flamethrower: US only class. Equipped with a heavy flamethrower and pistol, he is slow and the flames he uses are very visible with limited range (this is somewhat alleviated with later ranks letting the class carry a carbine rifle instead of a pistol). Hard to use around anywhere open on account of this, but potentially incredibly effective on both offense and defense in close-quarters with his flamethrower bringing down his unfortunate enemies nigh instantly.
*** Mortar: Japanese only class. Rifleman loadout, but carries a knee mortar that can be used for direct and in-direct fire. Effective at medium-long ranges, bombarding enemies whose weapons usually make it difficult for his team from having any chance in a straight shoot-out.
*** Automatic Rifleman: US only, replacing Assault. This class is basically Elite Assault from the base game that use the Browning Automatic Rifle (a lighter, slower-firing machine gun with a smaller magazine that can fire automatically without being set-up) and a pistol, but lack the ability to choose an SMG (the Thompson, which can only be chosen if you're Squad Leader).

The sequel's stand-alone expansion ''Rising Storm'' was released in May 2013, set in the Pacific and featuring much more asymmetrical gameplay between the American Allies and Japanese Axis factions - the former having generally more direct firepower in their weapons (such as the basic rifleman being able to equip themselves with a semi-automatic rifle as opposed to the bolt-action rifles every other faction's riflemen uses, and a [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrower]] class) while the latter utilizes special grenade uses for {{Suicide Attack}}s or {{Booby Trap}}s, a player-held mortar class (while all other factions have to mark locations for the team's commander to call in fire missions on the location) and Banzai charges.

** Same for the American and Japanese sides in ''Rising Storm'':
-->''That was for Pearl Harbor!''\\
''Manila no fukushu ja!'' (Revenge for Manila!)

** Averted with ''Rising Storm'', which is considered part of the franchise but doesn't have "Red Orchestra" in the title at all because it's set in the Pacific theater. ''Rising Storm 2'' takes this further by abandoning World War II entirely.

** Rising Storm has the American and Japanese factions receive different classes as well as weapons. Most notably, the Americans have unlimited access to semi-automatic M1 Garands as compared to the Japanese bolt-action Arisaka. The Americans also have exclusive access to the [[NightmareFuel Flamethrower class]]. Japanese players in return have access to mobile 'knee mortars' and are greatly more effective when charging into melee.

** In ''Rising Storm'' this also gives buffs to the Japanese:
-->''[[KillEmAll MINAGOROSHI DAAAAAAAAAA!!!]]''\\
''BANZAAAAAAAIIIIIII!!!''

* BilingualBonus: Averted by default in Heroes of Stalingrad, using TranslationConvention instead, but if you turn the native voices on, then it happens every line. Played straight by default in Rising Storm.